New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College, both in New York City, announced that Dr. Lewis Cantley will direct the institutions' newly established cancer center.

Cantley, 63, currently serves as director of the cancer center and is chief of the signal transduction division at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, according to a news release. His appointment is effective Oct. 15.

The cancer center, set to open in a new $650 million research building in New York in 2014, will initially focus on colorectal, lung, melanoma and hematopoietic cancers, according to the release.