"We’re doing the opposite of what you’d expect. We want to take advantage of existing mutations to push tumor cells toward levels of DNA damage they can’t survive."
— Dr. Bruce Clurman
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Clurman
Bruce Clurman, MD, PhD
- Executive Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer & Deputy Director, Fred Hutch
- Professor, Translational Science and Therapeutics Division, Fred Hutch
- Member, Immunotherapy Integrated Research Center (IIRC), Fred Hutch
- Member, Pathogen-Associated Malignancies Integrated Research Center (PAM IRC), Fred Hutch
- Member, Translational Data Science Integrated Research Center (TDS IRC), Fred Hutch
- Affiliate Investigator, Human Biology Division, Fred Hutch
- Rosput Reynolds Endowed Chair, Fred Hutch
- Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Washington
- Adjunct Professor, Department of Pathology, University of Washington
Background
Dr. Bruce Clurman is the executive vice president, chief scientific officer and deputy director of Fred Hutch. He studies the cell cycle, the molecular pathways that drive cells to multiply. This work includes understanding how protein destruction by the ubiquitin–proteasome system controls the cell cycle in normal and cancer cells. His ultimate goal is to understand how these fundamental regulatory pathways shape cancer development and progression, and use this understanding to design new cancer therapies that target these pathways. For example, his group is developing a treatment strategy to capitalize on mutations in key growth-accelerating genes called CDKs. This strategy would push cancer cells toward an unsustainable level of DNA damage without killing healthy cells. Dr. Clurman’s team also is studying how mutations in the gene for Fbw7, a component of the system that regulates destruction of a network of tumor-driving proteins, can cause cancer. The team is designing a drug to restore the function of the mutant Fbw7 in cancers and thus rein in tumor growth.
Education
Fellowship: Medical Oncology/Molecular Medicine, Fred Hutch and University of Washington
Residency: Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA
1989 – MD, Cornell University Medical College, New York, NY (Medicine)
1988 – PhD, Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, New York, NY (Viral Oncology)
1981 – BA, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (Philosophy)
Current Projects
Identifying new CDK targets
Development of novel drug therapy targeting mutant ubiquitin ligases in cancer
Therapeutic targeting of replication stress failure in cancer cells with aberrant CDK2 activity
New mouse models of Fbw7- and cell cycle–associated cancer
Bioinformatic and high-throughput approaches to identify therapeutic targets in cell cycle– and Fbw7-associated cancers