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2015 Featured Talks » Keynote Presentation: Imatinib as a Paradigm of Molecularly Targeted Cancer Therapies
Brian Druker, part 1 from MCC Industry Relations on Vimeo.
Brian Druker, part 2 from MCC Industry Relations on Vimeo.
Brian Druker, part 3 from MCC Industry Relations on Vimeo.
Brian J. Druker, MD
Director, Knight Cancer Institute
JELD-WEN Chair of Leukemia Research, Oregon Health & Science University
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Dr. Druker is Director of the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, Associate Dean for Oncology of the OHSU School of Medicine, JELD-WEN Chair of Leukemia Research at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), and Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Upon graduating from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine in 1981, Dr. Druker completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Barnes Hospital, Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. He trained in oncology at Harvard's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and then returned to the lab to begin his research career studying the regulation of the growth of cancer cells and the practical application to cancer therapies.
Dr. Druker’s work in the lab, which he continued after joining OHSU in 1993, helped pioneer the practice of precision, or personalized, cancer medicine which targets the molecular underpinnings of an individual’s cancer while leaving healthy cells unharmed. He developed 4G10, an anti-phosphotyrosine antibody that was an essential reagent to scientists at Novartis in their kinase inhibitor drug discovery program. In collaboration with Novartis, his laboratory performed pre-clinical studies that were instrumental to the development of Gleevec, a drug that targets the molecular defect in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). After completing a series of preclinical studies, Dr. Druker spearheaded the highly successful clinical trials of imatinib for CML, which led to FDA approval of the drug in record time.
Dr. Druker’s work not only served as a proof of principle for targeted therapies, but it demonstrated the possibility of transforming cancer into a manageable disease, a concept previously unimagined. Imatinib established a new treatment paradigm for cancer as hundreds of targeted therapies have been developed in its wake. Over time, imatinib has also proven effective in treating multiple forms of cancer. It is currently FDA approved for CML, gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) and eight other cancers.
Dr. Druker’s role in the development of imatinib and its application in the clinic has resulted in numerous awards for Dr. Druker, including the AACR-Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award, the Warren Alpert Prize from Harvard Medical School, the American Society of Hematology’s Dameshek Prize, the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s Pioneer of Survivorship Carpe Diem Award, the American Cancer Society’s Medal of Honor, the Kettering Prize from General Motors Cancer Research Foundation, the David A. Karnofsky Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Robert-Koch Award, the 2009 Lasker-DeBakey Award for Clinical Medical Research, the Stanley J. Korsmeyer award from the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the American Society of Hematology’s Ernest Beutler Prize, the Japan Prize in Healthcare and Medical Technology and the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies in 2003, the American Association of Physicians in 2006, the National Academy of Sciences in 2007, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2012.
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