Bruce Clurman, MD, PhD

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.