Georgetown Lombardi Visiting Professor and Grand Rounds Lecture Series Featuring Charles Perou, PhD
“Quantitative Medicine for Breast Cancer Patients”
Presented by:
Charles Perou, PhD
UNC-Chapel Hill
Sponsors: Dr. Marc Lippman and Dr. Joyce Slingerland
Charles Perou, PhD, is May Goldman Shaw Distinguished Professor of Molecular Oncology, co-director of the Computational Medicine Program, faculty director of the UNC Lineberger Bioinformatics Group, co-director of the UNC Lineberger Breast Cancer Research Program, and professor, Department of Genetics, UNC-Chapel Hill.
Breast cancer is a prevalent disease with known clinical and molecular diversity. To address these challenges, Perou’s research uses a multidisciplinary approach based upon genomics, genetics, cancer biology, bioinformatics, epidemiology, and clinical research to improve the outcomes of cancer patients. A major contribution of his work has been the discovery of the intrinsic subtypes of breast cancer. He demonstrated that breast cancers can be divided into at least five molecular subtypes using the “PAM50” assay, with his lab focusing experimental attention on the Basal-like subtype, which represents >80% of Triple Negative Breast Cancers. His team has discovered many of the genetic causes of each molecular subtype, modeled these events in Mouse Models, and then used these models to investigate tumor biology, immune system interactions, and the efficacy of novel drug combinations. They have also translated these molecular finding into the human population using a North Carolina population-based study (i.e. Carolina Breast Cancer Study), where they found that African Americans were diagnosed with Basal-like Breast Cancers approximately twice as often as those of European decent. These studies have provided insights into the causes of the racial outcomes disparities differences seen in the USA.
Perou has authored more than 450 peer-reviewed articles, and has been named an inventor on multiple USA and European patents. He is currently the Co-Director of the Computational Medicine Program, Faculty Director of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center (LCCC) Bioinformatics Group, and Co-Leader of the LCCC Breast Cancer Research Program at UNC. He is also a member of the ALLIANCE Breast Committee, and Executive Steering Committee Member of the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium (TBCRC). He has co-founded 3 biotechnology companies (Bioclassifier, GeneCentric Therapeutics, and Reveal Genomics), all of which are focused on using genomic assays to make improvements for personalized patient care.
Perou’s training history includes a bachelor’s degree in biology from Bates College, a PhD in experimental pathology from the University of Utah, and postdoctoral work in the laboratory of David Botstein (then at Stanford University). He has won a number of awards including the AACR Outstanding Investigator Award for Breast Cancer Research, the Danaher Scientific and Medical Award, the European Institute of Oncology Breast Cancer Therapy Award, the Jill Rose Award for Distinguished Biomedical Research from BCRF, the Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction from Komen, and the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Association of American Cancer Institutes. Lastly, he has been named a Thomson Reuters Most Highly Cited Researcher in 2014-20, where his work has received more than 200,000 total citations according to Google Scholar.
Lecture Series Presented by Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center