Overview

Gender

male

Brian Drukeris the Director of the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), JELD-WEN Chair of Leukemia Research at OHSU, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Brian ’s work was instrumental in the development of GLEEVEC® (imatinib), a drug that targets the molecular defect in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML).

His role in the development of imatinib and its application in the clinic have resulted in numerous awards for Brian, including the John J. Kenney Award from The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the AACR-Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award, the Warren Alpert Prize from Harvard Medical School, the American Society of Hematology’s Dameshek Prize, the American Cancer Society’s Medal of Honor, the David A. Karnofsky Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Robert-Koch Award, and most recently, the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award from The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation.

He has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, the American Association of Physicians, the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Brian Druker, M.D., is a scientific founder of Blueprint Medicines. Brian is an internationally known researcher and recipient of the 2009 Lasker-DeBakey Award for Clinical Medical Research, who has become well known for his groundbreaking work with Gleevec®, a molecularly targeted treatment for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML).

Currently, Brian serves as the director of the Oregon Health & Science University Knight Cancer Institute and JELD-WEN chair of Leukemia Research. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.

Brian identified STI571, the precursor to Gleevec®, as a promising anticancer compound for its ability to kill CML cells by turning off the signal of the abnormal cancer-causing protein. He also conducted the first clinical studies of Gleevec®, demonstrating that the drug could effectively return blood cell counts to normal in CML patients, with only minor side effects. Brian is currently focused on developing more effective treatments for patients whose leukemia eventually recurs while taking Gleevec®.

From his earliest days, Brian was a dedicated researcher, winning the President’s Undergraduate Research Award at the University of California, San Diego. He is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the Medal of Honor from the American Cancer Society and many other awards.

Brian received his M.D. from the University of California School of Medicine at San Diego, completed his residency in internal medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and performed his oncology fellowship at Harvard Medical School’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.