Dr. Brian Druker is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Director of the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Cancer Institute, and JELD-WEN Chair of Leukemia Research at OHSU. 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 then trained in oncology at Harvard’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Dr. Druker 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. His work was instrumental in the development of Gleevec (imatinib), 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. Imatinib is currently FDA approved for CML and gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST). His role in the development of imatinib and its application in the clinic have resulted in numerous awards for Dr. Druker, including Warren Alpert Prize from Harvard Medical School, the American Society of Hematology’s Dameshek Prize, the American Cancer Society’s Medal of Honor, the Kettering Prize from General Motors Cancer Research Foundation, and the David A. Karnofsky Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies in 2003, the American Association of Physicians in 2006, and the National Academy of Sciences in 2007.
