University Times

An internationally known cancer researcher who developed a drug for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) has been named this year’s recipient of Pitt’s Dickson Prize in Medicine.

Brian J. Druker will accept the award during Science 2012 — Translation, a showcase of the region’s research in science, engineering, medicine and computation that will be held Oct. 3-5. Druker is director and JELD-WEN chair of leukemia research at the Oregon Health and Science University Knight Cancer Institute and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

Druker will deliver the Dickson Prize in Medicine Lecture Oct. 4. His talk is titled “Imatinib as a Paradigm of Molecularly Targeted Cancer Therapies.”  He led the development of imatinib, also known as Gleevec, which is approved for use with CML, gastrointestinal stromal tumors and five other cancers. His current research projects are aimed at learning why a small percentage of CML patients develop resistance to Gleevec and why most patients on the drug have minute levels of cancer that linger, even after successful treatment. His laboratory also is working to identify the molecular defects that drive the growth of other leukemias and to use this information to develop new, targeted treatments to improve the outcomes for patients with these leukemias.