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DNA Mutations and Cancer with Pat Brown
Pat Brown is a Senior Clinical Trial Physician in Hematology Clinical Development at the pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb. (For listeners who aren't familiar with the word hematology, it means the study of blood and blood disorders.)
Pat earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the United States Military Academy in West Point, NY, and a master’s degree in philosophy and politics from Oxford University in England. He then went on to get his medical degree from Medical University of South Carolina College of Medicine and then completed his internship and residency training in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital, followed by completion of fellowship training in pediatrics hematology/oncology in the joint Johns Hopkins/National Cancer Institute program. He joined the Johns Hopkins faculty as an instructor, and was then promoted to assistant, associate, and full professor of oncology and pediatrics and the director of the Pediatric Leukemia Program at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, with a focus on childhood leukemia, which is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. During his time at Hopkins, Pat has mentored many students who went on to impactful careers in academic and industry, and was honored for his teaching by several awards and being selected to teach for the premiere national board review course for pediatric hematology/oncology.
His lab found that a gene called FLT3 (which was initially discovered by Dr. Brown's mentor, Dr. Don Small) is especially important in certain kinds of childhood leukemia that are especially hard to cure. His lab also identified and helped develop promising combinations of standard chemotherapy drugs and FLT3 inhibitors that can work together to more effectively kill leukemia cells.
Episode highlights:
*Susan introduces Pat [0:56];
*Pat gives an overview of leukemia — what is it? And how does it help us understand other cancers? [3:36];
*Pat explains how DNA mutations lead to cancer, and how those same mutations guide scientists to discover targeted cancer therapies [6:12]
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