Rate My Professor Bruce Clurman

Bruce Clurman, MD, PhD, serves as Executive Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer, and Deputy Director at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. He holds the Rosput Reynolds Endowed Chair and is Professor in the Translational Science and Therapeutics Division and the Clinical Research Division, as well as an Affiliate Investigator in the Human Biology Division. Additionally, he is Professor in the Division of Hematology and Oncology, Department of Medicine, at the University of Washington, and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Pathology. Clurman joined Fred Hutch and the University of Washington in 1997 as a physician-scientist, where he practiced transplantation medicine for patients with blood cancers while pursuing basic research on cancer cell growth and division.

Clurman received his BA in Philosophy from the University of Virginia in 1981, PhD in Viral Oncology from Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in 1988, and MD from Cornell University Medical College in 1989. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA, followed by a fellowship in Medical Oncology and Molecular Medicine at Fred Hutch and the University of Washington. His laboratory investigates protein degradation, cell division, and carcinogenesis, with a focus on the ubiquitin-proteasome system, cell cycle regulation, DNA replication stress, and the Fbw7 ubiquitin ligase. These studies employ biochemistry, cell biology, proteomics, and gene targeting in human cells and mice to uncover mechanisms of cancer development and design targeted therapies, including strategies exploiting CDK mutations and restoring mutant Fbw7 function.

Throughout his career, Clurman has earned prestigious awards, including Phi Beta Kappa (1980), NIH K08 Career Development Award (1994), American Society of Clinical Oncology Young Investigator Award (1994), James S. McDonnell Foundation Scholarship (1997), W.M. Keck Foundation Distinguished Young Scholar in Medical Research (1999), election to the American Society for Clinical Investigation (2005), and Burroughs Wellcome Fund Scholar in Translational Medicine (2006). Key publications include 'FBW7 ubiquitin ligase: a tumour suppressor at the crossroads of cell division, growth and differentiation' (Nature Reviews Cancer, 2008), 'Isoform- and cell cycle-dependent substrate degradation by the Fbw7 ubiquitin ligase' (Journal of Cell Biology, 2008), and 'Recognition of phosphodegron motifs in human cyclin E by the SCF(Fbw7) ubiquitin ligase' (Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2004).