WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15

Health Sciences Center, Patteson Auditorium
4:30 pm until 6:00 pm, Reception to follow

Research Lecture: “Breast Cancer Prevention and Treatment: A 15 Year Journey from Cancer Models to Cancer Patients”

Event Video

J. Michael Ruppert, MD, PhD
Jo & Ben Statler Eminent Scholar and Chair in Breast Cancer Research
Co-Leader, Program in Breast Cancer Research

Installation of Jo & Ben Statler Eminent Scholar and Chair in Breast Cancer Research

J. Michael Ruppert, MD, PhD, is the first Jo and Ben Statler Eminent Scholar and Chair in Breast Cancer Research.  In addition to this prestigious appointment, Dr. Ruppert is a Professor of Biochemistry at WVU and co-leader of the Breast Cancer Research Program at the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center.

A WVU graduate with a degree in chemistry, Ruppert earned his MD and PhD degrees from Johns Hopkins University.  While at Johns Hopkins, he trained in the laboratory of Bert Vogelstein, a leader in the field of colorectal cancer genetics.  He also was awarded a fellowship that supported his research under cancer biologist Bruce Stillman at the prestigious Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, an internationally recognized genetic and cancer research center in New York.  Before returning to his alma mater in 2008, Ruppert was Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and co-director of the Cancer Cell Biology Program of the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr. Ruppert’s fundamental work into mechanisms of tumor initiation and progression is extensively published in scientific journals and books.  His laboratory was the first to use epithelial cells, the precursor cell of most adult cancers, for the identification of new cancer genes by a method called expression cloning.  In 1999 his lab identified KLF4 as a novel cancer gene.  Ruppert holds two patents on KLF4 and its use as a clinical biomarker in breast cancer, head and neck cancer, and other cancers.  Because of his published research, KLF4 was identified as “Biomarker of the Year” in 2004 by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in recognition of its potential use in treatment of breast cancer.

For the past 14 years, Dr. Ruppert’s lab has been continuously funded through the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, and other peer-reviewed research grants.  He has secured over seven million dollars in research support for his own lab and has helped to secure over $30 million of institutional support through multi-investigator research grants.

Dr. Ruppert has served as a professional consultant to federal, state, and private funding agencies including the National Institutes of Health, the Medical Research Council of Great Britain, the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program, the Kentucky Lung Cancer Research Program, and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

Dr. Ruppert and his wife Susan have four children – Jeremy, Rebecca, John, and Nathan.