Paul Boutros, PhD, MBA
Boutros earned his B.Sc. degree from the University of Waterloo in Chemistry in 2004, and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Toronto, Canada, in Medical Biophysics in 2008. At Toronto, he also earned an executive M.B.A. from the Rothman School of Management. In 2008, Boutros started his independent research career at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research first as a fellow (2008–2010) and then as principal investigator (2010–2018). He moved to California to join the UCLA faculty in 2018.
Biography
Paul Boutros, Ph.D., M.B.A., is a renowned data scientist and professor in the departments of human genetics and urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He currently serves as the Vice-Dean for Research at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, as director of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Cancer Data Science program and as Associate Director of Cancer Genomics at the UCLA Institute for Precision Health.
Boutros earned his B.Sc. degree from the University of Waterloo in Chemistry in 2004, and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Toronto, Canada, in Medical Biophysics in 2008. At Toronto, he also earned an executive M.B.A. from the Rothman School of Management. In 2008, Boutros started his independent research career at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research first as a fellow (2008–2010) and then as principal investigator (2010–2018). He moved to California to join the UCLA faculty in 2018.
Research Topics
The research in Boutros’ laboratory lies at the intersection of clinical, molecular and imaging data. He focuses on how these diverse pieces of information can be linked to personalize therapy for cancer patients. By applying techniques from modern data science strategies, particularly machine-learning, he creates biomarkers to help ensure therapies are selected that maximize cure and minimize morbidities. His work sometimes centers on specific tumor types, particularly prostate and thyroid, but often includes others in conjunction to identify general and tumor-type specific features of cancer. Some of his recent studies focus on how cancers develop differently based on the sex, age or ethnic features of the patient.
Boutros has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers, and in his leadership roles as professor in the departments of human genetics and urology, he is currently working to support personalizing therapy for cancer by developing novel statistical methodologies. He leads the ICGC-TCGA DREAM Somatic Mutation Calling Challenge that is setting global standards for analyzing cancer genomic data, and drives programs in cancer genomics, data science and biomarker translation.
Boutros has received numerous honors for his work as a scientist and researcher, including the Prostate Cancer Canada Rising Star in Prostate Cancer Research award, the Terry Fox New Investigator Award, the University of Waterloo Young Alumni Award and the Early Career Graduate Student Teaching Award. In 2018 he was awarded the Dorval Prize by the Canadian Cancer Society, recognizing the best national early career investigator.
Selected Publications
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Foley K, Rucki AA, Xiao Q, Zhou D, Leubner A, Mo G, Kleponis J, Wu AA, Sharma R, Jiang Q, Anders RA, Iacobuzio-Donahue CA, Hajjar KA, Maitra A, Jaffee EM, Zheng L. Semaphorin 3D autocrine signaling mediates the metastatic role of annexin A2 in pancreatic cancer. Science signaling. 2015; 8 (388): ra77. PMCID: PMC4811025.
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Keenan BP, Saenger Y, Kafrouni MI, Leubner A, Lauer P, Maitra A, Rucki AA, Gunderson AJ, Coussens LM, Brockstedt DG, Dubensky TW, Jr., Hassan R, Armstrong TD, Jaffee EM. A Listeria vaccine and depletion of T-regulatory cells activate immunity against early stage pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasms and prolong survival of mice. Gastroenterology. 2014; 146 (7): 1784-94 e6. PMCID: PMC4035450.
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Kouo T, Huang L, Pucsek AB, Cao M, Solt S, Armstrong T, Jaffee E. Galectin-3 Shapes Antitumor Immune Responses by Suppressing CD8+ T Cells via LAG-3 and Inhibiting Expansion of Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells. Cancer immunology research. 2015; 3 (4): 412-23. PMCID: PMC4390508.
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Le DT, Wang-Gillam A, Picozzi V, Greten TF, Crocenzi T, Springett G, Morse M, Zeh H, Cohen D, Fine RL, Onners B, Uram JN, Laheru DA, Lutz ER, Solt S, Murphy AL, Skoble J, Lemmens E, Grous J, Dubensky T, Jr., Brockstedt DG, Jaffee EM. Safety and survival with GVAX pancreas prime and Listeria Monocytogenes-expressing mesothelin (CRS-207) boost vaccines for metastatic pancreatic cancer. J Clin Oncol. 2015; 33 (12): 1325-33. PMCID: PMC4397277.
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Lutz ER, Wu AA, Bigelow E, Sharma R, Mo G, Soares K, Solt S, Dorman A, Wamwea A, Yager A, Laheru D, Wolfgang CL, Wang J, Hruban RH, Anders RA, Jaffee EM, Zheng L. Immunotherapy converts nonimmunogenic pancreatic tumors into immunogenic foci of immune regulation. Cancer immunology research. 2014; 2 (7): 616-31. PMCID: PMC4082460.