David F. Stern, PhD
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About
Titles
Professor of Pathology
Vice Chair for Basic and Translational Sciences, Pathology; Associate Cancer Center Director, Shared ResourcesBiography
Dr. Stern earned a BS in Biology at MIT in 1976. He received a PhD in Biology in 1983 at University of California, San Diego, and the Salk Institute with S.I.T. Kennedy and Bart Sefton for dissertation research that elucidated the coronavirus lytic cycle. Dr. Stern returned to R.A. Weinberg’s lab at the MIT Cancer Center and Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in 1983. There, Dr. Stern’s postdoctoral work pioneered analysis of neu/ErbB2/HER2, an important human oncogene. As a Yale Pathology faculty member since 1988, Dr. Stern’s research has focused on the roles of eleven growth factors and four receptors of the EGF family in malignant transformation, especially in breast cancer, and he has also made significant contributions to the understanding of DNA damage response signaling pathways. Dr. Stern’s current work in breast cancer and melanoma includes developing approaches to countering rapid resistance to anti-cancer agents that target cancer signaling pathways. Dr. Stern is active in cancer training at Yale and in the Yale Cancer Center scientific leadership. He is Associate Director of Shared Resources at Yale Cancer Center.
Appointments
Pathology
ProfessorPrimary
Other Departments & Organizations
- Cancer Signaling Networks
- Computational Biology and Biomedical Informatics
- Dean's Workshops
- K12 Calabresi Immuno-Oncology Training Program (IOTP)
- Molecular Medicine, Pharmacology, and Physiology
- Pathology
- Pathology and Molecular Medicine
- Pathology Research
- SPORE in Skin Cancer
- Stern Lab
- Yale Cancer Center
- Yale Combined Program in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS)
Education & Training
- Postdoctoral Fellow
- Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at Mass. Institute of Technology (1988)
- PhD
- University of California, San Diego (1983)
- BS
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Biology (1976)
Research
Overview
1. The receptor tyrosine kinase ErbB2/HER2 drives 25% of breast cancers. This receptor is the target for two drugs in use for breast cancer treatment, Herceptin/Trastuzumab and Tykerb/Lapatinib. In order to understand why this receptor is so important in human cancer, and to improve therapeutic targeting of ErbB2/HER2, we investigate normal and pathological functions of this receptor in mammary tissue. Our work spans from fundamental studies on signal transduction to analysis of ERBB2 in human cancer. ERBB2 works in close partnership with other members of the EGF receptor (ERBB family) of tyrosine kinases, so we also study differential signaling by the three related receptors (EGF receptor [HER]), ERBB3 [HER3], ErbB4[HER4).
2. The growing availability of cancer drugs that target receptors and other signaling proteins has created a need to develop integrated methods for best matching of patients to the appropriate target drugs. We are investigating use of DNA-based and functional approaches for predicting response to targeted therapies, in breast cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, and melanoma.
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
Links & Media
News
- September 25, 2023
Pathology Office of Research Affairs Makes an Impact
- February 21, 2022
Yale Cancer Center Honors Department of Pathology Faculty Members
- March 03, 2020
Geneticist Sidi Chen Receives Large Award Which Will Further His Breast Cancer Work
- February 14, 2018
The Policy, Politics & Law of Cancer
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Contacts
Locations
Department of Pathology
Academic Office