Camp Breastie 2025

Dr. Adrian Lee is Professor of Pharmacology & Chemical Biology at the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. Dr Lee is the Pittsburgh Foundation Chair and Director of the Institute for Precision Medicine (IPM), a joint effort by the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC to move biomedical precision medicine research into personalized well-being and clinical care. He received his BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Kent and his PhD from the Imperial Cancer Research Fund at the University of Surrey.

The laboratory studies the molecular basis of breast cancer development and resistance to therapy, with the goal to improve precision medicine and outcomes for breast cancer patients. The laboratory employs a systems biology approach, utilizing a combination of single cell, spatial and bulk sequencing, computational methods, and biological models to identify and validate new drivers and therapeutic targets. A major focus of the laboratory is identifying mechanisms of resistance to endocrine therapy, and new approaches to blocking breast cancer metastasis through precision medicine. This includes the study of estrogen receptor (ESR1) mutations and fusions and synergism with growth factor pathways. A special focus is on the understanding of invasive lobular cancer (ILC), the second most common but understudied histological subtype of breast cancer.