Event Contact

Maria O'Guin | mariamiller@wustl.edu

Speaker Information

Rachel Schiff, Ph.D.: Schiff is a Professor at the Lester & Sue Smith Breast Center and the Departments of Medicine and Molecular and Cellular Biology in Baylor College of Medicine. She is an internationally recognized expert in breast cancer translational research with extensive experience in preclinical therapeutic and resistance models for various targeted therapies, as well as in correlative studies and associated biomarkers in clinical trials. Dr. Schiff received her PhD from the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem and completed her post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, TX. The major objectives of Dr. Schiff's research group are to explore the key oncogenic/signaling networks, develop biomarkers to design tailored targeted therapies, and identify the mechanisms responsible for resistance against targeted treatments and metastasis, particularly in estrogen receptor-positive and HER2-positive breast cancers. Major research themes include the crosstalk between the ER signaling network and growth factor and cellular kinase pathways, the role of ER co-regulators and pioneer factors in breast cancer development and progression to metastasis, the identification of genomic and epigenomic alterations underlying resistance to endocrine, CDK4/6 inhibitors, and HER2-targeted therapies and metastases, with a focus on brain metastasis, and the development of biomarkers for tailored therapeutic interventions. Dr. Schiff's research is partly supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute, The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF), Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), Susan G. Komen, and the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program. Dr. Schiff has co-authored over 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts and several book chapters in key textbooks in the field of breast cancer.