Professor Robert Clarke

Professor Robert Clarke

Executive Director Cancer Systems Biology, The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota, MN, USA

An internationally recognized leader in breast cancer research, Dr. Robert Clarke studies how hormones, growth factors, and other related factors affect breast cancer, and how breast cancers become resistant to hormonal and cytotoxic chemotherapies. He is the Executive Director of Cancer Systems Biology at The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota. He has broad expertise that includes estrogens, antiestrogens, aromatase inhibitors, cell signaling, bioinformatics, drug resistance, signal transduction, and systems biology.

Dr. Clarke and his colleagues have recently identified a new, integrative systems-based molecular signaling model in breast cancer that incorporates cell stress signaling, protein misfolding (unfolded protein response), and communication among the endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria, and nucleus of breast cancer cells. Ultimately, this network determines if a breast cancer cell will grow, differentiate or die, and the mechanism by which the cell will die in response to therapy.

Updated 28 November 2023