Robert L. Hunter, Jr., M.D., Ph.D.
Professor and Chairman
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
The University of
Texas
Health
Science
Center
at
Houston
Medical
School
Is pleased to announce the appointment of
Robert E. Brown, M.D.
As Professor, Vice
Chair, and Director of Anatomic Pathology
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
The University of
Texas
Health
Science
Center
at
Houston
Medical
School
Robert E. Brown, M.D., FCAP, has been appointed Professor, Vice Chair, and
Director of Anatomic Pathology in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory
Medicine at The University of Texas
Health Sciences Center at
Houston
Medical
School
. Also,
Dr. Brown will hold the Harvey S. Rosenberg Chair in Pathology and
Laboratory Medicine. The
appointment is effective beginning in July 2006.
According to Dr.
Robert Hunter, Chairman of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the
Houston
Medical
School
, “We must develop new technologies of
pathology practice and apply them in new venues.
Dr. Brown is a unique individual for guiding these activities.
He has the respect of his peers and colleagues across Anatomic Pathology,
Pediatric Pathology and Transfusion Medicine.
Even with a full clinical workload, he maintains a scholarly approach to
the practice of Pathology. He thinks
deeply about how evolving research can be utilized to improve patient care,
brings tireless energy and an entrepreneurial spirit to make it happen.”
A native of Pennsylvania, Dr. Brown earned a B.S. degree
(Pre-Med) from the University of Akron and his M.D. degree from the Medical
College of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia, where he completed a residency in
Anatomic Pathology. He completed a
Research Fellowship in Medicine at
Massachusetts General
Hospital
and
Harvard
University
.
Dr. Brown comes to
Houston
from
Geisinger
Medical
Center
in
Danville
,
Pennsylvania
, where he compiled an impressive record as a practitioner, teacher and
leader of anatomic pathology. While
at Geisinger, he founded their Consultative Proteomics Analysis Service.
Using a morphoproteomic approach, the
service has been utilized for cancer patients who have exhausted all standard
conventional therapies or for those whose tumor type does not qualify for any
existing therapeutic protocols. Morphoproteomics
paints a portrait of the protein circuitry in diseased cells for the purpose of
uncovering molecular targets amenable to specific therapeutic intervention,
thereby customizing therapy for individual patients or "personalized
medicine".
Individualized therapy of cancer patients using proteomics
is a major national initiative and a focus of major programs at the
M.D.
Anderson
Cancer
Center
,
the National Institutes of Health and others.
Even in this highly competitive arena, Dr. Brown’s work is unique in
two respects. First, metabolic
pathway intermediates are frequently activated by translocation to different
compartments of cancer cells. Dr.
Brown monitors this translocation microscopically and can predict activation
more accurately than studies using high throughput arrays.
Second, Dr. Brown is applying his work prospectively to help individual
patients with significant success.
“I am enthusiastic about morphoproteomics because it is an
example of how high quality scholarly work in pathology can be of value to
science and direct help to patients, even in an era of big, expensive
science,” adds Dr. Hunter.
During his tenure
at Geisinger Dr. Brown was a positive force in the successful collaboration on
multiple head and neck cancer projects. He
was involved in funded intramural multidisciplinary projects entitled
“Expression of Molecular Markers Assessed by Immunohistochemistry that Predict
Clinical Outcome in Patients with Recurrent Low-Risk Mode-Negative Breast Cancer
and in Patients with High-Risk-Node-Positive Disease” and “Molecular
Profiling of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma by Immunohistochemistry”.
In addition to the Consultative Proteomics Analysis Service
at Geisinger, Dr. Brown served as Medical Director of the Blood Bank and
Transfusion Service, Associate in Laboratory Medicine and Pediatrics, and
earlier, as Director, Anatomic Pathology. Previously,
he served as Vice Chairman of Academic Pathology in the
College
of
Medicine
at
Pennsylvania
State
University
, where he held a faculty appointment as Associate Professor of Clinical
Pathology.
Earlier, he served as Medical Director of Laboratories at
Midwestern
Regional
Medical
Center
and Chief of Laboratory Medicine at Cancer Treatment Centers of
America
,
Zion
,
Illinois
. In
Texas
, he was Director of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Cook-Ft. Worth
Children’s
Medical
Center
in
Ft.
Worth
for nine years. Previously, he held
the position of Chief of Pathology and Director of Laboratories at LeBonheur
Children’s
Medical
Center
and Associate Professor of Pathology and Pediatrics at the University of
Tennessee Center for the Health Sciences in
Memphis
,
Tennessee
. At Arkansas Children’s Hospital
he was Chief of Pathology and held a faculty appointment as Associate Professor
of Pathology and Pediatrics. Earlier,
he served as a Major in the United States Army Medical Corps assigned to the
Endocrine Pathology Branch, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in
Washington
,
D.C.
Active in numerous professional organizations that include
the Association of Clinical Scientists, Dr. Brown is a member of the Pediatric
Pathology Society, a Fellow in the
College
of
American Pathologists
, Fellow, American Society of Clinical Pathologists, Histiocyte Society, and the
Children’s Cancer Group. He is a
past Inspector for the
College
of
American Pathologists
. Dr. Brown serves as a Reviewer for
Proteomics and for Expert
Review of Proteomics.
As the new Vice Chair, Anatomic Pathology, Dr. Brown brings
experience as a leader who promotes growth, creative thinking, and facilitates
strong collaboration among different departments.
With his depth of knowledge in proteomics he is respected among his
colleagues and complements an outstanding team in the Department of Pathology
and Laboratory Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at
Houston
Medical
School
.