Lawrence A. Loeb

Biography

 Research in Dr. Loeb’s laboratory is focused on the molecular basis of mutagenesis.  Their long-term interest is in understanding the fidelity of DNA polymerases in normal human cells and the origin and consequences of random mutations in aging and in human cancers. He was the first to propose the mutator phenotype hypothesis for malignancy, a hypothesis that has been supported recently by the development of new technologies to measure random mutations during tumor progression.  Other studies include the structure and function of different DNA polymerases, biochemical studies on lethal mutagenesis of HIV, engineering of enzymes for cancer gene therapy by applied molecular evolution, and Werner syndrome -- a human genetic disease characterized by premature aging.  Dr. Loeb is the Director of the Joseph Gottstein Cancer Research Laboratory at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Professor of Pathology and Biochemistry, and Co-director of the M.D./Ph.D. Program at the University of Washington.  He received a M.D. from N.Y.U-Bellevue Medical School and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and was a Research Associate at the National Cancer Institute.  Prior to joining the University of Washington, he was a member of the Fox Chase Cancer Center and a Professor of Pathology at the University of Pennsylvania.  He has served as president of the American Association for Cancer Research and the Environmental Mutagen Society.

Research Interest

 Oncology