An internationally recognized leader in breast cancer research, Dr. Robert Clarke studies how hormones, growth factors, and other related molecules affect breast cancer, and how breast cancers become resistant to hormonal and cytotoxic chemotherapies. He has broad expertise that includes estrogens, antiestrogens, aromatase inhibitors, cell signaling, bioinformatics, drug resistance, signal transduction, and systems biology.
Having developed a series of hormone resistant breast cancer models that are now widely used in the field, Dr. Clarke continues to develop new experimental models. He is currently developing and applying genomic and novel bioinformatic methods to data from ongoing translational studies in both humans and experimental models of breast cancer. In other research, Dr. Clarke and his colleagues have recently identified a new, systems biology-based molecular signaling model in breast cancer that involves several novel oncogenes and suppressor genes. This integrated network 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 (e.g., apoptosis, autophagy-associated cell death, ferroptosis, lysosome-dependent cell death, mitochondrial permeability transition-driven necrosis, necroptosis, necrosis, parthanatos, pyroptosis), in response to therapy.
Dr. Clarke leads several multinational molecular medicine studies in breast cancer with colleagues within the breast cancer program at Georgetown and in collaboration with collaborators at the Mayo Clinic, the University of Edinburgh (Scotland), and Virginia Tech. For example, he led a NCI-funded Center for Cancer Systems Biology (2010-2016) and with Dr. Subha Madhavan at LCCC, he led an NCI-funded In Silico Research Center of Excellence (2009-2014). His research is published in over 325 original papers, reviews, and book chapters. Dr. Clarke he has edited two books, "Cancer Gene Networks" (co-edited by Dr. Usha Kasid; 2017) and "The Unfolded Protein Response in Cancer" (2019). Representative publications from his bibliography can be found elsewhere in this profile.
With extensive experience in peer review, Dr. Clarke served as a member (2010-2014) and as Chair (2011-2013) of the NIH study section Basic Mechanisms of Cancer Therapeutics; previously he had served as Chair of the Basic Science study section for the NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2002-2008), now the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. He has also chaired multiple study sections for the US Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program. He also serves on the editorial boards of over a dozen international peer review journals. For example, Dr. Clarke is a Senior Editor for the journal Cancer Research, an Associate Editor for Endocrine-Related Cancer, and a member of the Editorial Board of over a dozen journals including Clinical Cancer Research and Breast Cancer Research and Treatment.
Dr. Clarke is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in the USA, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology in the U.K. An acknowledged teacher and lecturer, he is regularly invited to speak about his research at international and national meetings. Dr. Clarke served as the NCI-Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer from 2012-2015.
From 2007-2019, Dr. Clarke served as an Associate Vice President of Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) and Director of the Biomedical Graduate Research Organization at GUMC, home to 60% of biomedical research at GUMC. He also served as Dean for Research from 2011-2019 (home to >75% of sponsored research at Georgetown University). Currently (2006-date), Dr. Clarke is Co-Director of the Breast Cancer Program at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center (with Dr. Marc Lippman). Dr. Clarke was as an elected member of the Georgetown University Faculty Senate (2002-2011), serving as Secretary-Treasurer from 2004-2007.