Pamela L. Paris
Professor
UCSF
USA
Biography
Pamela Paris, PhD received her undergraduate degree from John Carroll University, where she obtained a degree in chemistry magna cum laude. She was awarded two fellowships, the Sherman Clarke Fellow and Merck Fellow, while conducting her advanced education in biophysical chemistry at the University of Rochester. Upon completion of her PhD, Paris did a post doctoral fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic in prostate cancer genetics. She joined the Department of Urology in 2001 as an Associate Researcher, received support from the Prostate Cancer Career Development Program from 2001 to 2003, and was promoted to Associate Professor in the Department of Urology in 2009. Dr. Paris received a joint appoint in the Division of Hematology-Oncology in 2010 and was advanced to Professor in 2012
Research Interest
The Paris laboratory conducts translational cancer genomics research. Their overarching goal is to identify drug targets with associated prognostic biomarkers. The primary focus has been prostate cancer. Dr. Paris published a landmark paper demonstrating the use of formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue with array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH). This research advance makes possible clinically significant studies because stored tissue from patients with prostate cancer with extensive follow-up can now be studied. As a co-leader of a UCSF prostate SPORE program project, Paris helped identify a set of DNA based biomarkers (named GEMCaP for Genomic Evaluators of Metastatic Cancer of the Prostate) that may help identify patients at the time of surgical intervention who are at high-risk of recurrence and metastasis, and therefore may assist Urologists in adjuvant therapy decisions. Their current research is aimed at validating these biomarkers with the goal of bringing a predictive tool into the clinic. Up and coming work will involve evaluating GEMCaP’s prognostic ability in the Active Surveillance setting.