Hallgeir Rui, MD, PhD WBCS Endowed Professor of Breast Cancer Research Vice Chair of Research, Department of Pathology Director of MCW Tissue Bank Associate Director of Shared Resources, MCW Cancer Center
Medical College of Wisconsin
About
Hallgeir Rui, MD, PhD is internationally recognized for his research on hormone signaling in breast cancer, and has a strong track record of leadership, mentoring and collaboration. He is the WBCS Endowed Professor of Breast Cancer Research at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), with his primary appointment in the Department of Pathology, and a secondary appointment to the Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology. In addition, Dr. Rui serves as the Associate Director of Basic Science and Shared Resources at the MCW Cancer Center. With his past experience as a Program Leader and Shared Resource Director at the NCI-designated Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University, Dr. Rui brings valuable experience to the MCW Cancer Center efforts toward NCI-designation. Dr. Rui serves on the Breast Cancer Translational Research Committee of NRG Oncology.
A central focus of hisresearch is on molecular profiling of solid tumors, with published track record in malignancies of the breast, pancreas, prostate, colon, head and neck and melanomas. Key areas of interest are therapy-relevant protein expression, including pathway-activation status and tumor immunology-related markers, with development of better predictive markers and improved personalized cancer care as the overarching goal. Efforts are dedicated to improving methods and applications for quantitative, multiplex immunohistochemistry (IHC) for single-cell protein marker analyses – histocytometry – in solid tumors.
His laboratory invented novel ultrahigh density tissue arraying technology termed cutting-edge matrix assembly (CEMA) that overcomes limitations of core-based tissue arrays (US patent 8,349,584). Our laboratory, in collaboration with Dr. Kay-Uwe Wagner, developed novel prolactin-humanized NSG-Pro mouse strain for more accurate modeling and drug response testing of human breast cancer and other prolactin receptor-positive cancers, and my team has established a panel of new patient-derived breast cancer xenograft models in NSG-Pro mice.
Dr. Rui has extensive experience in facilitating multidisciplinary and collaborative program projects, including a concluded $6.7 million Promise Project Award funded by Susan G. Komen Foundation. Attesting to the productive use of immunofluorescence-based quantitative histocytometry and tissue arraying technologies for high-throughput application of innovative and nonstandard technologies for immunoprofiling of solid tumors, I led a multidisciplinary team that quantified levels of more than 100 therapy-relevant protein markers in nearly 3,000 breast cancer specimens, using tissue arrays and accompanying clinical data assembled and procured by a consortium of five institutions. As the leader of this consortium, I coordinated extensive efforts to combine tissue resources, data, equipment resources and broad areas of expertise.
