The director of the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University will discuss cancer therapies next month during a lecture hosted by the University of Oregon’s Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact.

Dr. Brian Druker will present research that led to a highly successful therapy for chronic myeloid leukemia as part of the Knight Campus Distinguished Lecture Series.

The event is slated for 10:30 a.m. Monday, Oct. 7, in the Erb Memorial Union Crater Lake Room. A reception starts at 10 a.m. Admission is free, but you can reserve seats. 

Druker will discuss how his work on Imatinib, also known by the trade name Gleevec, improved the life expectancy of patients from an average of three to five years to a five-year survival rate of 95 percent.

At the lecture, Druker will discuss the future of precision medicine. He will share how the process he undertook in developing Imnatinib resulted in a now widely applied paradigm shift to highly targeted therapeutic agents that attack specific cancer cells without harming other cells.

The Knight Campus Distinguished Lecture is an annual event designed to bring nationally and internationally recognized science, technology and engineering leaders to the University of Oregon community to give their perspective on the future of their fields.