Eytan Ruppin
“Can Computers Really Help to Fight Cancer?”
Eytan Ruppin, MD, PhD, is a professor of computer science at the University of Maryland and director of the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (CBCB). Previously, he was a professor of computer science and medicine at Tel-Aviv University. In his research, Ruppin develops and harnesses computational systems biology approaches for studying cancer, aging and neurodegenerative disorders. Together with experimental collaborators, Ruppin and his lab members identify novel drug targets and biomarkers for diagnosing and treating these disorders. Their efforts have led to the discovery of new selective drug targets for renal cancer (Nature, 2011) and to a new approach for harnessing synthetic lethality to treat cancer (Cell, 2014), among other discoveries.