Suzanne Fuqua Laboratory

PROFESSIONAL BIOGRAPHY

Suzanne A.W. Fuqua, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Medicine, and the Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology at the Baylor College of Medicine.

Dr. Fuqua graduated from the University of Houston in 1976 with a BS, and a MS in Microbiology in 1978. She earned her Ph.D. degree in Tumor Virology from the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at MD Anderson Cancer Center in 1982. From there, she went to the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio to train with the Internationally-renowned breast cancer researcher, the late Dr. William L. McGuire, MD. She held a faculty position in San Antonio from 1990, and joined the Breast Center faculty at Baylor College of Medicine in 1999.

Dr. Fuqua is widely recognized for her pioneering work on hormonal resistance in breast cancer, and was the first to identify RNA splicing variants in ER alpha in breast cancer tissue: Link to PDF. She has identified mutant estrogen receptors (ER), and has linked these mutations to hormone resistance and breast cancer progression by demonstrating their consequences in altering estrogen binding and cell responsiveness in model systems. Dr. Fuqua has also made seminal observations of the role of heat shock proteins in breast cancer progression. She has recently developed clinically useful antibodies to ER beta and has conducted a large clinical study on the role of ER beta in breast tumor prognosis. Link to Publications

Dr. Fuqua has published over 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals, and has authored 29 Books/Chapters. CV, Representative Publications. She has trained 23 pre- and postdoctoral fellows in her laboratory. She serves on numerous federal study sections and site visits, and currently serves on study sections for the National Cancer Institute and the Department of Defense. She is on the Editorial boards of Cancer Research, Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, and the Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.