Edus Houston Warren, MD, PhD
Program Head
Global Oncology Program, Fred Hutch
Professor
Translational Science and Therapeutics Division, Fred Hutch
Professor
Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutch
Edus "Hootie" Warren, MD, PhD, is an oncologist and cancer immunologist with expertise in cellular and molecular dissection of antitumor immune responses. Dr. Warren is the program head for Global Oncology at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. His laboratory has a long-standing interest in harnessing the exceptional specificity and potency of T cells for cancer recognition and elimination. Currently, his lab's primary focus is on the development of T-cell therapy for advanced kidney cancer.
In his role as program head for Global Oncology, Dr. Warren leads an international team consisting of over 50 individuals, primarily based at the Hutchinson Centre Research Institute in Kampala, Uganda. This team is dedicated to conducting research aimed at enhancing the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer in low- and middle-income countries, focusing on studying Kaposi sarcoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, breast cancer and lung cancer.
Throughout his career, Dr. Warren has exhibited a passionate commitment to the training of future biomedical scientists and investigators. He has served or is currently serving as the primary mentor for numerous high school and undergraduate students as well as many doctorate students, postdoctoral fellows and medical fellows. Dr. Warren is deeply dedicated to fostering the development of future clinicians and investigators in all health-related fields, with a particular emphasis on cancer.
Other Appointments & Affiliations
Affiliate Investigator, Clinical Research Division, Fred HutchAffiliate Investigator
Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutch
Member
Immunotherapy Integrated Research Center (IIRC), Fred Hutch
Member
Pathogen-Associated Malignancies Integrated Research Center (PAM IRC), Fred Hutch
Member
Translational Data Science Integrated Research Center (TDS IRC), Fred Hutch
Attending Physician
Fred Hutch
Professor of Medicine
University of Washington School of Medicine
Education
Fellow, Medical Oncology; University of Washington 1993-1996
Intern and Resident, Internal Medicine; Massachusetts General Hospital; 1991-1993
MD, Harvard Medical School, 1991
PhD, Neurobiology; Harvard University, 1988
AB, Applied Mathematics; Harvard College, 1982
Research Interests
High-throughput Sequencing of T- and B-Cell Antigen Receptor Repertoires
Mechanisms of Cancer Regression After Immune Checkpoint Inhibition
Immunology and Immunotherapy of Kidney Cancer
Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention of Pediatric and Adult Lymphomas in Sub-Saharan Africa
Immunobiology of Graft-versus-Host Disease and the Graft-versus-Tumor Effect
Clinical Expertise
Dr. Warren is an oncologist specializing in the treatment of patients with blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma. He is an Attending Physician at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, University of Washington, and Seattle Children’s Hospital, where he serves on both the Medical Oncology/Hematologic Malignancy and the Hematopoietic Cell Transplant Services. He has considerable experience as an investigator on clinical trials of novel agents for the treatment of blood cancers, and served as the Principal Investigator on a Phase I clinical trial of T cell immunotherapy for patients with relapse of acute leukemia or high-grade myelodysplasia after HLA-identical allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT).
Research Focus
The overall focus of Dr. Warren’s laboratory is cancer immunology. His particular interest is the mechanisms and molecules that mediate graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and graft-versus-tumor (GVT) activity after allogeneic HCT, as well as the mechanisms that mediate tumor regression after treatment with other modes of immunotherapy such as immune-checkpoint inhibition. His lab has extensive experience with characterization and manipulation of human T and B lymphocytes, identification of antigens recognized by T and B lymphocytes, comprehensive analysis of T- and B-lymphocyte repertoires with the aid of high-throughput DNA sequencing, and assessment of adoptive cellular therapy in murine models. Dr. Warren’s laboratory also has a strong research focus on lymphomas that affect children and adults in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Burkitt lymphoma (BL).
"One of our major goals is to figure out how we can adapt the incredibly exciting work that’s done here so that it can benefit people around the world."
— Dr. Hootie Warren