Professor, Department of Surgery
Vice Chair of Research, Department of Surgery
Endowed Gerlinger Surgical Chair
Deputy Director, Brenden-Colson Center for Pancreatic Care
Co-Leader, Healthy Oregon Project
Member, Knight Cancer Institute
Member, Department of Defense Pancreatic Cancer Research Program
Oregon Health & Science University

Research Focus: Dr. Brody has dedicated his career to understanding the molecular underpinnings of pancreatic tumorigenesis. He has published more than 170 peer-reviewed publications, with more than 100 related specifically to pancreatic cancer. These articles cover a diverse range of cancer-related topics, from patient outcomes and assay development to therapeutic advances, reviews on personalized medicine, and perspectives on training.

Included in this body of work are key publications highlighting bench-to-bedside research related to personalized therapy, primarily focused on PDAC tumors with DNA repair defects, as well as work on the RNA-binding protein HuR and its relevance to acute therapeutic resistance mechanisms. Recently, preclinical work from his laboratory on pyrvinium pamoate was published and laid the foundation for an initiated clinical trial, NCT05055323. Dr. Brody’s laboratory also contributed to the preclinical work that supported a recently completed clinical trial involving PARP inhibitors, PMID: 32669374, which remains a focus of his current work.

Key studies from the Brody lab demonstrated that HuR regulates WEE1, IDH1, and PARG. Additionally, his lab has published on drug-target relationships in PDAC cells, including many druggable targets that are now being directly or indirectly evaluated in cancer, including IDH1, WEE1, PARG, TOP1, thymidylate synthase, CDK4/6, HuR, and DNA repair genes, such as Fanconi anemia genes and BRCA2.

Early in his career, Dr. Brody received a Pancreatic Cancer Action Network Career Development Award, which launched his line of investigation into the RNA-binding protein HuR and helped identify and validate PDAC targets, including PARG, IDH1, and WEE1, all of which continue to be explored in his lab. He was recently named to the prestigious Scientific and Medical Advisory Board for the internationally recognized Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and to the council for the PCARP Programmatic Panel for the Department of Defense.

To date, the Brody lab is focused on identifying new targets and understanding therapeutic resistance in PDAC. In relation to mentoring, his recently graduated postdoctoral fellow, Aditi Jain, and his surgeon-scientist mentee at OHSU, Robert Eil, received PanCAN Career Development Awards and the 2025 OHSU Faculty Excellence and Innovation Awards, underscoring Dr. Brody’s commitment to mentorship. He also mentors and leads efforts with Dr. Clay Kills First to address disparities in Oregon related to PDAC care, recently funded by the Kuni Foundation and the DoD.

Dr. Brody currently holds NIH and DoD funding to study: 1) metabolic vulnerabilities in PDAC, setting the stage for an initiated clinical trial targeting IDH1 with a surgeon-scientist; 2) a 3D/4D progression model of pancreatic tumorigenesis related to BRCA1/2 germline mutations; and 3) disparities in Native American communities in Oregon as they relate to pancreatic cancer.

Internal Leadership at OHSU: Dr. Brody is the Deputy Director of the Brenden-Colson Center for Pancreatic Care and Vice Chair of Research for the Department of Surgery. He also brought the OHSU STEMM-Prep Distance Learning Program to OHSU and co-directs the program. In addition, he serves on many leadership and mentoring committees.

External Leadership: Dr. Brody served on the DoD Council for the Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program for many years and was elected as a past chair. He was recently named to the Scientific and Medical Advisory Board for PanCAN and to the council for the PCARP Programmatic Panel. Additionally, Dr. Brody was a permanent member and Chair of the CPSS NIH Study Section and recently served as Chair of the Tumor Biology and Genomics Study Section for the American Cancer Society. He now serves on an NIH program project grant study section. He also served as chair of the PanCAN Career Development Award Study Section.

Dr. Brody has served on numerous panels, including NIH, DoD, and American Cancer Society-related panels, and is also the acting co-editor-in-chief of Cancer Biology & Therapy by Taylor & Francis and Molecular Biology Reports by Springer. He was invited to serve as a panelist for the education session at the 2022 Annual AACR Meeting, “The Importance of Surgeon Engagement for Translational Cancer Research.”

Current Highlights and Leadership Roles:

• Professor in the Department of Surgery and Endowed Chair at OHSU, with a focus on pancreatic cancer
• Vice Chair of Research, Department of Surgery, OHSU
• Deputy Director of the Brenden-Colson Center for Pancreatic Care
• Co-leader of the Healthy Oregon Project and member of various research groups, including the Knight Cancer Institute
• Past chair of an NIH study section and ad hoc reviewer
• Past chair and council member of a Department of Defense cancer program and current member of the pancreatic cancer DoD program
• Endowed Gerlinger Surgical Chair