Joshua Gruber, M.D., Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and a member of its Division of Hematology and Oncology. Dr. Gruber earned his medical degree and doctoral degree in cancer biology and biochemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. He completed a residency in internal medicine at Stanford University, where he also received advanced training through a clinical fellowship in medical oncology and a research fellowship in systems biology of cancer epigenetics. A breast cancer specialist certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in medical oncology, he joined The UT Southwestern faculty in 2021 with the support of a CPRIT Recruitment of First-Time, Tenure-Track Faculty Members award.

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Joshua Gruber, M.D., Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and a member of its Division of Hematology and Oncology. Dr. Gruber earned his medical degree and doctoral degree in cancer biology and biochemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. He completed a residency in internal medicine at Stanford University, where he also received advanced training through a clinical fellowship in medical oncology and a research fellowship in systems biology of cancer epigenetics. A breast cancer specialist certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in medical oncology, he joined The UT Southwestern faculty in 2021 with the support of a CPRIT Recruitment of First-Time, Tenure-Track Faculty Members award. He has a secondary appointment in UTSW's Cecil H. and Ida Green Center for Reproductive Biology Sciences. Dr. Gruber’s clinical focus is on treating patients with metastatic breast cancer and triple-negative breast cancer, as well as conducting early-stage clinical trials on new therapies for these diseases. He is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer.Dr. Gruber’s laboratory research interests include the molecular biology of breast cancer initiation, the intersection of tumor immunology with cancer growth pathways, and the development of molecular tools to interrogate neoplastic tissues.  Much of his research effort is focused on gene regulation, specifically the intersection of cancer epigenetics with cellular metabolism. . His goal is to better understand how to control the DNA packaging process and whether this can be the target for cancer therapeutics development.  

Dr. Gruber’s long-term goal is to be able to turn off DNA replication in cancer cells, without actually attacking the DNA at all. Damaging DNA comes with unpleasant side-effects and the possibility of creating new mutations that allow cancers to evolve or produce new cancers elsewhere in the body.  His lab is targeting the packaging proteins that condense DNA, which are called histones. There are no drugs currently available to turn off histone production in tumors and Dr. Gruber thinks that this is where his lab can make a difference for multiple different cancers." 

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