Abstract
Dr. Birge received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut in 1983, where he later earned a PhD in 1989 in the field of molecular toxicology. From 1989 to 1994, Dr. Birge was an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow at The Rockefeller University in the Laboratory of Molecular Oncology under the tutelage of Hidesaburo Hanafusa, studying the structure and function of retroviral oncogenes and cellular transformation. From 1994 to 2000, Dr. Birge remained at The Rockefeller University as a faculty member and was acting head of the Laboratory of Molecular Oncology from 1998 to 2000 until his move to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)–New Jersey Medical School in 2000. Currently, he is a professor of biochemistry and head of the laboratory at the UMDNJ–New Jersey Medical School in Newark and a member of the University Hospital Cancer Center.
Dr. Birge’s research interests focus on apoptosis and cancer biology, with the goals of understanding the molecular events that promote tumor progression and metastasis. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Birge’s work has helped elucidate the structure, function, and regulation of Crk proteins and how these signaling networks are disrupted in cancer. The Birge laboratory also documented the first link between Crk and efferocytosis (the clearance of apoptotic cells) and how efferocytosis in tumor cells is linked to tolerance and tumor progression. His principal areas of research include the role of tyrosine kinases in breast cancer metastasis and defining the signals that promote immune suppression and tolerance in the tumor microenvironment.
In 1991, Dr. Birge, along with Richard Lockshin and Zahra Zakeri, founded the Cell Death Society, where he continues to serve as vice president. Additionally, he sits on the board of directors of the society, which has now become a prodigious international association that holds annual meetings. Dr. Birge serves as a scientific consultant on numerous federal and private grant study sections that include the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Breast and Prostate Cancer Funding. He is currently on the editorial board of The Journal of Biological Chemistry and Cell Communication and Signaling. Dr. Birge has authored over 70 scientific publications in molecular and cancer biology.