Interview with Prof. Dr. Jeffrey Drebin, President of the 2024 President Elect of the American Surgical Association

Abstract

Dr. Jeffrey A. Drebin is Chair of the Department of Surgery at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and holds the Murray F. Brennan Endowed Chair. He is also Professor of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. He was previously the John Rhea Barton Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard, where his Ph.D. work involved the development of the first monoclonal antibodies targeting the HER2/neu oncogene. He subsequently performed his surgical training in General Surgery and a Fellowship in Surgical Oncology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Upon completing his clinical training, Dr. Drebin was recruited to Washington University School of Medicine in 1995, rising to Professor of Surgery and of Molecular Biology & Pharmacology in 2002.

In 2004 he was recruited to the University of Pennsylvania as Chief of the GI Surgery Division and in 2009 he became department Chair. At Washington University and at the University of Pennsylvania he established himself as a busy clinical surgeon, focusing on pancreaticobiliary, upper gastrointestinal, and liver surgery. He also established a successful translational research lab, receiving research support from the NIH, the Department of Defense, and the Burroughs Welcome fund for this work. Multiple surgery residents who worked in Dr. Drebin's laboratory have themselves gone on to successful academic surgical careers. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles, chapters, editorials, and reviews, and has served on the editorial boards of multiple journals.

Today, we are honored to have Professor Jeff Drebin, M.D., Ph.D., from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and the 2024 President Elect of the American Surgical Association, as our guest. We extend our sincere gratitude to Professor Drebin for taking time out of his busy schedule to join us at the 79th Annual Meeting of The Japanese Society of Gastroenterological Surgery. In addition, we deeply appreciate your participation and your contribution to the journal, Annals of Gastroenterological Surgery, an official journal of JSGS. Thank you very much, Professor Jeff.

We're going to wrap up this conversation. Thank you very much for your insightful elaboration and explanation about pancreatic cancer. We face significant challenges in curing pancreatic cancer, but today's discussion with Professor Drebin provides a glimmer of hope. In the future, we may be able to eradicate pancreatic cancer. Thank you very much for your active discussion.