Paul C. Boutros, PhD, MBA

Paul C. Boutros, PhD, MBA

University of California Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California

Paul C. Boutros, PhD, MBA, is the Interim Vice Dean of Research and a Professor in the Human Genetics and Urology departments at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Boutros’ research lies at the intersection of clinical, molecular and imaging data. He focuses on how these diverse pieces of information can be linked to personalize therapy for cancer patients. His work sometimes centers on specific tumor types, particularly prostate and thyroid, but often includes others in conjunction to identify general and tumor-type specific features of cancer. Some of his recent studies focus on how cancers develop differently based on the sex, age, or ethnic features of the patient.

Dr. Boutros earned his BSc in Chemistry from the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Canada. He earned his PhD in Medical Biophysics from the University of Toronto, Canada. Dr. Boutros then earned his MBA from the Rothman School of Management in Toronto, Canada. In 2008, Dr. Boutros started his independent research career at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research first as a Fellow and then as Principal Investigator.

Dr. Boutros has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles. He leads the ICGC-TCGA DREAM Somatic Mutation Calling Challenge, which sets global standards for analyzing cancer genomic data and drives programs in cancer genomics, data science, and biomarker translation. Dr. Boutros has received numerous honors for his work as a scientist and researcher, including the Prostate Cancer Canada Rising Star in Prostate Cancer Research award, the Terry Fox New Investigator Award, the University of Waterloo Young Alumni Award, and the Early Career Graduate Student Teaching Award. In 2018 he was awarded the Dorval Prize by the Canadian Cancer Society, recognizing the best national early career investigator.

Talks by Paul C. Boutros, PhD, MBA

The Prostate Cancer Proteome

The Prostate Cancer Proteome

| Aug 2024

Paul Boutros, PhD, MBA, gives a talk on the under-explored prostate cancer proteome. Dr. Boutros discusses proteomics by delving into five reasons why they are a useful tool. His talk focuses on these reasons and he goes into detail about each one. They include the fact that proteins are the actual function units of the central dogma, they are far more diverse than RNA, they have not been looked at in much detail yet, they are abundant in urine and they have immense dynamic range. His talk then goes on to cover what tissue proteomics look like, how the proteome relates to other things we care about such as MRI visibility and urinary proteomics. He ends the talk by going over some of the caveats and reasons that proteomics might not work. Overall proteomics are incredibly complex and few have the skills to properly analyze, but it remains a major opportunity to move forward in the field.

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Germline Genetics and Prostate Cancer Evolution and Aggressivity

Germline Genetics and Prostate Cancer Evolution and Aggressivity

| Feb 2021

Paul C. Boutros, PhD, MBA, Professor of Human Genetics and Urology at the University of California, Los Angeles, explains the relationship between the germline and cancer evolution, as well as the implications this relationship has for screening and care. Dr. Boutros begins by explaining why it makes sense to study the germline, noting that while cancer is a disease of somatic mutations, there are already many known germline risk factors and evidence suggests that 20% of prostate cancer biopsies could be avoided if patients received a polygenic risk score. Dr. Boutros then looks at the results of a study from his lab at UCLA which show that the germline drives somatic epigenomics and that some single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are prognostic. Another yet-to-be-published study by the same team suggests that the germline also drives somatic mutations, with multiple quantitative trait loci (QTLs) predicting somatic driver mutations. This means that mutations that occur early in tumor evolution and can increase the likelihood of aggressive cancer are more likely to occur in certain people based on genomic factors. This also appears to be the case with multiple cancer types. Dr. Boutros concludes by noting possible future directions for research in this area, including multi-ancestric studies and studies into germline influences on the transcriptome and proteome. He also observes that it is not yet clear how this research should be integrated with diagnostic and prognostic tests nor how it could influence decision-making.

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