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Heidi Greulich is a cancer biologist and senior group leader in the Cancer Program at the Ó³»­´«Ã½ of MIT and Harvard, where she is also an institute scientist. She leads a group that studies mutations in genes that lead to cancer, with the goal of developing new cancer therapies. Her current research focus is the mechanism of action of velcrin compounds, small molecules that kill cancer cells expressing elevated levels of two genes, PDE3A and SLFN12, by inducing complex formation between these proteins. Greulich’s team discovered that PDE3A-SLFN12 complex formation activates the SLFN12 RNase, resulting in digestion of tRNA-Leu-TAA, global inhibition of protein synthesis, and cell death. Her group also studies therapeutic approaches to EGFR- and ERBB2- mutant lung cancer, with a small molecule currently in phase I clinical trials.  

Greulich joined the Ó³»­´«Ã½ in 2004 with a joint affiliation with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where she was a researcher and instructor for 12 years before switching her primary affiliation to the Ó³»­´«Ã½ in 2016. She is the recipient of grants from Uniting Against Lung Cancer, Doctors Cancer Foundation, Lung Cancer Research Foundation, Exon20 Group, and the DOD Melanoma Research Program. 

Greulich holds a Ph.D. in molecular oncology from The Rockefeller University and a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology from Princeton University. Her postdoctoral fellowship was undertaken at Harvard University.

Contact Heidi Greulich via email at heidig@broadinstitute.org.