Joshua Gruber, M.D., Ph.D.

Joshua Gruber, M.D., Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center and a member of the Division of Hematology and Oncology. A breast cancer specialist, he has a secondary appointment in UTSW’s Cecil H. and Ida Green Center for Reproductive Biology Sciences.

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 in California, where he also received advanced training through a clinical fellowship in medical oncology and a research fellowship in systems biology of cancer epigenetics.

Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in medical oncology, Dr. Gruber joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2021.

Dr. Gruber is the author of numerous scholarly articles in journals such as Cell, Molecular Cell, and Cell Reports, and he serves as a peer reviewer for the Journal of Clinical Oncology Precision Oncology and Clinical Cancer Research.

His 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. His 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.

He is also focused on gene regulation, specifically the intersection of cancer epigenetics with cellular metabolism. In particular, his work is directed at devising new methods for understanding how metabolic products affect chromatin landscapes as well as developing new chemical probes to interrogate this process.

Dr. Gruber is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer.

Other Post Graduate Training

University of Pennsylvania (2008)

Medical School

University of Pennsylvania Hospital (2011)

Internship

Stanford University (2012)

Residency

Stanford University Medical Center (2013), Internal Medicine

Fellowship

Stanford University Hospital (2016), Medical Oncology

• Cancer biology
• Cancer drug discovery
• Cancer metabolism
• Chromatin synthesis and maintenance
• Epigenetic enzymes
• immunoreceptors including VISTA
• triple-negative breast cancer

Featured Publications

HAT1 Coordinates Histone Production and Acetylation via H4 Promoter Binding.

Gruber JJ, Geller B, Lipchik AM, Chen J, Salahudeen AA, Ram AN, Ford JM, Kuo CJ, Snyder MP, Mol Cell 2019 08 75 4 711-724.e5

Chromatin Remodeling in Response to BRCA2-Crisis.

Gruber JJ, Chen J, Geller B, Jäger N, Lipchik AM, Wang G, Kurian AW, Ford JM, Snyder MP, Cell Rep 2019 08 28 8 2182-2193.e6

Ars2 promotes proper replication-dependent histone mRNA 3' end formation.

Gruber JJ, Olejniczak SH, Yong J, La Rocca G, Dreyfuss G, Thompson CB, Mol Cell 2012 Jan 45 1 87-98

Hypoxia promotes isocitrate dehydrogenase-dependent carboxylation of a-ketoglutarate to citrate to support cell growth and viability.

Wise DR, Ward PS, Shay JE, Cross JR, Gruber JJ, Sachdeva UM, Platt JM, DeMatteo RG, Simon MC, Thompson CB, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2011 Dec 108 49 19611-6

Ars2 links the nuclear cap-binding complex to RNA interference and cell proliferation.

Gruber JJ, Zatechka DS, Sabin LR, Yong J, Lum JJ, Kong M, Zong WX, Zhang Z, Lau CK, Rawlings J, Cherry S, Ihle JN, Dreyfuss G, Thompson CB, Cell 2009 Jul 138 2 328-39

Association of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes with Homologous Recombination Deficiency and BRCA1/2 Status in Patients with Early Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: A Pooled Analysis.

Telli ML, Chu C, Badve SS, Vinayak S, Silver DP, Isakoff SJ, Kaklamani V, Gradishar W, Stearns V, Connolly RM, Ford JM, Gruber JJ, Adams S, Garber J, Tung N, Neff C, Bernhisel R, Timms KM, Richardson AL, Clin Cancer Res 2020 06 26 11 2704-2710

Acetate supplementation restores chromatin accessibility and promotes tumor cell differentiation under hypoxia.

Li Y, Gruber JJ, Litzenburger UM, Zhou Y, Miao YR, LaGory EL, Li AM, Hu Z, Yip M, Hart LS, Maris JM, Chang HY, Giaccia AJ, Ye J, Cell Death Dis 2020 02 11 2 102

Matrix stiffness induces a tumorigenic phenotype in mammary epithelium through changes in chromatin accessibility.

Stowers RS, Shcherbina A, Israeli J, Gruber JJ, Chang J, Nam S, Rabiee A, Teruel MN, Snyder MP, Kundaje A, Chaudhuri O, Nat Biomed Eng 2019 12 3 12 1009-1019

High-Resolution Bisulfite-Sequencing of Peripheral Blood DNA Methylation in Early-Onset and Familial Risk Breast Cancer Patients.

Chen J, Haanpää MK, Gruber JJ, Jäger N, Ford JM, Snyder MP, Clin Cancer Res 2019 09 25 17 5301-5314

Disruption of mesoderm formation during cardiac differentiation due to developmental exposure to 13-cis-retinoic acid.

Liu Q, Van Bortle K, Zhang Y, Zhao MT, Zhang JZ, Geller BS, Gruber JJ, Jiang C, Wu JC, Snyder MP, Sci Rep 2018 08 8 1 12960

• NIH/NCI Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award
  (2020)
• SPARK Translational Research Award
  Stanford University (2020)
• Women's Cancer Center Innovation Award
  Stanford Cancer Institute (2020)
• Innovation Award
  Stanford Cancer Institute (2017)
• Young Investigator Award
  Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO (2017)

• American Association for Cancer Research (2017)
• American Society of Clinical Oncology (2016)
• Member Graduate Faculty in Cancer Biology graduate program (2022)
• Member Graduate Faculty of Biological Chemistry graduate program (2021)