Georg Luebeck, PhD
Professor Emeritus, Herbold Computational Biology Program
Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutch
Member Emeritus
Translational Data Science Integrated Research Center (TDS IRC), Fred Hutch
Dr. Luebeck is a leading expert in modeling multi-stage carcinogenesis, or how cancers and their precursors arise over time in normal, healthy tissue. Although he trained in theoretical physics, he has spent more than 30 years developing mathematical models that capture critical processes in cancer development and show how they are influenced by environmental and genetic factors. This information, which can help predict who is at risk for specific types of cancer, informs screening guidelines to reduce the cancer burden. With his team at Fred Hutch, Dr. Luebeck is studying cancer incidence trends and the impact of cancer screening. He also studies gradual genetic changes over time known as age-related epigenetic drift and its impact on aging, as well as the link between biological-tissue aging and cancer.
Education
PhD, Physics, University of Washington, 1986
MS, Physics, University of Washington, 1983
Diplom in Physik (equiv. MS), University of Tübingen, 1982
Research Interests
The overarching theme of Dr. Luebeck's research is to bridge the widening gap between cancer biology and population sciences. Over the years he and his team have developed bio-mathematical descriptions of carcinogenesis (primarily in colon, lung, pancreas and Barrett's esophagus) that help identify and characterize relevant spatio-temporal scales of cancer progression and understand the implications for more effective cancer screening.
The ultimate goal is to be able to model/optimize the benefits of cancer screening, prevention, and intervention - based on a biological description of the natural history of cancer.
"The idea that tissue aging somehow also plays a role in the initiation of a cancer was something that clicked with me."
— Dr. Georg Luebeck