Prof. Cathrin Brisken

Biography

Cathrin Brisken, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Life Sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) and one of the world’s leading experts on the hormonal regulation of breast development and carcinogenesis. Her work has transformed the understanding of how reproductive hormones shape breast biology across the lifespan and how their dysregulation contributes to the development, progression, and recurrence of breast cancer. Internationally respected for her pioneering approaches, she has made lasting contributions to both fundamental breast biology and translational cancer research.

Dr. Brisken earned both her medical degree and her PhD in Biophysics from the Georg-August University of Göttingen, Germany. Early in her career, she trained with Nobel laureate–level scientists and honed her expertise in cancer biology during her postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Robert A. Weinberg at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts—an institution known for producing groundbreaking discoveries in oncology. She subsequently held research appointments at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston, as well as at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC), before establishing her laboratory at EPFL.

At EPFL, Dr. Brisken has built a globally recognized research program focused on deciphering the cellular and molecular mechanisms through which estrogen, progesterone, and hormonally active environmental compounds influence normal breast development and carcinogenesis. Her group’s central conceptual advance has been the demonstration that a subset of hormone receptor-positive cells function as local “signalling hubs,” translating systemic hormonal cues into paracrine messages that coordinate the behavior of other cells in the mammary gland. This insight reshaped the field’s understanding of how hormonal signals operate at the tissue level.

Methodologically, her laboratory has pioneered sophisticated in vivo approaches, combining microsurgical techniques in mice with targeted genetic manipulations to dissect the specific contributions of reproductive hormones. Recognizing a critical gap in the ability to study estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancers, which account for roughly 70% of all breast cancer cases, her team developed the intraductal xenograft model, in which patient-derived cancer cells are introduced directly into the mammary ducts of immunocompromised mice. This breakthrough preserves the architecture, microenvironment, and hormone responsiveness of human tumors, enabling studies that closely mirror the biology of the disease in patients. Alongside this, her group has established ex vivo organoid cultures and humanized mouse models that use patient samples to examine hormone action in both normal tissue and during disease progression. These models have allowed unprecedented investigation into early cancer lesions, the transition from in situ to invasive disease, spontaneous metastasis to clinically relevant organs, and the phenomenon of tumor dormancy, areas that had previously been difficult to study in a physiologically relevant way.

Her work has revealed striking interpatient heterogeneity in hormonal responses, pointing toward the need for more individualized breast cancer therapies. Building on these findings, Dr. Brisken’s current research explores novel therapeutic strategies targeting the progesterone and androgen receptors, with the ultimate goal of developing prevention and treatment approaches tailored to a patient’s specific hormonal and tumor biology.

Beyond her scientific achievements, Dr. Brisken has demonstrated exceptional leadership and service to the academic and medical communities. She was the first woman to serve as Dean of the EPFL Doctoral School, overseeing more than 2,000 PhD students across 18 programs, and has been an influential mentor to early-career scientists. She is a member of the International Breast Cancer Study Group (IBCSG) Biological Protocol Working Group, the Hinterzartener Kreis oncology think tank associated with the German Science Foundation, and has served on numerous Swiss, European, and American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) committees. She co-founded the International Cancer Prevention Institute, a Swiss foundation dedicated to advancing cancer prevention research, and coordinated a €4.2 million EU doctoral training network on cancer prevention. Since 2020, she has also headed a research team at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, one of Europe’s foremost cancer research centers.

Through her scientific innovation, leadership, and dedication to advancing women’s health, Cathrin Brisken has established herself as a central figure in the fight against breast cancer. Her pioneering models and insights into hormonal regulation of breast tissue continue to shape the field, offering hope for more effective prevention strategies, personalized therapies, and ultimately, better outcomes for patients worldwide.