Alex Brown

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H. Alex Brown is Professor of Pharmacology and Biochemistry at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Alex grew up on the east coast of Florida close to the Kennedy Space Center. He attended Wake Forest University, received his Bachelor of Science degree with highest honors from Florida Institute of Technology and a masters degree from Syracuse University. Alex received his Ph.D. in 1992 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill working in the laboratory of T. Kendall Harden and then pursued postdoctoral training in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Texas-Southwestern Medical Center with Paul Sternweis. Alex joined the faculty at Cornell University in 1996 with appointments in Pharmacology and Biochemistry Molecular & Cell Biology. Alex received the Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research Scholar award in 1997.  At Cornell, Alex developed the field of computational lipidomics.  In 2002, Alex was recruited to Vanderbilt University School of Medicine as the Ingram Professor of Cancer Research in Pharmacology.  Alex has over 150 peer reviewed scientific publications.  He has served on the editorial boards and publication committees for numerous journals.  In addition, Alex was editor of a three volume series on Lipidomics and Bioactive Lipids for Methods in Enzymology, co-editor with Lawrence Marnett of a thematic issue on lipid biochemistry for Chemical Reviews in 2011, and has organized multiple international conferences on lipid metabolism & signaling. Alex received the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) “High Impact Publications Award” in 2010, as well as the Vanderbilt  “Leadership of a Multi-Investigator Team Award” together with Craig Lindsley in 2011. Alex is currently the Interim Director of the Vanderbilt Institute of Chemical Biology (VICB).  After spending years researching the basic mechanisms of cell signaling related to cancer, in 2016 Alex began his own personal cancer journey.  In December, he was diagnosed with esophageal/gastric cancer.  Being the scientist that he is, he researched all available treatments/clinical trials for the most cutting edge intervention.  Due to previous prostate cancer, he was not eligible for any clinical trial, but did begin a course of immunotherapy.  With continued advancing of the tumor, he underwent a combination of targeted radiation and chemo therapy.  He was able to complete the radiation therapy in April but had to temporarily put chemo therapy on hold in order to improve his nutritional status and strength.  He is very proud of his children.  Kyle is following in his footsteps and is entering the third year of his PhD program in analytical chemistry at the University of Wisconsin.  Lindsey will be starting her second year in the Architecture program at Syracuse University.  His wife, Renee, is Chair of the School Physical Therapy at Belmont University.