Scientists / Our Scientists

Bob Yauch

Executive Director, Discovery Oncology, Research Biology

Postdoc Mentor

"Working at Genentech has been an incredibly rewarding experience, as I have seen first-hand how the fruits of our labor have made a difference in patients’ lives"

Years at Genentech

Publications at Genentech

Awards & Honors

I joined Genentech in January 2004 as a scientist in the Molecular Diagnostics department, following five years at a biotechnology company. I was attracted to Genentech based on their commitment to maintain a cutting-edge research environment, in addition to their emphasis on the clinical development of targeted therapies for the treatment of cancer.

My primary experience at Genentech has been in the area of developing predictive diagnostics and understanding patient response to our novel therapies. Genentech’s commitment to develop diagnostic tests for our therapies has helped to make personalized medicine a reality for cancer patients. More recently, I have been involved in managing and participating in oncology target discovery efforts in Research.

Postdoctoral Mentor

Genentech’s post-doctoral research program is an excellent opportunity for post-graduates to carry out cutting-edge scientific research in a highly collaborative environment that simultaneously exposes them to the drug development process. This experience is incredibly valuable in making the most informed future career decisions. Post-doctoral fellows in my laboratory have the ability to pursue independent projects related to drug resistance and cancer epigenetics.

Featured Publication

Smoothened mutation confers resistance to a Hedgehog pathway inhibitor in medulloblastoma.

SCIENCE, 2009, ISSN: 0036-8075

YAUCH, R.L.; DIJKGRAAF, G.J.P.; ALICKE, B.; JANUARIO,T.; AHN, C.P.; HOLCOMB, T.; PUJARA, K.; STINSON, J.; CALLAHAN, C.A.; TANG, T.; BAZAN, J.F.; KAN, Z.; SESHAGIRI, S.; HANN, C.L.; GOULD, S.E.; LOW, J.A.; RUDIN, C.M.; DE SAUVAGE, F.J.

View Abstract on Pubmed

My laboratory is interested in understanding how somatic mutations in cancer cells can drive novel cellular dependencies and thus inform on potentially new oncology drug targets. We leverage cutting-edge functional genomic and pharmaco-genomic approaches to identify such relationships and collaborate closely with our drug discovery groups to pharmacologically targeting these pathways. Our recent work has focused on exploring the aberrant chromatin states in cancer cells caused by mutations in chromatin-remodeling enzymes, such as the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex.

Tissue distribution and retention drives efficacy of rapidly clearing VHL-based PROTACs

Communications Medicine,

Donglu Zhang; Bin Ma; Peter Dragovich; Li Ma; Shu Chen; Eugene C. Chen; Ye; Joyce F. Liu; Jennifer Pizzano; Elizabeth Bortolon; Emily Chan; Xing Zhang; Yi-Chen Chen; Elizabeth S. Levy; Robert Yauch; S. Cyrus Khojasteh; Cornelis E. Hop

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Bob Yauch

Executive Director, Discovery Oncology, Research Biology

Featured Publication

Smoothened mutation confers resistance to a Hedgehog pathway inhibitor in medulloblastoma.