Bryan E. Welm, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery

Bryan Welm, PhD, is an investigator at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI), assistant professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Utah, and a member of the Cell Response and Regulation Program.

Welm investigates the link between breast stem cells and breast cancer. The breast is a highly regenerative organ that undergoes many growth and functional changes during pregnancies. This regenerative capacity has been attributed to a rare stem cell population that can give rise to the many different cell types of the mammary gland. Studies provide evidence that breast stem cells may be the cells that cause breast cancer.

It is poorly understood how the mechanisms that drive changes and growth of stem cells become dysregulated in breast cancer. Welm's main research interest is to understand the cause of breast cancer by identifying the cellular origins for cancer and the initial transforming events within those cells.

Welm joined HCI after completing postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Zena Werb, PhD, at the University of California, San Francisco.