Ruth Patterson

Ruth Patterson, PhD, is Associate Director of Population Sciences and Program Leader of the Cancer Prevention Program of the Moores UCSD Cancer Center. She is PI of the NCI designated Transdisciplinary Research on Energetics and Cancer (TREC) Center project focused on the insulin resistance, inflammation, obesity and the risk of breast cancer (1 U54CA155435-01). She is also leader of a TREC project to investigate the degree to which metformin, a lifestyle intervention, or both, can reduce breast cancer mortality among overweight/obese, postmenopausal breast cancer survivors. Her past experience includes 6 years as the co-PI of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Coordinating Center at the Hutchinson Cancer Research Center where she had scientific and logistic oversight of the randomized low-fat dietary modification trial that included 48,837 post-menopausal women. In addition, Dr. Patterson was co-PI of an NCI-funded cohort study of 75,000 Washington State supplement users. From 2004-2009, she held director-level positions in Clinical Development for a biotech company that develops injectable drugs for diabetes mellitus and obesity. Dr. Patterson returned to academics in late 2009 and resumed her research at that time. She has over 150 publications in the area of exposure assessment and disease risk, and considerable experience with mentoring students and junior faculty. She is currently chair of 2 doctoral committees and a member of 3 others, and research advisor to a post-doctoral fellow on an NCI diversity supplement, an assistant professor, and medical student. Dr. Patterson was also an active mentor during her 12 years at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, where she mentored 4 post-doctoral fellows, 2 pre-doctoral students, and 12 masters’ students. She is well-prepared and excited to serve on the Advisory Board and as an expert faculty member for the TREC Training Workshop.