Sooryanarayana Varambally

Sooryamarayana (Soory) Varambally is a Professor at the Department of Pathology at The University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Varambally's integrative cancer research focuses on understanding the molecular basis of cancer initiation, progression and identification of therapeutic targets. His group investigates cancers using genomics, epigenetics, bioinformatics, discovery/validation of biomarkers, and targeting of key oncogenes. Dr. Varambally contributed to many seminal discoveries including identification of EZH2, a histone methyltransferase as oncogenic in various cancers and recurrent gene fusion ERG in prostate cancer. His transformative efforts toward enhancing the precision targeting in the fight against cancer led to the development and deployment of a comprehensive cancer proteo-genomic data analysis platform, the UALCAN (University of ALabama CANcer data portal, ualcan.path.uab.edu). This public data analysis portal aids in examining “big cancer data” in a user-friendly format, allowing cancer researchers and clinicians to identify biomarkers and precision targets.