Jay Bradner

Jay Bradner developed JQ1, the first potent and selective BET bromodomain inhibitor, demonstrating that pharmacological displacement of BRD4 from acetylated histones at super-enhancers causes selective transcriptional collapse of oncogenes including MYC. His chemical biology approach provided proof-of-concept that histone acetylation reader proteins are druggable therapeutic targets in cancer. He showed that BRD4 preferentially occupies super-enhancers that drive cancer cell identity genes, and that BET inhibition disproportionately affects these super-enhancer-driven genes. His work launched the field of BET inhibitor therapeutics now in extensive clinical development across hematologic and solid malignancies.