Paul Christopher Boutros

Professor, Human Genetics, University of California Los Angeles

Professor, Urology, University of California Los Angeles

310 794-7160

UCLA Department of Human Genetics
BOX 957088, 57200A South Tower CHS
Los Angeles, CA 90095

Paul Boutros, Ph.D., M.B.A., is a cancer data scientist and professor in the departments of human genetics and urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He currently serves as director of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Cancer Data Science program, Associate Director of cancer informatics at the UCLA Institute for Precision Health, and is a member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research. The research in Boutros’ laboratory lies at the intersection of clinical, molecular and imaging data. He focuses on how these diverse pieces of information can be linked to personalize therapy for cancer patients. By applying techniques from modern data science strategies, particularly machine-learning, he creates biomarkers to help ensure therapies are selected that maximize cure and minimize morbidities. His work sometimes centers on specific tumor types, particularly prostate and sarcoma, but often includes others in conjunction to identify general and tumor-type specific features of cancer. Some of his recent studies focus on how cancers develop differently based on the sex, age or ancestric features of the patient. Boutros has published over 300 peer-reviewed papers, and in his leadership roles as professor in the departments of human genetics and urology, he is currently working to support personalizing therapy for cancer by developing novel statistical methodologies. He leads the ICGC-TCGA DREAM Somatic Mutation Calling Challenge that is setting global standards for analyzing cancer genomic data, and drives programs in cancer genomics, data science and biomarker translation.

Awards and Honors

  • 1st Place, DREAM AML Prognosis Challenge Sub-Challenge 3: Overall Survival Time, 2014.
  • 2018 Bernard and Francine Dorval Prize, Canadian Cancer Society, 2018.
  • PRECARN Fellowship, Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems, 2004.
  • Ontario Graduate Scholarship (declined), The Government of Ontario, 2006-2007.
  • Travel Award, Canadian Cancer Society, 2007.
  • Invitrogen Canada Young Investigator Silver Award, Invitrogen Canada, Inc., 2006.
  • Student Presenter Award, 25th International Symposium on Halogenated Environmental Organic Pollutants and POPs, 2005.
  • Second Place, Biochemistry Presentation, Southwestern Ontario Undergraduate Conference, 2003.
  • CCSRI Junior Investigator Grant Panel Travel Award, Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute, 2010.
  • Young Alumni Award, University of Waterloo, Faculty of Science, 2015.
  • Fellow, BioVision.Nxt, 2007.
  • First Place CIHR Next Generation Award, Canadian Institutes for Health Research / BioContact-Québec, 2006.
  • Travel Award, International Society for Computational Biology Student Council, 2008.
  • CIHR Strategic Training Fellowship Alumni Award, Excellence in Radiation Research for the 21st Century CIHR STIHR, 2006-2008.
  • First Prize, Poster Presentations, 15th International Symposium on Microsomes and Drug Oxidations; Mainz, Germany, 2004.
  • Travel Award, National Cancer Institute of Canada, 2007.
  • Abstract Winner, UHN Research Day 2006, 2006.
  • 1st Place, DREAM AML Prognosis Challenge Sub-Challenge 2: Remission Duration, 2014.
  • Travel Award, BioConductor Workshop 2008, 2008.
  • First Place, Overall, National Undergraduate Chemistry Conference, 2003.
  • Travel Award, Prostate Cancer Canada, 2013.
  • Travel Award, Canadian Institutes for Health Research / BioContact-Québec, 2006.
  • CGS Postgraduate Fellowship, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, 2006-2009.
  • Travel Award, National Undergraduate Chemistry Conference, 2003.
  • First Place Oral Presentation, Department of Medical Biophysics Harold Johns Memorial Prize, 2008.
  • Collaboration Exploration and Development Award, Prostate Cancer Canada, 2012.
  • CIHR Strategic Training Fellowship (2007 declined), Excellence in Radiation Research for the 21st Century CIHR STIHR, 2005-2007.
  • Travel Award, The 17th International Conference on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology, 2009.
  • Reviewer of the Month, European Urology, 2018.
  • Best Presentation Award, CIHR EIRR21st Research Day, 2005.
  • Top 25 Peer Reviewer, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2019-2020.
  • Work-Term Report Award, Dow Canada Environmental Chemistry, 2001.
  • Travel Award (declined), The 11th International Meeting of the Microarray and Gene Expression Data Society, 2008.
  • Early Career Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentorship, Faculty of Medicine Graduate Teaching Award, University of Toronto, 2016.
  • Dean’s List & Bregman’s Scholar, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, 2016.
  • Dean’s Honour List, University of Waterloo, Faculty of Science, 2002.

Publications