Bruce A. Littlefield, Ph.D.

Affiliation: Distinguished Scientist and Head, Translational Medicine
Global Oncology, Eisai Inc.

Dedifferentiation and stemness as a mechanism for therapy-resistance and metastasis of prostate cancer

Dr. Littlefield holds the dual positions of Distinguished Scientist and Head, Translational Medicine in the Global Oncology group at Eisai, a global pharmaceutical company headquartered in Tokyo. A biochemist by training, Dr. Littlefield first joined Eisai in 1990
and since that time has overseen numerous natural product-based oncology drug discovery programs. One such program, initiated at Eisai by Dr. Littlefield in 1992 together with Professor Yoshito Kishi of Harvard, was based on the marine sponge natural product halichondrin B. This program led to development of eribulin (Halaven ® ), currently approved in over 60 countries for treatment of certain patients with advanced breast cancer, with additional approvals for advanced liposarcoma or soft tissue sarcoma in many
other countries. Dr. Littlefield has published widely in the cancer research and drug development areas, holds numerous drug-related patents, and is a frequent lecturer at universities, medical centers and scientific conferences in the US and abroad. In addition to
working at Eisai, Dr. Littlefield has held faculty positions at both Yale and Harvard Medical Schools, most recently in 2009-2011, when he temporarily moved to Harvard as Scientific Director of a new natural products research program, before returning to Eisai in his current capacity in 2011.