Biography
Dr. Curt Hagedorn has led a large Medicine Service and GI-Hepatology Divisions at several universities. He has a long track record of program building and discovery in medicine and biomedical sciences. This includes building patient care programs in Medicine and GI-Hepatology. Dr. Hagedorn has also made major contributions to biomedical sciences. For example, over 100 peer reviewed publications, several US Patents, and PI or co-investigator on over $20,000,000 of research grants. Notable contributions include studies of a protein synthesis factor (mRNA cap binding protein; eIF4E) that is targeted by viruses, over expressed in epithelial cancers, and drives tumor progression. Studies included producing large quantities of biochemically active recombinant protein (reIF-4E), mapping covalent modifications and the mRNA binding site, and identifying a high affinity variant for a new way of isolating “capped” RNA for genomic studies (PNAS PMID: 12777618; RNA PMID: 15525708, cited >2,400 times). Studies also included inflammatory premalignant digestive diseases (chronic hepatitis C; sessile serrated colon polyps > 20-30% of colon cancers). Biomarkers differentiating SSPs from other serrated polyps, that do not progress to cancer, were identified. Dr. Hagedorn was a member of the NCI Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network and an investigator in the VA Cooperative Study on preventing colon cancer.
Dr. Hagedorn has done notable work on hepatitis C and the hepatitis C virus (HCV). He co-edited the 2000 Current Topics of Microbiology and Immunology entitled "The Hepatitis C Viruses" with Charles Rice (Lasker Award, 2016; Nobel, 2000), and is a founding Associate Editor of the journal Viruses. Dr. Hagedorn’s work on hepatitis C includes developing systems to produce large quantities of biochemically active recombinant HCV RNA polymerase (U.S. Patent No. 6,461,845) for biochemical, structural, and antiviral discovery. This discovery was critical in HCV antiviral programs, including the discovery of the HCV polymerase inhibitor Sofosbuvir which is used in several hepatitis C antivirals treatments (e.g., Harvoni & Epclusa > 98% cure rates). His clinical studies of hepatitis C included the identification of new genotypes of HCV and patients’ response to therapeutics. Dr. Hagedorn and his laboratory also improved systems for HCV cell culture and used them to identify new antivirals synthesized by a medicinal chemist colleague that target the HCV RNA. These antivirals are predicted to have activity against other RNA viruses.