|
Christopher Crum was born in Newport News, Virginia. His father was a wedding cake decorator in a
large family baking business ("Crum's Bakery") and his mother was an educator. He received his college
education, medical and pathology training at the University of Virginia and his fellowship in obstetrical
and gynecologic pathology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is currently
Professor of Pathology of Harvard Medical School and Director of Women's and Perinatal Pathology at
Brigham and Women's Hospital.
With some timely advice from Fred Silva, who was a junior faculty member at Columbia in the late
1970's, Dr. Crum accepted a fellowship there in 1979 and began a study of cervical neoplasia at a time
when the field was about to shift its focus to HPV as the causative agent. With the mentoring of a
number of senior faculty at Columbia, including Ralph Richart, Yao Shi Fu, Cecilia Fenoglio, and Saul
Silverstein, and the assistance of many colleagues, he authored several of the early reports on human
papillomaviruses. Two studies, published in the New England Journal of Medicine and Journal of Virology,
were the first describing the association of HPV16 with early cervical neoplasia and outlined a binary
model for the classification of early cervical neoplasia. Over the next two decades, Dr. Crum published
widely on the topic of lower genital tract neoplasia and HPV, progressively defining cervical and vulvar
neoplasia based on their relationship (or lack of) to HPV, and was among several groups that first
identified two distinct categories of vulvar squamous neoplasia. In the late 1990's, Dr. Crum began
collaborating with Frank McKeon at Harvard Medical School and profiled the expression of the p53 homolog
p63 in genital mucosa. His group was the first to identify reserve cells in the endometrium and proposed
a model in which cervical reserve cells are created in adulthood via specialized proliferations of
columnar epithelium.
Recently, Dr. Crum's group shifted their research focus to the pathogenesis of high-grade serous
carcinomas of the ovary and proposed that most of these tumors in women with BRCA mutations actually
originate in the distal fallopian tube. They have put forth evidence of a fimbrial origin for many
pelvic serous carcinomas and recently identified a candidate serous cancer precursor in benign-appearing
tubal mucosa, termed the "p53 signature". Dr. Crum has proposed that the p53 signature is an important
if early step in serous cancer development, a concept that is receiving increasing attention in the field
of ovarian cancer research.
Dr. Crum oversees a large program in Women's and Perinatal Pathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital
that includes a faculty of over 10 clinician-scientists. This enterprise is a source of pride to Dr.
Crum and his colleagues, who strive to nurture a collaborative environment where clinician-pathologists
and investigators can interact productively. His group has been responsible for many seminal
contributions to the field of gynecologic and obstetric disorders, including the pathogenesis of
neoplasia, development of new models for precursor development, and novel animal and cell culture
systems.
Dr. Crum's has conducted a series of short courses at the USCAP for 18 consecutive years. He also
initiated a series of "hands-on" courses in obstetric and gynecologic pathology at Brigham and Women's
Hospital, which are in their 15th year and have been emulated by colleagues both in affiliated
institutions and other universities. With his colleagues in the Division of Women's and Perinatal
Pathology, he established the first interactive course in Obstetrical and Gynecologic pathology at the
USCAP in 2006 and has introduced "video microscopy" to complement his lectures in this field. He has
continually experimented with educational techniques in an effort to maximize the efficiency with which
new discoveries and information are conveyed to the practicing pathologist. He has authored over 200
publications, including three books. His most recent, entitled "Diagnostic Gynecologic and Obstetric
Pathology" is now one of the major textbooks in this field.
Dr. Crum lives in Brookline, MA with his wife Tucker, who is on the faculty at Wellesley College. He
has two daughters, Emily Day and Amanda Gibson, who reside in Boston and Libby, Montana.
|
|
|
|