After the completion of her doctorate degree, Brugge joined Dr. Ray Erikson at the
University of Colorado for her postdoctorate work. It was there that she and Tony Purchio discovered the protein product of the Rous Sarcoma virus v-SRC gene. Brugge subsequently identified the protein product of the cellular gene (c-Src) from which v-Src derived. These discoveries were major breakthroughs in cancer research, as v-SRC and c-Src were the first viral and cellular oncoprotein identified and paved the way to subsequent studies on the mechanism of
oncogenic transformation. In 1979, Brugge took an
assistant professor position at the
State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook, eventually becoming a Professor of Microbiology. She continued her studies on the Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) that she had discovered in her postdoctorate work. Much of her research centered on finding the role of pp60src, which is the protein that is coded for by RSV. Brugge then moved on to the same position at the
University of Pennsylvania in 1989. In 1992, Brugge joined
ARIAD Pharmaceuticals in
Cambridge, Massachusetts as its Scientific Director. After five years in industry, however, Brugge chose to return to the academic world in order to place a bigger focus on her own research. She took a position as a Professor in the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School in 1997, and served as the Chair of the department from 2003 to 2014. Brugge has redirected her most recent research efforts because, in her own words, "we were kind of lured into areas that were pretty far from cancer, so I really wanted to go back to cancer." == Awards and honors ==