Dan Duda

I obtained a DMD from the University of Medicine Iasi, Romania in 1993, and earned a PhD in Medical Sciences (Gastrointestinal Surgery) from Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan in 2001. After graduation, I pursued postdoctoral training with Professor Rakesh K. Jain in the Steele Laboratories for Tumor Biology, Department of Radiation Oncology, MGH and Harvard Medical School in Boston. I became a Junior Faculty member (Instructor) in 2004, and then rose through the ranks to Full Investigator at MGH Research Institute in 2016 and Associate Professor of Tumor Biology (Radiation Oncology) at Harvard Medical School in 2012. In 2016, I was appointed as the Director of Translational Research in Gastrointestinal Radiation Oncology at MGH. In 2020, I received the honorary degree "Doctor Honoris Causa" from the University of Medicine Iasi, Romania, my Alma Mater.

Over the last decade and a half, I have built a vibrant and dynamic Liver Cancer Research Program within the Steele Laboratories for Tumor Biology. The translational goal of this program increasing the durability of response to the most effective available therapies. The goal is to identify new cellular and molecular mechanisms of local and metastatic tumor progression and treatment resistance and validate them as new targets for combination therapies for cancer.

To this end, my group studying the activity of antiangiogenic drugs, antifibrotic drugs or radiotherapy approaches in combination with immunotherapy. In preclinical studies, we are employing models that reproduce the hallmarks of human cancers (i.e., genetically engineered models of primary hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma, and metastatic pancreatic, breast and prostate carcinomas). In parallel, in clinical studies in cancer patients, we are conducting correlative studies of biomarkers of response to the same approaches. My research efforts are currently supported by grants from Federal sources – US Department of Defense (DoD) and National Cancer Institute (NCI) – and Foundations, and by agreements with Industry partners (Bayer, Exelixis and BMS).