معرفی
William Freed-Pastor, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Investigator in the Department of Medical Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where he is affiliated with the Hale Family Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research and the Division of Molecular and Cellular Oncology. His work bridges clinical oncology and molecular research, focusing on gastrointestinal and immuno-oncology.
Dr. Freed-Pastor completed his undergraduate education at Case Western Reserve University, followed by dual MD and PhD training at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons under the mentorship of Dr. Carol Prives, where he studied mutant p53 functions. He completed residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and a Medical Oncology fellowship at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, complemented by a postdoctoral research fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Tyler Jacks at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, supported by the Lustgarten Foundation. He established his independent laboratory at Dana-Farber in 2022.
His research focuses on pancreatic cancer, tumor immunology, and immunotherapy, with a particular emphasis on developing improved preclinical models to study immune escape and tumor-immune crosstalk. His work aims to uncover therapeutic strategies that harness the immune system to combat pancreatic cancer, one of the most treatment-resistant malignancies.
His key publication in Cancer Cell (2021) highlights the role of the CD155/TIGIT axis in maintaining immune evasion in neoantigen-expressing pancreatic tumors, offering a promising target for immunotherapeutic intervention.
- SU2C Golden Arrow Early Career Scientist Award
- SU2C Sharp Award for Innovation in Collaboration (with Dr. Philip Greenberg)
- Conquer Cancer Foundation ASCO Young Investigator Award
- PanCAN Career Development Award
- Burroughs Wellcome Career Award for Medical Scientists
- Young Investigator, SU2C-Lustgarten Foundation Pancreatic Cancer Interception Dream Team
Dr. Freed-Pastor has been supported by major grants from Stand Up To Cancer, Lustgarten Foundation, PanCAN, and Burroughs Wellcome Fund. He mentors emerging scientists in his laboratory and is actively involved in translational research initiatives aimed at intercepting pancreatic cancer progression. His lab is part of a larger collaborative network at Dana-Farber and MIT focused on innovative cancer modeling and therapeutic discovery.
He leads an independent research group within the Hale Family Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research, contributing to multidisciplinary teams that integrate functional genomics, immunology, and preclinical modeling to advance pancreatic cancer therapeutics.
