Benjamin L. Ebert, MD, PhD, is president and CEO of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the George P. Canellos, MD and Jean S. Canellos Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
The Ebert laboratory focuses on the molecular basis and treatment of hematologic malignancies and its non-malignant precursor conditions, with a particular focus on myelodysplastic syndromes myelodysplastic syndromes: (my-eh-lo-diss-PLASS-tik SIN-dromez) A group of disorders where the bone marrow does not work well, and the bone marrow cells fail to make enough healthy blood cells. Myelo refers to the bone marrow. Dysplastic means abnormal growth or development. People with MDS have low blood cell count for at… (MDS) and clonal hematopoiesis hematopoiesis: (hi-mat-uh-poy-EE-suss) The process of making blood cells in the bone marrow. . The Ebert laboratory demonstrated that lenalidomide lenalidomide: Lenalidomide is a capsule that is taken by mouth. It is approved for treating low-risk, transfusion-dependent myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) patients with an abnormality of chromosome 5q. It is currently in clinical trials to test its efficacy with a broader range of MDS patients. For some MDS… , a derivative of thalidomide thalidomide: Currently it is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in treating a skin disease associated with leprosy. Thalidomide is being studied, either as a single agent or in combination with other medicines, for treating of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). These clinical trials… , binds the CRL4-CRBN E3 ubiquitin ligase and induces degradation of specific substrates. Subsequent research has examined novel mechanisms of drug-induced protein degradation that expand the spectrum of protein substrates that can be targeted pharmacologically.
Dr. Ebert is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and the Academy of the American Association for Cancer Research. He served as president of the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2017. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Broad Institute and Break Through Cancer.
Dr. Ebert received the William Dameshek Prize from the American Society of Hematology, the Meyenburg Prize for Cancer Research, the Sjöberg Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and the Korsmeyer Award from the American Society for Clinical Investigation. He has received awards from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program for mentorship.
Dr. Ebert received a bachelor's degree from Williams College and a doctorate from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar in the laboratory of Sir Peter Ratcliffe. He completed an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, a residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a fellowship in hematology/oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.