Scott A. Armstrong to lead Department of Pediatric Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

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Scott A. Armstrong, MD, PhD, an internationally renowned pediatric hematologist/oncologist, has been named Chair of the Department of Pediatric Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and the David G. Nathan Professor of Pediatrics at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School. He will also serve as Associate Chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Armstrong is currently serving as the Grayer Family Chair, the Director of the Center for Epigenetics Research, Vice Chair of Pediatrics, and a member of the Cancer Biology and Genetics Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, NY. He is also Professor of Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medical College.

"In addition to his exceptional research and clinical credentials, Scott is a proven able program leader. Throughout his career, Scott has been universally admired and respected for his vision, collegiality, and integrity as well as for his clinical and research achievements. We are thrilled that he has chosen to lead our already great Department of Pediatric Oncology to even higher levels of excellence," said Edward J. Benz, Jr., MD, Dana-Farber president and CEO.

Armstrong obtained his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, where he trained with Nobel Laureates Michael Brown and Joseph Goldstein. He completed an internship and residency at Boston Children’s Hospital and clinical and research fellowships at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute under the direction of Dr. Stanley Korsmeyer. He then began his independent research career at Boston Children’s Hospital and Dana-Farber as a faculty member and attending physician in pediatric oncology. Prior to moving to Cornell, he was an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. His group has made seminal discoveries into the relationship between normal hematopoietic stem cells and leukemia and identified specific epigenetic mechanisms as therapeutic opportunities. This work has led to the development of several new classes of therapeutic agents that target epigenetic mechanisms, with many already being tested in clinical trials for both children and adults.

His work has been recognized with the Till and McCulloch Award from the International Society of Experimental Hematology, the Claire W. and Richard P. Morse Research Award from Dana-Farber, the Wilson S. Stone Award from MD Anderson Cancer Center, the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research from MSKCC, the E. Mead Johnson Award from the Society for Pediatric Research, and the Dameshek Prize from the American Society of Hematology. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a member of the Association of American Physicians (AAP).


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