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Alan D. D'Andrea, MD

Radiation Oncology


Researcher

  • Director, Susan F. Smith Center for Women's Cancers
  • Director of the Center for DNA Damage and Repair
  • Alvan T. and Viola D. Fuller American Cancer Society Professor of Radiation Oncology, Harvard Medical School

Clinical Interests

  • Cancer susceptibility
  • Fanconi anemia
  • Gene therapy
  • Genetic risk

Contact Information

  • Office Phone Number617-632-2112
  • Fax617-632-5757

Bio

Dr. D'Andrea received his MD in 1983 from Harvard Medical School, residency training in pediatrics at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and fellowship training in pediatric hematology-oncology at DFCI and Children's Hospital Boston (CHB). He completed a research fellowship at the Whitehead Institute and joined DFCI in 1990. He is also scientific director of the DFCI Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory and director of the Clinical Gene Therapy Center at CHB.

Board Certification:

  • Pediatrics

Fellowship:

  • Boston Children's Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Residency:

  • Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Medical School:

  • Harvard Medical School

Recent Awards:

  • Award of Merit, Fanconi Anemia Scientific Symposium 2002
  • E. Mead Johnson Award for Research in Pediatrics, Society for Pediatric Research 2001
  • Excellence in Research Award, American Academy of Pediatrics 1997

Research

Chromosome Instability and Susceptibility to Cancer

Our laboratory examines the molecular signaling pathways which regulate the DNA damage response in mammalian cells. Disruption of these pathways, by germline or somatic mutation, leads to genomic instability, cellular sensitivity to ionizing radiation, and defective cell cycle checkpoints and DNA repair. These pathways are often disrupted in cancer cells, accounting for the chromosome instability and increased mutation frequency in human tumors.Our primary focus is the molecular pathogenesis of the human chromosome instability syndromes: Fanconi anemia (FA), ataxia-telangiectasia (AT), and Bloom syndrome (BS). FA is an autosomal-recessive cancer susceptibility disorder characterized by developmental defects and increased cellular sensitivity to DNA crosslinking agents. Seven FA genes have been cloned, and the encoded FA proteins interact in a novel signaling pathway. Five FA proteins (A, C, E, F, G) form a nuclear protein complex required for the monoubiquitination of the D2 protein. Activated D2 is targeted to chromatin, where it interacts with the BRCA1 and BRCA2 breast-cancer susceptibility gene products. Our research program addresses several aspects of this novel signaling pathway, including (1) the assembly, transport, and structure of the FA protein complex; (2) the enzymatic monoubiquitination and deubiquitination of the D2 protein; (3) the function of the chromatin-associated FA complex in cell cycle checkpoints and homologous recombination DNA repair; and (4) the identification of novel interacting proteins in these complexes.

New HV, Cale CM, Tischkowitz M, Jones A, Telfer P, Veys P, D'Andrea AD, Mathew CG, Hann I. Nijmegen breakage syndrome diagnosed as Fanconi anaemia. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2005;44:494-9.

Nakanishi K, Yang YG, Pierce AJ, Taniguchi T, Digweed M, D'Andrea AD, Wang ZQ, Jasin M. Human Fanconi anemia monoubiquitination pathway promotes homologous DNA repair. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2005;102:1110-5.

Howlett NG, Taniguchi T, Durkin SG, D'Andrea AD, Glover TW. The Fanconi anemia pathway for the DNA replication stress response at regulation of common fragile site stability. Hum Mol Genet 2005;14:693-701.

Nijman SM, Huang TT, Dirac AM, Brummelkamp TR, Kerkhoven RV, D'Andrea AD, Bernards R. The deubiquitinating enzyme USP1 regulates the Fanconi anemia pathway. Mol Cell 2005;17:331-9.

Soulier J, Leblanc T, Larghero J, Dastot H, Shimamura A, Guardiola P, Esperou H, Ferry C, Jubert C, Feugeas JP, Henri A, Toubert A, Socie G, Baruchel A, Sigaux F, D'Andrea AD, Gluckman E. Detection of somatic mosaicism and classification of Fanconi anemia patients by analysis of the FA/BRCA pathway. Blood 2005;105:1329-36.

Andreassen PR, D'Andrea AD, Taniguchi T. ATR couples FANCD2 monoubiquitination to the DNA-damage response. Genes Dev 2004;18:1958-63.

Wang X, Andreassen PR, D'Andrea AD. Functional interaction of monoubiquitinated FANCD2 and BRCA2/FANCD1 in chromatin. Mol Cell Biol 2004;24:5850-62.

Montes de Oca R, Gregory R, Taniguchi T, Wang X, Andreassen P, Margossian S, Grompe M, Houghtaling S, D'Andrea AD. Regulated interaction of the Fanconi anemia protein, FANCD2, with chromatin. Blood 2005;105:1003-9.

D'Andrea AD, Grompe M. The Fanconi anaemia/BRCA pathway. Nat Rev Cancer 2003;3:23-34.

Taniguchi T, Tischkowitz M, Ameziane N, Hodgson SV, Mathew CG, Joenje H, Mok SC, D'Andrea AD. Disruption of the Fanconi anemia/BRCA pathway in cisplatin-sensitive ovarian tumors. Nat Med 2003;9:568-74.

Research Departments:

Research Website:

Location

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
450 Brookline Avenue
Mayer 641
Boston, MA 02215
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  • Alan D. D'Andrea, MD
    News Releases
    10/8/2020

    Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center wins prestigious federal grant to accelerate ovarian cancer research

    • Research
    • Ovarian Cancer
    Myles A. Brown, MD
    News Releases
    5/12/2020

    Three Dana-Farber faculty members elected as Fellows of The American Association for Cancer Research

    Panos A. Konstantinopoulos, MD, PhD
    News Releases
    3/19/2020

    Scientists identify factors for predicting which patients with ovarian cancer won’t benefit from immunotherapy-PARP inhibitor combination

    • Precision Cancer Medicine
    • Immunotherapy
    • Ovarian Cancer
    Pancreatic Cancer Cells
    News Releases
    3/5/2020

    Dana-Farber research team awarded Pancreatic Cancer Collective “New Therapies Challenge” grant

    • Research
    • Pancreatic Cancer
    Dipanjan Chowdhury, PhD
    News Releases
    7/24/2019

    Dana-Farber scientists and associates receive major grant from Gray Foundation for research into BRCA-related cancers

    • Cancer Genetics
    Alan D. D'Andrea, MD
    News Releases
    11/20/2018

    Pancreatic Cancer Collective awards Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers “New Therapies Challenge” grant

    • Research
    • Pancreatic Cancer
    Alan D. D'Andrea, MD
    News Releases
    9/13/2018

    Fast-growing organoid models of ovarian cancer could aid rapid drug treatment selection

    • Research
    • Ovarian Cancer
    Scott A. Armstrong, MD, PhD
    News Releases
    10/16/2017

    Three Dana-Farber faculty members elected to National Academy of Medicine

    News Releases
    4/20/2015

    Dana-Farber's D'Andrea selected to lead new SU2C Ovarian Cancer Dream Team

    • Ovarian Cancer
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