Research Abstract
Dr. Freed-Pastor is a medical oncologist and physician-scientist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, specializing in gastrointestinal oncology and immuno-oncology. He is an investigator within the Division of Molecular and Cellular Oncology and the Hale Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research. His laboratory focuses on understanding immune escape in pancreatic cancer and dissecting tumor-immune crosstalk using sophisticated preclinical models.
Dr. Freed-Pastor completed his undergraduate studies at Case Western Reserve University, and subsequently received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He completed his graduate studies in the laboratory of Carol Prives, during which time he elucidated novel functions of the mutant p53 protein. Following the successful completion of his MD/PhD, Dr. Freed-Pastor completed his internship and residency training in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, followed by a Medical Oncology fellowship at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He subsequently completed a post-doctoral research fellowship in the laboratory of Tyler Jacks at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, one of the Lustgarten Foundation dedicated pancreatic cancer research laboratories.
Dr. Freed-Pastor has been a Young Investigator on the Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C)-Lustgarten Foundation Pancreatic Cancer Interception Dream Team and he was recently awarded the SU2C Golden Arrow Early Career Scientist Award, the SU2C Sharp Award for Innovation in Collaboration (with Dr. Phil Greenberg), a Conquer Cancer Foundation ASCO Young Investigator Award, a Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN) Career Development Award, and a Burroughs Wellcome Career Award for Medical Scientists for his work to understand the role of the immune system during pancreatic tumor development and offer insights into therapeutic approaches that leverage the immune system for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.