Our Team
Leadership Team
George Demetri, M.D.
Director of the Bertarelli Rare Cancer Initiative
George Demetri, M.D., is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Executive Director for Clinical and Translational Research at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Senior Vice President for Experimental Therapeutics, Quick Family Chair in Medical Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, co-Director of the Ludwig Center at Harvard, and founding director of the Sarcoma Center at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Demetri earned the prestigious J.E. Wallace Sterling Lifetime Achievement Award in Medicine from Stanford University School of Medicine.
Dr. Demetri’s research focuses on translational and clinical science to accelerate the development of anti-cancer therapeutics for gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) and other sarcomas, as well as other rare cancers. He has led several research and development teams that have successfully changed the standards of care for patients afflicted by rare cancers, leading to FDA and worldwide regulatory approval of many highly effective therapies such as Gleevec® (imatinib), Sutent® (sunitinib), and Yondelis® (trabectedin). His multidisciplinary research program has pioneered the rational targeting of cancers based on defined molecular mechanisms, including pathologic aberrancies in genomic, epigenetic, and immunobiologic systems.
Marcia Haigis, Ph.D.
Co-director of the Bertarelli Rare Cancer Initiative
Marcia Haigis obtained her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin in 2002 and performed postdoctoral studies at MIT studying mitochondrial metabolism. In 2006, Dr. Haigis joined the faculty of HMS, where she is currently a Professor in the Department of Cell Biology. Dr. Haigis is the co-director of the Bertarelli Rare Cancer Initiative, co-director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging, and a member of the Ludwig Center at Harvard Medical School. She was the inaugural Director of Gender Equity for Faculty in science. She has received numerous awards, including the National Academy of Medicine Emerging Leaders in Health and Medicine Program, the 2023 Samsung Ho-Am Prize in Medicine, and she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2024.
The Haigis Lab aims to: elucidate metabolic mechanisms by which oncogenic mutations confer survival advantages in tumors. These studies also include understanding the role of diet and metabolism in the mechanisms that enable tumor cells to escape immunity. The Haigis lab has made key contributions to our understanding of metabolic reprogramming in cancer, including identifying nodes of metabolic vulnerability that can be modulated to improve immune checkpoint blockage, and metabolic recycling of ammonia to generate amino acids important for tumor growth.
Our shared vision is to build a world-class, highly interactive, and collaborative hub for rare cancer research, clinical care advancement, advocacy, and training, bringing together the extensive and vibrant clinical and research communities across Harvard and globally
Faculty
(Alphabetical Order)
Liron Bar-Peled, Ph.D.
Massachusetts General Hospital
The Bar-Peled Lab sits at the interface of cellular metabolism and signal transduction and focuses on understanding how cancer cells respond to altered metabolic states. They are developing rational therapies for EWS fusion proteins to advance our understanding of these critical domains and their associated interacting proteins to identify new inhibitors.
George Demetri, M.D.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Dr. Demetri co-directs the Ludwig Center at Harvard, which supports more than 30 investigative research teams across Harvard University, including HMS and all HMS-affiliated hospitals. At Dana-Farber, he serves as the Founding Director Emeritus of the Sarcoma Center and Senior Vice President for Experimental Therapeutics to catalyze translational research focused on mechanisms of oncogenesis in sarcomas and other malignancies. His work has led to the USA FDA and worldwide regulatory approval of several therapeutic drugs for rare cancers.
Xin Gu, Ph.D.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
The Gu Lab focuses on uncovering how cells regulate proteasomal degradation through ubiquitination-independent mechanisms, with an active and growing interest in protein stability and cellular regulation of EWS fusion oncoproteins. The Gu Lab aims to understand how aberrant protein stability contributes to their oncogenic activity. Leveraging a diverse toolkit from biochemical and structural techniques to functional genomics and animal models, the Gu Lab is working to identify not only novel fundamental mechanisms but also selective degraders that can be developed into targeted therapeutic strategies.
Steve Gygi, Ph.D.
Harvard Medical School
The Gygi Lab develops and applies advanced technologies in the fields of quantitative proteomics and chemoproteomics. They focus on fragment-based drug discovery to identify small molecular fragments that bind to protein pockets and assign interactors to identify druggable targets on proteins involved in EWS fusions.
Marcia Haigis, Ph.D.
Harvard Medical School
The Haigis Lab has made key contributions to the field of cancer metabolism. They elucidated metabolic pathways that allow oncogenic mutations to promote tumor survival, including how diet and metabolism regulate anti-tumor immune control. The Haigis lab investigates metabolic dependencies in EWSR1-FLI1 fusions of these rare tumors in preclinical models and clinical samples. Their goal is to identify novel vulnerabilities that may lead to therapeutic targets.
John Hanna, M.D., Ph.D.
Brigham and Women's Hospital
The Hanna Lab focuses on Clear Cell Odontogenic Carcinoma (CCOC) and related clear cell neoplasms, with an emphasis on understanding the cellular and molecular basis of the clear cell phenotype. With support from BRCI, they have discovered two novel gene fusion-associated clear cell neoplasms, both of which have been included in the World Health Organization’s definitive classification of human tumors. Their work has led to improved diagnostic accuracy and more accurate prognostic forecasting for patients and has important implications for new therapeutic development.
John Iafrate, M.D., Ph.D.
Massachusetts General Hospital
The Iafrate Lab focuses on developing innovative diagnostic and therapeutic approaches in precision oncology. They have developed multiple diagnostic tests used in the clinic including NGS for gene fusion-positive cancers, and cell-free liquid biopsy assays for ultra-sensitive molecular monitoring (including tracking the presence of EWSR1-fusion cancers and response to therapy). The lab also investigates new spatial transcriptomic and proteomic technologies to understand the heterogeneity of EWSR1-fusion+ tumors.
Brendan D. Manning, Ph.D.
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
The Manning lab studies the regulation and function of the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway in tumor syndromes and cancer. The mTOR pathway is aberrantly activated in the majority of human cancers, including rare cancers driven by EWSR1-fusion oncogenes. Drug combinations with mTOR inhibitors, including rapamycin and its analogs, have been found to be effective in Ewing sarcoma models and patients and decrease tumor growth in sarcoma models driven by either the EWSR1-FLI or EWSR1-ATF1 oncogenes. The expertise of the Manning lab on studies of the mTOR pathway will be applied to these rare cancers to enhance our understanding and implement therapeutic strategies
Miguel Rivera, M.D.
Massachusetts General Hospital
The Rivera Lab has identified key cancer-related gene regulation mechanisms in different cancer types, including Ewing sarcoma, and has shown how EWS fusions act as pioneer factors in oncogenic regulation. They aim to define the molecular mechanisms of action of EWS fusions, particularly in Ewing sarcoma, Clear Cell Sarcoma and CCOC (Clear Cell Odontogenic Carcinoma), in order to design new targeted therapies.
Sandro Santagata, M.D., Ph.D.
Brigham and Women's Hospital
The Santagata Lab develops and applies advanced technologies and computational methods for multiplexed tissue imaging of clinical specimens. The lab investigates the genetic and proteomic mechanisms driving clear cell tumors, their interactions with the tumor microenvironment, and works to identify new therapeutic opportunities.
Arlene Sharpe, M.D., Ph.D.
Harvard Medical School
The Sharpe Lab discovered the inhibitory functions of CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1 pathways leading to transformative immune therapies in cancer. They seek to characterize the immune landscape of EWS fusion-driven tumors using human tissues, advanced preclinical models and tools.
Pamela Silver, Ph.D.
Harvard Medical School
The Silver Lab brings their longstanding expertise in chimeric protein design and their previously developed “chimeric regulator” platform. They seek to develop new treatments for Ewing sarcoma based on rationally designed biologic drugs for these rare cancers and other tumor types.
Peter Sorger, Ph.D.
Harvard Medical School
The Sorger Lab focuses on single-cell measurement and modeling of the tumor microenvironment using spatial biology approaches and machine learning. The lab studies the competition between cancer cells and the immune system to develop improved diagnostics and identify therapeutically actionable tumor programs.
Kim Stegmaier, M.D.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
The Stegmaier Lab is a leader in precision pediatric oncology and has pioneered the use of innovative genomic approaches to discover and develop new therapies for children with cancer. They bring expertise in fusion-driven pediatric cancers, leveraging functional genomic and chemical biology approaches toward mechanistic understanding of EWS fusion–positive Ewing sarcoma and other fusion-driven pediatric cancers. Their ultimate goal is the discovery of new therapeutic strategies for these difficult to treat childhood malignancies.
Maria Troulis, D.D.S.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
In partnership with the Bertarelli Foundation, Maria Troulis led the MGH/MGB team as Principal Investigator (2014-2025) together with Drs. Faquin, Iafrate, Rivera, and Bar Peled (MGH/MGB) and she continues as collaborator of Dr. Rivera to study clear cell odontogenic carcinoma (CCOC) of the jaw and clear cell carcinoma of the salivary gland (CCC). Understanding what contributes to tumor behavior is crucial in the delivery of appropriate and effective care. Dr. Troulis will continue these efforts and expand her translational science and clinical attention to the study of all rare tumors at BIDMC.
Jessalyn Ubellacker, M.D., Ph.D.
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
The Ubellacker Lab studies how cancer cells adapt their metabolism to survive oxidative stress and spread through the body, with a particular focus on ferroptosis—a form of cell death driven by lipid peroxidation. The lab aims to uncover unique metabolic vulnerabilities that can be targeted to prevent cancer progression including EWS fusion-driven cancers, such as Clear Cell Odontogenic Carcinoma (CCOC). Their current research investigates how these cancer types may be especially sensitive to ferroptosis due to their unique metabolic dependencies as part of a broader effort to identify ferroptosis-based novel therapeutics for treatment-refractory tumors.
Amy Wagers, Ph.D.
Harvard Medical School
The Wagers Lab seeks to understand how changes in stem cell activity impact tissue homeostasis and repair. They are developing high-fidelity preclinical models for rare cancers that complement existing systems and accurately reflect their clinical heterogeneity.
