Dan Gabriel Duda - Biography#

Dan Duda earned a DMD degree from the University of Medicine Iasi, Romania (1993) and a PhD from Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan (2001). He pursued postdoctoral research at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School (HMS) in Boston, where he became a Harvard faculty member in 2004. He is currently a Principal Investigator at MGH Research Institute. Since 2016, he has been the Director of Translational Research in GI Radiation Oncology at MGH. He has served as Secretary General of the International Association of Surgeons, Gastroenterologists, and Oncologists (IASGO) since 2015. In 2021, he received an honorary degree—Doctor Honoris Causa—from his alma mater.

The research of the Duda Laboratory focuses on studies of tumor interaction with its microenvironment, with the goal of revealing the cellular and molecular mechanisms of tumor progression and treatment resistance, primarily in liver cancers. The goal is to uncover and validate targets for combination therapy with radiotherapy and immunotherapy in preclinical studies and in parallel, conduct studies of biomarkers of response in correlative clinical studies.

Dr. Duda has authored more than 260 publications (h-index=74). He is among the top 2% of scientists worldwide based on a composite score [c-score]] of citations, co-authorships, and collaborations. He presented his results at over 250 local, national, and international meetings, including Grand Rounds, Plenary Talks, and Keynote Lectures. He received multiple awards, including from the AACR, CRI, IASGO, and MGH. He is an Honorary Member of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Romania. Dr. Duda was inducted into the College of Fellows of the AIMBE, which is comprised of the top 2% of medical and biological engineers. He was one of the three Harvard Medical School faculty elected AAAS Fellow in 2021. He has been chairing and serving as a member/adviser for multiple scientific expert/grant review panels worldwide (e.g., US NCI, ACS, DOD, CRUK, and Belgium FWO). As IASGO leader and passionate supporter of its mission to globalize the best medical practice and knowledge all over the world, he has been coordinating, teaching, and directing Postgraduate Courses and Symposia in more than 30 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas since 2013.