The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has appointed Dr. Matthew Vander Heiden as editor-in-chief of Cancer Discovery. He will serve alongside Dr. Luis A. Diaz, Jr., who has held the role since 2019.
Cancer Discovery publishes original research articles, reviews, perspectives, and commentaries covering advances in basic, translational, and clinical cancer research. The journal also provides summaries of significant findings from other publications, spanning laboratory science, clinical practice, epidemiology, and population studies.
Lewis C. Cantley, PhD, FAACR, served as founding editor-in-chief of Cancer Discovery from 2011 to 2026, initially with Dr. José Baselga, and later with Diaz.
Vander Heiden is director of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), professor of biology, Lester Wolfe Professor of Molecular Biology at MIT, and a member of the Broad Institute. He also serves as an oncologist and instructor in medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School.
He is internationally recognized for research on metabolic pathways in cancer, including identifying an alternative glycolytic pathway in cancer cells, demonstrating how oncogenic RAS-driven macropinocytosis supports tumor growth, and uncovering the oncogenic role of 2-hydroxyglutarate. These findings have informed strategies for cancer detection, targeted therapy, and precision oncology.
An AACR member since 2010, Vander Heiden has chaired and served on multiple program committees, including the AACR Annual Meeting Program Committee in 2025. He has also cochaired and contributed to specialized conferences on epigenetics, metabolism, and molecular targets.
His career honors include the National Cancer Institute Outstanding Investigator Award, the Stand Up To Cancer Phillip A. Sharp Innovation in Collaboration Award, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Faculty Scholar Award, and the AACR Gertrude B. Elion Cancer Research Award. He was elected a Fellow of the AACR Academy in 2026 and is also a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the Association of American Physicians, the European Academy of Cancer Sciences, and the American Society for Clinical Investigation.
Vander Heiden earned his undergraduate, medical, and doctoral degrees at the University of Chicago and has authored or coauthored more than 240 scientific articles and four book chapters.
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