George D. Demetri, MD

Dr. Demetri is a Professor of Medicine (Oncology) at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) and Harvard Medical School (HMS). At DFCI, he is the Founding Director of the Sarcoma Center and now serves as the Senior Vice-President for Experimental Therapeutics. He is Director of the Bertarelli Rare Cancer Initiative at HMS and the Co-Director of the Ludwig Center at Harvard. His academic career is dedicated to applying insights from molecular biological, genetic/epigenetic, and biochemical research to the challenges of human cancer, with the aim of developing mechanism-based anti-cancer therapeutics across the academic-biopharma ecosystems. His research program emphasizes translational and clinical science to expedite the development of novel experimental therapeutic agents that target specific signaling pathways in molecularly defined subtypes of cancer. His primary focus is on mesenchymal neoplasms and sarcomas.

Dr. Demetri’s contributions have transformed the standards of care for patients with sarcomas and gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST). His work led to the FDA and worldwide regulatory approval of several drugs, including imatinib (Gleevec®), sunitinib (Sutent®), and regorafenib (Stivarga®) for GIST, as well as trabectedin (Yondelis®) and pazopanib (Votrient®) for other sarcomas. In 2022, he co-founded the biotech company IDRX, which was acquired by GSK in 2025 to develop transformational precision therapies in GIST and other cancers.