Alex Kentsis, MD, PHD

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center – Director, Tow Center for Developmental Oncology

Dr. Kentsis is a pediatric oncologist and cancer biologist. He directs the Tow Center for Developmental Oncology, where his research takes advantage of modern technologies to improve our understanding of the biologic causes of blood and solid tumors. Together with colleagues, he has made discoveries about new therapeutic targets in cancer cells, mechanisms by which cancer cells can evade new treatments, and improved strategies to overcome treatment resistance. Recently, his lab has identified new mechanisms of aberrant gene control and its therapeutic reprogramming in blood cancers, and mechanisms of developmental mutators and DNA damage repair signaling in solid tumors. Combined with the development of new functional proteomic methods and therapeutics, this work is poised to define precise molecular mechanisms of cancers affecting children and young adults, leading to rational therapeutic strategies for patients.
Dr. Kentsis received his medical degree from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and earned his PhD in biophysics from New York University.