Massachusetts General Hospital

Biography

Associate Professor in Pathology
Harvard Medical School

Email: aiafrate@partners.org

Dr. Iafrate is a board-certified Pathologist who joined the MGH staff in 2005 and directs a clinical laboratory for molecular diagnostics at MGH and oversees a translational research laboratory that supports both Pathology and the MGH Cancer Center. He is an MD-PhD having received his dual degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 2000 and was trained in Anatomic and Molecular Genetic Pathology at Brigham and Wome?s Hospital. His post-doctoral work involved the discovery and description of a novel source of human genetic diversity termed copy number variation (CNV). Since arriving at MGH, he has established a cancer diagnostics lab focusing on genetic fingerprints that help guide novel@targete? therapies. His laboratory launched Snapshot several years ago, an assay that tests over 100 of the most common mutations in tumors. His research is focused on lung and brain tumors, and he has been closely involved in the clinical development of crizotinib and companion diagnostics in ALK-positive lung cancers.

Research

Initially we have focused on lung cancer, but are in the process of expanding this approach to all malignancies. See details at the Iafrate Lab.

PublicationsBibliography of A. John Iafrate via PubMed

Celebrating prize-winning MGH research

The presentation of the MGH's top research prizes was a highlight of the April 13 Celebration of Science, held in conjunction with the annual Scientific Advisory Committee meeting.

Mass. General study finds amplification of multiple cell-growth genes in some brain tumors

A small percentage of the deadly brain tumors called glioblastomas, which usually resist treatment with drugs targeting mutations in cell-growth genes, appears to contain extra copies of two or three of these genes at the same time. The surprising discovery has major implications for the understanding of tumor biology and for targeted cancer therapies.

Mass. General study defines a new genetic subtype of lung cancer

MGH Cancer Center investigators have defined the role of a recently identified gene abnormality – rearrangements in the ROS1 gene – in non-small-cell lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. They also show that these tumors can be treated with crizotinib and describe the remarkable response of one patient to such treatment.