Jon Aster, MD, PhD

Dr. Jon Aster is the Michael A. Gimbrone Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School and Chief of the Hematopathology Division at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He is a co-author of Robbins Basic Pathology, 10th Edition; Pocket Companion to Robbins & Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease, 9th Edition; Robbins & Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease, 10th Edition, and Essential Pathology, a new textbook aimed at medical students at schools with integrated curricula.

Hailing from the Midwest, Dr. Aster received his medical degree from the University of Michigan School of Medicine, as well as a PhD in Human Genetics. Soon after, he became a resident in pathology under the esteemed Dr. Ramzi Cotran at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Aster completed his fellowships there in hematopathology and molecular oncology.

In addition to numerous publications, professional honors, and hospital appointments, Dr. Aster is a co-leader of the Lymphoma and Myeloma Program and Deputy Director for Membership of the Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, and has led multi-institutional grants focused on oncogenic notch signaling and lymphoid malignancies sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Since the early 1990s, Dr. Aster has been interested in the molecular biology of cancers of the blood and blood-forming elements, including leukemia and lymphoma. His laboratory conducts research on Notch, a fundamental signaling pathway that controls the way cells communicate with one another and respond to their external environment. This pathway plays a central role in regulating many aspects of normal cellular development. It is also important in certain forms of lymphoid malignancy, most notably T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), and a number of B cell lymphomas, as well as solid tumors such as triple negative breast cancer and squamous cell carcinoma.