George Daley

George Daley, M.D., Ph.D.

George Daley

George Q. Daley, M.D., Ph.D., is the dean of Harvard Medical School (HMS), as well as the Caroline Shields Walker Professor of Medicine and a professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology at HMS. He is also formerly the director of the Stem Cell Transplantation Program at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. 

Daley is a world-renowned expert on stem cells, cancer, and blood disorders. His research uses mouse and human disease models to unravel the mechanisms that underlie various cancers and blood disorders. Important contributions from the Daley laboratory include the creation of customized stem cells to treat a genetic immune deficiency in mice, the differentiation of germ cells from embryonic stem cells, the generation of disease-specific pluripotent stem cells by direct reprogramming of human skin and blood cells, and demonstration of the LIN28/let-7 signaling pathway’s role in the development of cancer.

Previously, Daley’s work demonstrated the central role of the BCR/ABL protein in the development of human chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), a finding that provided the critical target validation for the development of imatinib, a highly successful CML treatment.

He was a founding member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute executive committee and has served as past president and clerk of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. He also anchored special task forces that produced the society’s guidelines for stem cell research and clinical translation, as well as their subsequent revisions and updates.

Daley was an inaugural winner of the National Institutes of Health Director’s Pioneer Award for highly innovative research and has received the Judson Daland Prize from the American Philosophical Society for achievement in patient-oriented research, the E. Mead Johnson Award from the American Pediatric Society for contributions to stem cell research, and the E. Donnall Thomas Prize of the American Society of Hematology for advances in human induced pluripotent stem cells. He has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the American Association of Physicians, the American Pediatric Societies, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Daley received his bachelor's degree from Harvard, a doctorate in biology from MIT, and his medical degree from HMS.

August 2020