Dr. Matthew Vander Heiden

BCA 2026 Exceptional Project Grantee

Dr. Vander Heiden is the Director of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, the Lester Wolfe Chair in Molecular Biology, and a Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is also a practicing medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and an Institute Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. His laboratory is internationally recognized for pioneering research on how cancer cells use metabolism to grow, spread, and survive.

With support from Breast Cancer Alliance, Dr. Vander Heiden is investigating how breast cancer cells that spread to the brain rely on altered lipid (fat) metabolism to survive and grow. By uncovering these metabolic vulnerabilities, his research aims to identify new treatment strategies that could improve outcomes for patients with metastatic breast cancer.