Eric Fischer

Eric Fischer, PhD, is Independent Investigator at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Associate Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School. He is Co-Director of the Center for Protein Degradation at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Dr. Fischer’s research focuses on understanding the molecular architecture, function, and regulation of complex cellular signaling machines and their involvement in cellular processes, as well as leveraging this knowledge to develop new strategies for small-molecule-mediated modulation. Using biochemistry, chemical biology, and cell biology methods, his lab has contributed to the understanding of the efficacy and adverse activity of thalidomide and analogs. Beyond defining the mechanism of action for this transformative cancer drug and solving a decade-old mystery of pharmaceutical sciences, this work inspired numerous projects that intend to utilize similar principles to redirect ligase activity to new targets. This represents a new therapeutic modality often referred to as targeted protein degradation. Dr. Fischer’s lab helped to establish this approach and has defined many of the underlying principles for small molecules degraders. Dr. Fischer’s work has been recognized with awards including, the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation’s 2017 Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award, and the Mark Foundation’s 2018 Emerging Leaders Award.

Dr. Fischer completed his undergraduate training at the Universities of Hamburg (Germany) and Basel (Switzerland) and completed doctoral training at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, also in Basel. Dr. Fischer joined the Dana-Farber faculty in 2015.