127. Immuno-oncology landscape, Keith Flaherty, Dir. of Clin. Research, Mass General Cancer Center

Synopsis: Keith Flaherty is the Director of Clinical Research at Mass General Cancer Center and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Flaherty is a medical oncologist and has worked in the field for 22 years, during which he has founded seven biotech companies. He joins Rahul for an in-depth conversation about his work in oncology. They cover a wide range of topics including his early decision in school to switch from neuroscience to oncology, his entrepreneurial journey and what he’s learned along the way, his perspective on the immuno-oncology landscape and opportunities that lie ahead in this field, what he values in a board and how you can be most effective as a board member, and much more. Biography: Dr. Keith Flaherty is the Director of Clinical Research at Mass General Cancer Center, a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and an Associate Physician of Medicine, Hematology/Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Flaherty is also the Deputy Chair for Biomarker Sciences and the Chair of the Developmental Therapeutics Committee in the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group. Dr. Flaherty has served as Principal Investigator for numerous first-in-human clinical trials with novel, targeted therapies, including the first in-human trials of the first prospectively developed selective BRAF inhibitors for metastatic melanoma and has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers. He currently serves on the board of directors of Scorpion Therapeutics (founder), Strata Oncology (founder), Kinnate Biopharma, and Clovis Oncology. Dr. Flaherty has a Bachelor of Science from Yale University and medical degree from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Flaherty trained in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and completed a medical oncology fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania.