Todd Golub is director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and a founding core member of the institute. He is also a member of the faculty of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School.

Golub is a world-renowned physician-scientist who pioneered the application of genomics to cancer biology and therapeutic discovery. He is one of the first researchers to use genomic approaches to molecularly characterize human tumors, laying the foundation for the use of genomics to classify, diagnose, and treat cancer. Throughout his career, Golub has advocated for the free, rapid sharing of large-scale genomic data and tools to accelerate the pace of biomedicine, and is deeply committed to patient-focused research.

Early in his career as a pediatric oncologist and cancer researcher, Golub made key discoveries on the genetic and molecular origins of the most common form of childhood leukemia, acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). These fundamental insights led to changes in treatment that are now the standard of care. This groundbreaking research stemmed from Golub’s dual role as a physician and scientist, and it helped crystallize his strongly held view that continually learning from patients—in an unbiased and systematic way—is the surest route to uncovering the root causes of disease and identifying novel, effective treatments.

His innovative use of gene-expression analysis to classify tumors catalyzed the creation of new genomic tools and approaches that have had a lasting impact on cancer research and drug discovery.

He joined the faculty of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in 1997. At the same time, he served as the leader of cancer genomics at the Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research. As a founding core member of the Broad Institute, Golub helped launch the organization in 2004 and established its Cancer Program. He served as director of Broad’s Cancer Program for 17 years, and helped create a nimble, entrepreneurial, and supportive scientific community where researchers at all career levels and from laboratories across the greater Boston area can pursue transformative ideas in cancer. He also served as the Broad’s chief scientific officer for a decade before being named the institute’s director in January 2021. In addition, he is currently the Charles A. Dana Investigator in Human Cancer Genetics at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. He was also an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute from 2002 to 2019.

Golub is the recipient of multiple awards, including the Erasmus Hematology Award, the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Memorial Award, the Outstanding Achievement Award from the American Association for Cancer Research, the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research, the E. Mead Johnson Award from the Society for Pediatric Research, and the Judson Daland Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Investigation from the American Philosophical Society. Golub is an elected member of the US National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences.

Golub received his B.A. from Carleton College and his M.D. from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. He completed his internship, residency, and fellowship training at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.