In August 2017, Dr. Jeffrey Toretsky was appointed Chief of the Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology. He received his MD in 1988 from the University of Minnesota. He completed his pediatric residency at the Medical College of Virginia in 1991, and his pediatric oncology fellowship at the National Cancer Institute Pediatric Branch in 1997. Dr. Toretsky joined the faculty in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Maryland at Baltimore and served from 1997 until 2002. In 2002, Dr. Toretsky was recruited to Georgetown where he was granted tenure in 2005 and achieved the rank of professor in 2011. He was inducted into the American Society of Clinical Investigation in 2007 and received the Burroughs-Wellcome Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research in 2008. Dr. Toretsky actively pursues research that will lead to new and more specific therapies for a very rare cancer, Ewing sarcoma. His work focuses on Ewing sarcoma since the tumors contain a unique target that is not found in non-tumor cells. This unique target offers an opportunity to create new medicines that will more specifically eliminate tumor growth while sparing normal cells. Dr. Toretsky co-founded Oncternal Therapeutics, Inc. which is currently enrolling patients on a clinical trial of TK216, the first small molecule that directly targets the Ewing sarcoma driver EWS-FLI1; TK216 was discovered by Dr. Toretsky's team and licensed from Georgetown University. Dr. Toretsky continues to be the principal investigator of his NIH-funded laboratory group, leads the Molecular Oncology Program of the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, and maintains a clinical practice of pediatric oncology.
Toretsky Lab
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