Expert Directory

Jennifer R. Brown, MD, PhD

Director, Center for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
Institute Physician
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Worthington and Margaret Collette Professor of Medicine in the Field of Hematologic Oncology
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA

Jennifer R. Brown, MD, PhD, is the director of the Center for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia of the Division of Hematologic Malignancies and institute physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) in Boston, MA. She is also the Worthington and Margaret Collette Professor of Medicine in the Field of Hematologic Oncology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. 

She completed her BS and MS degrees simultaneously in molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale, graduating summa cum laude with a distinction in molecular biophysics and biochemistry. She proceeded to Harvard Medical School, where she received her MD and PhD degrees in molecular genetics in 1998 and was awarded the James Tolbert Shipley Prize for research accomplishment in her graduating class. Dr Brown then served as an intern and resident in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and completed a fellowship in hematology and medical oncology at the DFCI. She joined the faculty of the DFCI and Harvard Medical School in 2004, where she has an active clinical-translational research program in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).  

Dr Brown’s particular interests include the genomics of CLL and the development of novel targeted therapeutics for CLL. She has been instrumental in the clinical development of both idelalisib and ibrutinib, leading to their regulatory approvals for CLL. In the area of genomics, she has been instrumental in the description of the somatic mutation profile of CLL and is now particularly interested in the implementation of genomic technology in the clinic, including for prognosis and targeted therapy. She also has a long-standing research interest and focus on the inherited predisposition to CLL. 

To date, Dr Brown has published more than 250 papers in the scientific literature, predominantly in CLL. She was an active member of the CLL Research Consortium and serves on the Alliance Leukemia and Leukemia Correlative Sciences Committees. In 2014, she was the recipient of 2 awards from the DFCI: the Clinical Innovation Award and the George Canellos Award for Excellence in Clinical Investigation and Patient Care. She enjoys a worldwide reputation as a CLL expert and is in much demand as an international speaker.