Kornelia Polyak

Kornelia Polyak, MD, PhD is a Professor of Medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, and a co-leader of the Dana-Farber Harvard Cancer Center Cancer Cell Biology Program. A physician-scientist, Polyak has extensive experience in translational cancer research with a particular interest in designing rational combination therapies.

Her laboratory is dedicated to improving the clinical management of breast cancer patients by understanding molecular and cellular determinants of breast cancer risk and tumor evolution. Polyak has devoted much effort to develop new ways to study tumors and to apply interdisciplinary approaches.

She has received numerous awards including the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research, AACR Outstanding Investigator Award for Breast Cancer Research, and the 14th Rosalind E. Franklin Award for Women in Science. Polyak is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow and the National Academy of Sciences, and a member of the National Academy of Medicine.