Matthew S. Davids

Matthew S. Davids, MD, MMSc is Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of Clinical Research at the CLL Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where he has established himself as one of the foremost experts in BCL-2 biology and venetoclax-based therapy in CLL. Dr. Davids was a co-investigator in the pivotal early clinical development of venetoclax in CLL, contributing to the M14-032 study and conducting foundational early-phase studies at Dana-Farber characterizing venetoclax activity, pharmacokinetics, tumor lysis syndrome risk, dose escalation strategies, and response kinetics in CLL. His laboratory research, conducted in collaboration with Anthony Letai, has produced seminal contributions to understanding BCL-2 dependency in CLL using the BH3 profiling functional assay, which measures mitochondrial apoptotic priming and quantifies the relative dependence of CLL cells on specific anti-apoptotic proteins (BCL-2, MCL-1, BCL-XL). This work has provided mechanistic rationale for venetoclax sensitivity prediction and for rational combination approaches. Dr. Davids has been a principal investigator in multiple phase II and III trials of venetoclax-based combinations, including doublets with BTK inhibitors and triplets incorporating anti-CD20 antibodies, and has been a leader in developing MRD-guided treatment stopping and rechallenge strategies that enable time-limited personalized therapy. He has authored over 200 publications and is a leading educator and thought leader in CLL worldwide.