Dr. George Prendergast was appointed President and CEO of the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research (LIMR) in 2004. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania where he received his BA magna cum laude with Distinction in Biochemistry in 1983. He obtained his MS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University in 1984 and his PhD in Molecular Biology from Princeton University in 1989. Dr. Prendergast is Professor, Department of Pathology, Anatomy and Cell Biology, Jefferson Medical College; and CoLeader, Cancer Cell Biology and Signaling Program, Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.

With experience in the pharmaceutical industry as well as in academia, Dr. Prendergast is an accomplished cancer researcher recognized for his expertise in cancer biology, signal transduction, and molecular therapeutics. An emergent theme in his work has been the development of new therapeutics based on modifier genes that strongly affect disease susceptibility and therapeutic response. Dr. Prendergast’s research has contributed to the discovery and study of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes in cancer, and more recently to understanding the role of the immune system in cancer progression and treatment. In the field of cancer genetics, his research helped define how genetic alterations lead to cancer development.

In his career he has become known as an innovator who has the ability to translate basic research findings toward clinical application, most recently in developing IDO inhibitors as a novel class of drugs to dramatically improve the immune response and therapeutic outcome in cancers treated with chemotherapy, radiotherapy or immunotherapy. Dr. Prendergast has contributed over 165 publications in the field of cancer research and he is an inventor or co-inventor on 35 published or pending patents. In January 2010, he was appointed Editor-in-Chief at Cancer Research, the field’s most highly cited journal and the flagship publication of the American Association for Cancer Research.