About us

Dr. Donald Small is the Kyle Haydock Professor of Oncology. He holds joint appointments in Pediatrics and Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Human Genetics. He also directs the Johns Hopkins/National Cancer Institute Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellowship program.

Dr. Small received his undergraduate, and then M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the Johns Hopkins University in 1979 and 1985. His Ph.D. research was conducted with Bert Vogelstein in the Oncology Department and his postdoctoral research with Tom Kelly in the Molecular Biology and Genetics Department. He trained in pediatrics and pediatric hematology/oncology at Johns Hopkins and joined the faculty in 1990.

Dr. Small’s laboratory was the first to clone the human FLT3 gene that is the most frequently mutated gene in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and results in very poor chances of cure for these patients. The investigations of FLT3 led Dr. Small and his team to discover drugs able to inhibit the cancer-generating activity of this important gene. His laboratory showed that a new class of drugs known as tyrosine kinase inhibitors could kill FLT3-affected cells, thus developing one of the earliest molecularly targeted cancer therapies. They then developed a test that enabled them to screen a host of additional kinase inhibitors and find several with great potency against FLT3. His group also led the first clinical trials investigating the use of a FLT3 inhibitor in adult relapsed and refractory FLT3 mutant AML, and determined how best to combine these drugs with chemotherapy. They also helped design the first pediatric trials of FLT3 inhibitors in pediatric AML and infant ALL.

Dr. Small’s lab continues to investigate leukemic processes and the role of stem cells in governing the activities of the FLT3 gene in leukemia.

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