Leonard I. Zon

Leonard I. Zon is the Grousbeck Professor of Pediatric Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Director of the Stem Cell Program, Children’s Hospital Boston.

He received a B.S. degree in chemistry and natural sciences from Muhlenberg College and an M.D. degree from Jefferson Medical College. He subsequently did an internal medicine residency at New England Deaconess Hospital and a fellowship in medical oncology at Dana–Farber Cancer Institute. His postdoctoral research was in the laboratory of Stuart Orkin.

Research Zon is recognized for his work in the fields of stem cell biology and cancer genetics.

Zon's laboratory uses the zebrafish as a model system for understanding vertebrate blood development. Zebrafish blood formation is similar to that of humans, and several mutants have disorders resembling human disease. It is possible to evaluate in the zebrafish genetic pathways important for vertebrate hematopoiesis. Zon also uses the zebrafish to study cancer. and chair of the Executive Committee of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI). He was the 2004–2005 President of the American Society for Clinical Investigation.

Awards and honors 2005 – Elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies 2008 – Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 2010 – E. Donnall Thomas Prize, American Society of Hematology 2013 – Donald Metcalf Award, International Society for Experimental Hematology 2016 – Alfred G. Knudson Award, National Cancer Institute 2016 – ISSCR Tobias Award Lecture, International Society for Stem Cell Research 2017 – AACR-Irving Weinstein Foundation Distinguished Lecture Award, American Association for Cancer Research 2019 – Mentor Award for Basic Science, American Society of Hematology 2022 – Elected to the National Academy of Sciences 2022 – Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard Award, European Zebrafish Society 2026 – Richard B. Johnston Jr., MD Prize in Developmental Biology, March of Dimes