Dr. Handler is a physician-scientist specializing in gastrointestinal cancers, with a clinical focus on caring for patients with pancreatic and colorectal cancer at Emory University. As an Assistant Professor in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, he combines his clinical work with leading a research program dedicated to uncovering the mechanisms that drive metastasis in pancreatic and colorectal cancer. His lab aims to translate these discoveries into new therapeutic strategies to improve patient outcomes.
Dr. Handler completed his MD/PhD training at New York University in the laboratory of Dr. Dafna Bar-Sagi, where he uncovered a previously unrecognized cancer-promoting role for TGF-β in early pancreatic cancer development. He went on to complete his internal medicine residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, followed by an oncology fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. During fellowship, he trained in the laboratory of Dr. Reza Kalhor, where he developed a novel barcoded mouse model of pancreatic cancer liver metastasis. Using this model, he identified cancer subclones with distinct colonization potentials and revealed a conserved metastatic potential axis spanning pancreatic cancer and multiple carcinoma subtypes.
