Black. Woman. Physician. Scientist. Advocate.

Dr. Lachelle D. Weeks is a hematologist and scientist at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA. Dr. Weeks is passionate about the development of early detection and intervention strategies for blood cancers. She is the Director of the “CHIP clinic” within the Dana-Farber Center for Early Detection and Interception, where she counsels and manages patients with clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP), a precursor to blood cancers such as myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). As an independent investigator in the Division of Population Sciences at Dana-Farber, her research laboratory uses epidemiologic and computational methods to analyze clinical-genomic datasets in ways that deepen the understanding of how the genetics of clonal hematopoiesis influences progression to MDS and AML. As a postdoctoral researcher, she developed the clonal hematopoiesis risk score (CHRS), a prognostic tool which aids clinicians in estimating the risk of progression to MDS/AML in patients diagnosed with CHIP and related condition CCUS. Her research is funded by a Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program award from the American Society of Hematology and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Edward P. Evans Foundation for MDS Research, the Wood Foundation, and Breakthrough Cancer.

As an advocate and peer-educator on issues of racial justice and health equity, Dr. Weeks has been invited to speak nationally and internationally on issues related to race, racism, and diversity in academic and health spaces. She also has developed social medicine and anti-racism curricula for organizations such as Brigham and Women’s Hospital internal medicine residency program and the American Society of Hematology. She integrates a commitment to equitable access into her research activities by centering the inclusion of diverse participant populations and community participation in the curation of novel datasets and design of clinical trials for blood cancer precursors.