Dr. MacDonald is board certified in pediatrics and in pediatric hematology/oncology by the American Board of Pediatrics. He received his medical degree from Cornell University in New York City, N.Y. He then completed a residency in pediatrics and fellowships in pediatric hematology/oncology and pediatric neuro-oncology at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles in Los Angeles, Calif. Following his medical training, Dr. MacDonald served for 11 years as Director of Neuro-oncology at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., before joining the faculty at Emory in 2009. He is currently Professor of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine and serves as Director of the Neuro-oncology Program and Aflac Endowed Chair for Pediatric Neuro-oncology of the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s. Dr. MacDonald is also a member of the Cancer Cell Biology Research Program at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, as well as a member of the Society for Neuro-oncology, American Association for Cancer Research and American Society for Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. He currently serves on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Brain Malignancies Steering Committee and Children’s Oncology Group (COG) CNS Tumors Committee. He is also the institutional co-principal investigator for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium (PBTC).

Research

Dr. MacDonald leads an active laboratory and clinical research program for improving the treatment and outcomes of children with brain tumors. He has received continuous NIH funding for his efforts in these areas for the last 20+ years.

His primary research focuses on the PDGFR/Stat3 pathways in medulloblastoma metastasis and treatment resistance, molecular genetics of childhood brain tumors, nanotechnology for drug screening, and drug delivery for brain tumor treatment. His clinical research includes trials for pediatric brain tumors and novel therapeutics for childhood brain tumors.

Learn more about Dr. MacDonald’s research lab.