William G. Wierda, MD, PhD

William Wierda, MD, PhD is Endowed Distinguished Professor and Jane and John Justin Distinguished Chair in Leukemia Research in Honor of Dr. Elihu Estey, Department of Leukemia, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX. He serves as Deputy Department Chair, Section Chief of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL), Executive Medical Director of Inpatient Medical Services, and Center Medical Director, Department of Leukemia.

Dr Wierda joined MD Anderson in 2001 as Assistant Professor of Medicine and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2007 and Professor in 2012. His clinical practice is >90% devoted to CLL. He has served as principal investigator, co-investigator, or collaborator on numerous clinical trials and translational studies, contributing to the development and evaluation of therapies including fludarabine, alemtuzumab, ofatumumab, and rituximab.

His research focuses on prognostic factors and modeling, chemoimmunotherapy regimens, immune and gene therapies, and strategies for relapsed and refractory CLL. Dr Wierda has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications and lectures internationally on CLL management. His work leverages MD Anderson’s unique translational research environment, enrolling patients on clinical trials with serial tissue sampling to advance understanding of drug mechanisms and optimize patient outcomes.