Dr. Messersmith graduated from Harvard Medical School (HMS) in 1998 and trained in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital/HMS.  He did his Medical Oncology / Drug Development Fellowship at Johns Hopkins, where he was awarded an ASCO Young Investigator Award and Passano Clinician-Scientist Award.  He was on the Hopkins faculty from 2004-2007 as an Assistant Professor in the GI Oncology and Drug Development programs.  Dr. Messersmith joined the University of Colorado Cancer Center faculty in 2007 as the Director of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology.  He served as co-leader of Developmental Therapeutics Program and Associate Director for Translational Research, and was appointed Associate Director for Clinical Services as well as Chief Medical Officer for the Oncology Service Line in 2022. He has also served as Head of the Division of Medical Oncology (>80 faculty) since 2015.

Dr. Messersmith is focused on clinical and translational cancer research in gastrointestinal cancers. This comprehensive program includes multi-disciplinary GI cancer clinics, tumor boards, and research endeavors. Dr. Messersmith has held NIH (R01, R21), NCCN, and DOD grants and has served as the principal investigator of >80 national and local therapeutic trials (including >20 first in human studies), and published >200 manuscripts and reviews (>19,000 citations).  .  Dr. Messersmith has received the NCI/ASCO Team Leadership Award and chaired the ASCO Leadership Development Program.  He serves on numerous national committees, including the NCCN Colorectal Cancer Guidelines Committee, as well as National Director of the Academic GI Cancer Consortium.  Dr. Messersmith is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and serves as the Colorado Principal Investigator for the NCI/CTEP Early Clinical Trials Network as well as the national lead for GI Disease-Focused Investigators for NCI/CTEP.