[1][2] He has authored more than 500 publications and holds over 50 patents, and was the Jane B. and Jack R. Aron Professor of Neoplastic Diseases and Chairman of Oncological Sciences at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City until March 2013, when he assumed the title of Founding Chair Emeritus of the Department of Oncological Sciences.

Aaronson graduated summa cum laude from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1962, with a degree in chemistry.

Aaronson's early research established the transformation-competent but replication-defective nature of mammalian sarcoma viruses and molecularly cloned many of their oncogenes.

[1][2] His discovery of erbB2 as a v-erbB-related gene amplified in a human breast carcinoma and the demonstration of its transforming properties paved the way for targeted therapies directed against its product,[4] and his successful isolation of KGF (FGF7), a growth factor present in the epithelialization-phase of wound healing, led to Amgen's successful phase III clinical trial and FDA approval of KGF for treatment of mucositis.

[5][6] Current research includes investigations into the mechanisms by which tumor suppressor genes induce permanent growth arrest/senescence, the signaling pathways involved, and investigations of the autocrine and paracrine acting growth factors PDGF, KGF, HGF, and Wnt ligands.