Karuna Ganesh MA, MD, PhD

Karuna Ganesh, MD, Ph.D. is a physician-scientist and Assistant Member at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, in the Molecular Pharmacology Program and Gastrointestinal Oncology Service, and Director of Metastasis Research, Center for Colorectal Cancer. Originally from India, she completed high school at the United World College-USA in New Mexico and then completed undergraduate and MD/PhD degrees from the University of Cambridge, UK as a Gates Scholar.  During her PhD at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, UK, she studied mechanisms of antibody diversification with the late Professor Michael Neuberger. 

Karuna trained in internal medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School and in medical oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where she completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Joan Massagué. Her independent laboratory, established in September 2019, studies mechanisms of regenerative plasticity in metastasis.  She is the recipient of NIH/NCI K08 and R37 Awards, Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award, Burroughs Wellcome Career Award for Medical Scientists, AACR NextGen Grant for Transformative Cancer Research, Josie Robertson Investigator Award, is an Investigator of the Stand Up To Cancer Convergence Dream Team and NIH/NCI Human Tumor Atlas Network, and serves on the NCI Gastrointestinal Steering Committee Rectal-Anal Taskforce.