Raghu Kalluri MD, PhD

Dr. Raghu Kalluri is a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cancer Biology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is a CPRIT Established Investigator and holds the Frederick F. Becker Distinguished University Chair of Cancer Research. Dr. Kalluri’s research program is focused on innovative research to unravel how cells and their environment communicate to maintain organ health, and how such communication networks are altered in cancer and other diseases.

Current areas of research in the laboratory include cancer biology and metastasis, tumor microenvironment, tissue injury and regeneration, aging, and the biology of exosomes in health and disease. Dr. Kalluri's research is translationally focused, with an implicit mission to develop new strategies for diagnosis and therapy. To date, his discoveries have been translated into nine successful clinical studies and Phase I clinical trials for kidney diseases, fibrosis, and cancer, and have led to the creation of six biotechnology companies using intellectual property generated in the Kalluri laboratory.

Dr. Kalluri has been recognized for his excellence in research and teaching, and the Kalluri laboratory is a fertile training ground for the next generation of scientists and physician-scientists. He has mentored over 300 research trainees during the past three decades and led numerous education and training programs as Director or co-Director at both Harvard and MD Anderson Cancer Center. Training successful researchers is one of Dr. Kalluri’s core commitments, for which he takes immense pride.

Dr. Kalluri’s research achievements have been acknowledged in the form of several distinguished awards. He received the 2015 Jacob Henle Medal for Excellence in Medicine and the 2016 Ruth Leff Siegel Award for Excellence in Pancreatic Cancer Research. Kalluri has been funded by the NIH continuously for 29 years and, in 2022, he received the prestigious NCI Outstanding Investigator Award. In 2023, he was conferred with the Dallas/Fort Worth Living Legend Faculty Achievement Award in Basic Research. Dr. Kalluri is a Fellow of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, The American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Association of American Physicians.