Rakesh K. Jain | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 18, 1950 |
| Education | IIT Kanpur (BTech) University of Delaware (MS,PhD) |
| Known for | Tumor pathophysiology, Tumor normalization |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Chemical engineering |
| Institutions | Harvard Medical School,Massachusetts General Hospital |
| Doctoral advisor | James Wei |
| Other academic advisors | Pietro M. Gullino |
Rakesh K. Jain (born 1950) is the Andrew Werk Cook Professor ofTumor Biology director of the E. L. Steele Laboratories atMassachusetts General Hospital in theHarvard Medical School.[1]
Jain received his bachelor's degree in 1972 fromIIT Kanpur, and his MS and PhD degrees in 1974 and 1976 from theUniversity of Delaware, all inchemical engineering. He served as assistant professor of chemical engineering atColumbia University (1976 to 1978), and as assistant (1978–79), associate (1979–83) and full professor (1983-1991) of chemical engineering atCarnegie Mellon University. He spent his 1983-84 sabbatical year as aGuggenheim Fellow in the departments of chemical engineering atMIT, bioengineering atUCSD andradiation oncology atStanford, and his 1990–91 sabbatical as aHumboldt Senior Scientist-Awardee at the Institute ofPathophysiology ofUniversity of Mainz, and the Institute of Experimental Surgery ofUniversity of Munich. In 1991, Jain became the Andrew Werk Cook Professor of Radiation Oncology (Tumor Biology) atHarvard Medical School, and Director of Edwin L. Steele Laboratories of Tumor Biology atMassachusetts General Hospital.
Jain is regarded as a pioneer in the area of tumor microenvironment and widely recognized for his seminal discoveries in tumor biology, drug delivery,in vivo imaging, bioengineering, andbench-to-bedside translation.[2][3][4][5] These include uncovering the barriers to the delivery and efficacy of molecular andnano-medicines in tumors, developing new strategies to overcome these barriers, and then translating these strategies from bench to bedside.[6][7] He is most celebrated for proposing a new principle – normalization ofvasculature – for treatment of malignant and non-malignant diseases characterized by abnormal vessels that afflict more than 500 million people worldwide.[8][9][10] This concept has fundamentally changed the thinking of scientists and clinicians about howantiangiogenic agents work, and how to combine them optimally with other therapies to improve the treatment outcome in patients.[11]
He has mentored more than 200 graduate and postdoctoral students from over a dozen different disciplines. Jain's research findings are summarized in more than 600 publications, which have been cited more than 200,000 times (as of November, 2023). He was among the top 1% cited researchers in Clinical Medicine in 2014–15.[12] He serves or has served on advisory panels to government, industry and academia, and is a member of editorial advisory boards of 22 journals, includingNature Reviews Cancer andNature Reviews Clinical Oncology.
He has received more than 75 awards from engineering and medical professional societies/institutions. He was elected a member of theNational Academy of Engineering in 2004 for the integration ofbioengineering with tumor biology and imaginggene expression and functionsin vivo fordrug delivery in tumors. He is also a member of theNational Academy of Medicine, theNational Academy of Sciences and theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2014, he was chosen as one of 50 Oncology Luminaries on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of theAmerican Society of Clinical Oncology.[11] In 2015, Jain receivedhonorary doctorates fromDuke University,KU Leuven,Belgium andIIT-Kanpur,India. In 2013, he was awarded theNational Medal of Science.[13]
