Dr. Anil K Rustgi, MD

Anil K. Rustgi is the Herbert and Florence Irving Director of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC) at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Dr. Rustgi is a world-renowned leader in the field of gastrointestinal oncology. His interdisciplinary research focuses on tumor initiation, the tumor microenvironment and tumor metastasis in the context of gastrointestinal cancers, including cancer of the esophagus, pancreas, and colon.
Dr. Rustgi's lab works to translate their discoveries into improving molecular diagnostics and finding new experimental therapeutics for patients, and is funded through several grants including an NCI P01 (program project on esophageal cancer), three NIH R01 grants (for gastric cancer pancreatic cancer and colon cancer), SU2C and an American Cancer Society Research Professorship. He has more than 400 publications and his work has appeared in high-impact journals such as Nature, Nature Genetics, Nature Medicine, Cancer …Cell, Genes and Development, Gastroenterology, Journal of Clinical Investigation, PNAS, JAMA and New England Journal of Medicine.
He has been elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation, Association of American Physicians and National Academy of Medicine and as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Previously, he was president of the American Gastroenterological Association (16,000 members), editor-in-chief of Gastroenterology, president of the International Society of Gastroenterological Carcinogenesis and president of the American Pancreas Association.
He has been recognized for his contributions with numerous awards, including the AACR Daniel Von Hoff award for outstanding contributions to education and training and cancer research (2024), American Association of Indian Scientists in Cancer Research (AAISCR) Lifetime Achievement Award (2024), AGA Beaumont Prize for distinction in basic/translational research (2023), AGA Julius Friedenwald Lifetime Achievement in Gastroenterology Medal (2017), AGA Distinguished Mentor Award (2016), the Ruth C. Brufsky Award for Excellence in Research in Pancreatic Cancer (2013). In addition, he received the top mentorship and teaching awards (Arthur Asbury for faculty; and one from the postdoctoral fellow program; one from the MD-PHD program; and, one from the Department of Cancer Biology) from his tenure at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Rustgi graduated Summa Cum Laude from Yale College with a bachelor's degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry (departmental honors) and earned his medical degree at Duke University School of Medicine, where he was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha, the national medical honorary society. He completed an internal medicine residency at Beth Israel Hospital and a GI fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), both of which are affiliates of Harvard Medical School. He rose to associate professor of medicine at MGH/Harvard before joining the University of Pennsylvania in 1998, where he served as Chief of Gastroenterology, T. Grier Miller Professor of Medicine and directed two Centers and NIH T32 training grants until 2018.