Six Indian American Physicians and Researchers Elected to Association of American Physicians

Six Indian American physicians and researchers and one Indo-Canadian are elected members of the Association of American Physicians (AAP), a nonprofit, professional organization for “the advancement of scientific and practical medicine.” As per its website, AAP “seeks to inspire the full breadth of physician-led research across all fields of science related to medicine and health, and to build a community of physician-scientists in support of the principle that objective science and evidence are essential foundations for improving patient care and the health of Americans.”

Indian Americans elected to AAP include Ravindra Majeti, professor of Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine; Samir Parikh, vice chair for Research in the Department of Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Chirag Parikh, Professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Sanjay Rajagopalan, Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine; Vasan Ramachandran, Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Boston University School of Medicine; Muneesh Tewari, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan; and Rulan Parekh, Professor, Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. 

The AAP includes about 1200 active members and 700 emeritus and honorary members.

Ravindra Majeti is a professor of Medicine, Chief of the Division of Hematology, and member of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. After completing his undergraduate at Harvard, Majeti earned his MD and Ph.D. from the University of California San Francisco, He then trained in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, according to his Stanford University profile. While at Stanford, he completed post-doctoral training investigating acute myeloid leukemia (AML) stem cells and therapeutic targeting with anti-CD47 antibodies. Majeti directs an active NIH-funded laboratory that focuses on the molecular characterization and therapeutic targeting of leukemia stem cells in human hematologic disorders, particularly AML. 

Samir Parikh, professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, serves as associate vice chair for Research in the Department of Medicine and Director of the Center for Vascular Biology Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and received the Founder’s Medal from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine for highest academic standing. He completed a residency and nephrology fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. His research is focused on the discovery and translation of molecular mechanisms underlying sepsis and acute kidney injury.

Chirag R. Parikh is a professor of Medicine and director of the Division of Nephrology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His research focuses on the translation and validation of novel biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of acute kidney injury and diabetic kidney disease. Originally from India, Parikh attended medical school at the Seth G.S. Medical College and KEM Hospital in Mumbai. He then completed his internal medicine residency at the Nassau University Medical Center and SUNY at Stony Brook in New York, followed by his fellowship in Nephrology and Hypertension and UNOS Transplant Certification at the University of Colorado. While completing his fellowship, he also earned a doctorate in Clinical Investigation. Following this fellowship, he joined the Yale School of Medicine as the Director of the Program of Applied Translational Research, a Professor of Medicine and Investigative Medicine, and a Professor of Medicine at the Clinical Epidemiology Research Center in the VA Connecticut Health Care System.

Sanjay Rajagopalan completed clinical and research fellowships in cardiovascular medicine and vascular biology at the Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia. He is among an elite group of physician investigators whose work has helped transform perceptions and facilitate understanding of the global impact of chronic diseases including diabetes, as per his profile on the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine website. He has additionally made seminal contributions towards the development of next-generation therapeutic modalities for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. He is the leading authority in advancing newer and innovative non-invasive approaches for the diagnosis of complex cardiovascular disorders.

Vasan Ramachandran is a professor of Medicine and Epidemiology Boston University School of Medicine; and chief of the Section of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology Department of Medicine. A trained cardiologist with subspecialty training in echocardiography., he is a fellow of the AHA Councils on Epidemiology and Prevention and Functional Genomics and Translational Biology, and a fellow of the American College of Cardiology (ACC).

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Case Western Reserve University, Muneesh Tewari came to the University of Michigan where he earned both a Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology and a medical degree. He then moved to Boston, where he completed a fellowship in Medical Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Following a postdoctoral research fellowship in systems biology and genetics at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School, Tewari joined the faculty of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle in 2005. In 2014, he relocated his lab to his alma mater, the University of Michigan.

Rulan Parekh is Associate Chief, Clinical Research and Senior Scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children and University Health Network, and professor of Paediatrics and Medicine in the Departments of Paediatrics, Medicine, Epidemiology, and Health Policy and Management Evaluation at the University of Toronto. She is a clinician-scientist, nephrologist, and an international leader in clinical epidemiology and translational research in kidney disease. Over the years, her body of work has revealed novel genetic risk factors leading to kidney disease, and increased risk of morbidity and mortality for children and adults with kidney disease.