Uppaluri Awarded $4.3M Cancer Moonshot Grant from NCI/NIDCR

Ravindra Uppaluri, MD, PhD Headshot
Ravindra Uppaluri, MD, PhD

Ravindra Uppaluri, MD, PhD, chief of the Division of Otolaryngology in the Department of Surgery and chief of Head and Neck Surgical Oncology at Dana-Farber and Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center, received a $4.3 million U01 Cancer Moonshot grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) for his project, “Defining Mechanisms of Immunotherapy Resistance in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinomas.”

An initiative of the NCI, the Cancer Moonshot program seeks to accelerate cancer research, aims to make more therapies available to more patients, while also improving our ability to prevent cancer and detect it at an early stage.

Uppaluri will serve as principal investigator on this project with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s David Barbie, MD, and Robert Haddad, MD. Co-Investigators include James Lederer, PhD, and Ann Marie Egloff, PhD, MPH, both of the Brigham’s Department of Surgery, and Robert Manguso, PhD, of the Broad Institute. The team seeks to understand why many patients with head and neck cancers display resistance to immunotherapy drugs, with the goal of improving treatment response rates for this patient population.

More broadly in his work at the Brigham, Uppaluri works in a close, multidisciplinary fashion with colleagues in medical and radiation oncology and neurosurgery. His clinical interests focus on head and neck malignancies including using minimally invasive transoral and endoscopic approaches. He also leads the Division of Otolaryngology. His research interests focus on basic and translational approaches to improving outcomes for patients with head and neck cancers.

The NCI is the federal government’s principal agency for cancer research and training. The mission of the NIDCR is to improve dental, oral and craniofacial health.

Department of Surgery Faculty Among Boston’s “Top Doctors” 2020

Boston magazine’s 2020 list of “Top Doctors” recognizes 47 Department of Surgery faculty members. Congratulations to the following providers for being recognized as “tops” in their respective fields:

Colon and Rectal Surgery
Ronald Bleday, MD
Christian Corwin, MD
Joel Goldberg, MD

Otolaryngology
Donald Annino, MD

Plastic Surgery
Matthew Carty, MD
Yoon Chun, MD
Charles Hergrueter, MD
Dennis Orgill, MD, PhD
Bohdan Pomahac, MD
Andrea Pusic, MD
Christian Sampson, MD
Simon Talbot, MD

Surgery
Stanley Ashley, MD
Monica Bertagnolli, MD
Katherina Calvillo, MD
Thomas Clancy, MD
Gerard Doherty, MD
Margaret Duggan, MD
Atul Gawande, MD
Mehra Golshan, MD, MBA
Pardon Kenney, MD
Tari King, MD
Sayeed Malek, MD
Francis D. Moore, Jr., MD
Faina Nakhlis, MD
Chandrajit Raut, MD
Esther Rhei, MD
Scott Shikora, MD
Douglas Smink, MD, MPH
Ali Tavakkoli, MD
Ashley Vernon, MD

Thoracic and Cardiac Surgery
Raphael Bueno, MD
Christopher Ducko, MD
Hari Mallidi, MD
Steven Mentzer, MD
Scott Swanson, MD
Jon Wee, MD
Daniel Wiener, MD

Urology
Steven Chang, MD
Adam Kibel, MD
Michael Malone, MD
Michael O’Leary, MD, MPH
Graeme Steele, MD

Vascular Surgery
Michael Belkin, MD
Edwin Gravereaux, MD
Matthew Menard, MD
Charles Ozaki, MD


This year, the magazine highlighted 1,665 physicians in 66 different specialties as exemplary leaders in their respective fields. To prepare the annual list, Boston magazine partners with Castle Connolly Medical Ltd., a health care research group, and invites physicians and medical leadership of leading hospitals to identify highly skilled, exceptional doctors in the region. Castle Connolly’s physician-led team of researchers rigorously screens the nominated physicians to select those most highly regarded by their peers.


Mark Preston, MD, MPH, Awarded $774K Department of Defense Grant

Dr. Preston has been awarded a $774K award from the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity for his study:PSA level during midlife and undiagnosed prostate cancer at autopsy: Understanding tumor biology and racial disparities.”

The study aims to develop smarter screening strategies to accurately identify men at risk for developing advanced prostate cancer while minimizing harms by testing mid-life PSA levels. The study will obtain blood from autopsies of black and white men to assess how PSA in midlife relates to pre-diagnosis natural history of prostate cancer and to determine when racial differences manifest in the natural history of prostate cancer.

Mark Preston, MD, MPH 

Mark A. Preston, MD, is a urologic surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and assistant professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Preston received his medical degree from the University of Ottawa in Canada, where he also completed his residency training in Urology. He completed a three-year accredited fellowship in Urologic Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital including a master of public health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health with a concentration in clinical effectiveness. He is board certified in Urology.

Dr. Preston’s clinical interests include urologic oncology (bladder, kidney, prostate and testicular cancer) and minimally invasive surgery. Dr. Preston’s research focuses on the epidemiology of prostate and kidney cancer risk with an emphasis on predictive biomarkers and pharmacoepidemiology.