About Us > Neil Vasan, MD, PhD

Neil Vasan, MD, PhD

Neil Vasan

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Dr. Vasan is a member of the Breast Cancer Program at Columbia University Medical Center, where he treats breast cancer patients with standard-of-care therapies and through clinical trials. His laboratory (vasanlab.com) uses functional genomics to explore how proteins regulate breast cancer cell signaling, growth, and therapeutic response.

Dr. Vasan received bachelor's and master's degrees from Harvard University and medical and doctoral degrees from Yale University School of Medicine. He completed clinical training in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and in medical oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. As a postdoctoral fellow, he identified double PIK3CA mutations as an oncogenic alteration, a discovery that has advanced from bench to bedside as a cancer genomic biomarker.

His research awards include the 2023 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (DP2), the NIH/NCI Mentored Clinical Scientist Development Award (K08), the Susan G. Komen Career Catalyst Research Grant, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) NextGen Star, and the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) Young Physician-Scientist Award. Dr. Vasan is an active clinical oncologist treating patients with breast cancer and serves as the scientific advisor for PIK3CA Pathbreakers, a breast cancer patient advocacy group. He is also a member of the planning committee for the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium and a standing member of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) for the FDA.