Michael J Pishvaian, MD, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Hematology/Oncology at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. He received his MD and PhD in Tumor Biology at Georgetown University in 2001. He then completed an internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Georgetown University Hospital, followed by a fellowship in the Department of Hematology/Oncology at Lombardi.

A practicing oncologist specializing in gastrointestinal (GI) cancers, Pishvaian also conducts clinical translational research. His focus is the rational combination of targeted therapies to better treat cancer. In the lab, Pishvaian’s basic science research focuses on combining a CDK4 inhibitor with chemotherapy for GI cancers. His clinical research has focused on combining other targeted therapies such as PARP inhibitors or mTOR inhibitors with chemotherapy, and he is currently the Principle Investigator of three such clinical trials.

Pishvaian also leads the Drug Discovery and Developmental Therapeutics translational research meetings at Lombardi. He has received several grants, including a pre-Doctoral Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Training Grant in 1997 and an American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant in 2007.