Renowned Hematology-Oncology Specialist to Lead UCSF Health’s Hematology-Oncology Program

Newswise — UCSF’s Division of Hematology-Oncology is welcoming Krishna Komanduri, MD, as division chief of Hematology-Oncology at UCSF Health. Komanduri is an international leader in the fields of hematology-oncology, transplantation, and cellular immunotherapy. He will start at UCSF on July 1.

In addition to his role as division chief, Komanduri will also assume two newly created roles: physician-in-chief of the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center (HDFCCC) as well as the clinical director of the UCSF Living Therapeutics Initiative. As division chief, he will also hold the Julius R. Krevans Distinguished Professorship, named after UCSF’s late dean and chancellor (and a hematologist).

Komanduri comes to UCSF from the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami, where he has held several key leadership roles, including director of the Adult Stem Cell Transplant Program, associate director for Clinical Innovation, and, since 2019, chief of a newly formed Division of Transplantation and Cellular Therapy. Under his leadership, cellular therapy programs have rapidly expanded at Sylvester, and the program has achieved national prominence in clinical care and research.

Komanduri’s own research, which is both lab-based and translational, focuses on improving the outcomes of patients undergoing transplantation for hematologic malignancies, as well as the use of immune-based therapies for all cancers. He has authored or co-authored six books and 125 articles in the peer-reviewed literature. He has been a principal or key investigator for more than a dozen grants and has served as a member of several NIH study sections. He is an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI).

“There is no area in medicine in which the needs are greater than hematology and oncology, and no area in which the opportunities are more thrilling,” said Robert M. Wachter, Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine at UCSF. “I am confident that Krishna Komanduri will be an exceptional leader for our hematology-oncology enterprise, across all of our missions. As someone who began his career with us as a fellow and junior faculty member, we are pleased to welcome him back to UCSF.”

Komanduri received his bachelor’s degree from MIT, majoring in Biology with a secondary concentration in English Literature. He completed medical school at the University of Minnesota and then medicine residency at UCLA. In 1994, he came to UCSF for hematology-oncology fellowship, including postdoctoral training in the lab of Mike McCune at the Gladstone Institute, and joined the faculty as assistant professor.

In 1999, Komanduri was recruited to the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston as a physician-scientist. While there he served as director of the BMT fellowship program and associate director of the Hematology/Oncology Fellowship and received the Division of Cancer Medicine Leadership in Education Award.

Komanduri has held several major leadership positions in the field of hematologic malignancies and transplantation. He served as president of the American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (ASTCT), the major professional society for his field. He chaired the American Society of Hematology Scientific Committee on Immunology and Host Defense, and he serves on the Board of Directors of the National Marrow Donor Program. He was a founding member of the MIT Financing of Curative Therapies in the US (FoCUS) think tank, which is developing strategies to ensure broad access to curative cell and gene therapies. He is chair of the ASTCT’s Cellular Therapy Committee and chair-elect of its Government Relations Committee.

About UCSF’s Division of Hematology-Oncology

Each year, the division manages 82,000 ambulatory visits and sees approximately 10,000 new patients (ambulatory plus inpatient consults), with much of the ambulatory care delivered in UCSF’s Precision Cancer Medicine Building (PCMB) at Mission Bay. The division receives $40M per year in extramural funding, has more than 500 active clinical trials, and its faculty and trainees publish about 450 articles each year. The division is comprised of 222 people, including 79 faculty. It has strong clinical and research programs in all major clinical specialties of hematology and oncology, as well as in innovative areas such as immunotherapy, global oncology, medical education, palliative care and survivorship, and health disparities.

About UCSF

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is exclusively focused on the health sciences and is dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. UCSF Health, which serves as UCSF’s primary academic medical center, includes top-ranked specialty hospitals and other clinical programs, and has affiliations throughout the Bay Area. UCSF School of Medicine also has a regional campus in Fresno. Learn more at ucsf.edu or see our Fact Sheet.