Raj K. Tiwari, M.S., Ph.D., joined NYMC in 1996. Before that, he held faculty positions at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (1989-91) and Cornell University Medical College (1989-96) in New York. An accomplished scientist of international repute, Dr. Tiwari has more than 200 publications and abstracts, is a leader in cancer prevention and control, inventor of several patents, and has presented his work in major conferences worldwide. As a co-author of several patents, he has pioneered the field of peptide mimotopes as vaccines that are paradigm-shifting with wide application in cancer, infectious diseases, and autoimmune diseases. Mentorship remains of utmost importance to Dr. Tiwari throughout his career. He has graduated 15 Ph.D. students, more than 100 master’s students, and 20 clinical fellows and residents who are all well placed in academia, industry, and hold leadership positions. He has received several awards at NYMC for outstanding mentorship and teaching. Dr. Tiwari has had peer-reviewed funding from the NIH, USARMY, ACS, AICR, and NYSTATE and has been continuously funded since 1989. Dr. Tiwari reviews grants for the NIH and USARMY in both their intramural and extramural grants. Beyond, he reviews grants internationally for Cancer Societies in France, Israel, and the American-Italian Foundation. His research is truly interdisciplinary and bridges immunology, tumor biology, infectious diseases, and molecular biochemistry.

Education

• M.S., Biochemistry, University of Calcutta
• Ph.D., Biochemistry, University of Calcutta

Areas of Expertise

• Immunology
• Tumor biology
• Infectious diseases
• Molecular biochemistry
• Tumor immunology
• Tumor microenvironment
• Cell-cell interactions
• Cancer therapy
• Chemoprevention
• Tumor Immunology

Honors and Awards

• 2021: Dean's Award for Mentoring
• 2019-2021: Organized an International Conference on EAST-WEST Integrative Medicine
• 2017 and 2021: ECRIP reviewer
• 2020: Awarded Outstanding Faculty Award, NYMC
• 2017: Awarded Honorary Professorship and Citation June 16 Amity University Gurgaon, India
• 2017: Session and Keynote speaker, World Congress of Endobolism and Diabetes, July 12-14 Prague, Czech Republic
• 2016: Guest of Honor Lecture on the Innovation Day on 9-28-2016, Amity University
• 2015: Keynote Speaker International Conference on Translational Medicine, February 19-20, Amity University, Gurgaon, India
• 2015: Outstanding Scientist Award of Cancer Researchers of Indian Origin at the American Association of Cancer Research meeting in New Orleans
• 2002-Present: Reviewer in Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics and various study sections

Publications

• Davani-Davari D, Tiwari RK, Parang K, et. al. "Future applications of cyclic antimicrobial peptides in drug delivery." Expert opinion on drug delivery, (), (2025) . doi: 10.1080/17425247.2025.2460661
• Gupta OP, Singh A, Ankush, et. al. "A multifaceted analysis: Unveiling the complexities of wheat genotypes, fortification, and processing on iron and zinc bioavailability in whole wheat flour and chapati." Food chemistry, 473(), (2025) 142907. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2025.142907
• Tiwari RK, Rawat SG, Rai S, et. al. "Stress regulatory hormones and cancer: the contribution of epinephrine and cancer therapeutic value of beta blockers." Endocrine, (), (2025) . doi: 10.1007/s12020-025-04161-7
• Thakur R, Joshi V, Sahoo GC, et. al. "In silico analysis of novel Triacontafluoropentadec-1-ene as a sustainable replacement for dodecane in fisheries microplastics: Molecular docking, dynamics simulation and pharmacophore studies of acetylcholinesterase activity." Computational biology and chemistry, 115(), (2025) 108358. doi: 10.1016/j.compbiolchem.2025.108358
• Han Z, Zhang Q, Tiwari R, et. al. "Bayesian Borrowing With Multiple Heterogeneous Historical Studies Using Order Restricted Normalized Power Prior." Statistics in medicine, 44(3-4), (2025) e10302. doi: 10.1002/sim.10302
• Kopec K, Quaranto D, DeSouza NR, et. al. "The HOX Gene Family's Role as Prognostic and Diagnostic Biomarkers in Hematological and Solid Tumors." Cancers, 17(2), (2025) . doi: 10.3390/cancers17020262
• Mehrotra S, Tiwari R, Kumar R, et. al. "Advances and Challenges in the Diagnosis of Leishmaniasis." Molecular diagnosis & therapy, (), (2025) . doi: 10.1007/s40291-024-00762-6

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Professional Service

As graduate program director of the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, Dr. Tiwari leads one of the most successful programs in the basic sciences with a high percentage of current Ph.D. students in this department. Dr. Tiwari served as interim chair of the department from 2017-2021, during which time he mentored faculty and worked with them to attract peer-reviewed funding. As a member of various committees of NYMC, he has participated in school-wide policies, LCME and Middle States accreditation bodies, IACUC, IRB, Deans Research Committees, Seed and Bridge Funding, research initiatives, student education, admissions, and general administration and faculty relations, Tenure, and Promotions Committee, Chair and Dean Searches, and member of the Executive Faculty Senate that allowed Faculty governance and input in policies affecting education and research. Dr. Tiwari successfully initiated an allergy and immunology wellness program by recruiting one of the top practicing academic physicians from Mount Sinai with considerable funding. He is also instrumental in organizing an annual conference on EAST-WEST Integrative Medicine with international and national faculty from prestigious universities that included Harvard, Yale, Columbia, NYU, and Mount Sinai. He successfully launched a faculty development program for international faculty and hospital administrators.

Memberships and Affiliations

• American Association for Cancer Research
• American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Harvey Society New York Academy of Sciences
• American Society for Clinical Nutrition

Teaching Responsibilities

• Basic Immunology
• Advanced Immunology
• Molecular Biology and Immunology of Tumor Cells
• Medical Microbiology