Anil K. Rustgi
University of Pennsylvania · Rehabilitation Medicine
Active 1984–2025
Academic metrics are sourced from OpenAlex and public funding records; values may differ from Google Scholar.
About
Anil K. Rustgi, MD, is an Emeritus Professor of Medicine (Gastroenterology) at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. He serves as the Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and is the Director of the Digestive Diseases and Liver Clinical Center at the same institution. Dr. Rustgi is a member of the Cancer Center, specifically within the Center for Cancer Pharmacology and the Chemoprevention Program. He also directs the NIH Center for Molecular Studies in Digestive and Liver Diseases and the NIDDK Year Out Program for medical students at Penn. Additionally, he is a Co-Program Leader of the Tumor Biology Program at the Abramson Cancer Center and a director of the Joint Center for Digestive, Liver, and Pancreatic Medicine, which involves collaboration between the University of Pennsylvania and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. His research expertise focuses on oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes, tumor microenvironment, tumor metastasis, and the molecular genetics of gastrointestinal cancers, including colon, pancreatic, and upper GI cancers. His laboratory investigates the tissue-specific actions of oncogenes such as cyclin D1 and EGFR, and tumor suppressor genes like p53 and p120 catenin, particularly in the context of gastrointestinal cancers. Employing novel three-dimensional cell culture systems and genetically-engineered mouse models, his work aims to elucidate molecular mechanisms with the goal of improving molecular diagnostics and…
Research topics
- Medicine
- Internal medicine
- Oncology
- Cancer research
- Biology
- Genetics
- Bioinformatics
- Cell biology
- Pathology
- Gastroenterology
Selected publications
EMT, MET, Plasticity, and Tumor Metastasis
Trends in Cell Biology · 2020-08-13 · 1058 citations
reviewOpen accessSenior authorCorrespondingA cellular hierarchy in melanoma uncouples growth and metastasis
Nature · 2022-09-21 · 248 citations
articleOpen accessInternational Journal of Cancer · 2020 · 54 citations
levels found in a PDX from an outlier case with lethal outcome led to detection of similar profiles among recurrent HPV+ HNSCCs. Transcriptional data from the Cancer Genome Atlas was used to demonstrate that the lower E2F target gene expression predicted by reduced E7 levels has potential as a biomarker of disease recurrence risk. Our findings bridge a critical gap in preclinical models for HPV+ HNSCCs and simultaneously reveal novel potential applications of quantifying mutational burden and vi…
2025-11-27
preprintOpen accessSenior author<p>Targeted CCR5 inhibition replicates CCL5 loss with reduced tumor cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo.</p>
2025-11-27
supplementary-materialsOpen access<p>Supplementary Table 1: List of oligonucleotides used for qPCR</p>
Recent grants
Networks for functional regulation of pancreatic acinar-ductal metaplasia and epithelial plasticity
NIH · $8.3M · 2002–2026
NIH · $784k · 2002
NIH · $320k · 2014
Frequent coauthors
- 253 shared
Hiroshi Nakagawa
- 180 shared
Andres J. Klein‐Szanto
- 151 shared
J. Alan Diehl
- 120 shared
Oliver G. Opitz
Heidelberg University
- 111 shared
Meenhard Herlyn
- 99 shared
Timothy C. Wang
Columbia University
- 91 shared
Tatiana A. Karakasheva
- 87 shared
Yasir Suliman
University of Freiburg
Education
- 1984
MD, Medicine
Duke University School of Medicine
- 1980
BS, Molecular Biology & Biophysics
Yale University
Similar researchers at University of Pennsylvania
- Resume-aware match score
- Save to shortlist
- AI-drafted outreach
See your match with Anil K. Rustgi
PhdFit ranks faculty by your research interests, methods, and publications — grounded in their actual work, not templates.
- Free to start
- No credit card
- 30-second signup