Dr. Dipak Panigrahy’s path into medicine and science began unusually early when he was accepted to medical school while still in high school. He went on to complete the combined BA/MD program at Boston University School of Medicine, graduating in 1994, and quickly found himself drawn to fundamental questions about how diseases grow, spread, and importantly, how the body can restore balance.

As a medical student and surgical trainee, Dr. Panigrahy worked closely with Dr. Judah Folkman, widely regarded as the father of angiogenesis. What began as mentorship grew into nearly two decades of collaboration, during which they developed multiple mouse models that transformed the study of angiogenesis‑dependent diseases. This formative experience shaped Dr. Panigrahy’s lifelong interest in uncovering the biological programs that drive disease, and those that resolve it.

In 2014, Dr. Panigrahy joined Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center as an Assistant Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, where his laboratory established a strong focus on lipid autacoid mediators and their roles in cancer biology. His work has helped advance the emerging concept that the resolution of inflammation is not passive, but an active, highly regulated process with profound therapeutic potential.

The Panigrahy Lab has published nine high‑impact papers over the past seven years exploring how pro‑resolving lipid mediators and eicosanoids influence cancer and other inflammation‑driven diseases. Lab trainees have earned an impressive 68 awards for their research in this area—a reflection of the lab’s collaborative culture and strong commitment to mentorship.

Dr. Panigrahy’s research program is supported by continuous industry funding since 2012 and multiple NIH awards. Most recently, he received his third and fourth NCI R01 grants (scoring in the 1st and 4th percentiles) to study inflammation resolution in cancer cachexia and chemical carcinogenesis.

Mentorship sits at the heart of Dr. Panigrahy’s work. He has trained five postdoctoral fellows—two now Professors and two working in industry—and mentored 18 research technicians who have gone on to some of the best medical school, PhD programs, and other professional paths across healthcare and science in the US. Beyond the lab, he is deeply committed to medical education and serves on the Board of Trustees for The Community Solution Education System, which founded the first osteopathic medical school in Kansas.

An internationally recognized leader in inflammation resolution, Dr. Panigrahy is a frequent invited keynote speaker at global scientific meetings and has recently presented in cities including Stockholm, Dublin, Frankfurt, Madrid, Poznań, Quebec City, Oslo, Eilat, and Rome. He also serves as an Invited Specialist advising the World Health Organization on inflammation in cancer.

Through his research, mentorship, and global collaborations, Dr. Panigrahy continues to champion a simple but powerful idea that understanding how the body actively resolves inflammation may open new paths to treating cancer and restoring health.