Biography
Dr. Vadgama is the Vice President for Research and Health Affairs at CDU. He is a full Professor of Medicine at CDU and at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine in the Department(s) of Internal Medicine. Dr. Vadgama has provided significant leadership in growing and sustaining research at CDU over the last two decades.
Dr. Vadgama has over 20 years of experience in working at Historically Black College and University (HBCU) and Hispanic Serving institution (HSI). In 1992/3, he was recruited to Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science as Director of Laboratory Research and Development to develop research infrastructure in Biomedical Sciences that supported underrepresented and underserved undergraduate students, graduate students, medical residents, clinical fellows, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty. In addition, during these last 21 years and prior, he has had extensive experience working with underrepresented and under resourced communities in South Los Angeles and neighboring communities.
Dr. Vadgama has extensive experience in conducting oncology research that integrates clinical, basic and community-partnered research. The outcome of these efforts has resulted in the development of translational cancer research at CDU. His research team is providing significant leadership in understanding the role of comorbidities such Diabetes and Hypertension in the risk and prognosis for cancer diagnosis and treatment. His group has identified that Obesity contributes significantly to the risk for cancer development and poor clinical outcome. The CDU/UCLA Cancer Center Partnership was recently refunded for over $12.6M (2015-2020) by the National Cancer Institute (U54CA143931) to enhance cancer disparities research at CDU and support programs in developing novel research, sustaining a biomarker identification repository, formal training programs for students, fellows, and faculty, as well as community engagement activities, and clinical research studies.