University Hospitals Harrington Discovery Institute’s first Harrington Distinguished Scholar (Early Career Award) is Goutham Narla, MD, PhD, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine and the Institute for Transformative Molecular Medicine, and a leading physician-scientist recruited from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

His laboratory focuses on the identification and characterization of the genes and pathways involved in cancer metastasis and in the regulation of chemotherapy response. In addition, Dr. Narla is interested in developing small molecule based therapies to reactivate key genes involved in suppressing tumor growth and metastasis. Dr. Narla’s research has resulted in 45 peer-reviewed publications, including papers in the journals Science, Nature Genetics and the Journal of Clinical Investigation. In addition, his work has resulted in five patents on the KLF6 gene and small molecule based approaches to reactivate transcriptional networks 
 in human cancer. Most recently, with Dr. Michael Ohlmeyer he won the prestigious BioAccelerate New York Investment Fund Award to support his translational drug discovery work and enable his research team to start a biotechnology company.

Dr. Narla received a BS degree in both Economics and Biology from Santa Clara University. He received his MD and PhD degrees from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He was the Director of Physician Scientist Training for the Medicine Residency Program and an Assistant Director for the MD/PhD Program at the Mount Sinai Hospital. He served on the medical school, MSTP, and residency selection committees for the school. Dr. Narla was a participant in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Medical Research Fellows Program, and is currently an HHMI Physician-Scientist Early Career Awardee.

Dr. Narla is currently an attending physician at UH Case Medical Center and the first Harrington Distinguished Scholar in the Institute for Transformative Molecular Medicine. He has been awarded several teaching awards, including Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award and the Saul Horowitz, Jr. Memorial Award.