RAJIV RAJA

Translational and precision medicine leader focused on oncology clinical development, biomarker strategy, and diagnostic assay implementation. Directs companion diagnostic and ctDNA programs across late-stage NSCLC, SCLC, and HNSCC. Drives immunotherapy and ADC development through cross-functional execution and KOL-led scientific collaboration.

• Professional affiliations reflecting continued engagement with translational science, oncology research and biomedical innovation.
• California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) — Grants Working Group (GWG)
• Scientific service affiliation within CIRM's Grants Working Group, complementing Rajiv's background in translational research, molecular diagnostics and biomedical assay development.
• American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)
• Professional membership aligned with Rajiv's extensive oncology translational medicine, biomarker-development and clinical research experience.

• Peters S, Rizvi NA, Kuziora M, Lai Z, Shrestha Y, Dey A, Barrett JC, Scheuring U, Poole L, Abbosh C, Raja R, Hellmann M. 2021. Early circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) dynamics for predicting and monitoring response to immunotherapy(LO) vs chemotherapy (CT) in patients with 1L metastatic (m) NSCLC: analyses from the Phase 3 MYSTIC trial. Presentation at ESMO, September 2021. (Web link)
• Wildsmith S,Walker J, L'Hernault A, Li W, Bye H, He P, Xiao M, Zhang Q, Stewart R, de los Reyes M, Raja R, Levin W, Gupta A, Powles T, Bellmunt J, Galsky MD, Drakaki A, and van der Heijden M. 2020. Tumor mutation burden (TMB) and efficacy outcomes in the phase III DANUBE study of advanced urothelial carcinoma. Presentation at SITC, November 2020 (Web link).
• Li W, Wildsmith S, Ye J, Si H, Morsli N, He P, Shetty J, Yovine A, Holoweczkyj N, Raja R, Real K, Scorer P, Hembrough T, Walker J, Zhang Q, Xie M, Mesia R, Haddad R, Licitra L, and Ferris RL. 2020. Plasma-based Tumor Mutational Burden as Predictor for Survival in Phase III EAGLE Study: Durvalumab ± Tremelimumab Versus Chemotherapy in Recurrent/Metastatic Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma After Platinum Failure. Presentation at ASCO, May 2020 (Web link).
• Rizvi NA, Cho BC, Reinhuth N, Lee KH, Luft A, Ahn MJ, Heuvel M, Dols MC, Vicente D, Smolin A, Moiseyenko V, Antonia SJ, Nakagawa K, Goldberg SB, Kim ES, Walker J, Raja R, Liu F, Scheuring UJ and Peters S. 2019. Blood tumor mutational burden (bTMB) and tumor PD-L1 as predictive biomarkers of survival in MYSTIC: First-line durvalumab (D) ± tremelimumab (T) versus chemotherapy (CT) in metastatic (m) NSCLC. Journal of Clinical Oncology 37:15_suppl, 9016 (Web Link)
• Peters S, Cho BC, Reinhuth N, Lee KH, Luft A, Ahn MJ, Baas P, Dols MC, Smolin A, Vicente D, Moiseyenko V, Antonia SJ, Nakagawa K, Goldberg SB, Kim ES, Raja R, Brohawn P, Clemett D, Thiyyarajah P, Scheuring U, Liu F and Rizvi N. 2019. Tumor mutational burden (TMB) as a biomarker of survival in metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (mNSCLC): Blood and tissue TMB analysis from MYSTIC, a Phase III study of first-line durvalumab ± tremelimumab vs chemotherapy. Cancer Res 79:13 suppl, CT074. (Web Link)
• Si H, Kuziora M, Helman E, Quinn K, Brohawn PZ, Scheuring U, Peters S, Rizvi N, Raja R, Ranade K and Higgs BW. 2019. A blood-based assay for assessment of tumor mutational burden in patients with metastatic NSCLC in the first-line treatment setting: results from the MYSTIC study. Eur J Cancer Volume 110, S2. (Web Link)
• (Full list available on request)
• McCoon P, Wang Y, Lai Z, Zhang Q, Li W, Wildsmith S, Morsli N, Raja R, Holoweczkyj N, Walker J, de los Reyes M, Mesia R, Licitra L, Ferris R, Fayette J, Zandberg D, Siu L and Haddad R. M. 2025. Mutational landscape of recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and association with immune checkpoint inhibitor outcome. Clin. Cancer Res. 31(10): 1931-42 (Web Link)
• Castro Jr G,Rizvi NA, Schmid P, Syrigos K, Martin C, Yamamoto N, Cheng Y, Moiseyenko V, Summers Y, Vynnychenko I, Lee YS, Maciej B, Zer A, Erman M, Timcheva C, Raja R, Naicker K, Scheuring U, Walker J, Mann H, Chand V, and Mok T. 2023. NEPTUNE: Phase 3 study of first-line durvalumab plus tremelimumab in patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. J Thorac. Oncol. 18(11): 106-119 (Web Link)
• Luo J, Wu S, Rizvi H, Zhang Q, Egger JV, Osorio J, Schoenfeld AJ, Piodkowski AJ, Ginsberg MS, Callahan MK, Maher C, Shoushtari AN, Postow MA, Voss MH, Kotecha RR, Gupta A, Raja R, Kris MG and Hellmann MD. 2022. Deciphering radiological stable disease to immune checkpoint inhibitors. Ann. Oncol. (Web Link)
• Pore N, Wu S, Kunkel MJ, Morehouse C, Shrestha Y, de los Reyes M, Halpin R, RothsteinR , Mulgrew K, Blackmore S, Martin P, Meekin J, Proia T, Herbst R, Raja R, Ascierto ML and OberstM. 2021. Resistance to durvalumab and durvalumab plus tremelimumab is associated with functional STK11 mutations in non-small-cell lung cancer patients and is reversed by STAT3 knockdown. Cancer Discov. 11:1-18 (Web Link)
• Si H, Kuziora M, Quinn K, Helman E, Ye J, Scheuring U, Peters S, Rizvi N, Brohawn P, Ranade K, Higgs BW, Bans KC, and Raja, R. 2021. A blood-based assay for assessment of tumour mutational burden in patients with metastatic NSCLC in the first-line treatment setting: results from the MYSTIC study. Clin. Cancer Res. 27: 1631-40. (Web Link)
• Rizvi NA, Cho BC, Reinhuth N, Lee KH, Luft A, Ahn MJ, Heuvel MM, Cobo M, Vicente D, Smolin A, Moiseyenko V, Antonia SJ, Moullec SL, Robinet G, Natale R, Schneider J, Shepherd FA, Geater SL, Garon EB, Kim ES, Goldberg SB, Nakagawa K, Raja R, Higgs BW, Boothman A, Zhao L, Scheuring U, Stockman PK, Chand VK and Peters S. 2020. Durvalumab With or Without Tremelimumab vs Standard Chemotherapy in First-line Treatment of Metastatic Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer: The MYSTIC Phase 3 Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Oncology. 6(5):661-674 (Web Link)
• Dagher R, Copenhagen AM, Besnard V, Berlin A, Hamidi F, Marett M, Wang J, Qu X, Shrestha Y, Wu J, Gautier G, Raja R, Aubier M, Kolbeck R, Humbles AA and Pretolani M. 2020. IL-33-ST2 axis regulates myeloid cell differentiation and activation enabling effective club cell regeneration. Nat. Commun. 11, 4786. (Web Link)
• Wang J, Rieder SA, Wu J, Hayes S, Halpin RA, de Los Reyes M, Shrestha Y, Kolbeck R, Raja R. 2019. Evaluation of ultra-low input RNA sequencing for the study of human T cell transcriptome Sci. Rep. 9(1): 8445. (Web Link)
• Raja R, Kuziora M, Brohawn PZ, Higgs BW, Antal J, Gupta A, Dennis P and Ranade K. 2018. Early Reduction in Circulating Tumor DNA Predicts Survival in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and Urothelial Bladder Cancer Patients Treated with Durvalumab. Clin. Cancer Res. 24 (24): 6212-6222 (Web Link)
• Schleifman EB, Tam R, Patel R, Tsan A, Sumiyoshi T, Fu L, Desai R, Schoenbrunner N, Myers T, Bauer K, Smith E and Raja R. 2014. Next Generation MUT-MAP, a High-Sensitivity High-Throughput Microfluidics Chip-Based Mutation Analysis Panel. PLoS One 9(3): e90761 (Web Link)
• Shames DS, Carbon J, Walter K, Jubb AM, Kozlowski C, Januario T, Do A, Fu L, Xiao Y, Raja R, Jiang B, Malekafzali A, Stern H, Settleman J, Wilson TR, Hampton GM, Yauch RL, Pirzkal A and Amier LC. 2013. High Hergulinn Expression Is Associated with Activated HER3 and May Define an Actionable Biomarker in Patients with Squamous Cell Carcinomas of the Head and Neck. PLoS One 8(2): e56765 (Web Link)
• Punnoose EA, Atwal S, Liu W, Raja R, Fine BM, Hughes BG, Hicks RJ, Hampton GM, Amier LC, Pirzkal A and Lackner MR. 2012. Evaluation of Circulating Tumor Cells and Circulating Tumor DNA in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Association with Clinical Endpoints in a Phase II Clinical Trial of Pertuzumab and Erlotinib. Clin Cancer Res. 18(8): OF1-11 (Web Link)
• Ma X, Patel R, Salunga R, Wang X, Chu S, Raja R and Erlander M. 2006. Molecular Classification of Human Cancers using a 92-Gene Real-time Quantitative PCR Assay. Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine. 130(4):465-473. (Web Link)
• Dobson AT, Raja R, Abyeta MJ, Taylor TB, Shen S, Haqq C and Reijo RP. 2004. The unique transcriptome through day 3 of human preimplantation development. Human Molecular Genetics. 13(14):1461-1470. (Web Link)