Faraz Bishehsari, MD, PhD, AGAF

Faraz Bishehsari, MD, PhD, is deeply interested in studying pathogenesis of gastrointestinal (GI) cancers, in particular colorectal (most common GI cancer) and pancreas (highest mortality among GI cancers) cancer.

Bishehsari’s research work on colorectal cancer started with clinical and epidemiological studies. Findings from these studies encouraged him to pursue a PhD in Europe (at the Centre of Excellence on Aging in Italy) after finishing medical school where he studied major carcinogenic pathways underlying CRC in populations with different patterns of the disease, and environmental exposures. As part of his research studies, Bishehsari also worked on a multi-center European project to investigate the circadian protein oscillations relevant to the chemotherapy efficacy in colon cancer.

Throughout his internal medicine residency at University of Pittsburgh and gastroenterology-hepatology fellowship at Northwestern University, Bishehsari continued bench, translational and clinical research. His studies in colon cancer focus on identifying markers and mechanisms that environmental factors (i.e., circadian disruption, diet, alcohol) could affect colon inflammation, polyp and cancer formation. His first introduction to pancreas research was at University of Pittsburgh, where he was involved in studying the role of polymorphisms in the master inflammatory marker, TNF-alpha, in inflammatory disease of pancreas and pancreatitis. Later, Bishehsari extended studies to the field of pancreatic adenocarcinoma, using pancreatic organoid models in the lab to model fibro-inflammatory response in pancreas cancer and predict drug response.