Raghu Kalluri

Raghu Kalluri is the world's leading expert on cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and their roles in tumor progression and drug resistance. His laboratory discovered that CAFs are a heterogeneous population with both tumor-promoting and tumor-restraining functions, fundamentally revising the view of stroma as uniformly pro-tumorigenic. He has defined ECM remodeling and desmoplasia driven by CAFs as barriers to drug delivery and immune infiltration. His work on exosome biology has also revealed new mechanisms of CAF-tumor communication.