Dr. Vishva M. Dixit

A pathologist by training, Dr. Vishva M. Dixit has studied molecular mechanisms that underlie cell death and inflammatory signaling. In particular, he is known for the breakthrough discovery that a cysteine protease (caspase) is a component of the death receptor-induced apoptotic pathway - a finding that allowed his laboratory and others to then elucidate the entire 'death cascade'. Born in Kenya in 1956, he went to medical school at the University of Nairobi and, after clinical work at the Kenyatta National Hospital, pursued a residency in Pathology at Washington University in St. Louis. He joined the Department of Pathology at the University of Michigan in 1986 as an Assistant Professor. In 1997, he left the University of Michigan to join Genentech as Director of Oncology. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Foreign Member, European Molecular Biology Organization. In 2021 he was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society as well as a Foreign Member of The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.