Vijay K. Kuchroo, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Institute Member
Vijay Kuchroo is an institute member of the ӳý and a participant in a Klarman Cell Observatory project that focuses on T cell differentiation. Kuchroo is the Samuel L. Wasserstrom Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and senior scientist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is founding director of the Gene Lay Institute of Immunology and Inflammation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School. His major research interests include autoimmune diseases and cancer, particularly the role of co-inhibitory “check-point” molecules in regulating autoimmunity and anti-tumor immunity, and the role of proinflammatory Th17 in inducing autoimmunity and tissue inflammation. More recently, his laboratory has focused on neuro-immune interactions that regulate development of type II inflammation and development of allergies. His laboratory has made several transgenic mice that serve as animal models for human disease.
Kuchroo came to the United States in 1985 and was at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, as Fogarty International Fellow for a year before joining the department of pathology at Harvard Medical School as a research fellow. He later joined the Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital as a junior faculty member.
Kuchroo obtained his degree in veterinary medicine from the College of Veterinary Medicine, Hisar, India. Subsequently, he specialized in veterinary pathology at the University of Queensland, Brisbane (Australia), where he obtained a Ph.D. in 1985. He received the Fred Z. Eager Research Prize and medal for his Ph.D. research work at the University of Queensland.
Based on his contributions, he was awarded the Javits Neuroscience Award by the National Institutes of Health in 2002 and the Award in Medical Research from the Ranbaxy Science Foundation in 2011. He was the recipient of the Peter Doherty lecture/award in 2014. His later recognitions further underscore his sustained impact on the field. He delivered the Newsom-Davis Lecture at the International Society of Neuroimmunology in 2016 and received the Dr. William E. Paul Distinguished Innovator Award from the Lupus Research Alliance in 2018. In 2019, he was honored with the MileStones in Research Award from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. His contributions to cytokine biology and immunology were recognized with the ICIS BioLegend William E. Paul Award in 2020. In 2021, he was named a Distinguished Fellow of the American Association of Immunologists and was also awarded the prestigious Dystel Prize for Multiple Sclerosis Research by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Most recently, in 2025, Kuchroo received the AAI Thermo Fisher Meritorious Career Award from the American Association of Immunologists, highlighting a lifetime of exceptional scientific achievement and leadership.
April 2026
