Naveen Pemmaraju MD

Naveen Pemmaraju, MD is Associate Professor in the Department of Leukemia at MD Anderson Cancer Center. After graduating with a degree in Cell and Molecular Biology from Tulane University (cum laude), he completed medical school at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in his home state of Arkansas. From there, he went on to complete Internal Medicine training in the Osler Medical Program at Johns Hopkins Hospital (Barker Firm).  Dr Pemmaraju has lived in the Houston area since 2008, where he completed his Hematology and Oncology fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center, being appointed one of the chief fellows for his program, and then stayed on as clinical/research faculty since 2011 in the Department of Leukemia.   His clinical practice and research work has focused on improving outcomes and developing novel therapies & clinical trials for adolescents, young adults, and older adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN), as well as blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN). Dr Pemmaraju serves as national/lead PI for several clinical trials in the areas of MPN and BPDCN and is recognized for his work in developing novel targeted therapies for patients in these fields. Dr Pemmaraju led a multi-center team in phase I/II clinical trial for patients with BPDCN that ultimately led to FDA approval for the first targeted agent available for this rare leukemia in December 2018. Dr Pemmaraju has authored or co-authored over 160 manuscripts in the peer-reviewed medical literature.  He has presented his work at many national/international meetings as posters and oral presentations (including ASH, AACR, ASCO, EHA).  Dr Pemmaraju has been a pioneer in the early stages of developing social media and its interface with hematology/oncology, specifically in the creation of Twitter hashtag communities, as he is the founder of #MPNSM and #BPDCN.