Arati Rao is a physician-scientist and oncology leader whose career spans academic medicine and biopharmaceutical innovation. After completing her residency in internal medicine and fellowships in heme-onc and geriatrics at Duke University, she joined the faculty and served for more than a decade as an Associate Professor of Medicine, where she led clinical and translational research in hematologic malignancies, secured NIH funding, and mentored numerous fellows and junior faculty who have gone on to leadership roles in oncology. Arati has also held leadership roles with NCCN, ASCO, SIOG AACR, and ASH, including service on the NCCN Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Guidelines (v1.0) panel and the ASH Scientific Committee for Myeloid Biology.
After 18 years at Duke, Arati transitioned to industry and worked with BD to acquired Kite Pharma and subsequently transitioned to development of CAR T-cell therapies there. As the global lead for ZUMA-2, she led the filings and received accelerated approval for Tecartus™ (brexucabtagene autoleucel, formerly KTE-X19), the first and only CAR T treatment for Relapsed/Refractory Mantle Cell Lymphoma and adult ALL. She subsequently served as Vice President, Early-Stage Development at Seagen where she was responsible for 14 molecules and several collaborations. After, the acquisition of Seagen by Pfizer, she served as Vice President- Late-Stage Clinical Development and served as the Thoracic Oncology TA Head, interim Heme TA head, and most recently as the Global Franchise Head for PF-4404 (PD1-VEGF bispecific)