Lokesh Agrawal, Ph.D.
Dr. Agrawal is a Program Director in the Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research Branch (BBRB), leading biospecimen research and biobanking projects. He currently leads a grants program on "Integrating Biospecimen Science Approaches into Clinical Assay Development" and the Cancer Moonshot Biobank. The Biobank collects longitudinal biospecimens from over 1000 cancer patients. Dr. Agrawal’s expertise is in biospecimen science, biobanking, biomarker development, and clinical laboratory science. He is involved in biomarker plan design for NCI clinical trials in collaboration with the Clinical Trials and Evaluation Program (CTEP) and is engaged in several trans-NCI programs on assay validation, cancer technology development, low-cost technology in global health, and physical sciences and oncology.
Before joining NCI in 2012, Dr. Agrawal was a team leader at AstraZeneca Inc., (formerly Medimmune Inc.). There he worked on projects involving pre-clinical and clinical biomarker assay development and the validation of biomarkers in oncology and infectious diseases. He managed several cross-functional teams in this role. Prior to working for Medimmune, he worked at Rapid Pharmaceuticals, Inc., as a Research Director in oncology, infectious diseases, vaccines, and biomarker and clinical endpoint assay development. He worked in collaboration with contract research organizations.
Dr. Agrawal led and directed several NIH-sponsored projects at Thomas Jefferson University on gene therapy approaches. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, studying HIV therapeutics and gene therapy. He graduated from Delhi University and earned his Ph.D. from All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India.
Dr. Agrawal has authored several manuscripts in high-impact journals and has presented at national and international conferences. His interests include biobanking, biospecimen science in a clinical setting, including development and validation of novel biomarkers for cancer treatment and diagnosis.
Selected Publications
- Moschos SJ, Eroglu Z, Khushalani NI, et al. Targeting the IL-2 inducible kinase in melanoma; a phase 2 study of ibrutinib in systemic treatment-refractory distant metastatic cutaneous melanoma: preclinical rationale, biology, and clinical activity (NCI9922). Melanoma Res. 2021;31(2):162-172. doi:10.1097/CMR.0000000000000726
- Agrawal L, Engel KB, Greytak SR, Moore HM. Understanding preanalytical variables and their effects on clinical biomarkers of oncology and immunotherapy. Semin Cancer Biol. 2018;52(Pt 2):26-38. doi:10.1016/j.semcancer.2017.12.008
- Ossandon MR, Agrawal L, Bernhard EJ, et al. Circulating Tumor DNA Assays in Clinical Cancer Research. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2018;110(9):929-934. doi:10.1093/jnci/djy105
- Unger FT, Lange N, Krüger J, et al. Nanoproteomic analysis of ischemia-dependent changes in signaling protein phosphorylation in colorectal normal and cancer tissue. J Transl Med. 2016;14:6. Published 2016 Jan 8. doi:10.1186/s12967-015-0752-1
- Pearlman PC, Divi R, Gwede M, et al. The National Institutes of Health Affordable Cancer Technologies Program: Improving Access to Resource-Appropriate Technologies for Cancer Detection, Diagnosis, Monitoring, and Treatment in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. IEEE J Transl Eng Health Med. 2016;4:2800708. Published 2016 Sep 8. doi:10.1109/JTEHM.2016.2604485