Vijay Kuchroo

Vijay K. Kuchroo is an Indian-American immunologist and entrepreneur. He is the Samuel L. Wasserstrom Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Brigham & Women's Hospital, and the founding Director of The Gene Lay Institute of Immunology and Inflammation at Brigham & Women's Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. He is also an Institute Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Kuchroo is known for his research in autoimmunity, neuroimmunology, and cancer immunology. Seminal work from the Kuchroo laboratory include discovery of the co-inhibitory receptor TIM-3, and other TIM family of genes, and a pathogenic immune cell subset that drives autoimmune neuroinflammation called Th17 cells.

Career Kuchroo graduated with honors from a Bachelor of Veterinary Science (equivalent to DVM) from Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India, and obtained a Ph.D. in Veterinary Pathology from the University of Queensland, Brisbane Australia. Kuchroo later joined Harvard Medical School’s Neurology Department as a junior faculty member, and was promoted in 2004 to Professor, and Senior Scientist at Brigham & Women's Hospital. In 2005, he was named the first incumbent of the Samuel L. Wasserstrom chair of Neurology, an endowed chair established with a gift to Harvard Medical School from Boston Biotechnology company, Biogen, and named in honor of Howard Weiner’s grandfather who was killed in the Holocaust. In 2014, Kuchroo became founding Director of the Evergrande Center for Immunologic Diseases, In 2023, he was appointed as the inaugural Director of The Gene Lay Institute of Immunology and Inflammation, which was established with a $100 million gift to Brigham & Women's Hospital from biotechnology entrepreneur and founder of BioLegend, Dr. Gene Lay, MS, DVM. To study autoimmune inflammation in the CNS, his laboratory has generated transgenic mice models which spontaneously develop neuroinflammation, including the 2D2 T cell receptor transgenic mice which are now widely used to study CNS autoimmunity.

The immune checkpoint receptor, T-cell immunoglobulin and mucin-domain containing-3 (TIM-3, encoded by the Havcr2 gene), was first discovered by Kuchroo and his team, Similar to other checkpoint inhibitors such as PD-1 and CTLA-4, TIM-3 has been targeted to treat several solid and hematogenous malignancies, including melanoma, Acute Myeloid Leukemia, and myelodysplastic syndrome. Kuchroo was instrumental in shepherding anti-Tim-3 antibody from discovery through to clinic by working with a number of biotech and drug companies to its ultimate use by Novartis for treatment in cancer. at the time was followed by the identification of pathways that regulate their differentiation and pro-inflammatory functions. The Kuchroo lab extensively characterized the role of Th17 cells in autoimmune disease pathogenesis, and together with bioinformatician Aviv Regev at the Broad Institute, built the regulatory network for the development. Dr. Kuchroo was instrumental in promoting clinical trials of IL-17-blockade for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, leading to successful treatment of multiple autoimmune diseases with IL-17 and IL-23 inhibitors. He was also the first to identify a link between high salt and generation of Th17 cells, suggesting a role of high salt diets in triggering autoimmune diseases, which has now been confirmed by multiple epidemiological studies in human autoimmune diseases.

Awards 2025 - American Association of Immunologists (AAI) - Thermo Fisher Meritorious Career Award 2021 - John Dystel Prize for Multiple Sclerosis Research from National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the American Academy of Neurology 2021 - AAI Distinguished Fellow Award 2020 - ICIS BioLegend William E. Paul Award 2017 - Nobel Assembly Lecture at Karolinska Institute 2014 - Nobel Laureate Peter Doherty Distinguished Lecture / Prize 2011 - Ranbaxy Science Foundation Prize for Medical Research (New Delhi, India) 1985 - NIH Fogarty International Fellow 1984–1985 - University of Queensland Fred Z. Eager Research Prize and Medal for the best Ph.D. thesis (Brisbane, Australia)