Gayathri Devi, Ph.D., M.S., Joins MUSC Department of Surgery

The MUSC Department of Surgery is pleased to announce that Gayathri Devi, Ph.D., M.S., joins MUSC in a dual role as Professor of Surgical Oncology and Vice Chair of Innovation in the Department of Surgery, and as Director for Scientific Program Integration at Hollings Cancer Center, effective October 1, 2025.

Dr. Devi comes to MUSC from Duke University, where she held faculty appointments in the Departments of Surgery, Pathology, and Medical Physics and was a member of the Duke Cancer Institute. During her tenure, she directed the Duke Consortium for Inflammatory Breast Cancer. She will continue her affiliation with Duke University as an adjunct professor.

Nationally recognized for her leadership, Dr. Devi was the inaugural director of the Duke: North Carolina Central University Bridge office at the Duke Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) and has served on the Board of Directors of the Association for Clinical and Translational Sciences (ACTS). She is currently a Board Member of the International Consortium for Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC-IC). In 2025, ACTS honored her with the Addressing Health Equity through Partnership and Innovation Award.

Her research spans programmed cell death, functional genomics, tumor immunology with a translational focus across oncology and surgical sciences. With continuous federal funding, philanthropic support, and extensive international collaborations across Europe, Africa, and Asia, she has built highly productive partnerships with clinicians, cancer biologists, engineers, computational scientists, population health experts, behavioral scientists, and community stakeholders. These multidisciplinary collaborations foster population-conscious, bidirectional engagement projects rooted in a “bedside to bench to curbside and back” cyclical framework that directly improves health outcomes.

As Vice Chair of Innovation in the Department of Surgery, she will foster a culture of innovation through a team science approach. Dr. Devi is particularly interested in developing multi-scale disease models integrating cellular, spatial, and computational technologies and follows the guiding philosophy of the cyclical framework, ensuring that scientific innovation is grounded in patient and community needs. As Director for Scientific Program Integration at Hollings Cancer Center, she will strengthen inter- and intra-programmatic collaborations within Hollings and across MUSC.

Dr. Devi is also passionate about junior faculty, graduate and postgraduate leadership development, with a particular focus on empowering women and early-career faculty. She believes strongly in integrating research and innovation into training from the earliest stages of a surgeon or scientist’s career. Recognized internationally for her mentorship, she received the Duke University School of Medicine Research Mentoring Award in 2021 and the Celebrating Mentor Honor Award in 2020. She also serves as Chair of the Mentoring Committee of Women in Endocrinology.

Please join us in welcoming Dr. Gayathri Devi to MUSC.