Manmeet Ahluwalia, M.D., MBA, FASCO, is the chief scientific officer, chief of medical oncology, deputy director and Fernandez Family Endowed Chair in Cancer Research at Baptist Health Miami Cancer Institute.

As a neuro-oncologist, Dr. Ahluwalia’s primary areas of research and patient care are primary brain tumors (tumors originating in the brain that can be cancerous or noncancerous) and brain metastases (cancer that originated elsewhere in the body and has spread to the brain). Dr. Ahluwalia is fluent in English, Hindi and Punjabi.

Dr. Ahluwalia completed internal medicine training at Cleveland Clinic Health System and fellowship training at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in 2009. He joined Cleveland Clinic, Ohio and soon became the Miller Family Endowed Chair in Neuro-Oncology and the head of operations at Burkhardt Brain Tumor and Neuro-Oncology Center in 2015. He became a full Professor at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University in 2017. Dr. Ahluwalia obtained an MBA from Case Western - Weatherhead School of Management. Soon after, he moved to Miami Cancer Institute (MCI), intending to build the largest cancer program in South Florida. Alongside his leadership responsibilities, Dr. Ahluwalia holds the Fernandez Family Foundation Endowed Chair in Cancer Research at MCI.

Dr. Ahluwalia is driven by a passion for conquering brain tumors, having seen his grandmother succumb to cancer. For over a decade, he has led practice-changing research for developing new therapies for patients with primary brain tumors and brain metastases, resulting in his 250+ peer- reviewed papers. He designed and led the initial studies on combining immunotherapy/targeted therapy and radiosurgery in brain metastases. He co-led the first-in-man trial of Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy (LITT) for primary brain tumors, which led to US FDA approval. He also designed and led the LASSR trial exploring LITT for brain metastases and radiation necrosis. He also first authored the landmark paper describing the Phase II trial of SurVaxM for glioblastoma in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Along with a busy practice, he serves as the Principal Investigator (PI) on a $3.9 million NIH R01-funded grant on quantitative imaging phenotypic classifier development for radiomics in glioblastoma. This is the first NIH R01 grant ever received by Baptist Health. He is also the ‘clinical trial leader’ on the $10.4 million PO1 grant focusing on Glioblastoma gender-specific differences (Cosine Consortium). He is the PI on ongoing paradigm-changing FDA-approval-intent studies on blood- brain barrier disruption by Insightec Neuroblate (LIMITLESS, LIBERATE) through Low-Intensity Focused Ultrasound for primary brain tumors and brain metastases. He also chairs the scientific advisory committee of Guardian Research Network (GRN), a nationwide healthcare alliance.

Dr. Ahluwalia has been a leader in organized efforts in neuro-oncology. He currently serves as the chair of the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) South-West Oncology Group (SWOG) Brain Tumor Working Group and the DEI co-chair of SWOG. He also chairs the Scientific Review Committee of the International Gamma Knife Research Foundation. He also serves as a member of the National Brain Tumor Society (NBTS) Roundtable Committee and as founder PI of the coordinating site for the International Radiosurgery Research Foundation.

Dr. Ahluwalia has received several prestigious awards, including the Fellowship of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the National Cancer Institute/CTEP Career Development Award via the American Brain Tumor Consortium (ABTC), ASCO Leadership Development Program, Most Distinguished Physician Award of AAPI, amongst others.

In his free time, Dr. Ahluwalia enjoys spending time with his children, playing and watching tennis, and watching movies with his family.