Lei Zheng, MD, PhD

Lei Zheng, MD, PhD, is the executive director of Mays Cancer Center, home to UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center, and the vice president for oncology and a professor of medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He also holds the Mays Family Foundation Distinguished University Presidential Chair of Oncology. He specializes in the treatment of pancreatic and gastrointestinal cancers. 

Dr. Zheng is widely recognized as a global leader in pancreatic cancer care, attracting patients from around the world for his expertise. Dr. Zheng’s groundbreaking research focuses on the tumor microenvironment in pancreatic cancer and the development of mouse models to advance preclinical studies of combination immunotherapies. He previously was co-director of the Pancreatic Cancer Precision Medicine Center of Excellence Program at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Dr. Zheng earned his undergraduate degree in pre-medicine from Peking University and completed his medical degree at Peking Union Medical College. He went on to earn a doctoral degree in molecular medicine from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. After completing his residency at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, he pursued a fellowship in medical oncology at Johns Hopkins. His postdoctoral research fellowships included molecular medicine at UT Health San Antonio and biochemistry and molecular biology at Rockefeller University.

Dr. Zheng is an NIH-funded researcher, who currently leads several significant projects, including two R01 grants as principal investigator, one P50 grant as project leader, and numerous collaborative research initiatives. His research interests include pancreatic cancer biology, translational immunology, cancer immunotherapy and the tumor microenvironment.

Dr. Zheng was the former director of the Multidisciplinary Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Research Laboratory and the NCI T32 Training Program on Surgical Oncology Research at Johns Hopkins. His leadership roles include chairing the China Advisory Group for the International Affairs Committee of the American Association for Cancer Research and editor-in-chief of the Annals of Pancreatic Cancer. Among his many accolades, Dr. Zheng received the prestigious Hirshberg Award for pancreatic cancer research at the 45th Anniversary Meeting of the American Pancreas Association in 2014.

In addition to his research and clinical work, Dr. Zheng has authored numerous publications, including several book chapters, and served as editor of the book Pancreatic Cancer. He is an active member of professional organizations such as the Chinese American Hematologist Oncologist Network (CAHON), the International Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (IHPBA), and the American Pancreas Association (APA).