Ankit Bharat

Ankit Bharat, MBBS, serves as Chief of Thoracic Surgery and the Harold L. and Margaret N. Method Professor of Surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, with joint appointments in the Department of Surgery (Thoracic Surgery) and Medicine (Pulmonary and Critical Care). Board certified in general and thoracic surgery, he specializes in malignant and benign chest/esophageal diseases and leads the Kovler Comprehensive Transplant Center's thoracic initiatives.

His educational trajectory includes:

• MBBS from Christian Medical College, India (2003)
• Postdoctoral Fellowship in General Surgery at Washington University (2006)
• Internship and Residency in General Surgery (2011) and Cardiothoracic Surgery (2013) at Washington University in St Louis, Barnes Jewish Hospital

Dr. Bharat's research centers on lung preservation, transplant immunology, and airway biology, with emphasis on graft rejection mechanisms, post-transplant malignancy, and lung cancer in transplant recipients. His work bridges clinical thoracic surgery with translational immunology through collaborations with the Kovler Comprehensive Transplant Center and Pulmonary/Critical Care Division.

His 2025 publications reveal a pronounced focus on complex lung transplantation scenarios involving cancer patients, rare lung pathologies, and immunological complications. Recent works establish clinical guidelines for thymic tumors while investigating novel links between graft rejection and malignancy—highlighting his leadership in advancing thoracic transplant oncology.

Notable recognitions include:

• Election to the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI)
• ASCI Young Physician Scientist Award
• Jacobson II Promising Investigator Award (American College of Surgeons)
• Multiple Best Paper/Research Awards from AATS, ISHLT, and ATS
• NIH and Thoracic Surgery Foundation research grants

He directs the Chicago Advance Thoracic Surgery Symposium and chairs the NCCN Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Panel, while serving on editorial boards for the American Journal of Transplantation and American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology. His industry collaborations with Lung Healing Technologies and LungIQ focus on translational lung therapeutics.

As a principal investigator at the Simpson Querrey Lung Institute for Translational Science, he leads multidisciplinary teams studying primary graft dysfunction and COVID-19 lung transplant outcomes, with recent work identifying molecular pathways for preventing graft injury.