Dr. Avnesh S. Thakor is a Professor of Radiology at Stanford University, Director of the Center for Interventional Radiology Innovation (IRIS), and an internationally recognized physician-scientist pioneering the field of Precision Delivery. Dual fellowship-trained and board-certified in both adult and pediatric interventional radiology, Dr. Thakor completed his medical and doctoral training at Cambridge University, with advanced fellowships at the University of British Columbia and University of Toronto. He leads an NIH-funded translational laboratory developing next-generation strategies for targeted delivery of drugs, genes, cells, and extracellular vesicles to treat complex diseases. His research includes the design of targeted locoregional techniques, device innovation for cell therapies and microenvironment modulation, and the use of pulsed focused ultrasound (pFUS) to non-invasively prime cells and organs.

Dr. Thakor has established foundational clinical programs at Stanford, including pediatric interventional radiology and both adult and pediatric islet transplantation. As principal or co-investigator on multiple preclinical and clinical trials, he has translated novel delivery technologies and therapies from bench to bedside; advancing minimally invasive, image-guided regener­­ative medicine, novel endovascular routes for cell therapies in children, and non-invasive ablative techniques for pediatric tumors. His entrepreneurial efforts include co-founding Teal Health and inventing an FDA-approved cervical cancer self-sampling device, recognized as a 2025 Time Magazine Best Invention.

A prolific scholar, Dr. Thakor has authored over 120 publications, holds more than 15 patents, and secured multiple NIH R01 awards. He actively mentors the next generation of physician-scientists, serves on national scientific and advisory committees, and is recognized as a Fellow of the Society of Interventional Radiology and Distinguished Investigator of the Academy for Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Research. Dr. Thakor’s career is defined by clinical excellence, translational innovation, and a vision to deliver cutting-edge therapies to the world’s most vulnerable patients.