Ryan J. Park, M.D.
Department of GU Radiation Oncology, Division of Radiation Oncology
About Dr. Ryan J. Park
Dr. Park is a radiation oncologist and physician-scientist specializing in the treatment of genitourinary cancers. He leads a lab that applies systems-level and mechanistic tools to patient samples and mouse models to discover regulators of tumor immune activation and suppression and pave the way for novel immunotherapies. He received his BS and MS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University and his MD from the Harvard Medical School/MIT Health Sciences and Technology program. He completed a residency in radiation oncology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital through the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program and his postdoctoral research training at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in the laboratory of Nir Hacohen.
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Assistant Professor, GU Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Dual/Joint/Adjunct Appointment
Assistant Professor, GU Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Faculty, Cancer Biology Program, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2018 | Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, US, MD |
| 2012 | Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, US, Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry, BS |
| 2012 | Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, US, Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry, M.S |
Postgraduate Training
| 2019-2023 | Clinical Residency, Radiation Oncology, ABR Holman Research Pathway, Harvard Radiation Oncology Program, Boston, Massachusetts |
| 2019-2023 | Research Fellowship, Regulators and mechanisms of tumor immune modulation by radiation therapy, Hacohen Laboratory, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| 2018-2019 | Clinical Internship, Internal Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts |
| 2013-2016 | Research Fellowship, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, Maryland |
Licenses & Certifications
| 2024 | Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure |
| 2024 | Georgia Composite Medical Board |
| 2024 | Florida Board of Medicine |
| 2024 | Oklahoma State Board of Medical Licensure |
| 2024 | Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners |
| 2024 | Washington State Department of Health |
| 2024 | Arizona Board of Medical Examiners |
| 2024 | Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners |
| 2024 | Alabama Board of Medical Examiners |
| 2023 | American Board of Radiology |
| 2023 | Texas Medical License |
| 2022 | Massachusetts Medical License |
Experience & Service
Other Professional Positions
Radiation Oncology Diversity Equity and Inclusion Committee, Brigham and Women's Hospital/DFCI, Boston, MA, 2022 - 2023
Mentorship Working Group, Harvard Radiation Oncology Program, Boston, MA, 2021 - 2023
Education Policy and Curriculum Committee, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 2017 - 2018
MD Curriculum Committee, Harvard-MIT Health Sciences & Technology, Cambridge, MA, 2012 - 2018
Multicultural Fellows Committee, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 2012 - 2014
Extramural Institutional Committee Activities
Member, GU Radiation Oncology Department Chair Search Advisory Committee, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2024
Honors & Awards
| 2025 | Excellence in Education Award, MD Anderson Cancer Center Division of Radiation Oncology |
| 2023 | Physician Scientist Program, MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2022 | Young Investigator Award, Prostate Cancer Foundation |
| 2020 | Holman Research Pathway, American Board of Radiology |
| 2018 | Martha L Gray Prize, Physiology & Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School |
| 2018 | Martin Research Prize Nomination, Massachusetts General Hospital |
| 2018 | Seidman Prize for Outstanding Senior Medical Student Thesis, Harvard Medical School |
| 2012 | Phi Beta Kappa |
| 2008 - 2011 | Robert C Byrd Honors Scholarship, Yale University |
Professional Memberships
Selected Presentations & Talks
Local Presentations
- 2026. Stromal regulators and therapy-induced evolution of T cell states. Invited. Gallick Lab Meeting. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2025. Identifying regulators of T cell differentiation and radiosensitivity for next-generation T cell therapeutics. Invited. K12 and Physician Scientist Symposium. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2025. Investigating the regulators and clinical correlates of T cell states through translational and mechanistic studies. Invited. Gallick Lab Meeting. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2024. Dissecting the co-regulation of T cell radio-sensitivity and functional states. Invited. Experimental Radiation Oncology Faculty Meeting. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2024. Deep spatial multi-omic phenotyping to define malignant immune micro-nmiches in pancreatic cancer. Invited. Akoya Biosciences Spatial Biology Seminar. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2024. Deep spatial multi-omic phenotyping to define malignant immune micro-nmiches in pancreatic cancer. Invited. Spatial Biology: Multiplex Multi-Omics Seminar. Houston, Texas, US.
National Presentations
- 2016. A Genome-wide CRISPR Screen Reveals a Remarkably Restricted Set of HIV Host Dependency Factors. Invited. American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Microbe - Annual Meeting, US.
International Presentations
- 2015. Identifying Novel Host Dependency Factors for HIV: a Genome-wide CRISPR-based Screen. Invited. Zing Conference: Understanding and Targeting Host Factors in HIV, TB, and Other Infections, ES.
Formal Peers
- 2022. Uncovering Regulators of Radiation-induced T cell Death and Their Relationship to T cell State. Invited, US.
- 2016. Genetic Modification of Primary Human Immune Cells - Challenges and Approaches. Invited, US.
- 2016. A Genome-wide CRISPR Screen Reveals a Restricted Set of HIV Host Dependency Factors. Invited, US.
- 2015. Identifying Novel Host Dependency Factors for HIV: A Genome-wide CRISPR-based Screen. Invited. Cambridge, MA, US.
Grant & Contract Support
| Date: | 2026 - Present |
| Title: | Harnessing membrane dynamics to enhance antitumor immunity |
| Funding Source: | V Foundation for Cancer Research |
| Role: | Co-I |
| Date: | 2025 - Present |
| Title: | Dissecting the Therapeutically Relevant Heterogeneity of Aggressive Variant Prostate Cancers |
| Funding Source: | Birdie for Buddies |
| Role: | Co-PI |
| Date: | 2025 - Present |
| Title: | Armoring T cell Membranes to Potentiate Anti-Tumor Activity |
| Funding Source: | CPRIT MIRA |
| Role: | PI |
| ID: | 2025-00065252-Y1 |
| Date: | 2024 - Present |
| Title: | Defining the Neoantigen and TCR Landscape to Inform Vaccine Approaches in Gastroesophageal Cancer |
| Funding Source: | Torrey Coast Foundation |
| Role: | PI |
| ID: | 6369 |
| Date: | 2022 - Present |
| Title: | Modulating T cell State to Prevent Radiation-Induced Lymphopenia and Enhance Anti-Tumor Immunit |
| Funding Source: | Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) |
| Role: | PI |
| Date: | 2021 - Present |
| Title: | Integrating patient-specific clinical and biological factors towards individualizing utilization of proton and photon radiation therapy: Project 2: Radiation-Induced Lymphopenia: Understanding, Predictive Modeling and Developing Photon and Proton-Based Mitigation Strategies |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NCI |
| Role: | Co-I |
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Wright SJ, Kang S, An M, Heo YJ, Parikh M, Bi L, Lee H, Moorhead G, Haradhvala N, Lim SH, Kim ST, Getz G, Hacohen N, Lee J, Mehta A, Klempner SJ, Park RJ. Differential T cell clonal dynamics underlie outcomes to frontline chemoimmunotherapy in advanced gastric cancer. Cell Rep Med:102910, 2026. e-Pub 2026. PMID: 42392078.
- El Kouzi Z, Mohammed MA, Rooney MK, Kouzy R, Chen JJ, Shah S, Al Bitar T, Gadoue SM, Hassanzadeh C, Frank S, Tran PT, Tang C, Choi S, Park RJ, Hoffman K, McGuire SE, Mok H, Nguyen QN, Samman AB, Rahman Z, Shelan M, Eid T, Mohamad O. Association between author specialty and reported outcomes in nonrandomized comparisons of prostatectomy versus radiation. JNCI Cancer Spectr 10(4), 2026. e-Pub 2026. PMID: 42390011.
- Wright SJ, Zamora I, Parikh M, Yeramosu D, Rucevic M, Sade-Feldman M, LaSalle TJ, Blaum EM, Liu B, Bi L, Kang S, Blum SM, Nguyen N, Guess J, Kar A, Schneider AM, Lieb D, Woods E, Michaud W, Lawless AR, Sharova T, Cohen S, Kasumova G, Kim MS, Cheng LC, Villani AC, Park RJ, Jenkins RW, Klempner SJ, Sullivan RJ, Flaherty KT, Hacohen N, Mehta A, Boland GM. Multimodal blood based proteomic profiling reveals insights into mechanisms of immunotherapy resistance. Nat Commun, 2026. e-Pub 2026. PMID: 42342704.
- Khan MA, Chang J, Song Y, Shetty AC, Nguyen T, Waters DN, Chowdhury DD, Simms E, Chan A, Tseng HW, Lam C, Patel P, Tran LT, Chen J, Wang JH, Nugent K, Ballew M, Lemtiri-Chlieh G, Carrieri FA, Malek R, Wang H, Thielman NRJ, Li K, Park RJ, Hwang WL, Zheng L, Gabrielson K, Tran PT, Lafargue A. Twist1 overexpression models an aggressive subtype of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma in vivo. Lab Anim (NY) 55(8):288-301, 2026. e-Pub 2026. PMID: 42174151.
- Shi X, Wang JH, Chapin BF, Aparicio A, Subudhi SK, Tran PT, Park RJ, Deek MP, Zhang H, Bylund KC, Cummings M, Armstrong AJ, Tang C, Sutera P. Integrating systemic therapy and metastasis-directed therapy in oligometastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer. Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis 29(2):282-291, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 41076453.
- Park RJ, Schoenfeld JD. The Ongoing Challenge of Radiation-Immunotherapy Optimization: From Preclinical Insights to Clinical Practice. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 123(5):1350-1352, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 41037048.
- Sherry AD, Siddiqui BA, Haymaker C, Fellman BM, Medina-Rosales MN, Bathala TK, Wang S, Liu S, Seo A, Hara K, Lu H, Troncoso P, Chun SG, Ha CS, Mayo LL, Mok H, Park RJ, Chapin BF, Phillips RM, Deek MP, Kovitz CA, Aparicio A, Zurita AJ, Pilie PG, Cohen L, Choi SL, Reuben A, Tran PT, Corn PG, Subudhi SK, Tang C. Continuous Androgen Deprivation Therapy with or Without Metastasis-directed Therapy for Oligometastatic Prostate Cancer: The Multicenter Phase 2 Randomized EXTEND Trial. Eur Urol 88(5):496-509, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 40750497.
- Hassanzadeh, CJ, Kuban, DA, Pasyar, S, Bassett Jr, R, Troncoso, P, Ansari, M, Schlembach, PJ, McGuire, SE, Nguyen, Q, Frank, SJ, Mok, H, Mohamad, O, Park, RJ, Tang, C, Du, W, Kudchadker, RJ, Choi, S, Hoffman, K. Hypofractionated, Dose-Escalated Radiation Versus Conventionally Fractionated Radiation for Localized Prostate Cancer. Journal of Clinical Oncology 43(18):2044-2048, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 40367400.
- Mohamad, O, Kouzi, ZE, Kouzy, R, Choi, S, Mok, H, Hoffman, K, Nguyen, Q, Hassanzadeh, CJ, Tang, C, Park, RJ, Shah, SJ, McGuire, SE, Mayo, LL, Kim, Y, Prajapati, S, Vijayan, S, Kudchadker, RJ, Bruno, TL, Frank, SJ. Safety and early outcomes of proton therapy and low-dose rate brachytherapy boost for patients with prostate cancer. Brachytherapy 24(2):1-9, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 40024668.
- Hassanzadeh, CJ, Mohamad, O, Bruno, TL, Wang, L, Kudchakar, R, Bathala, TK, Sanders, JW, Mok, H, McGuire, SE, Kuban, DA, Hoffman, K, Nguyen, Q, Park, RJ, Thames, HD, Corn, P, Chapin, BF, Choi, S, Tang, C, Frank, SJ. Early outcomes following local salvage treatment with MRI-assisted low-dose rate brachytherapy (MARS) for MRI-visible postsurgical bed recurrences and focal intraprostatic recurrences. Brachytherapy 24(2):231-237, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 39755443.
- An M, Mehta A, Min BH, Heo YJ, Wright SJ, Parikh M, Bi L, Lee H, Kim TJ, Lee SY, Moon J, Park RJ, Strickland MR, Park WY, Kang WK, Kim KM, Kim ST, Klempner SJ, Lee J. Early Immune Remodeling Steers Clinical Response to First-Line Chemoimmunotherapy in Advanced Gastric Cancer. Cancer Discov 14(5):766-785, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 38319303.
- Nathan A, Rossin EJ, Kaseke C, Park RJ, Khatri A, Koundakjian D, Urbach JM, Singh NK, Bashirova A, Tano-Menka R, Senjobe F, Waring MT, Piechocka-Trocha A, Garcia-Beltran WF, Iafrate AJ, Naranbhai V, Carrington M, Walker BD, Gaiha GD. Structure-guided T cell vaccine design for SARS-CoV-2 variants and sarbecoviruses. Cell 184(17):4401-4413.e10, 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 34265281.
- Kaseke C, Park RJ, Singh NK, Koundakjian D, Bashirova A, Garcia Beltran WF, Takou Mbah OC, Ma J, Senjobe F, Urbach JM, Nathan A, Rossin EJ, Tano-Menka R, Khatri A, Piechocka-Trocha A, Waring MT, Birnbaum ME, Baker BM, Carrington M, Walker BD, Gaiha GD. HLA class-I-peptide stability mediates CD8+ T cell immunodominance hierarchies and facilitates HLA-associated immune control of HIV. Cell Rep 36(2):109378, 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 34260940.
- Park RJ, Wang T, Koundakjian D, Hultquist JF, Lamothe-Molina P, Monel B, Schumann K, Yu H, Krupzcak KM, Garcia-Beltran W, Piechocka-Trocha A, Krogan NJ, Marson A, Sabatini DM, Lander ES, Hacohen N, Walker BD. A genome-wide CRISPR screen identifies a restricted set of HIV host dependency factors. Nat Genet 49(2):193-203, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 27992415.
- Chen CA, Park RJ, Hegde JV, Jun T, Christman MP, Yoo SM, Yamasaki A, Berhanu A, Vohra-Khullar P, Remus K, Schwartzstein RM, Weinstein AR. How we used a patient visit tracker tool to advance experiential learning in systems-based practice and quality improvement in a medical student clinic. Med Teach 38(1):36-40, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 25401409.
- Park RJ, Shen H, Liu L, Liu X, Ferguson SM, De Camilli P. Dynamin triple knockout cells reveal off target effects of commonly used dynamin inhibitors. J Cell Sci 126(Pt 22):5305-12, 2013. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 24046449.
- Shen H, Ferguson SM, Dephoure N, Park R, Yang Y, Volpicelli-Daley L, Gygi S, Schlessinger J, De Camilli P. Constitutive activated Cdc42-associated kinase (Ack) phosphorylation at arrested endocytic clathrin-coated pits of cells that lack dynamin. Mol Biol Cell 22(4):493-502, 2011. e-Pub 2011. PMID: 21169560.
Patient Reviews
CV information above last modified August 21, 2026