Dr. Nadarajen A. Vydelingum is the Deputy Director of the NCI Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities (CRCHD). He is experienced in both clinical research and basic science, bringing a diverse background in education and administration to this position. He is instrumental in supporting the CRCHD's central goal of translating research discoveries into policies and/or services aimed at reducing cancer-related health disparities in racial/ethnic minority, elderly, rural, and other medically underserved communities.
Dr. Vydelingum earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Biochemistry from London University in the United Kingdom. He began his career in the United States in 1977 in the Departments of Medicine and Pharmacology at the Medical College of Wisconsin and as Director of the Lipid Laboratory in the University's General Clinical Research Center. His early research interest in insulin action and fat metabolism as related to type II diabetes and obesity brought him to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where he led a group in the study of cancer cachexia (cancer-induced tissue depletion) and the influence of cytokines on lipid/protein stores in cancer patients.
In 1991, Dr. Vydelingum joined the NIH Division of Research Grants (now the Center for Scientific Research), where he headed a Scientific Review Group on peer review in bioengineering and physiology in the Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer Research (SBIR/STTR) and other programs.
One of Dr. Vydelingum's major interests is science education. He has organized courses for targeted M.D. and graduate Biochemistry students at the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and spent 3 years as a Lecturer in Advanced Cell Biology at Johns Hopkins University.
