Dr. Ranjit Bindra an Indian American physician-scientist at Yale School of Medicine has been elected to the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE) for 2026.
Bindra, Co-Director of the Yale Brain Tumor Center at Smilow Cancer Hospital, and seven other faculty members, are among the leading experts in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine chosen for this year’s cohort.
Election to CASE is open to scientists and engineers who work or live in Connecticut. Consideration is based on “scientific distinction achieved through significant original contributions in theory or applications, unusual accomplishments in the pioneering of new and developing fields of applied science and technology, or both,” according to the organization.
The new members will be inducted at the academy’s 51st annual dinner to be held on May 19.
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In the laboratory, Bindra’s group recently led a team of four major laboratories at Yale, which reported the stunning discovery that IDH1/2-mutant tumors harbor a profound DNA repair defect that renders them exquisitely sensitive to PARP inhibitors.
This work was published in Science Translational Medicine, and Nature, and it has received international attention with major clinical implications.
Dr. Bindra is now translating this work directly into patients, in four phase I/II clinical trials, including an innovative, biomarker-driven trial specifically targeting the Adolescent/Young Adult (AYA) cancer patient population. In addition, he is lead co-PI of a 35-site, NCI-sponsored Phase II trial testing the PARP inhibitor, olaparib, in adult IDH1/2-mutant solid tumors.
As a biotech entrepreneur he recently co-founded Cybrexa Therapeutics, a Series B round-funded company focused on developing an entirely new class of small molecule DNA repair inhibitors, which directly target the tumor microenvironment.
Dr. Bindra received his undergraduate degree in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University in 1998, and both his MD and PhD from the Yale School of Medicine in 2007. He completed his medical internship, radiation oncology residency, and post-doctoral research studies at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in 2012.