Vaithish Velazhahan

Vaithish Velazhahan, from Manhattan, Kansas, and Coimbatore, India, is pursuing an MD at Stanford School of Medicine. Vaithish graduated from the honors program at Kansas State University with bachelor’s degrees in medical biochemistry and microbiology and obtained a PhD in structural biology from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the University of Cambridge. Vaithish aspires to practice as a physician-scientist and develop novel therapies for intractable fungal diseases. At Cambridge, he developed new tools and methodologies that led to the determination of the first high-resolution structures of G protein-coupled receptors from fungi. Vaithish is also passionate about resolving global health disparities and has worked with MEDLIFE in Peru and Ecuador and founded the nonprofit We Save in India, which develops technology to connect doctors with underserved patients. Vaithish is a recipient of the Goldwater Scholarship, Gates Cambridge Scholarship, and Research Fellowship at Caius College, Cambridge.