Puram Elected to American Society for Clinical Investigation

Sidharth (Sid) V. Puram, MD, PhD, co-director of The Robert Ebert and Greg Stubblefield Head and Neck Tumor Center at Siteman Cancer Center, has been elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), one of the nation’s oldest and most respected medical honor societies. Siteman is based at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and WashU Medicine, where Puram also is the Lindburg Professor and chair of the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery.

The ASCI focuses on the special role of physician-scientists in research, clinical care and medical education, as well as their leadership in academic medicine and industry.

Founded in 1908, the ASCI recognizes early- to mid-career physician scientists who have made significant contributions to translational or clinical research. Election is a recognition of outstanding scholarly achievement and impactful, sustained work that advances the understanding, diagnosis or treatment of human disease.

Puram has advanced scientists’ understanding of tumor growth, treatment resistance and metastasis in head and neck cancers — discoveries that have opened new options for treating these challenging tumors. His research explores the complex ecosystem of diverse cells within a tumor and how they communicate with one another, using single-cell and spatial analyses to understand tumors in exquisite detail. His work has helped define the cellular and molecular diversity within head and neck cancers, informed several innovative clinical trials and identified potential therapeutic targets to improve patient outcomes.

He was one of three WashU Medicine physicians elected to the society this year. The others are Suzanne E. Schindler, MD, PhD, an associate professor of neurology, and Christopher D. Smyser, MD, the A. Ernest & Jane G. Stein Professor of Developmental Neurology and chief of the Division of Pediatric & Developmental Neurology.

Their election to ASCI highlights WashU Medicine’s strength in supporting physician-scientists who bridge laboratory research and clinical care. Puram, Schindler and Smyser were formally inducted at the 2026 annual joint meeting of the ASCI, the Association of American Physicians and the American Physician Scientists Association in Chicago.

They are among seven WashU Medicine physicians who have been elected to the ASCI since 2012. Of the seven, four are affiliated with Siteman Cancer Center or Siteman Kids at St. Louis Children’s Hospital: Puram, Jorge A. Di Paola, MD, Patricia Dickson, MD, and Angela Hirbe, MD, PhD.