Our Faculty and Staff

Appu Rathinavelu, Ph.D., has served as director of NSU’s Rumbaugh-Goodwin Institute for Cancer Research (RGI) since 2007. Rathinavelu is leading RGI’s efforts to develop new therapeutics and treatment strategies for curing cancer. His research team at RGI is actively engaged in drug discovery, genomics, epigenetic, biomarkers research, and making good strides in identifying the active compounds naturally found in plants and other sources that might enhance the effectiveness of chemotherapy.

In addition to his role with RGI, Rathinavelu he holds the rank of professor at NSU’s Barry & Judy Silverman College of Pharmacy. Rathinavelu received his doctoral degree from the University of Madras in India, and conducted his post-doctoral training at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, before he joined NSU in 1992.

Some of his noteworthy accomplishments are, Rathinavelu was awarded the prestigious J. William Fulbright Award for Excellence in Teaching and Research in 2015. The Fulbright Program, the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program, is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. Rathinavelu has also received U.S. patents for two anti-angiogenic agents (code named RD1 and JFD) that were designed to fight breast, ovarian, prostate, lung, and colorectal cancers. One of his newly discovered drugs has received patents from Japan, Korea, the European Union, and Canada. Currently, RD1 is being tested for treating Glioblastoma, and his research team at RGI has embarked on a project to discover new drugs for treating Neuroblastoma that occurs in children. While trying to advance the research goals of the Rumbaugh Goodwin Institute for Cancer Research (RGI) of NSU, his team is also collaborating with several faculty members of the South Florida Institutions. All of Dr. Rathinavelu’s externally funded projects have brought innovations to NSU that were patentable.

Some of his other achievements include publishing more than 70 peer-reviewed research articles, serving on the editorial boards of scientific journals, co-authoring a textbook, authoring several book chapters, and delivering more than 100 presentations at national and international conferences. Since 1992, he has mentored more than 250 undergraduate students, professional degree students, graduate students, and postdoctoral research fellows. In 2016, Rathinavelu received the Distinguished Professor award from the president of Nova Southeastern University.