• Board Member

Board Member
Professor at the UT Science Center at Houston

Dr. Gustavo Ayala is a tenured Professor and holds the Distinguished Chair in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the McGovern Medical School of the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston. He is a highly experienced nationally and internationally recognized urologic pathologist. After training at the National Cancer Institute in Paraguay, Dr. Ayala completed his residency at Georgetown University and a fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine. Later he worked at the Hahnemann Hospital in Philadelphia and Baylor College of Medicine as an Assistant Professor. In a short period of time he rose through the ranks to become a tenured Professor of Pathology and Scott Department of Urology and was awarder the R. Clarence and Irene H. Fulbright Endowed Chair. He served as a reviewer for many pathology and oncology journals, and served on national and international grant review committees and expert panels. Dr. Ayala’s work has been highlighted in the journal Nature. He has been a guest lecturer in the most prestigious universities and in over fourteen countries.

Dr. Ayala has a very active basic science, clinical and translational research for which he received uninterrupted funding from the National Cancer Institute, The Prostate Cancer Foundation, the Department of Defense and other foundation and industry grants. He is a recognized leader in urologic cancer research and an innovator in the field. He has published more than 140 scholarly manuscripts. Additionally, Dr. Ayala is an internationally recognized expert in the role of neuroepithelial interactions in cancer, development of novel markers for prostate cancer diagnosis and prediction of treatment outcome using both hypothesis-based approaches. His prostate cancer biomarker work has yielded new models based on host response rather than the cancer cell, now in the process of patenting. Because of Dr. Ayala’s early and continuous studies in the role of interactions between nerves and cancer he is considered the leading authority in the field.

He is a member of several professional organizations including the College of American Pathologists, the Arthur Purdy Stout Society, and the International Urologic Pathology Society. He has served as the President of Texas Society of Pathology and is currently a member at large of the Board. Dr. Ayala also has served on the Texas Medical Center International Affairs Advisory Committee. He is also a referral source for international patients to the Texas Medical Center due to his international reputation and contacts. Finally, Dr. Ayala is a diplomat, representing the country in which he was born, as the Honorary Consul General for the Republic of Paraguay since 2005.