Ohwofiemu Nwariaku, M.D., FACS, is a Professor of Surgery in the Division of General Surgery at UT Southwestern. He holds the Malcolm O. Perry, M.D., Professorship in Surgery. As an endocrine surgeon, Dr. Nwariaku treats diseases and disorders of the pancreas and thyroid, parathyroid, and adrenal glands with minimally invasive and robotic-assisted procedures.

Dr. Nwariaku earned his medical degree and early training in Nigeria before coming to UT Southwestern for his surgical residency and a research fellowship. He has been on the faculty at UT Southwest-ern since 1998. 

His research focuses on neuroendocrine tumors and on developing new drugs for medullary thyroid cancer based on his team’s discovery of a particular protein that causes medullary thyroid cancer cells to grow. Dr. Nwariaku is also Associate Dean of UT Southwestern’s Office for Global Health, which was established in 2010 to direct and develop training and research initiatives with partners around the world. “I’ve always been interested in building capacity in developing countries,” he says. “We want to teach their health professionals what we know about diseases, injury prevention, and health systems, for example, to bring them up to modern standards and help reduce death and disability.” 

Among his many leadership positions at UT Southwestern and in the medical and research fields, Dr. Nwariaku is a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center and a subcommittee reviewer for the National Cancer Institute. He also serves on the advisory board of the African Journal of Medicine & Medical Sciences and as an external review panelist for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.