Ashwin Varma

Ashwin Varma is a Swanson Fellow at The Column Group, a biotechnology venture-capital firm. He joined the firm in 2026 after completing an internship in internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Varma’s experience spans medicine, biotechnology, drug development, and venture capital. Before medical school, he was an associate consultant at Boston Consulting Group, where his work included COVID-19 drug development. He has also worked in immuno-oncology business development at Celgene and as a summer associate at Lux Capital, where he gained experience in venture creation.

Varma previously conducted cancer research at MD Anderson Cancer Center, including work with Jim Allison and Padmanee Sharma examining mechanisms of resistance to PD-1 immunotherapy in urologic cancers. His earlier research included the development and evaluation of combination therapies for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Varma earned an M.D. from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and a bachelor’s in statistics and biochemistry from Rice University.