Dr. Rao is originally from Fremont in the Bay Area. He spent his undergraduate years at the University of California, Los Angeles majoring in Psychobiology and went on to complete his medical degree at St. George's University in 2007. His internship and residency in Internal Medicine were completed at the State University of New York in Brooklyn. During residency, he spent time at Memorial Sloan Kettering in specialized lymphoma and leukemia wards and also focused his research on immunotherapy in melanoma. After completing residency in 2010, he spent an additional postdoctoral research year at UCLA in continued immunotherapy research. Dr. Rao's specialty training in Hematology and Oncology was completed at the University of Southern California/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center in Los Angeles where he was selected to serve as Chief Fellow.