Dr. Cherayil is a physician-scientist specializing in the study of the immune system. He graduated from Christian Medical College, Vellore, India with MBBS and MD degrees, and subsequently received post-doctoral training in immunology at the Whitehead Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital.

He is currently a Principal Investigator and the Associate Director of the Mucosal Immunology and Biology Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital.

He is also an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Faculty. His lab studies host-microbial interactions in the gastrointestinal tract, with a focus on innate immunity and the role of iron metabolism.