Human Oncology & Pathogenesis Program

The Vinod Balachandran Lab

Vinod Balachandran, MD

Director, The Olayan Center for Cancer Vaccines

Associate Professor

Our goal is to discover new ways to stimulate the immune system to treat cancer through careful study of rare cancer patients with exceptional outcomes. We believe that deep study of these remarkable patients will identify fundamental mechanisms of how the immune system controls cancers, and accelerate the discovery of new effective drugs. We use this approach to study pancreatic cancer, a model deadly cancer that is refractory to all treatments including immunotherapy – and specifically focus on a rare subgroup of pancreatic cancer patients with exceptional long-term survival to discover new immunotherapeutic approaches. Our long-term vision is to use a similar approach of study of biological extremes to usher in the next generation of cancer immunotherapies.

Featured News

The FNIH Awards 2023 Trailblazer Prize for Clinical-Scientists to Vinod Balachandran, M.D., from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research

Pancreatic Cancer Vaccine Shows Promise in Small Trial

Using mRNA tailored to each patient’s tumor, the vaccine may have staved off the return of one of the deadliest forms of cancer in half of those who re...

An mRNA vaccine that programs the body to fight pancreatic cancer shows early promise

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal malignancies, fatal in 88% of patients. It is also one of the hardest to treat. Tumors can be surgically re...

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Publications Highlights

Rojas LA, Sethna ZM, Soares K, Olcese C, Pang N, Patterson E, Lihm J, Ceglia N, Guasp P, Chu A, Yu R, Chandra AK, Waters T, Ruan J, Amisaki M, Zebboudj A, Odgerel Z, George Payne, Derhovanessian E, Rhee I, Yadav M, Dobrin A, Sadelain M, … Balachandran VP. Personalized RNA neoantigen vaccines stimulate T cells in pancreatic cancer. Nature. 2023 May 10. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06063-y

Łuksza M, Sethna ZM, Rojas LA, Lihm J, Bravi B, Elhanati Y, Soares K, Amisaki M, Dobrin A, Hoyos D, Guasp P, Zebboudj A, Yu R, Chandra AK, Waters T, Odgerel Z, Leung J, Kappagantula R, Makohon-Moore A, Johns A, Gill A, Gigoux M, Wolchok J, Merghoub T, Sadelain M, Patterson E, Monasson R, Mora T, Walczak AM, Cocco S, Iacobuzio-Donahue C, Greenbaum BD, Balachandran VP. Neoantigen quality predicts immunoediting in survivors of pancreatic cancer. Nature. 2022 May 19. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04735-9

Moral JA, Leung J, Rojas LA, Ruan J, Zhao J, Sethna Z, Ramnarain A, Gasmi B, Gururajan M, Redmond D, Askan G, Bhanot U, Elyada E, Park Y, Tuveson DA, Goen M, Leach SD, Wolchok JD, DeMatteo RP, Merghoub T & Balachandran VP. ILC2s amplify PD-1 blockade by activating tissue-specific cancer immunity. Nature. 2020 Feb 19. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2015-4

Balachandran VP, Łuksza M, Zhao JN, Makarov V, Moral JA, Remark R, Herbst B, Askan G, Bhanot U, Senbabaoglu Y, Wells DK, Cary CIO, Grbovic-Huezo O, Attiyeh M, Medina B, Zhang J, Loo J, Saglimbeni J, Abu-Akeel M, Zappasodi R, Riaz N, Smoragiewicz M, Kelley ZL, Basturk O; Australian Pancreatic Cancer Genome Initiative; Gönen M, Levine AJ, Allen PJ, Fearon DT, Merad M, Gnjatic S, Iacobuzio-Donahue CA, Wolchok JD, DeMatteo RP, Chan TA, Greenbaum BD, Merghoub T, Leach SD. Identification of unique neoantigen qualities in long-term survivors of pancreatic cancer. Nature. 2017 Nov 8. doi: 10.1038/nature24462. [Epub ahead of print]. PMID: 29132146

Balachandran VP, Cavnar MJ, Zeng S, Bamboat ZM, Ocuin LM, Obaid H, Sorenson EC, Popow R, Ariyan C, Rossi F, Besmer P, Guo T, Antonescu CR, Taguchi T, Yuan J, Wolchok JD, Allison JP, DeMatteo RP. Imatinib potentiates antitumor T cell responses in gastrointestinal stromal tumor through the inhibition of Ido. Nature Medicine. 2011 Aug 28;17(9):1094-100. doi: 10.1038/nm.2438. PMID: 21873989

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People

Vinod Balachandran, MD

Director, The Olayan Center for Cancer Vaccines

Associate Professor

Surgeon scientist Vinod Balachandran develops novel immunotherapies for pancreatic cancer.
MD, State University of New York at Stony Brook

212-639-5785: Office Phone
View physician profile: Physician profile

Members

Zachary Sethna, PhD — Zachary Sethna
Senior Research Scientist

Theodora Smith

Research Technician

Abderezak Zebboudj
Senior Research Scientist

Lab Alumni

Christian Brodala
Administrative Assistant

Joanne Leung, Ph.D. — Joanne Leung
Postdoctoral Research Scholar

John Alec Moral
Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Lab Affiliations

Achievements

FNIH Trailblazer Prize for Clinical-Scientists (2023)
Louise and Allston Boyer Young Investigator Award (2021)
Pershing Square Sohn Prize (2020)
Society of Immunotherapy for Cancer Presidential Award (2017)
National Cancer Institute Cancer Moonshot Award (2017)

Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award (2017)
AACR/Pancreatic Cancer Action Network Career Development Award (2017)
NCI Paul Calabresi Career Development Award (2016)
Society of Surgical Oncology Harvey Barker Award (2015)
David and Monica Gorin Fellow Award (2013)
Memorial Sloan Kettering Chairman’s Award for Best Basic Science Research (2010)
Society of University Surgeons Research Fellowship Award (2009)
Alpha Omega Alpha

Open Positions

To learn more about available postdoctoral opportunities, please visit our Career Center

To learn more about compensation and benefits for postdoctoral researchers at MSK, please visit Resources for Postdocs

Postdoctoral Fellow

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Get in Touch

212-639-5785

Office Phone
646-888-3792

Lab Phone

Disclosures

Doctors and faculty members often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community.

MSK requires doctors and faculty members to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public.

Vinod Balachandran discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

Genentech
Professional Services and Activities

The information published here is a complement to other publicly reported data and is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.

This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2023 through disclosure submission in spring 2024). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.

Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at [email protected].

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