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

MSK physician-scientist Vinod Balachandran.

In Early-Phase Pancreatic Cancer Clinical Trial, Investigational mRNA Vaccine Induces Sustained Immune Activity in Small Patient Group

Learn how MSK researchers are deploying mRNA vaccines against pancreatic cancer.

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Surgeon-Scientist, Vinod Balachandran, MD, Named to The Washington Post Next 50

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) is pleased to announce The Washington Post has named Vinod Balachandran, MD, surgeon-scientist and Director of The Olayan Center for Cancer Vaccines at MSK, to the inaugural edition of the Post Next 50.

Article

MSK surgeon-scientist Vinod Balachandran.

Cancer Researchers Shed Light on How Tertiary Lymphoid Structures Form

Read about new findings on how tertiary lymphoid structures form to fight foreign threats such as cancer.

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Publications Highlights

2025 Sethna ZM, Guasp P, Reiche C, Milighetti M, Ceglia N, Patterson E, Lihm J, Payne G, Lyudovyk O, Rojas LA, Pang N, Ohmoto A, Amisaki M, Zebboudj A, Odgerel Z, Bruno EM, Zhang SL, Cheng C, Elhanati Y, Derhovanessian E, Manning L, Müller F, Rhee I, Yadav M… Balachandran VP. RNA neoantigen vaccines prime long-lived CD8⁺ T cells in pancreatic cancer. Nature. 2025. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08508-4

2025 Amisaki M, Zebboudj A, Yano H, Zhang SL, Payne G, Chandra AK, Yu R, Guasp P, Sethna ZM, Ohmoto A, Rojas LA, Cheng C, Waters T, Solovyov A, Martis S, Doane AS, Reiche C, Bruno EM, Milighetti M, Soares K, Odgerel Z, Moral JA, Zhao JN, Gönen M, Gardner R, Tumanov AV, Khan AG, Vergnolle O, Nyakatura EK, Lorenz IC, Baca M, Patterson E, Greenbaum B, Artis D, Merghoub T, Balachandran VP. IL-33-activated ILC2s induce tertiary lymphoid structures in pancreatic cancer. Nature. 2025. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08426-5

2023 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

2022 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

2020 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

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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

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

Apply now

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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