Human Oncology & Pathogenesis Program
The Vinod Balachandran Lab
Research

Assistant 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
Publications
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
Łuksza M, Riaz N, Makarov V, Balachandran VP, Hellmann MD, Solovyov A, Rizvi NA, Merghoub T, Levine AJ, Chan TA, Wolchok JD, Greenbaum BD. A neoantigen fitness model predicts tumour response to checkpoint blockade immunotherapy. Nature. 2017 Nov 8. doi: 10.1038/nature24473. [Epub ahead of print]. PMID: 29132144
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
People

Vinod Balachandran, MD
Member, David. M Rubenstein Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research
Assistant Professor
- Surgeon scientist Vinod Balachandran develops novel immunotherapies for pancreatic cancer.
- MD, State University of New York at Stony Brook
- 212-639-5785
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Members




- Ph.D Biomedicine, University of Barcelona
- B.S. Biotechnology, Autonomous University of Barcelona
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- B.B.A Business Administration in Marketing, Hofstra University
- 212-639-5785
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- Ph.D. Immunology, McGill University
- B.S, University of Toronto
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- B.S. Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University
- M.D. University of California San Diego
- 646-888-2128
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Summer Student 2018

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Lab Affilations
Achievements
- 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)
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- 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
Lab News & Events
Open Positions
Postdoctoral Fellow
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