Vinod Balachandran
维诺德·巴拉钱德兰
MD
Associate Member; Physician-Scientist, Hepatopancreatobiliary Service助理研究员；肝胰胆外科医师科学家
👥Biography 个人简介
Vinod Balachandran is a physician-scientist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center who has made landmark discoveries in pancreatic cancer immunology and neoantigen vaccine therapy. He demonstrated that long-term pancreatic cancer survivors harbor KRAS neoantigen-specific T cells, and led the first mRNA cancer vaccine (mRNA-4157) phase 1 trial in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma showing personalized vaccine efficacy in this notoriously immunosuppressive cancer.
🧪Research Fields 研究领域
🎓Key Contributions 主要贡献
Pancreatic Cancer Long-Term Survivor Immunity and KRAS Neoantigen T Cells
Discovered that exceptional long-term survivors of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma harbor high-quality neoantigen-specific T cell responses, particularly against KRAS driver mutations, providing a biological rationale for therapeutic neoantigen vaccines in PDAC.
mRNA-4157 Personalized Cancer Vaccine in Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma
Led the first phase 1 clinical trial of mRNA-4157 (Moderna/Merck individualized neoantigen mRNA vaccine) in resected pancreatic cancer, demonstrating that the vaccine generates neoantigen-specific T cell responses and is associated with improved recurrence-free survival.
Tumor Antigen Immunosurveillance in Pancreatic Cancer
Established the immunological basis for why most PDAC patients fail to mount effective anti-tumor immunity, identifying defects in antigen presentation and T cell priming that must be overcome by next-generation cancer vaccines.
Representative Works 代表性著作
Neoantigen-directed immune escape in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma
Nature (2017)
Showed that long-term PDAC survivors have high-quality neoantigen-specific T cell responses, demonstrating the immunogenic potential of pancreatic cancer and the feasibility of neoantigen vaccination in PDAC.
Personalized RNA neoantigen vaccines stimulate T cells in pancreatic cancer
Nature (2023)
Phase 1 trial showing mRNA-4157 induced neoantigen-specific T cell responses in resected PDAC patients, with vaccine responders showing longer recurrence-free survival — landmark evidence for mRNA vaccine activity in immunologically cold tumors.
🏆Awards & Recognition 奖项与荣誉
📄Data Sources 数据来源
Last updated: 2026-01-15 | All information from publicly available academic sources
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