Nina Bhardwaj, MD, PhD

Nina Bhardwaj, MD, PhD

Director of Immunotherapy
Medical Director, Vaccine and Cell Therapy Laboratory
The Tisch Cancer Institute
New York, New York

Research Interests

Immunobiology of dendritic cells (DC) subsets, developmental pathways, DC-associated receptors, pathways of antigen presentation and key associated checkpoint molecules with respect to harnessing the capacity of these innate immune cells to enhance anti-tumor immunity in the clinic; direct intra-tumoral modulation of DC with immune modulators, DC-based vaccination, and DC-targeted vaccines; DC-innate immune cell cross-talk in the tumor microenvironment (TME) to identify regulatory conduits that can be appropriated to enhance immunity; cancer antigen discovery with a focus on shared neoantigens to enable the development of “off the shelf” vaccines; DC biology in the TME as it relates to anti-cancer immunity; innovative immune approaches to impact the treatment of cancers when combined with checkpoint therapies.

Current Affiliations

Professor of medicine, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology-Oncology; director, Immunotherapy Program; medical director, Vaccine and Cell Therapy Core Facility; and Ward Coleman chair in cancer research, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.

Previous Positions

Adjunct professor of medicine (2013-2016); codirector, Medical Scientist Training Program (2008-2010); medical director, Vaccine and Cell Therapy Core Facility (2002-2013); director, Tumor Vaccine Program (2002-2013); and tenured professor of medicine, pathology, and dermatology (2002-2013), New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York; lecturer (2001-2005), Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; associate professor (1996-2002) and assistant professor (1990-1996), Department of Medicine; and instructor in medicine (1987-1990), Weill Medical Center/Cornell Medical Center, New York, New York.

Education

MD, PhD, MS, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York (1981); BA, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts (1975).

Postdoctoral Training

Postdoctoral associate, Rockefeller University (1986-1989), New York, New York; fellow, rheumatology, the Hospital for Special Surgery and Cornell University School of Medicine (1984-1986), New York, New York; resident (1982-1984) and intern (1981-1982) in internal medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.

Selected AACR Service, Honors, and Awards

Member, Asian/AANHPI Task Force (2023-present); member, AACR IO Ad Hoc Committee (2023-present); organizing committee member, Second JCA-AACR Precision Cancer Medicine International Conference (2023); member, AACR Exploratory IND/Phase 0 Clinical Trials Task Force (2021-present); chair, Satellite Educational Symposia Committee (2021-2022); member (2013-2014, 2014-2015, 2016-2017, 2021-2022) and chair (2017-2018), AACR-Cancer Research Institute Lloyd J. Old Award in Cancer Immunology Committee; member, Board of Directors (2021-2024); member, Education and Training Committee (2019-2022); cochair (2019-2020) and member (2012-2013), Annual Meeting Program Committee; invited speaker, Annual Meeting, “Making Science Count for Patients: From T-Cell Signaling to CTLA-4 Approval” (2019); member, Nominating Committee (2018-2019); member, Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award for Cancer Research Committee (2018-2019); invited speaker, Annual Meeting, “Dendritic Cell-targeted Vaccines Personalized Therapies: Neoantigen Discovery and Vaccination” (2018); program organizer, CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference: Translating Science into Survival (2017); senior editor, AACR Journal, Cancer Immunology Research (2014-present); faculty, “Cancer Immunology for the Non-Immunologist: Tutorial Session” (2014-2015); chair, Cancer Immunology (CIMM) Working Group (2014-2015).

Selected Non-AACR Service, Honors, and Awards

Honoree, CRI/Oliver R. Grace CLIP Investigator (2024); fellow, SITC Class of Fellows of the Academy of Immuno-Oncology (2023); recipient, European Society for Medical Oncology’s (ESMO) Immuno-Oncology Award (2022); recipient, AAISCR Lifetime Achievement Award (2022); recipient, Outstanding Achievement Award, Society of American Asian Scientists in Cancer Research (2021); recipient, Society for Immunology of Cancer (SITC) Team Science Award (2020); recipient, Jacobi Medallion Award, Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai (2020); recipient, Solomon Berson-Rosalyn Yallow Society Lectureship Award (2019); member, Board of Scientific Counselors, Vaccine Research Center, NIH (2016-2018); codirector, “Primer in Immunology,” (2016-2018); extramural member (2016-present) and member, Steering Committee (2015-2016), Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy; recipient, Frederick W. Alt Award for New Discoveries in Immunology, The Cancer Research Institute (2015); specialty chief editor, HIV and AIDS, Frontiers in Immunology (2015-2017); recipient, Ward Coleman Chair in Cancer Research (2013-present); recipient, New York University Solomon A. Berson Award in Basic Science (2012); recipient, Henry Silverman/Melanoma Research Alliance Team Science Award (2010); elected member, American Association of Physicians (2009); member, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Vaccine Research Center Board of Scientific Counselors (2008-2013).

Candidates for the AACR Nominating Committee