Pandurangan Vijayanand, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor
William K. Bowes Distinguished Professor, Center for Autoimmunity and Inflammation, Center for Cancer Immunotherapy
“Continually evolving genomic tools and single cell analysis technologies are revolutionizing our understanding of the human immune system in health and disease."
Overview
Dr. Vijayanand’s lab employs genomics tools to understand, diagnose and treat pulmonary disease such as asthma, lung cancer and infectious diseases, including the novel coronavirus.
His laboratory has developed a number of techniques to study the molecular profiles of circulating and airway immune cells from patients with asthma and other diseases, using fewer cells than previously possible.
Dr. Vijayanand oversees a large-scale effort to map epigenomic modifications in more than a dozen different types of human immune cells from normal individuals to understand how epigenetic variations cause susceptibility to disease. For many human diseases, large-scale genomic studies have identified common genetic variants that occur more frequently in people with cardiovascular, autoimmune, inflammatory and infectious diseases, diabetes and asthma than in those without these diseases. However, it has been difficult to pinpoint which genetic changes are truly relevant to disease, or in what specific cell types the genetic variation has the largest effect on one’s health. Mapping the epigenome will enable scientists to zoom in on those genes with the greatest likelihood to contribute to disease, and the cell types in which they act, and therefore will help identify novel therapeutic targets.
Featured publications
Intermittent PI3Kδ inhibition sustains anti-tumour immunity and curbs irAEs
Single-cell transcriptomic analysis of tissue-resident memory T cells in human lung cancer
Impact of genetic polymorphisms on human immune cell gene expression
Lab Members
PV
Pandurangan Vijayanand, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor William K. Bowes Distinguished Professor, Center for Autoimmunity and Inflammation, Center for Cancer ImmunotherapyResearch Projects
Cancer Immunology
In 2013, Dr. Vijayanand teamed up with Professor Christian Ottensmeier at the Cancer Center, University of Southampton, UK, to
Genetic basis of immune-mediated diseases
While an enormous number of genetic variants have been associated with risk for human disease, how these variants affect
Role of T cell in allergy and Asthma
Selected References Grégory Seumois, Ciro Ramírez-Suástegui, Benjamin J. Schmiedel, Shu Liang, Bjoern Peters, Alessandro Sette, Vijayanand P (2020). Single-cell
Role of T Cells in Viral Infections (Including SARS-CoV-2)
Selected References Kusnadi A, Ramírez-Suástegui C, Fajardo V, Chee SJ, Meckiff BJ, Simon H, Pelosi E, Seumois G, Ay
From the lab
Asthma researcher Sara Herrera de la Mata wins BioLegend Graduate Fellowship in Immunology
Herrera de la Mata aims to understand how asthma turns deadly
Investigating cancer drug toxicity leads to a critical discovery
LA JOLLA—It’s not often that a failed clinical trial leads to a scientific breakthrough. When patients in the UK started
No patient overlooked
LJI postdoctoral research Jermaine Khumalo, Ph.D., has a new strategy for studying asthma.
Awards & Honors
- 2010 Walter Travel Award for presenting at a Keystone Symposium
- 2008 Peel Medical Trust Travel Fellowship Award, United Kingdom
- 2007 GSK National Clinician Scientist Fellowship Award, United Kingdom – 5 year period
- 2007 Wessex Medical Research Prize - Best published work in Bio-Medical Science, University of Southampton.
- 2007 Scientific Lung Day Graz Prize - Best Translational Lung Research in Europe, Graz University, Austria, Europe.
- 2006 Annual Post Graduate Conference Prize - Best oral presentation, University of Southampton.
- 1997 Dr.A.L.Mudaliar Merit Scholarship for higher education training
- 1995 Gold Medal Honours in Diabetes and Endocrinology
- 1995 Second Certificate of Honour in Medicine
- 1995 First Certificate of Honour in Paediatrics
- 1994 Gold Medal and Certificate of Honour in Ophthalmology
- 1994 First Certificate of Honour in Pathology
- 1994 Gold Medal and Certificate of Honour in Immunology & Microbiology
- 1993 Gold Medal and Certificate of Honour in Pharmacology
- 1992 First Certificate of Honour in Physiology
- 1992 Gold Medal and Certificate of Honour in Anatomy and Histology
- 1991 Arignar Anna Scholarship Award for excellence in higher secondary examination.
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