Description of Research Expertise

My research expertise lies in the area of cellular immunotherapy. In particular, I have experience in preclinical development of immunotherapy that employ engineered immuno-receptors (e.g. chimeric antigen receptors) for the treatment of cancer and of non-malignant conditions such as autoimmunity and transplant rejection.

In addition to conducting preclinical in vitro and in vivo studies using animal models, I have experience in conducting correlative studies in patients undergoing immunotherapy to study the immune impact of such therapies.

Selected Publications

Kavitha Muralidharan, Divyansh Agarwal, Ali Naji, and Vijay G. Bhoj: Therapeutic Opportunities for Immunoreceptor-Engineered T Cell Therapy for Modulation of Alloimmunity The Journal of Immunology 209 (10): 1811-1816,2022.

Ellis GI, Coker KE, Winn DW, Deng MZ, Shukla D, Bhoj V, Milone MC, Wang W, Liu C, Naji A, Duran-Struuck R, Riley JL.: Trafficking and persistence of alloantigen-specific chimeric antigen receptor regulatory T cells in Cynomolgus macaque Cell Rep Med 3 (5): 100614,2022.

Lederer K, Bettini E, Parvathaneni K, Painter MM, Agarwal D, Lundgreen KA, Weirick M, Muralidharan K, Castaño D, Goel RR, Xu X, Drapeau EM, Gouma S, Ort JT, Awofolaju M, Greenplate AR, Le Coz C, Romberg N, Trofe-Clark J, Malat G, Jones L, Rosen M, Weiskopf D, Sette A, Besharatian B, Kaminiski M, Hensley SE, Bates P, Wherry EJ, Naji A, Bhoj V, Locci M.: Germinal center responses to SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines in healthy and immunocompromised individuals Cell 185 (6): 1008-1024,2022.

Durgin JS, Thokala R, Johnson L, Song E, Leferovich J, Bhoj V, Ghassemi S, Milone M, Binder Z, O'Rourke DM, O'Connor RS.: Enhancing CAR T function with the engineered secretion of C. perfringens neuraminidase Mol Ther 30 (3): 1201-1214,2022.

Parvathaneni K, Torres-Rodriguez K, Meng W, Hwang WT, Frey N, Naji A, Bhoj VG.: SARS-CoV-2 Spike-Specific T-Cell Responses in Patients With B-Cell Depletion Who Received Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Treatments JAMA Oncol 8 (1): 164-167,2022.

Mireia Uribe-Herranz, Silvia Beghi, Marco Ruella, Kalpana Parvathaneni, Silvano Salaris, Nektarios Kostopoulos, Subin S. George, Stefano Pierini, Guido Ghirardi, Kimberly V. Amelsberg, Yong Gu Lee, Raymone Pajarillo, Caroline Markmann, Bevin McGettigan-Croce, Noelle Frey, Simon F. Lacey, John Scholler, Khatuna Gabunia, Gary Wu, Elise Chong, David L. Porter, Carl H. June, Stephen J. Schuster, Vijay Bhoj and Andrea Facciabene: Modulation of the gut microbiota engages antigen cross-presentation to enhance antitumor effects of CAR T cell immunotherapy Molecular Therapy : 2022.

Markmann C, Bhoj VG.: On the road to eliminating long-lived plasma cells-"are we there yet?" Immunol Rev 303 (1): 154-167,2021.

Caroline Markmann, Vijay G Bhoj: On the road to eliminating long-lived plasma cells-"are we there yet?" Immunological Reviews 303 (1): 154-167,2021.

Kong W, Dimitri A, Wang W, Jung IY, Ott CJ, Fasolino M, Wang Y, Kulikovskaya I, Gupta M, Yoder T, DeNizio JE, Everett JK, Williams EF, Xu J, Scholler J, Reich TJ, Bhoj VG, Haines KM, Maus MV, Melenhorst JJ, Young RM, Jadlowsky JK, Marcucci KT, Bradner JE, Levine BL, Porter DL, Bushman FD, Kohli RM, June CH, Davis MM, Lacey SF, Vahedi G, Fraietta JA.: BET bromodomain protein inhibition reverses chimeric antigen receptor extinction and reinvigorates exhausted T cells in chronic lymphocytic leukemia J Clin Invest 131 (16): e145459,2021.

Faude S, Wei J, Muralidharan K, Xu X, Wertheim G, Paessler M, Bhoj VG, Grupp SA, Maude SL, Rheingold SR, Pillai V.: Absolute lymphocyte count proliferation kinetics after CAR T-cell infusion impact response and relapse Blood Adv 5 (8): 2128-2136,2021.

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Academic Contact Information

3400 Civic Ctr Blvd.
8-111 South Pavilion Extension
Philadelphia, PA 19104