![](https://www.mskcc.org/sites/default/files/node/210244/main_image_large/vardhana_lab_header_1920x384.jpg)
Human Oncology & Pathogenesis Program
The Santosha Vardhana Lab
Research
![Santosha Vardhana](https://www.mskcc.org/sites/default/files/styles/width_200_1x1/public/node/210244/main_image/vardhana_santosha-3x2-1.jpg?h=10d202d3)
The Vardhana lab explores how metabolites regulate immune cell homeostasis, particularly within tumors. We use a combination of traditional immunology, synthetic biology, metabolomics, and bioinformatics to answer fundamental biological questions about the regulation of immune responses with the goal of applying these strategies broadly for the treatment of cancer. Our team is made up of a diverse group of scientists and physicians with backgrounds in immunology, cancer biology, metabolism, and molecular genetics, but we are enthusiastic about integrating members with expertise across physical, life, and computer sciences to achieve our goal of taking novel experimental approaches to understand the complexity of host immunity.
Research Projects
![The Santosha Vardhana Lab Group](https://www.mskcc.org/sites/default/files/node/210244/images/vardhana-lab-group-photo-220914-02_rt_1200x800.jpg)
Featured News
![3D illustration of T cells surrounding a cancer cell.](https://www.mskcc.org/sites/default/files/styles/width_200/public/node/200119/main_image/istock-1040459406-1200x800.jpg)
![Jedd Wolchok in his lab](https://www.mskcc.org/sites/default/files/styles/width_200/public/node/196606/main_image/msk_020516_0006_1200x800.jpg)
Publications Highlights
Vardhana S, Hwee M, Berisa M, Wells DK, Yost KE, King B, Smith M, Herrera PS, Chang HY, Satpathy AT, van den Brink M, Cross JR, Thompson CB. Impaired mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation limits the self-renewal of T-cells exposed to persistent antigen. Nat Immunol 2020, July 13. Doi: 10.1038/s41590-020-0725-2. PMID 32661364. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32661364
Lee CY, Shah MK, Hoyos D, Solovyov A, Douglas M, Taur Y, Maslak PG, Babady NE, Greenbaum B, Kamboj M, Vardhana SA. Prolonged SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients with lymphoid malignancies. Cancer Discov. 2022 Jan;12(1):62-73. doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-21-1033. PMID 34753749. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34753749/
Lyudovyk O, Kim JY, Qualls D, Hwee MA, Lin YH, Boutemine SR, Elhanati Y, Solovyov A, Douglas M, Chen E, Babady NE, Ramanathan L, Vedantam P, Bandlamudi C, Gouma S, Wong P, Hensley SE, Greenbaum B, Huang AC, Vardhana SA. Impaired humoral immunity is associated with prolonged COVID-19 despite robust CD8 T cell responses. Cancer Cell. 2022 May 30:S1535-6108(22)00226-4. PMID: 35679859. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35679859/
Belk JA, Yao W, Ly N, Freitas KA, Chen YT, Shi Q, Valencia AM, Shifrut E, Kale N, Yost KE, Duffy CV, Daniel B, Hwee MA, Miao Z, Ashworth A, Mackall CL, Marson A, Carnevale J, Vardhana SA, Satpathy AT. Genome-wide CRISPR screens of T cell exhaustion identify chromatin remodeling factors that limit T cell persistence. Cancer Cell. 2022 Jul 11; 40(7):768-786. PMID: 35750052. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35750052/
Vardhana S, Arnold PK, Rosen BP, Chen Y, Carey BW, Huangfu D, Fontaine CC, Thompson CB, Finley LWS. Glutamine independence is a selectable feature of pluripotent stem cells. Nat Metab. 2019 Jul;1(7):676-687. PMID 31511848. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31511848
People
![Santosha Vardhana](https://www.mskcc.org/sites/default/files/styles/width_200_1x1/public/node/210244/main_image/vardhana_santosha-3x2-1.jpg?h=10d202d3)
Santosha Vardhana, MD, PhD
- The Vardhana Lab studies how nutrient availability, uptake and metabolism regulates host immune responses during cancer development and immunotherapy.
- PhD, New York University
- [email protected]
- Email Address
- 646-888-2703
- Office Phone
- View physician profile
- Physician profile
Members
![Vanessa Brito](https://www.mskcc.org/sites/default/files/styles/width_200_1x1/public/node/231520/main_image/brito-vanessa-220914-02_rt_1200x800.jpg)
![Katarina Liberatore](https://www.mskcc.org/sites/default/files/styles/width_200_1x1/public/node/270476/main_image/liberatore-katarina-220914-06_rt_1200x800.jpg?h=10d202d3)
![Ya-Hui Lin](https://www.mskcc.org/sites/default/files/styles/width_200_1x1/public/node/235066/main_image/lin-ya-hui_211004_12-1200x800.jpg)
![](https://www.mskcc.org/sites/default/files/styles/width_200_1x1/public/node/270516/main_image/merlinsky.jpg)
![Jahan Rahman](https://www.mskcc.org/sites/default/files/styles/width_200_1x1/public/node/248256/main_image/rahman-jahan-220519-006_1200x800-1.jpg?h=10d202d3)
![Vanessa Brito](https://www.mskcc.org/sites/default/files/styles/width_200_1x1/public/node/231520/main_image/brito-vanessa-220914-02_rt_1200x800.jpg)
Administrative Assistant
![Yan-Ting (Kevin) Chen](https://www.mskcc.org/sites/default/files/styles/width_200_1x1/public/node/229057/main_image/chen-yan-ting_211004_13-1200x800.jpg)
PhD Student
![Katarina Liberatore](https://www.mskcc.org/sites/default/files/styles/width_200_1x1/public/node/270476/main_image/liberatore-katarina-220914-06_rt_1200x800.jpg?h=10d202d3)
PhD Student
![Ya-Hui Lin](https://www.mskcc.org/sites/default/files/styles/width_200_1x1/public/node/235066/main_image/lin-ya-hui_211004_12-1200x800.jpg)
Senior Research Technician
![Lisa McGary](https://www.mskcc.org/sites/default/files/styles/width_200_1x1/public/node/233185/main_image/mcgary-lisa_211015_07-rt-1200x800.jpg)
Research Technician
![](https://www.mskcc.org/sites/default/files/styles/width_200_1x1/public/node/270516/main_image/merlinsky.jpg)
PhD Student
![Tanmana Mitra](https://www.mskcc.org/sites/default/files/styles/width_200_1x1/public/node/229537/main_image/mitra-tanmana_211015_05-rt-1200x800.jpg)
Grad Student
![Jahan Rahman](https://www.mskcc.org/sites/default/files/styles/width_200_1x1/public/node/248256/main_image/rahman-jahan-220519-006_1200x800-1.jpg?h=10d202d3)
Computational Biologist II
![Joshua Schoenfeld](https://www.mskcc.org/sites/default/files/styles/width_200_1x1/public/node/231526/main_image/schoenfeld-joshua_210914_03-1200x800.jpg?h=10d202d3)
Instructor
![Luis Somarribas Patterson](https://www.mskcc.org/sites/default/files/styles/width_200_1x1/public/node/231502/main_image/luis-paterson-new-headshot.jpg)
Research Fellow
Lab Alumni
![Madeline Hwee](https://www.mskcc.org/sites/default/files/styles/width_200_1x1/public/node/146326/3x2/hwee_180511_09_1200x800.jpg?h=10d202d3)
Research Technician
Lab Affiliations
Achievements
- Chief Medical Oncology Fellow, Internal Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (2014)
- Young Investigator Award, American Society of Clinical Oncology (2016)
- Senior Fellow, Parker Institute of Cancer Immunotherapy (2017)
- Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award for Medical Scientists (2019)
- MSKCC Award for Teaching Excellence (2019)
Read more
- NCI K08 Mentored Career Development Award (2020)
- SARS-CoV-2 Research Project Award, Pershing Square Cohn Cancer Research Alliance (2020)
- Josie Robertson Investigator (2021-2026)
Open Positions
To learn more about available postdoctoral opportunities, please visit our Career Center
To learn more about compensation and benefits for postdoctoral researchers at MSK, please visit Resources for Postdocs
Get in Touch
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Lab Head Email
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Office Phone
Disclosures
Doctors and faculty members often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community.
MSK requires doctors and faculty members to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public.
Santosha Vardhana discloses the following relationships and financial interests:
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Generate Biomedicines, Inc.
Professional Services and Activities
The information published here is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.
This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2023 through disclosure submission in spring 2024). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.
Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at [email protected].