Vinod Balachandran, MD, is a surgeon-scientist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and Founding Director of The Olayan Center for Cancer Vaccines, a biohub at MSK focused on pioneering the use of cancer vaccines with innovative design, delivery, and clinical paradigms.

Dr. Balachandran’s foundational research led to discovery of a promising new therapy for pancreatic cancer, a common, deadly cancer with no effective treatments. His team spearheaded a landmark clinical trial to demonstrate that personalized RNA vaccines targeting neoantigens trigger a strong immune response that is associated with delayed pancreatic cancer recurrence. This breakthrough work has ignited global interest in RNA vaccines as a potentially transformative cancer treatment, and galvanized efforts to uncover and apply the principles of successful vaccination to other cancers.