Ranjan Upadhyay, MD, PhD
Department of Breast Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Instructor (Advanced Scholar), Department of Breast Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Instructor (Advanced Scholar), Department of Hematopoietic Biology & Malignancy, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2021 | Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, US, Medicine, MD |
| 2020 | Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, US, Immunology, PhD |
| 2010 | Columbia University, New York, NY, US, Biomedical Engineering, Economics, BS |
Postgraduate Training
| 2023-2026 | Fellow, Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas |
| 2021-2023 | Resident, Internal Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY |
Licenses & Certifications
| 2024 | American Board of Internal Medicine |
| 2024 | Texas Medical Board |
Honors & Awards
| 2026 | Early Career Investigator Abstract Travel Award, Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer |
| 2026 | Peer-Reviewed Cancer Research Program Career Development Award, U.S. Department of Defense |
| 2026 | Sheskey Family Fellow for Breast Cancer Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2026 | Division of Cancer Medicine Advanced Scholar, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2026 | The Waun Ki Hong Award for Achievement in Basic Science Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2026 | 2nd Place, SITC Sparkathon, Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer |
| 2025 | Sparkathon Class of 2026, Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer |
| 2025 | Merck & Co, Inc. Young Investigator Award, Conquer Cancer Foundation |
| 2024 | Molecular Biology in Clinical Oncology Workshop, American Association For Cancer Research |
| 2024 | T32 Fellowship Award (Role: Trainee), NIH/NCI (T32CA009666) |
| 2021 | Jeffrey Modell Foundation Clinical Immunology Award, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai |
| 2021 | Distinction in Research, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai |
| 2018 | Best Poster, Mount Sinai MSTP Retreat |
| 2017 | Best Poster, Mount Sinai MSTP Retreat |
| 2016 - 2019 | Travel Award, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai |
| 2013 | Selection for Cover Image of 12 Issues, Nature Reviews: Endocrinology |
| 2010 | BMEidea Award, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University in the City of New York |
Professional Memberships
Selected Presentations & Talks
Local Presentations
- 2026. Dissecting cAMP pathway-driven CAR-T cell dysfunction in the tumor microenvironment. Invited. Grand Rounds. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2026. Dissecting T cell barriers to solid tumor immunotherapy. Invited. Hematology/Oncology Fellowship Didactics. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2024. Afamitresgene autoleucel for advanced synovial sarcoma and myxoid round cell liposarcoma (SPEARHEAD-1): an international, open-label, phase 2 trial. Invited. Hematology/Oncology Fellowship Journal Club. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2024. CAR-T cell therapy targeting surface expression of TYRP1 to treat cutaneous and rare melanoma subtypes. Invited. Grand Rounds / Journal Club. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2024. Neoadjuvant nivolumab or nivolumab plus LAG-3 inhibitor relatlimab in resectable esophageal/gastroesophageal junction cancer: a phase Ib trail and ctDNA analyses. Invited. Grand Rounds / Journal Club. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2024. Amivantamab plus chemothereapy with and without lazertinib in EGFR-mutant advanced NSCLC after disease progression on osimertinib: primary results from the phase III MARIPOSA-2 study. Invited. Grand Rounds / Journal Club. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2024. Acute renal failure post CAR-T cell therapy. Invited. Hematology/Oncology Fellowship Didactics. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2023. Gemcitabine and cisplatin plus nivolumab as organ-sparing treatment for muscle-invasive bladder cancer: a phase 2 trial. Invited. Grand Rounds / Journal Club. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2023. Glofitamab for relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Invited. Grand Rounds / Journal Club. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2018. The cell surface death receptor Fas mediates killing of cancer by CD8+ T cells in an antigen-specific and non-specific manner. Poster. Medical Scientist Training Program Annual Retreat. Bushkill Falls, PA, US.
- 2017. Developing a screening platform for genetic and small molecule targets for cancer immunotherapy. Invited. Medical Scientist Grand Rounds. New York, NY, US.
- 2017. Developing a screening platform for genetic and small molecule targets for cancer immunotherapy. Invited. Precision Immunology Institute Annual Retreat. New York, NY, US.
- 2017. Developing a screening platform for genetic and small molecule targets for cancer immunotherapy. Poster. Medical Scientist Training Program Annual Retreat. Bushkill Falls, PA, US.
- 2015. Developing a high-throughput screening platform for cancer immunotherapy targets. Poster. Medical Scientist Training Program Annual Retreat. Bushkill Falls, PA, US.
National Presentations
- 2026. Engineering CAR-T cell resistance to CAF-derived paracrine cAMP-mediated immunosuppression. Conference. SITC Annual Meeting. Phoenix, AZ, US.
- 2026. Stromal and fibroblast metabolism as a checkpoint for antitumor immunity. Invited. Society for Leukocyte Biology Annual Meeting. Columbus, Ohio, US.
- 2026. A phase II trial of adjuvant PD-1 blockade with endocrine therapy in hormone receptor positive inflammatory breast cancer: circulating biomarkers and molecular correlates of clinical outcomes. Conference. American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting. San Diego, CA, US.
- 2026. Modeling CAF-driven cAMP-mediated immunosuppressive signaling in CAR-T cells for solid tumors. Poster. SITC Spring Scientific. Tucson, AZ, US.
- 2026. Targeting cAMP-mediated stromal-immune crosstalk to enhance CAR-T cell therapies. Conference. SITC Sparkathon. Tucson, AZ, US.
- 2025. Ultrasensitive ctDNA-based MRD monitoring predicts relapse in postoperative HR+ IBC. Poster. San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. San Antonio, Texas, US.
- 2025. Trop2-targeting chimeric antigen receptor-natural killer (CAR-NK) cell therapy for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Conference. SITC Spring Scientific. San Diego, California, US.
- 2025. Stromal barriers to adoptive cell therapy in solid tumors. Invited. Updates on Advanced Breast Cancer: Local Management and Other New Perspectives. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2019. The death receptor Fas mediates local bystander killing of antigen-negative variants by antigen-specific CD8 T cells in a heterogeneous tumor. Poster. American Association of Immunologists Annual Meeting. San Diego, CA, US.
- 2018. Developing a screening platform for genetic and small molecule targets for cancer immunotherapy. Poster. ASCO-SITC Clinical Immuno-oncology Symposium. San Francisco, California, US.
- 2016. Discovery of novel, PD-L1-independent immune checkpoints using JEDI GFP-specific CD8 T cells. Poster. American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting. Chicago, Illinois, US.
- 2012. Kisspeptin is produced by syncytiotrophoblast and inhibits cytotrophoblast invasion. Poster. Society for Gynecologic Investigation Annual Scientific Meeting. San Diego, CA, US.
- 2011. Differential expression of kisspeptin and neurokinin B in trophoblast subpopulations of human placenta. Poster. ENDO 2011: 93rd Annual Meeting of the Endocrine Society. Boston, MA, US.
Grant & Contract Support
| Date: | 2026 - 2028 |
| Title: | Modulating hypoxia-activated stromal programs to potentiate CAR-T cell therapy in kidney cancer |
| Funding Source: | U.S. Department of Defense |
| Role: | PI |
| ID: | HT9425261E043 |
| Date: | 2026 - 2027 |
| Title: | Establishing an immunocompetent model to study metabolite-driven T cell dysfunction in breast cancer |
| Funding Source: | The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| Role: | PI |
| ID: | Sheskey Family Fellowship for Breast Cancer Research |
| Date: | 2025 - 2026 |
| Title: | Enhancing CAR-T cell efficacy in renal cell carcinoma through dual targeting of stromal and tumor cells |
| Funding Source: | Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO |
| Role: | PI |
| ID: | FP00023998 |
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Lin MJ, Chorazeczewksi JK, Pantsulaia G, Cooper A, Sohn M, Reci S, Mateus-Tique J, Hirsh NH, Xie X, Odak I, Dutta RP, Charytonowicz D, Upadhyay R, Brown BD, Merad M, Huse M, Kline J, Brody JD. Potentiating CAR-T bystander killing by enhanced Fas/FasL signaling mitigates antigen escape in heterogeneous tumors. bioRxiv. e-Pub 2025.
- Rafei H, Basar R, Acharya S, Hsu Y, Liu P, Zhang D, Bohn T, Lian Q, Mohanty V, Upadhyay R, Li P, Phadatare P, Dede M, Xiong D, Fan H, Jones CM, Kunz S, Daher M, Nunez Cortes AK, Shanley M, Liu B, Moseley SM, Zhang C, Fang D, Banerjee P, Uprety N, Li Y, Shrestha R, Wan X, Shen H, Woods V, Gilbert AL, Rawal S, Dou J, Tan Y, Park J, Silva FR, Biederstadt A, Kaplan M, Jian XR, Biederstadt I, Kumar B, Tiberti S, Moore M, Jin J, Yang RZ, Muniz-Feliciano L, Rosemore S, Lin P, Deyter GM, Fowlkes NW, Jain AK, Marin D, Maitra A, Chen K, Bopp T, Shpall EJ, Rezvani K. CREM is a regulatory checkpoint of CAR and IL-15 signalling in NK cells. Nature, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 40468083.
- Aleynick M, Svensson-Arvelund J, Pantsulaia G, Kim K, Rose SA, Upadhyay R, Yellin M, Marsh H, Oreper D, Jhunjhunwala S, Moussion CC, Merad M, Brown BD, Brody JD. Pattern recognition receptor agonists in pathogen vaccines mediate anti-tumor T cell cross-priming. J Immunother Cancer, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37487664.
- Pan D, Mouhieddine TH, Upadhyay R, Casasanta N, Lee A, Zubizarreta N, Moshier E, Richter J. Outcomes with panobinostat in heavily pretreated multiple myeloma patients. Semin Oncol, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37005144.
- Svensson-Arvelund J, Cuadrado-Castano S, Pantsulaia G, Kim K, Aleynick M, Hammerich L, Upadhyay R, Yellin M, Marsh H, Oreper D, Jhunjhunwala S, Moussion C, Merad M, Brown BD, Garcia-Sastre A, Brody JD. Expanding cross-presenting dendritic cells enhances oncolytic virotherapy and is critical for long-term anti-tumor immunity. Nat Commun, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 36418317.
- Upadhyay R, Boiarsky JA, Pantsulaia G, Svensson-Arvelund J, Lin MJ, Wroblewska A, Bhalla S, Scholler N, Bot A, Rossi JM, Sadek N, Parekh S, Lagana A, Baccarini A, Merad M, Brown BD, Brody JD. A critical role for fas-mediated off-target tumor killing in T-cell immunotherapy. Cancer Discov, 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 33334730.
- Marshall N, Hutchinson K, Marron TU, Aleynick M, Hammerich L, Upadhyay R, Svensson-Arvelund J, Brown BD, Merad M, Brody JD. Antitumor T-cell homeostatic activation is uncoupled from homeostatic inhibition by checkpoint blockade. Cancer Discov, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31375522.
- Hammerich L, Marron TU, Upadhyay R, Svensson-Arvelund J, Dhainaut M, Hussein S, Zhan Y, Ostrowski D, Yellin M, Marsh H, Salazar AM, Rahman AH, Brown BD, Merad M, Brody JD. Systemic clinical tumor regressions and potentiation of PD1 blockade with in situ vaccination. Nat Med, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 30962585.
- Parsa H, Upadhyay R, Sia SK. Uncovering the behaviors of individual cells within a multicellular microvascular community. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2011. e-Pub 2011. PMID: 21383144.
Review Articles
- Rafei H, Upadhyay R, Sharma P. A guide to CAR T cell therapies: development, current status and future prospects. Nat Rev Immunol, 2026. e-Pub 2026. PMID: 42393377.
- Upadhyay R, Hammerich L, Peng P, Brown BD, Merad M, Brody JD. Lymphoma: immune evasion strategies. Cancers (Basel), 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 25941795.
Patient Reviews
CV information above last modified September 20, 2026