Hematology Researchers Join Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson

The Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center — Jefferson Health (SKCC) recently welcomed Anjali Mishra, PhD, and Nitin Chakravarti, PhD, to a growing team of researchers focused on hematologic cancers.

Dr. Mishra, Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Oncology, is a cancer biologist studying the pathogenetic mechanisms in cytokine driven leukemia and lymphoma. Her research focuses on the effect of chronic inflammation in blood cancers and developing novel therapies for T-cell lymphoma and leukemia using an interleukin-15 (IL-15) mouse model that she characterized. Dr. Mishra’s current research goals include defining the molecular mechanisms underlying IL-15-mediated oncogenesis and identifying novel targets in blood cancers driven by IL-15 overexpression.

She is an associate editor of the journal Frontiers in Oncology and a reviewer for several other journals, including Clinical Cancer Research, PLOS One, Blood and Haematologica. She is an active member of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), European Hematology Association (EHA), Society for Investigative Dermatology (SID), Cutaneous Lymphoma Foundation (CLF), and American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). Since 2018 Dr. Mishra has been a member of the CLF Research Advisory Council.

Dr. Mishra has been recognized with several awards throughout her career, including the Cutaneous Lymphoma Foundation Young Investigator Award, the ASH Abstract Achievement Award, the EHA-ASH Career Development Award and the Eugene Farber Young Investigator’s Award.

She was previously assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center in Columbus. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Delhi in New Delhi, India, a doctoral degree from Hannover Medical School in Hannover, Germany, and completed postdoctoral training at Ohio State.

Dr. Chakravarti is Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Oncology. His earlier research has identified clinical associations of retinoid signaling pathways and cancer progression; novel strategies to overcome resistance to targeted and immune therapies; and new predictors and therapeutic approaches for cancer. Dr. Chakravarti’s laboratory studies the regulation and functional role of retinoid signaling pathways in carcinogenesis. His research goals include studying immune checkpoint and cell-based immunotherapeutic approaches for treatment of blood cancers.

He is an active member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), Society for Natural Immunity, SID, ASH, EHA and AACR. He has served as a reviewer for the journals Clinical Cancer Research, International Journal of Cancer, Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, Journal of Cutaneous Pathology, PLoS One and JAMA Oncology. Dr. Chakravarti has been recognized with the M.L. Wig Gold Medal and the Geeta Mittal Gold Medal and Book Prize from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), and with research fellowships from the Indian Institute of Technology and Indian Council of Medical Research. He also holds patent on trafficking natural killer cells for cell-based immunotherapy.

Dr. Chakravarti joins SKCC from the Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases at Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH) in Columbus, where he was a senior research scientist. He received his master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) — Roorkee, and a doctorate from AIIMS in New Delhi, India. Dr. Chakravarti completed his postdoctoral training in bioimmunotherapy and the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where he later conti