Nelson Chao
Chief of the Division of Cell Therapy in the Department of Medicine
Donald D. and Elizabeth G. Cooke Cancer Distinguished Research Professor
Professor of Medicine
Professor in Immunology
Professor in Pathology
Research Professor of Global Health
Appointment:
Nelson Chao
Chief of the Division of Cell Therapy in the Department of Medicine
Donald D. and Elizabeth G. Cooke Cancer Distinguished Research Professor
Professor of Medicine
Professor in Immunology
Professor in Pathology
Research Professor of Global Health
My research interests are in two broad areas, clinical hematopoietic stem cell and cord blood transplantation and in the laboratory studies related to graft vs. host disease and immune reconstitution. On the clinical side we are currently conducting approximately 50 different clinical protocols ranging from preparatory regimens, supportive care studies and disease specific protocols. Most of these clinical studies are centered around studies of the sources of stem cells and the methods to improve the long term outcome. There are exploratory protocols for novel therapies such as dendritic cell therapy for several malignancies, antiangiogenesis therapy, graft engineering to prevent graft-versus-host disease and antigen specific T cells or non specific NK cells to prevent relapse. Moreover a strong focus of the program is to develop cord-blood transplantation for adult patients with hematologic malignancies. The laboratory studies center on understanding the immunological events that occur with graft-vs-host disease and methods to prevent this disease. The current efforts focus on understanding murine reconstitution following transplantation, use of a peptide polymer to block MHC class II recognition of minor histocompatibility antigens, use of T cell engineering to prevent graft-versus-host disease at the same time preserving a graft-versus-malignancy effect.
Publications
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Bergens MA, Lowder YP, Li Y, Johnson EJ, Winthrop HM, Bush AT, et al. Food insecurity prior to hematopoietic stem cell transplant is associated with malnutrition and worse outcomes. Bone Marrow Transplant. 2025 Jun;60(6):857–63.Cardones AR, Emiola A, Hall RP, Sung AD, Zhang J, Petty AJ, et al. Cutaneous dysbiosis characterizes the post-allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation period. Blood Adv. 2025 May 13;9(9):2173–82.Tsai F, Gray L, Mirabella A, Steinbach M, Garrick JM, Barrett NJ, et al. Immersive Virtual Reality for Enabling Patient Experience and Enrollment in Oncology Clinical Trials: A Feasibility Study. Cancers (Basel). 2025 Mar 29;17(7).Artese AL, Sainvil M, Fish LJ, Hill L, Somers T, Matthews A, et al. Exploring facilitators and barriers to daily chlorhexidine gluconate bathing in adult patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Support Care Cancer. 2024 Nov 28;32(12):833.
See more publications at Scholars@Duke