Nelson Chao
Professor of Medicine, Immunology, Pathology and Global Health
Appointment:
Nelson Chao
Professor of Medicine, Immunology, Pathology and 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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Andrlová H, Miltiadous O, Kousa AI, Dai A, DeWolf S, Violante S, et al. MAIT and Vδ2 unconventional T cells are supported by a diverse intestinal microbiome and correlate with favorable patient outcome after allogeneic HCT. Sci Transl Med. 2022 May 25;14(646):eabj2829.Ison MG, Marty FM, Chao N, Moon SH, Zhang Z, Chandak A. Economic and clinical burden associated with respiratory viral infections after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant in the United States. Transpl Infect Dis. 2022 May 22;e13866.Sung AD, Giri VK, Tang H, Nichols KR, Lew MV, Bohannon L, et al. Home-Based Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation in the United States. Transplant Cell Ther. 2022 Apr;28(4):207.e1-207.e8.Heston SM, Young RR, Tanaka JS, Jenkins K, Vinesett R, Saccoccio FM, et al. Risk Factors for CMV Viremia and Treatment-Associated Adverse Events Among Pediatric Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Recipients. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2022 Feb;9(2):ofab639.
See more publications at Scholars@Duke