Sacha Gnjatic, PhD
- PROFESSOR | Oncological Sciences
- PROFESSOR | Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology
- PROFESSOR | Pathology, Molecular and Cell Based Medicine
Research Topics:
Anti-Tumor Therapy, Antigen Presentation, B Cells, Cancer, Cellular Immunity, Dendritic Cells, Immunological Tolerance, Immunology, Immunosuppression, Lung, Microarray, Proteomics, T Cells, Tolerance, Translation, Vaccine DevelopmentDr. Sacha Gnjatic received his PhD in Immunology from the University of Paris VII after completing a fellowship at the Institut Cochin in Paris. Following a post-doctoral fellowship in Lloyd J. Old’s laboratory at Memorial Sloan-Kettering (MSKCC) in New York, Dr. Gnjatic was appointed to the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at MSKCC, where he eventually became Associate Member, and was named Director of Immunological Monitoring at the Ludwig Center for Immunotherapy. In 2013, Dr. Gnjatic was appointed as Associate Professor of Medicine at the Tisch Cancer Institute and Precision Immunology Institute, as part of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York. In 2022, he became a Professor of Oncological Sciences, Medicine, and Pathology. In addition, he serves as Associate Director of the Human Immune Monitoring Center at Mount Sinai. Dr. Gnjatic focuses on human immune responses to cancer in an antigen-specific manner, to define new targets for the development of cancer immunotherapies, ask how these immunotherapies work and why they may fail. Dr. Gnjatic’s work has established the immunological basis for testing human cancer vaccines and cancer immunotherapies in over 100 clinical trials. He is known best for immune monitoring of disease, i.e., applying various multiomic high-dimensional methodologies to correlate biological biomarkers with clinical events. Areas of research include: Characterization of serological and cellular immune responses against tumor antigens such as MAGE-A3 or NY-ESO-1, spontaneously occurring or induced by cancer immunotherapy, using state-of-the-art T cell methods and large-scale sermonic profiling; Mechanisms of antigen presentation to T cells, to evaluate viral, bacterial, and parasitic vectors, and cross-presentation of antigen to HLA; Impact of immunoregulation on tumor antigen-specific responses, from co-inhibitory molecules expressed on T cells at the tumor site to the effect of regulatory T cells and immune checkpoint blockade on anti-tumor effectors; Characterization of the tumor immune microenvironment to link immune infiltration and immunomodulatory markers in relation to tissue architecture, antigen expression, and resulting immune responses locally and in the periphery; COVID-19 cytokines, antibody and T cell responses and relation to severity and comorbidities; predictive biomarkers of gut inflammation. Dr. Gnjatic is the principal investigator in a number of consortia, supported by Cancer Moonshots and NIH grants such as U24, U01, P01, and contracts. His work has resulted in more than 215 publications in high-impact peer-reviewed journals and 10 patents.
Multi-Disciplinary Training Areas
Immunology [IMM], Pharmacology and Therapeutics Discovery [PTD]Education
BSc3, University College London
MSc, Institut Pasteur
Undergraduate, Ecole Normale Supérieure
PhD, University Paris VII
Post-doc, Memorial Sloan-Kettering - Ludwig Institute
Mechanisms of antigen presentation to T cells:
Mechanisms of antigen presentation to and recognition by T cells, including defining epitopes, evaluating viral, bacterial, and parasitic vectors, cross-presentation of antigen to HLA class I, and endogenous antigen presentation to HLA class II.
Inflammatory diseases:
Role of GM-CSF autoantibodies throughout Crohn's disease development. Dissecting role of cytokines, antibody and T cell responses in COVID-19 patients after infection or vaccination.
Immune monitoring to discover mechanisms and biomarker of cancer immunotherapies:
Multiscale (host, circulation, tissues, single cell), multiomics (immunophenotyping, immunopathology, immunotranscriptomics, bioinformatics) approaches for biomarker discovery and understanding of mechanisms contributing to clinical responses, adverse events, or primary and acquired resistance to tumor immunotherapies.
Antigen-specific spontaneous and immunotherapy-induced tumor immunity:
Characterization of serological and cellular immune responses against tumor antigens such as NY-ESO-1, MAGE-A3, or p53, and for their capacity to induce immune responses both spontaneously and in the setting of cancer immunotherapy.
Tissue immune microenvironment:
Assessment of the tumor microenvironment for immunocytes and suppressive signals, including development of novel spatial technologies to address in depth biomarkers at the tissue site.
Impact of immunoregulation on tumor antigen-specific responses:
Impact of immunoregulation on tumor antigen-specific responses, from co-inhibitory molecules expressed on T cells at the tumor site to the effect of regulatory T cells on anti-tumor effectors, and study of immune tolerance.
Physicians and scientists on the faculty of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai often interact with pharmaceutical, device and biotechnology companies to improve patient care, develop new therapies and achieve scientific breakthroughs. In order to promote an ethical and transparent environment for conducting research, providing clinical care and teaching, Mount Sinai requires that salaried faculty inform the School of their relationships with such companies.
Below are financial relationships with industry reported by Dr. Gnjatic during 2022 and/or 2023. Please note that this information may differ from information posted on corporate sites due to timing or classification differences.
Industry-Sponsored Lectures: MSSM faculty occasionally give lectures at events sponsored by industry, but only if the events are free of any marketing purpose.
- Society of Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC)
Other Activities: Examples include, but are not limited to, committee participation, data safety monitoring board (DSMB) membership.
- Boehringer Ingelheim Corporation; Cancer Immunotherapy Trials Network (CITN); Celgene Corporation; Center for Cancer Immunology Research (CCIR); EMD Serono, Inc. (Merck & Co., Inc.); Frontiers in Immunology; Genentech, Inc.; National Cancer Institute (NCI); Regeneron Pharmaceuticals; Society of Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC); Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited
Mount Sinai's faculty policies relating to faculty collaboration with industry are posted on our website. Patients may wish to ask their physician about the activities they perform for companies.