Vijay Bhoj, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Hospital of the University of PennsylvaniaPerelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
Contact InformationDepartment of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine
8-111 South Pavilion Extension
3400 Civic Center Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Email: vijay.bhoj@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Specialty Division
Transfusion Medicine & Therapeutic Pathology, Cancer and Immunobiology
Research Expertise
Dr. Bhoj's research expertise lies in the area of cellular immunotherapy. In particular, he has experience in preclinical development of immunotherapy that employ engineered immuno-receptors (e.g. chimeric antigen receptors) for the treatment of cancer and of non-malignant conditions such as autoimmunity and transplant rejection.
In addition to conducting preclinical in vitro and in vivo studies using animal models, Dr. Bhoj has experience in conducting correlative studies in patients undergoing immunotherapy to study the immune impact of such therapies.
Clinical Expertise
Transfusion Medicine
Education
BS (Biology), The College of New Jersey, 2002
MD University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 2010
PhD (Immunology), University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 2010
Specialty Certification
Clinical Pathology, American Board of Pathology, 2013
Transfusion Medicine, American Board of Pathology, 2014
Postgraduate Training
Resident, Clinical Pathology, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 2010-13
Chief Resident, Clinical Pathology, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 2012-13
Fellow, Transfusion Medicine, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 2013-14
Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, 2013-18
Awards and Honors
William Pepper Fellowship, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, 2013
Distinguished Young Investigator Award, Immuno-Oncology Young Investigator's Forum, 2015
Research Day Poster Award, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 2016
Gift of Life Award, Ree-Wynn Foundation, 2016
AABB Distinguished Scholar Award, 2022
Memberships and Professional Organizations
Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies (AABB), 2010-present
American Society for Apheresis, 2012-present
American Society for Hematology, 2016-present
American Association for Cancer Research, 2016-present
National Cancer Institute, 2020-22
National Blood Foundation, 2021-present
California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, 2022-present
Web Links
Selected Publications
Modulation of the gut microbiota engages antigen cross-presentation to enhance antitumor effects of CAR T cell immunotherapy
Uribe-Herranz M, Beghi S, Ruella M, Parvathaneni K, Salaris S, Kostopoulos N, George SS, Pierini S, Krimitza E, Costabile F, Ghilardi G, Amelsberg KV, Lee YG, Pajarillo R, Markmann C, McGettigan-Croce B, Agarwal D, Frey N, Lacey SF, Scholler J, Gabunia K, Wu G, Chong E, Porter DL, June CH, Schuster SJ, Bhoj V, Facciabene A. Mol Ther 31(3):686-700, Mar 2023. doi: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2023.01.012. Epub 2023 Jan 14. PMID: 36641624.
Therapeutic Opportunities for Immunoreceptor-Engineered T Cell Therapy for Modulation of Alloimmunity
Muralidharan K, Agarwal D, Naji A, Bhoj VG. J Immunol 209(10):1811-1816, Nov 2022. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.2200542. PMID: 36344114; PMCID: PMC9680015.
Trafficking and persistence of alloantigen-specific chimeric antigen receptor regulatory T cells in Cynomolgus macaque
Ellis GI, Coker KE, Winn DW, Deng MZ, Shukla D, Bhoj V, Milone MC, Wang W, Liu C, Naji A, Duran-Struuck R, Riley JL. Cell Rep Med 3(5):100614, May 2022. doi: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100614. Epub 2022 May 11. PMID: 35551746; PMCID: PMC9133392.
Germinal center responses to SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines in healthy and immunocompromised individuals
Lederer K, Bettini E, Parvathaneni K, Painter MM, Agarwal D, Lundgreen KA, Weirick M, Muralidharan K, Castaño D, Goel RR, Xu X, Drapeau EM, Gouma S, Ort JT, Awofolaju M, Greenplate AR, Le Coz C, Romberg N, Trofe-Clark J, Malat G, Jones L, Rosen M, Weiskopf D, Sette A, Besharatian B, Kaminiski M, Hensley SE, Bates P, Wherry EJ, Naji A, Bhoj V, Locci M. Cell 185(6):1008-1024, e15, Mar 2022. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.01.027. Epub 2022 Feb 2. PMID: 35202565; PMCID: PMC8808747.
Enhancing CAR T function with the engineered secretion of C. perfringens neuraminidase
Durgin JS, Thokala R, Johnson L, Song E, Leferovich J, Bhoj V, Ghassemi S, Milone M, Binder Z, O'Rourke DM, O'Connor RS. Mol Ther 30(3):1201-1214, Mar 2022. doi: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2021.11.014. Epub 2021 Nov 20. PMID: 34813961; PMCID: PMC8899523.
SARS-CoV-2 Spike-Specific T-Cell Responses in Patients With B-Cell Depletion Who Received Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Treatments
Parvathaneni K, Torres-Rodriguez K, Meng W, Hwang WT, Frey N, Naji A, Bhoj VG. JAMA Oncol 8(1):164-167, Jan 2022. doi: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2021.6030. PMID: 34792539; PMCID: PMC8603228.
On the road to eliminating long-lived plasma cells-"are we there yet?"
Markmann C, Bhoj VG. Immunol Rev 303(1):154-167, Sep 2021. doi: 10.1111/imr.13015. Epub 2021 Aug 5. PMID: 34351644.
BET bromodomain protein inhibition reverses chimeric antigen receptor extinction and reinvigorates exhausted T cells in chronic lymphocytic leukemia
Kong W, Dimitri A, Wang W, Jung IY, Ott CJ, Fasolino M, Wang Y, Kulikovskaya I, Gupta M, Yoder T, DeNizio JE, Everett JK, Williams EF, Xu J, Scholler J, Reich TJ, Bhoj VG, Haines KM, Maus MV, Melenhorst JJ, Young RM, Jadlowsky JK, Marcucci KT, Bradner JE, Levine BL, Porter DL, Bushman FD, Kohli RM, June CH, Davis MM, Lacey SF, Vahedi G, Fraietta JA. J Clin Invest 131(16):e145459, Aug 2021. doi: 10.1172/JCI145459. PMID: 34396987; PMCID: PMC8363276.
Absolute lymphocyte count proliferation kinetics after CAR T-cell infusion impact response and relapse
Faude S, Wei J, Muralidharan K, Xu X, Wertheim G, Paessler M, Bhoj VG, Grupp SA, Maude SL, Rheingold SR, Pillai V. Blood Adv 5(8):2128-2136, Apr 2021. doi: 10.1182/bloodadvances.2020004038. PMID: 33881465; PMCID: PMC8095130.
Adoptive T cell immunotherapy for medullary thyroid carcinoma targeting GDNF family receptor alpha 4
Bhoj VG, Li L, Parvathaneni K, Zhang Z, Kacir S, Arhontoulis D, Zhou K, McGettigan-Croce B, Nunez-Cruz S, Gulendran G, Boesteanu AC, Johnson L, Feldman MD, Radaelli E, Mansfield K, Nasrallah M, Goydel RS, Peng H, Rader C, Milone MC, Siegel DL. Mol Ther Oncolytics 20:387-398, Jan 2021. doi: 10.1016/j.omto.2021.01.012. PMID: 33614919; PMCID: PMC7879023.
