Vinodh Pillai, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
Contact InformationChildren's Hospital of Philadelphia
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Philadelphia, PA, 19104
Fax: 215-590-1736
Research Expertise
CAR T cell therapy
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Castleman disease
Kikuchi-Fujimoto lymphadenitis
Single cell sequencing of pediatric lymphoma
Spatial transcriptomics
Clinical Expertise
Hematopoietic neoplasms
Pathology of CAR T cell therapy in B-ALL
Education
M.B.B.S. (Medicine and Surgery), Madras Medical College, 2002
Ph.D. (Biomedical sciences, Immunology), University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center , 2007
Ph.D. (Machine Learning in Bioinformatics), Canadian Bioinformatics Workshops, 2026
Specialty Certification
American Board of Pathology (Anatomic and Clinical Pathology), 2013
American Board of Pathology (Hematology/Hematopathology), 2014
Postgraduate Training
Compulsory Rotatory Residential Internship , Government General Hospital, Madras, India, 2001-2002
Post-Doctoral fellow of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Immunology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, 2007-2009
Anatomic and Clinical Pathology Residency, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, 2009-2013
Hematopathology , Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Boston
Children's Hospital Boston, MA, 2013-2014
Awards and Honors
Top 5 Poster Award in GSO Poster Competition, 2005
Graduate Student Organization (GSO) Travel Award, 2007
Eliot Goldings Award for the Best Graduate Student in Immunology, 2007
BWH Biomedical Research Institute Microgrant Award, 2012
Paul E. Strandjord Young Investigator Award from the Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists, 2013
SIOP (International Society of Paediatric Oncology) Young Investigator Award, 2018
HTG EdgeSeq 2020 Autoimmune Panel Research Grant Award, 2020
Enid Gilbert Barness Prize - Society for Pediatric Pathology, 2022
Memberships and Professional Organizations
Clinical Immunology Society, 2007 - 2009
American Association of Immunologists, 2007 - 2009
United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, 2011 - 2014
American Society for Clinical Pathology, 2012 - Present
Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists, 2013 - 2015
International Clinical Cytometry Society, 2015 - present
Children's Oncology Group, 2015 - Present
Society for Hematopathology, 2015 - Present
Children's Oncology Group Young Investigator Mentorship Program, 2017 - Present
American Society for Clinical Oncology, 2018 - Present
College of American Pathologists, 2018 - Present
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, 2023 - 2023
Web Links
Selected Publications
How I diagnose Castleman disease
Dorottya Laczko; Vinodh Pillai; Dale Frank; Joshua D. Brandstadter; David C. Fajgenbaum, American Journal of Clinical Pathology 165(3): , 2026, PMID:41802815
Harnessing the CD2 axis to broaden and enhance the efficacy of CAR T-cell therapies
Carturan A, Angelos MG, Guruprasad P, Patel RP, Pajarillo R, Lee AE, Espie D, Zhang Y, Chiang YH, Xie W, Rodriguez JL, Harris J, Devi P, Afolayan-Oloye OI, Xu J, Sussman JH, Elghawy O, Yang AG, Barsouk A, Cho JH, Shaw CE, Singh EB, Ugwuanyi O, Paruzzo L, Stella FMD, Liu S, Nason S, Imparato A, Rotolo A, Lemoine J, Barrett DM, Posey AD Jr, Rook AH, Pillai V, Bagg A, Pileri SA, Liu D, Tan K, Schuster SJ, Teachey DT, Porazzi P, Ruella M, Blood, 2026, PMID:41490267
The ancestral haplotype of P2RX5 yields a B-cell surface marker and a multi-lineage immunotherapy target
Ang Z, Castro A, Paruzzo L, Schmidt C, Hasanali ZS, Hayer KE, Stella F, Soldan SS, Torres-Diz M, Kwok C, Sainos PK, Ji K, Krohl PJ, Fine J, Sehgal P, Martinez D, Spangler JB, Riley JL, Vogl DT, Porazzi P, Pillai V, Lieberman PM, Allman D, Ruella M, Thomas-Tikhonenko A, bioRxiv, 2026, PMID:41648131
090 – Pediatric ALK-negative anaplastic large cell lymphoma genetically differs from the adult counterpart
James ER, Salmeron-Villalobos J, Colmenero A, Frauenfeld L, Andres M, Verdu J, Garcia N, Simonitsch-Klupp I, Attarbaschi A, Bacon CM, Burke GA, Lockhart B, Ducray SP, Chen Z, Tizioni MM, Matthews JD, Steel C, Pillon M, Lussolin A, Pervez S, Pillai V, Štěrba J, Krenova Z, Aven M, Wrobel G, Werner J, Knorr F, Oschlies I, Klapper W, Woessmann W, Balague O, Salaverria I, Turner SD, Leukemia Research 156(Supplement): Abstract 090, 2025
Spatial and single cell mapping of castleman disease reveals key stromal cell types and cytokine pathways
Smith D, Eichinger A, Fennell É, Xu-Monette ZY, Rech A, Wang J, Esteva E, Seyedian A, Yang X, Zhang M, Martinez D, Tan K, Luo M, Young KJ, Murray PG, Park C, Reizis B, Pillai V, Nat Commun 16(1): 6009, 2025, PMID:40593805
RNA-seq of seven non-neoplastic/inflammatory lymphadenitis entities identify potential molecular diagnostic markers
Julia Wang, Brian Lockhart, Jason Xu, Vinodh Pillai, bioRxiv, 2025
CAR-T - The Slow and the Spurious
Pillai V., Transplant Cell Ther. 31(3): 121-122, 2025
Integrated genomic analysis to reduce chromosomal analysis for the diagnosis of pediatric hematologic malignancies: addressing the shortage of cytogenetic technologists
Li D, Tasian SK, Wertheim G, Rheingold SR, Bernt KM, Newman H, Wainwright L, Wilmoth DM, Thiel B, Surrey LF, Margolskee E, Pillai V, Luo M, Paessler ME, Hunger SP, Li MM, Zhong Y, Haematologica, 2025, PMID:39882648
Incidental Autopsy Finding of Retiform Hemangioendothelioma of the Spleen
Koga S, Tirado F, Pillai V, Lee FS, and Cooper K, Formosan Journal of Surgery 58(1): 34-35, 2025
The FBXO45-GEF-H1 Axis Controls Germinal Center Formation and B-cell Lymphomagenesis
Sahasrabuddhe AA, Chen X, Ma K, Wu R, Liang HC, Kapoor R, Chhipa RR, Onder O, McFetridge C, Van Arnam JS, Zhang X, Morrissette JJD, Pillai V, Li MM, Szankasi P, Basrur V, Conlon KP, Raabe TD, Bailey NG, Hogaboam CM, Rottapel R, Kim J, López C, Schlesner M, Siebert R, Dreval K, Morin RD, Moro L, Pagano M, Staudt LM, Lim MS, Elenitoba-Johnson KSJ, Cancer Discov, 2025, PMID:39820335
