Pawel Kalinski, MD, PhD

Department of Immunology
Chief, Translational Immuno-Oncology

Specializing In:

  • Biology of dendritic cells (DC) and DC vaccines
  • Biology of T cells and T cell targeting therapies of cancer
  • Biology of natural killer (NK) cells
  • Biology of human myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC)
  • Regulation of chemokine production in tumor microenvironment (TME)
  • TME and tumor-associated immune suppression
  • In vitro modeling of human immune system
  • Design and implementation of early phase clinical trials

Research Interests:

  • Development and clinical evaluation of new cancer involving the modulation of patients' immune system
  • Role of the immune system in the effectiveness of chemo- and radiotherapy
  • Promoting interactions between clinical and laboratory researchers
  • Development and clinical evaluation of therapeutic vaccines involving different subsets of “polarized” DCs (colorectal cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, melanoma, hematologic malignancies)
  • Development and clinical evaluation of adoptive T cell therapies (ACT) using ex vivo-induced polyclonal CTLs (ovarian- & colorectal cancers and melanoma)
  • Development and clinical evaluation of combinatorial approaches to enhance the effectiveness of vaccines, ACT an checkpoint blockers, but reprogramming tumor microenvironments for enhanced CTL infiltration and modulating intratumoral expression of PD-L1,
  • Development of combinatorial adjuvants to modulate DC functions in situ
  • Counteracting cancer-related immunosuppressive mechanisms and their use in transplantation and autoimmunity
  • Role of the immune system in the effectiveness of oncolytic virotherapies
  • Role of the immune system in the effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiotherapy of cancer
  • Interplay between stress and cancer immunity

Biography

The overall goal of my research is to advance the integration of immunotherapy within comprehensive cancer care, as a complementary modality to surgery, chemo and radiotherapy. My group develops new methods of using ex vivo-educated dendritic cells, DC-activated T cells, combinatorial adjuvants and checkpoint blockers, to promote selectively accumulation of type-1 immune cells (CTLs, Th1 and NK cells) in tumor lesions, without amplifying pre-existing Treg- and MDSC responses, in order to enhance local immune surveillance and enhance overall therapeutic outcomes. Our current projects include:

  • Development and clinical evaluation of therapeutic vaccines involving different subsets of “polarized” DCs (colorectal cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, melanoma, hematologic malignancies)
  • Development and clinical evaluation of adoptive T cell therapies (ACT) using ex vivo-induced polyclonal CTLs (ovarian- & colorectal cancers and melanoma)
  • Development and clinical evaluation of combinatorial approaches to enhance the effectiveness of vaccines, ACT and checkpoint blockers, but reprogramming tumor microenvironments for enhanced CTL infiltration and modulating intratumoral expression of PD-L1, PD-L2 and other checkpoints (colorectal cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, melanoma, bladder cancer, HPV-associated cancers)
  • Development of combinatorial adjuvants to modulate DC functions in situ
  • Counteracting cancer-related immunosuppressive mechanisms and their use in transplantation and autoimmunity
  • Role of the immune system in the effectiveness of oncolytic virotherapies
  • Role of the immune system in the effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiotherapy of cancer
  • Interplay between psychologic stress and cancer immunity These interdisciplinary projects involving multiple clinical and laboratory teams, have been advanced as parts of the as multiple NIH-, DOD-, pharma and biotech-funded grants and program projects (single- and multi-institution P01s and P50/SPOREs; where I have been serving as the overall PI, overall co-PI or a Project Leader) and focusing on the therapy of melanoma, colon cancer, prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, and hematologic malignancies. Our current work includes phase I/II and phase II clinical testing of the resulting paradigms and methods in cancer patients, and development of similar treatments for patients with premalignant lesions and chronic infections resistant to standard forms of treatment.

Positions

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center

  • Professor of Oncology
  • Chief, Translational Immuno-Oncology
  • Department of Immunology

Background

Education and Training

  • 1991 - MD - Warsaw Medical Academy (AMW), Poland
  • 1998 - PhD - Immunology, University of Amsterdam (UvA), The Netherlands

Residency

  • 1994 - Residency, Medicine, Ctr. Clin. Hosp. Milit. Sch. Med, Warsaw, Poland

Fellowship

  • 2000 - Fellowship, Immunology, University of Amsterdam (UvA), The Netherlands
  • 1992 - Research Fellowship, Immunology, University of Amsterdam (UvA) The Netherlands

Professional Memberships

  • 2015 - American Society of Clinical Investigation
  • 2011 - American Association for Cancer Research
  • 2009 - Society for Clinical and Translational Science
  • 2008 - Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer
  • 2004 - Society for Natural Immunity
  • 2001 - American Association of Immunologists

Featured on CancerTalk

Publications

  Full Publications list on PubMed

Kalinski P., C. M. U. Hilkens, E. A. Wierenga, and M. L. Kapsenberg. 1999. T-cell priming by dendritic cells: the concept of a third signal. Immunol. Today 20: 561-567. PMID: 10562707

Mailliard, R. B., A. Wankowicz-Kalinska, Q. Cai, A. Wesa, M. L. Kapsenberg, J. M. Kirkwood, W. J. Storkus, and P. Kalinski (2004). Alpha-type-1 Dendritic Cells (αDC1): A Novel Immunization Tool with Optimized CTL-inducing Activity. Canc. Res. 64: 5934-5937. PMID: 15342370

Muthuswamy R, Berk E, Fallert Junecko B, Zeh HJ, Zureikat AH, Normolle D, Luong TM,. Reinhart TA, Bartlett DL, and Kalinski P. NF-kB hyper-activation in tumor tissues allows tumor-selective reprogramming of chemokine microenvironment to enhance the recruitment of cytolytic T effector cells. Cancer Res. 2012 Aug 1;72(15):3735-43 (2012). PMID: 22593190

Storkus WJ, Maurer D, Lin Y, Ding F, Bose A, Lowe D, Rose A, DeMark M, Karapetyan L, Taylor JL, Chelvanambi M, Fecek RJ, Filderman JN, Looney TJ, Miller L, Linch E, Lowman GM, Kalinski P, Butterfield LH, Tarhini A, Tawbi H, Kirkwood JM. Dendritic cell vaccines targeting tumor blood vessel antigens in combination with dasatinib induce therapeutic immune responses in patients with checkpoint-refractory advanced melanoma. J Immunother Cancer. 2021 Nov;9(11):e003675. doi: 10.1136/jitc-2021-003675. PMID: 34782430; PMCID: PMC8593702.

Orr, B., Mahdi, H., Fang, Y., Strange, M., Uygun, I., Rana, M., Zhang, L., Suarez Mora, A., Pusateri, A., Elishaev, E., Kang, C., Tseng, G., Gooding, W., Edwards, R.P.*, Kalinski, P*. & Vlad, A.M*. Phase I Trial Combining Chemokine-Targeting with Loco-Regional Chemoimmunotherapy for Recurrent, Platinum-Sensitive Ovarian Cancer Shows Induction of CXCR3 Ligands and Markers of Type 1 Immunity. Clin Cancer Res (2022). Clin Cancer Res. 2022 May 13;28(10):2038-2049. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-21-3659. PMID: 35046055, * corresponding authors.