Mount Sinai Researcher Receives Prestigious Award From the American Association of Indian Scientists in Cancer Research

Nina Bhardwaj, MD, PhD, Director of Immunotherapy at The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai, has received the 2022 Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research award from the American Association of Indian Scientists in Cancer Research (AAISCR).

The AAISCR’s Lifetime Achievement award is presented annually to an outstanding scientist who has made significant contributions to cancer research, either through a scientific discovery or through their body of work. These contributions, whether through research, leadership, or mentorship, must have a lasting impact and demonstrate a lifetime commitment to achieving progress against cancer.

Through her research, Dr. Bhardwaj has significantly advanced the understanding of how to fight cancer by using innate immune cells to reverse immunosuppression in tumor microenvironments. In particular, her team discovered a subset of dendritic cells, which play a key role in initiating an immune response. Subsequently she gained further insights on how dendritic cells work by generating and growing them in her lab. Dr. Bhardwaj also developed dendritic-cell-based and dendritic-cell-targeted vaccines for the treatment of both cancer and infection in several investigator-initiated studies and has pioneered neoantigen vaccine studies at The Tisch Cancer Institute.

Prior to receiving this award, Dr. Bhardwaj was named one of Scientific American’s Top 50 researchers, receiving the Award for Medical Research in 2004, and in 2015 she received the Fred W. Alt Award for new discoveries in Immunology from the Cancer Research Institute. Dr. Bhardwaj has served on numerous National Institutes of Health Study Sections and advisory councils and as chair of the Cancer Immunology Steering Committee of the American Association for Cancer Research, where she also serves on the Board of Directors. She has secured multiple federal and foundation grants and has authored more than 200 publications over the course of her career.

“It was a wonderful surprise to receive this award and to join such a prestigious group of previous recipients,” said Dr. Bhardwaj, Medical Director of the Vaccine and Cell Therapy Laboratory, Co-Director of the Cancer Immunology Program, Ward-Coleman Chair in Cancer Research, and Professor of Medicine (Hematology and Medical Oncology), and Urology, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “It was also extraordinary to be recognized by such an elite group of peers. When I started in this field, dendritic cells were not considered unique lineages and were thought to be a lesser sibling of monocytes. But with the support of Mount Sinai and, in particular, The Tisch Cancer Institute, we were able to make significant discoveries that helped to expand this field and led to many studies using dendritic cells as cellular vaccine adjuvants. Ultimately, it is exciting to have our efforts validated with this award and it inspires me to continue my work and advance the fight against cancer.”

About the Mount Sinai Health System

Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with more than 43,000 employees working across eight hospitals, over 400 outpatient practices, over 300 labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time — discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.

Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 7,300 primary and specialty care physicians; 13 joint-venture outpatient surgery centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and more than 30 affiliated community health centers. We are consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals, receiving high “Honor Roll” status, and are highly ranked: No. 1 in Geriatrics and top 20 in Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Diabetes/Endocrinology, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Neurology/Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Pulmonology/Lung Surgery, Rehabilitation, and Urology. New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked No. 12 in Ophthalmology. U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Children’s Hospitals” ranks Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital among the country’s best in three pediatric specialties. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is one of three medical schools that have earned distinction by multiple indicators: It is consistently ranked in the top 20 by U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Medical Schools,” aligned with a U.S. News & World Report “Honor Roll” Hospital, and top 20 in the nation for National Institutes of Health funding and top 5 in the nation for numerous basic and clinical research areas. Newsweek’s “The World’s Best Smart Hospitals” ranks The Mount Sinai Hospital as No. 1 in New York and in the top five globally, and Mount Sinai Morningside in the top 20 globally. For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, on Twitter and YouTube.