Nandita Kumar, Phd Email & Phone Number

Seattle, Washington, United States

•Tracking antigen-specific T cell phenotypes during immune checkpoint blockade therapy to identify correlates of response.• Designing experimental workflows to simultaneously perform mass cytometry (CyTOF), multiplexed MHC-tetramer staining and single-cell multi-omics (10X/CITE-seq) to obtain high dimensional T cell characterization data from baseline and on-treatment samples. • Performing multi-modal data analysis of surface marker expression, antigen specificity, gene expression, and TCR sequence data to identify phenotypic changes related to clinical response status

Greater Seattle Area

Completed PhD in Dr. Evan W. Newell's lab at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer CenterThesis: Comprehensive Epstein-Barr virus-specific T cell profiling and multi-omics analysis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma CD8 T cells reveals novel cancer-associated phenotypes.• Discovered a novel CD8 T cell surface marker phenotype that is unique to Epstein-Barr virus-specific T cells from individuals with Epstein-Barr virus driven nasopharyngeal carcinoma and that is correlated to advanced disease status. • Generated a high dimensional CyTOF dataset to deeply profile antigen-specific T cells in NPC patients• Performed single-cell multi-omics on CD8 T cells from NPC patients to identify gene expression pathways and TCR clonal dynamics pertinent to the biological significance of this novel phenotype.• Integrated several high dimensional datasets to uncover correlations between the peripheral and tumor immune landscapes and disease status.

Portland, Oregon Area

Project: Investigating the role of the adenosine kinase isoforms in cancer.• Maintained breast cancer and kidney cell lines and performed gene therapy (CRISPR) experiments to introduce targeted mutations in adenosine kinase isoforms.• Performed molecular biology experiments, western blots, and confocal microscopy to confirm mutations, and proliferation assays to assess changes in cell growth.

Corvallis, Oregon Area

Undergraduate Research Fellow in Dr. Jadwiga Giebultowicz's LabCompleted Honors Thesis: The Effects of the Immunity Factor Relish on Aging Phenotypes in Drosophila• Created fruit fly lines with overexpression of NF-κB homologue Relish to assess links between aging, chronic inflammation, neurodegeneration, and circadian rhythms.• Learned to perform qRT-PCR to assess gene expression changes, behavioral assays (lifespan, locomotor activity, climbing, gut motility), and neurodegeneration assays.

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Molecular Medicine And Mechanisms Of Disease, 3.80

Honors Bachelor Of Science, Microbiology, General, 3.58