Meet Our Team

Nina Bhardwaj MD, PhD, is Professor of Medicine (Hematology and Medical Oncology) and Urology. She is the Director of Immunotherapy, Medical Director of the Vaccine and Cell Therapy Laboratory, and Co-Director of the Cancer Immunology Program at The Tisch Cancer Institute. She is a faculty member of the Icahn Genomics Institute. Dr. Bhardwaj holds the Ward Coleman Chair in Cancer Research.

Dr. Mansi Saxena is an expert in cGMP production of cancer vaccines, cellular therapies, infectious disease vaccines; and has in depth knowledge of immune mechanisms regulating the tumor microenvironment. Dr. Saxena has been directly involved in development neoantigen peptide vaccine pipeline at Mount Sinai, PGV-001. Under this program, four clinical trials have been performed in various cancer setting, with more than 300 vaccines administered. In addition, Dr. Saxena directly oversaw the cGMP production of egg-based Newcastle Disease Virus based Covid-19 (NDV-HXP-S) vaccine Master Virus Seed that were used in several countries around the world. Notably, the live NDV-HXP-S vaccine manufactured at the VCTL was used in Phase-1 clinical trial at Mount Sinai, NY. Dr. Saxena also established the immune-monitoring program under the VCTL to investigate the immunogenicity of novel combinations of vaccines, immunotherapies and cell therapies in patients. Dr. Saxena has ably led the team since its inception in 2020 and currently the program serves as a single site for incisive cellular immune-monitoring services for several investigator initiated and externally sponsored trials at Mount Sinai. Dr. Saxena’s key areas of focus include development of novel cell therapies, monoclonal antibodies, vaccines and combination of immunotherapies to treat cancer and other disease and translate the same from bench to bedside.