Vishnu Modur

Vishnu Modur is a post-doctoral research fellow in the division of Experimental Hematology and Cancer Biology Department, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. He received his Master's degree from Manipal University, India and a Ph.D. from the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, USA.

During Dr. Modur's training, he acquired a sharp focus on research that encircles tumor-immune interactions and resistance to cancer immunotherapy. As a post-doctoral fellow (2015 to 2019) in Kakajan Komurov's lab at CCHMC, USA, he studied the nature and role of global transcriptional deregulations in cancers using both human and murine models. His work led to the finding of a previously unknown mechanism of tumor immune resistance observed in >25% of all cancers known as transcriptional elongation defects. His characterization of this novel tumor phenotype revealed the role of transcriptional elongation defects in poor response and outcome to immune checkpoint inhibitors in multiple clinical cohorts.

Dr. Modur continues to study tumor evolution under immune pressure conditions contributing to tumor evasion mechanisms, and strategies for its reversal or targeting in the clinic.