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Pawel Kalinski M.D., Ph.D.

  • Professor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences
  • Vice Chair of Translational Research Development in Women’s Health, Magee-Women’s Research Institute
Representative Publications

1.          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

2.          Vieira, P. L., E. C. de Jong, E. A. Wierenga, M. L. Kapsenberg, and P. Kalinski. 2000. Development of Th1-inducing capacity in myeloid dendritic cells requires environmental instruction. J. Immunol. 164: 4507-4512.PMID: 10779751

3.          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

4.          Muthuswamy R, Berk E, Fallert Junecko B, Zeh HJ, Zureikat AH,  Normolle D, Luong TM,. Reinhart TA, Bartlett DL, and Kalinski P. NF-κB 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

5.          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.

6.          Theodoraki, MN; Yerneni, S; Sarkar, SN; Orr, B; Muthuswamy, R; Voyten, J; Modugno F; Jiang W, Grimm M, Basse, P., Bartlett, DL; Edwards, RP; Kalinski, P (2018) Helicase-driven Activation of NFκB-COX2 Pathway Mediates the Immunosuppressive Component of dsRNA-Driven Inflammation in Human Tumor Microenvironment. Cancer Res.; 78(15);4292–302. PMID: 29853604

7.          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.

8.          Shipra Gandhi, Mateusz Opyrchal, Melissa Grimm, Ronald Slomba, Kathleen Kokolus, Sebastiano Battaglia, Kristopher Attwood, Adrienne Groman, Lauren Williams, Mary Lynne Tarquini, Paul Wallace, Kah Teong Soh, Tracey O’Connor, Amy Early, Ellis Levine, Igor Puzanov, Marc Ernstoff and Pawel Kalinski*. Systemic infusion of TLR3-ligand and IFN-α in patients with breast cancer reprograms local tumor microenvironments for selective CTL influx. J ImmunoTher Cancer 2023;11:e007381. doi:10.1136/ jitc-2023-007381. PMID: 37963636; PMCID: PMC10649898

9.          Shipra Gandhi, Mateusz Opyrchal, Melissa Grimm, Ronald Slomba, Kathleen Kokolus, Sebastiano Battaglia, Kristopher Attwood, Adrienne Groman, Lauren Williams, Mary Lynne Tarquini, Paul Wallace, Kah Teong Soh, Tracey O’Connor, Amy Early, Ellis Levine, Igor Puzanov, Marc Ernstoff and Pawel Kalinski*. Systemic infusion of TLR3-ligand and IFN-α in patients with breast cancer reprograms local tumor microenvironments for selective CTL influx. J ImmunoTher Cancer 2023;11:e007381. doi:10.1136/ jitc-2023-007381. PMID: 37963636; PMCID: PMC10649898

10.        Kathleen M. Kokolus, Connor Huck Eoghan Connor, Eduardo Cortes-Gomez, Jianmin Wang,Natasa Obermajer, Per Basse and Pawel Kalinski* Synergy between TLR3-ligand and IFN-α in the transient sensitization of “Cold” tumors to PD-1 blockade and the induction of systemic immunity. Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 2025;13:e012307. doi:10.1136/ jitc-2025-012307

Research Interests

Pawel Kalinski, MD, PhD, is Vice Chair of Translational Research Development in Women’s Health at the Magee-Women’s Research Institute and a Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Dr. Kalinski is a graduate of the Medical University of Warsaw, Poland (MD; 1991) and the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands (PhD; Immunology; 1998).  He served as a tenured Professor of Surgery and the Founding Director of the ImmunoTransplantation Center of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, and Senior Vice President for Team Science, Chair of Department of Immunology, and Chief of Translational Immuno-Oncology at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, NY. 

His research evaluates the interplay between the activators and modulators of innate immunity (Interferons, TLR-Ligands, CTL/NK-attracting chemokines) and suppressive mediators of chronic inflammation (prostanoids, suppressive cytokines, checkpoint molecules, Treg/MDSC-attractants) in the regulation of immunity against cancer, infections and autoimmunity. 

Two major research areas of the Kalinski Lab and his Clinical Partners are: 1) Cell-based therapies of cancer with focus on dendritic cell (DC) therapies (DC vaccines, intratumoral live adjuvants) and adoptive cell therapies (ACT) using DC-instructed T cells able of “Boolean” (dual) recognition of cancer cells using TCR and NKRs and 2) Therapeutic reprograming of tumor microenvironments (TME) to enhance local infiltration of immune cells and enhance the therapeutic effectiveness of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI), ACT and other cancer treatments. Dr. Kalinski has authored over 170 scientific publications. He developed and secured regulatory approvals for 16 INDs and partnered with clinical faculty partners in the development of multiple investigator-sponsored clinical trials in breast- and ovarian cancers, as well as melanoma, brain, prostate and colon cancers. He has extensive experience building and leading Team Science programs within P01s (ovarian, breast, melanoma, colon, SPOREs (ovarian and melanoma), and MPI R01s and DoD grants (brain-metastatic breast cancer) involving multiple academic institutions (University of Pittsburgh, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Moffitt Cancer Center, Mt. Sinai Icahn School of Medicine and the University of Virginia). 

His work has been funded by over $50M in peer-reviewed federal grants from the National Cancer Institute (NIH/NCI), Department of Defense/Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (DoD/CDMRP), NY State, philanthropy, biotech and pharma partners. He has served on Boards of Directors and Editorial Boards of several professional organizations and scientific journals, and as a scientific consultant, editorial board member and reviewer for multiple grant-funding agencies and scientific journals in the United States and Europe. 

His interests focus on overcoming the logistic, regulatory and budgetary barriers to clinical testing and widespread implementation of new cell-, protein- and small molecule-based immunotherapies of cancer and infectious diseases in a cost-effective manner.

Translational and Clinical Research Topics:

  • Cell therapies involving antigen-loaded, ex vivo-educated DCs:
  • Development and clinical evaluation of DCs and DC-NK cell co-cultures for intratumoral/intra-cavity injections:
  • Adoptive T cell therapies (ACT) using ex vivo-induced polyclonal CTLs:
  • CAR-T and TCR-transgenic T cell therapies, involving dual-recognition T cells co-expressing high levels of NK cell receptor to enhance sensitivity and selectivity of targeting of solid tumors, while limiting toxicity to healthy tissues.
  • Development of combinatorial adjuvants to activate DCs in in situ vaccination approaches
  • Tumor-selective approaches to modulate tumor microenvironments (TME) using paradigms derived from acute viral infections to sensitize “cold” tumors to immunotherapy
  • Immunomodulatory effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy and their cross-talk with immunotherapy,  
  • Counteracting secondary immunosuppressive mechanisms induced by immune checkpoints and inflammatory mediators
  • Interplay between psychologic stress and cancer immunity
  • Immunomodulatory (pro-inflammatory and suppressive) effects of obesity

Basic Research:

  • Biology of DCs and DC-driven regulation of CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses (original definition of “signal 3”)
  • Biology of human MDSCs
  • Immunomodulatory functions of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and is receptors (EP2/EP4)
  • Immunobiology of dsRNA-based immune adjuvants and interferons
  • “Helper (immunomodulatory) functions of immune effector cells (CTLs and NK cells)