Rajappa Lab
Prajwal Rajappa, MD, MS, is a physician-scientist and principal investigator in the Steve and Cindy Rasmussen Institute for Genomic Medicine (IGM) at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. He directs the Rajappa Laboratory at the IGM with a focus on precision medicine and immunotherapy for patients diagnosed with central nervous system (CNS) tumors. Dr. Rajappa is also an assistant professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and faculty member of the Translational Therapeutics Research Program at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center — Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute.
Lab Staff
Prajwal Rajappa, MD, MS
Principal Investigator
Prajwal.Rajappa@NationwideChildrens.org
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After obtaining his MD, Dr. Rajappa completed a unique fellowship and post-doctoral training program in the Department of Neurological Surgery of Weill Cornell Medical Center and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. As a fellow in Neurological Surgery, his training provided him exposure to the adult and pediatric neurosurgical management of brain and spinal tumors. Dr. Rajappa performed extensive basic science post-doctoral training with a specific focus on brain tumor immunology and the glioma microenvironment. His work has been published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Cancer Research, and Clinical Cancer Research.
During his time at Weill Cornell Medicine, Dr. Rajappa was also actively involved in a large-scale clinically annotated biorepository study with the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) and the Children’s Brain Tumor Tissue Consortium (CBTTC).
To further his goal of developing targeted clinical trials for brain tumor patients, Dr. Rajappa obtained a master’s degree in Clinical and Translational Investigation from Cornell University. The degree was based on his work in directing a precision medicine program for patients with pediatric and adult brain tumors at Weill Cornell Medicine.
Alessandro Canella, PhD
Research Scientist
Alessandro.Canella@NationwideChildrens.org
Sakthi Rajendran
Postdoctoral Scientist
Sakthi.Rajendran@NationwideChildrens.org
Claire Schmitt
Research Assistant
Claire.Schmitt@NationwideChildrens.org
Sujay Kalathoor
Medical Student
Sujay.Kalathoor@NationwideChildrens.com
Abigail Haffey
Research Student
Abigail.Haffey@NationwideChildrens.org
Kelly Hao
Research Student
Kelly.Hao@NationwideChildrens.org
Information About Our Research
Dr. Rajappa’s laboratory team seeks to better understand the way brain tumor cells co-opt the functions of immune cells within the surrounding microenvironment of gliomas. Specifically, the team is defining driving factors that support low to high-grade glioma progression. Dr. Rajappa’s initial studies demonstrated that bone marrow-derived myeloid cells (BMDCs) are recruited to the glioma tumor site and may support the angiogenic switch during glioma progression. Modulating the recruitment and reprogramming of co-opted BMDCs with clinically approved compounds may improve outcomes for patients with CNS tumors harboring increased immune infiltration.
Dr. Rajappa is also an active member of the Society for Neuro-Oncology (SNO) and American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).
Neuro-Oncology and Tumor Immunology Publications
Funding Sources
