Sign in

Santosh Vardhana

@santoshvardhana.bsky.social
1.5K followers 190 following 217 posts

Researching immunology, metabolism, and cancer, and caring for patients with lymphoma at MSKCC (www.vardhanalab.com). Opinions are my own.

PostsRepliesMedia
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Thank you to @mskcancercenter.bsky.social for highlighting recent published work from @tanmanamitra.bsky.social! www.mskcc.org/news/new-str...
mskcc.org
New Strategy Could Prevent T Cell Exhaustion and Boost Immunotherapy | Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Learn how a discovery about T cell exhaustion could lead to new ways to boost the effectiveness of immunotherapy.
021
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
I couldn’t be prouder to announce that @tanmanamitra.bsky.social’s thesis work identifying how metabolic demand drives terminal T cell exhaustion is out today in @cp-immunity.bsky.social: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
MEK-dependent bioenergetic demand drives terminal CD8+ T cell exhaustion
Loss of mitochondrial function promotes CD8+ T cell dysfunction during persistent antigen encounter. Here, we examined the pathways whereby chronic an…
193
Reposted by Santosh Vardhana
Immunology & Microbial Pathogenesis (IMP) Program @wcm-imp.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Congratulations to IMP student Tanmana Mitra in the lab of @santoshvardhana.bsky.social for successfully defending her thesis! Stay tuned, as Tanmana’s work on metabolic regulation of T cell exhaustion will soon be published. Best wishes to Dr. Mitra as she begin her postdoc at U Chicago this fall.
032
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
I don’t post much anymore but thought I would take a moment to share my feelings on an issue that has been papered over by the negative impact that external forces have had on science and scientists: the toxicity of our own interactions within the scientific community. (1/8)
141
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
It’s a thrill that the culmination of 5 years of collaboration with @katyavinogradova.bsky.social is out today. This project was inspired by Katya’s incredible work showing massive remodeling of the post-translational landscape during T cell activation. (1/x): www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
160
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Reposting for our team riding in @cycleforsurvival.bsky.social this Friday. Still time to donate using the link below! Every dollar goes to support patient-facing rare cancer research! Donate here: shorturl.at/U92Sc
shorturl.at
Cycle for Survival: The Movement to Beat Rare Cancers
Support rare cancer research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
022
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Proud to once again ride in @cycleforsurvival.bsky.social in three weeks. 100% of every dollar I raise advances rare cancer research at @mskcancercenter.bsky.social. Every single dollar you give makes a difference. Donate here: shorturl.at/U92Sc
063
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
Dear all; this year I will once again be riding in @cycleforsurvival.bsky.social to support research for rare cancers at @mskcancercenter.bsky.social. Rare cancers get very little funding for research despite being 50% of all cancers. Support my ride here: secure2.convio.net/mskcc/site/T...
secure2.convio.net
Cycle for Survival: The Movement to Beat Rare Cancers
Support rare cancer research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
031
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Standing by Our Colleagues in Gaza — A Plea to the U.S. Medical Community | New England Journal of Medicine www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
nejm.org
Standing by Our Colleagues in Gaza — A Plea to the U.S. Medical Community | NEJM
In the face of Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza’s health system and the catastrophic famine caused by the devastation, U.S. physicians have an ethical obligation to respond and support immediate ch...
020
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
I can understand physicians often being silent when it comes to politics for a variety of reasons. However, this is a moment where we need to be heard stating two things very clearly (1/2):
110
Reposted by Santosh Vardhana
Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
ER doc here! This is a lie. Wait times are up because the American healthcare system is an unsustainable business model and a for-profit national healthcare system just doesn’t work. These problems will continue to get worse until we change that system. It literally has nothing to do with immigrants
335146685195
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Oh fine, let's walk through the implications of NOT providing emergency health care to all people who walk into a US hospital. Someone shows up in the ER having a heart attack. (1/3)
120
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
011
Reposted by Santosh Vardhana
Sumitra Badrinathan @sumitra.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
i don’t think people on bluesky understand the severity of this situation. i woke up to literally hundreds of texts from friends and family thinking about either moving back home to india or applying to other countries for jobs. this includes me.
35476222971
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
Worth mentioning that H-1B visa holders keep the majority of rural hospitals in America functioning
011
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
I can confirm that this is a very accurate description of what people who are trying to help improve the lives of patients with cancer, including myself, are facing.
0199
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
Now accepting applications for our 2026 Cancer Biology & Cancer Engineering programs. Aspiring scientists & engineers will solve fundamental problems in biology & conduct research & develop technology that will help understand, diagnose, & treat cancer. bit.ly/3WUiuo1
bit.ly
Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
The Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences offers the next generation of basic scientists a program to study the biological sciences through the lens of cancer
041
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
How can this be real? It is - this is a very real post by the current acting director of the CDC - essentially a full confession of scientific illiteracy. God help us.
040
Reposted by Santosh Vardhana
Altmetric @altmetric.com · 02/09/2025
Sheffield researchers doing The Lord’s work. Great study. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Research posts on Bluesky are more original — and get better engagement
Bluesky posts about science garner more likes and reposts than similar ones on X.
319557
Reposted by Santosh Vardhana
Jen Herman 🌪️ @jukebarosh.bsky.social · 16/08/2025
My Friday night hot take is that replication studies are largely a waste of time & $ If a result is worth following up on, it's better to address from a different angle & see if it holds water. Strong ideas withstand this Conversely, there R infinite ways a replication can fail that teach you zip
3429
Reposted by Santosh Vardhana
Greg Folkers @gregfolkers.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
Nature: Cancelling mRNA studies is the highest irresponsibility go.nature.com/3HDx4wD cc Jay Bhattacharya
10634247
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 16/08/2025
Top 10 causes of death in the US: heart disease, cancer, COVID, trauma/overdose, stroke, chronic respiratory disease, Alzheimer's, diabetes, kidney disease, and liver disease/cirrhosis. # of mentions of any of these in the current 'unified strategy': 0. www.nih.gov/about-nih/ni...
nih.gov
Advancing NIH’s Mission Through a Unified Strategy
NIH is moving toward a unified strategy that aligns our priorities and funding approaches to fulfill this commitment.
110
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
“The symbolism could not be clearer: Scientists, doctors, public health officials, and law enforcement officials — people whose life’s work is to protect the nation — have targets on their backs.” Bravo @celinegounder.com www.nytimes.com/2025/08/11/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | A Dangerous Escalation of the Science Wars
030
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
On 8/5, HHS cancelled all federal funding for mRNA vaccine research. On 8/6, @rfk-junior.bsky.social posted, “Doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, and pharmaceutical giants profit by keeping Americans sick.” On 8/8, a man convinced he was made sick by the COVID vaccine shot up by the CDC.
041
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
At this point the end of scientific research in the US seems more like an inevitability than a concern. I wish someone could explain to me the benefits that outweigh the catastrophic harms of this series of decisions. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
wsj.com
Trump Administration Puts New Chokehold on Billions in Health-Research Funding
The National Institutes of Health can’t award grants to outside researchers under a new White House restriction.
020
Reposted by Santosh Vardhana
AZ Faust @azfaust.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Today’s NCI announcement is akin to Thanos snapping his fingers and wiping out half of American scientific workforce. Except that the wiping out part will take much longer to play out.
1199
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
I feel so unbelievably sad for all the young careers that will be destroyed by this funding decision and all the potential knowledge lost that could have helped patients. For nothing. It is…. very difficult not to lose any remaining vestiges of optimism.
080
Reposted by Santosh Vardhana
Nancy Parmalee @nparmalee.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
In light of today’s news about the National Cancer Institute announcing a 4% payline, it’s really important to communicate to people that the previous 10% payline was still effectively a lottery and the result of decades of underfunding the NIH. Paylines used to be 25%.
14296133
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Unconscionale and unforgivable.
021
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
I would encourage everyone to read this open-access article from @thelancet.com, which analyzes the impact of #USAID funding and estimates that the cut in funding by the Trump administration will lead to FOURTEEN MILLION EXCESS DEATHS IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
thelancet.com
Evaluating the impact of two decades of USAID interventions and projecting the effects of defunding on mortality up to 2030: a retrospective impact evaluation and forecasting analysis
USAID funding has significantly contributed to the reduction in adult and child mortality across low-income and middle-income countries over the past two decades. Our estimates show that, unless the a...
100
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
Judgment based on ethnic heritage is federal policy now, I guess - and quite befitting of those making the policy.
010
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
You guys...sometimes its actually awesome to meet your heroes. I met Carolyn after she delivered a riveting and inspiring speech to at the @mskcancercenter.bsky.social graduate school commencement and she absolutely manifests the joy and community that are the reasons that we do science.
0121
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
#Preprint alert! Pioneering work by Tanmana Mitra, a graduate student in @wcm-imp.bsky.social, sheds new insights into why T cells become metabolically exhausted during persistent antigen encounter: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
MEK-dependent bioenergetic demand drives terminal CD8+ T cell exhaustion
Loss of mitochondrial function contributes to CD8+ T cell dysfunction during persistent antigen encounter. How chronic antigen leads to this metabolic dysfunction remains unclear. Here, we show that T...
1133
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
#Preprint alert! Kevin Chen, a brilliant @mskcancercenter.bsky.social GSK graduate student and NCI F99/K00 awardee, identifies a novel, post-transcriptional checkpoint on intratumoral T cell function: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Intratumoral amino acid insufficiency limits CD8+ T-cell effector function
Loss of effector function is a hallmark of tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T-cells that have lost therapeutic efficacy. This impaired capacity occurs despite expression of transcripts encoding cytotoxic prote...
2286
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
Tagging co-lead, superstar, and future leader of the free world @emilystroo.bsky.social
021
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
Part 2 of our combined efforts with Sohrab Shah and Vivian Strong to understand immune evasion in gastric cancer describes the work in this preprint, led by Sohrab Salehi and Emily Stroobant in a brilliant collaboration: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Disrupted priming within draining lymph nodes drives immune quiescence in gastric cancer
The gastric mucosa is characterized by continuous innate immune surveillance and inflammatory signaling, yet a high proportion of gastric carcinomas (GCs) are recalcitrant to immune-directed therapies...
140
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
Combined #preprint and paper alert! Together with Sohrab Shah and Vivian Strong, we have been exploring a fundamental paradox of cancer biology: how can the immune response both suppress and facilitate tumorigenesis? (It's a 2-parter!) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Disrupted priming within draining lymph nodes drives immune quiescence in gastric cancer
The gastric mucosa is characterized by continuous innate immune surveillance and inflammatory signaling, yet a high proportion of gastric carcinomas (GCs) are recalcitrant to immune-directed therapies...
131
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
010
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
This is asinine in 50 ways before you even get to the part where he uses a double negative and ends up saying the opposite of what he wants. He is an existential threat to the health of all Americans and anyone who gives him any credibility has none of their own.
052
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
How can anyone defend this? I legitimately cant believe it. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/08/h...
nytimes.com
All Federal Experts on H.I.V. Prevention in Children Overseas Were Dismissed
Mother-to-child H.I.V. transmission takes an enormous toll in low-income countries. The Trump administration has laid off the officials who worked to solve the problem.
001
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
Jesus Christ this is beyond the pale
020
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Dystopian. This is the opposite of the NIH’s mission.
064
Reposted by Santosh Vardhana
Rodger Sherman @rodger.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
We simply had to intentionally destroy the world’s strongest economy while dismantling our scientific and educational infrastructure to ensure that a team with a trans girl would never finish second place in the Mountain West volleyball standings again
146232177078
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
@rfk-junior.bsky.social if you have a shred of dignity you will resign. I won’t hold my breath. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/28/h...
nytimes.com
Top FDA Vaccine Official Resigns, Citing Kennedy’s ‘Misinformation and Lies’
Dr. Peter Marks, a veteran of the agency, wrote that undermining confidence in vaccines is irresponsible and a danger to public health.
000
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
Apparently America is now a country where immigrants only belong if they stay quiet.
010
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
A Fulbright Scholar.
000
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
Beyond thrilled to support @katmabu.bsky.social for Congress, someone unafraid to speak truth to power including within her own party.
521413
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
At this point i think we should have to return the Statue of Liberty. Emma Lazarus would be ashamed. time.com/7269604/el-s...
time.com
What the Venezuelans Deported to El Salvador Experienced
Exclusive photos of the arrival of Venezuelan detainees deported from the U.S.
010
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
Scientific research in America is hurtling towards a cliff, and it may be too late to save it. I don’t have much else to say about it. I’m just sad.
011
Santosh Vardhana @santoshvardhana.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Now and forever proud to be a @upenn.edu alumnus. Sending thoughts to my friends and colleagues persevering through this insanity. And shame on those who support or even tolerate this; you disgust me.
000