Alexander Rudensky

Alexander Rudensky is an internationally recognized leader in the study of regulatory T cells. He completed his PhD at the Gabrichevsky Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow and his postdoctoral work at Yale University. He has been Chairman of the Immunology Program at MSK Cancer Center and Director of the Ludwig Center at MSK in New York, since 2012.

The goals of Dr. Rudensky's research program are to understand the mechanisms of immunoregulation with the focus on T cell immunity, regulatory T cells, and more recently dendritic cell biology in settings of infection, cancer, and autoimmunity. Specifically, his lab explores the molecular and cellular mechanisms governing differentiation and function of regulatory T (Treg) cells, virus-specific effector T cells and dendritic cells using in vitro and in vivo functional assays, multi-color flow cytometry and immunofluorescence, genetic, biochemical, computational and, increasingly, cutting-edge genomics approaches, including bulk and single cell RNA and ATAC sequencing, TCR repertoire analyses, ChIP-seq, and CUT&RUN assays. His laboratory identified the transcription factor Foxp3 as a Treg cell lineage specification factor and revealed a crucial role for these cells as life-long "guardians" of immune homeostasis. This work established a firm genetic footing for the phenomenon of T cell-mediated suppression of immune mediated inflammation and autoimmunity.

In addition to his research efforts, he supports, coordinates and organizes training and educational efforts and provides mentorship to junior faculty, clinical and postdoctoral fellows, physicians and graduate students to leverage the knowledge of basic and translational immunology for advancement of clinical and experimental oncology.