Anirban Das

Staff Physician, Neuro-Oncology Section, Division of Haematology/Oncology, Department of Paediatrics

Project Investigator, Developmental, Stem Cell & Cancer Biology Program

Dr. Anirban Das is a formally trained paediatric neuro-oncologist and cancer geneticist working as a staff physician at SickKids, and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. His over-arching research focus is to unearth the germline underpinnings of deadly brain tumors in children and young adults and translate these discoveries to improve diagnostics and clinical care for these young patients globally.

His current work is specifically focused on comprehensively deciphering the immunobiology of CNS cancers that arise from DNA replication-repair deficiency. He co-leads the International Replication Repair Deficiency Consortium with Dr. Uri Tabori and consults on patients globally including from low and low-middle income countries, to enable evidence-based care for these patients.

He is also currently involved with multiple international consortia, cancer predisposition committees and immuno-oncology working groups to develop clinical diagnostics, workflows and precision-oncology trials focussing on novel correlative biomarker analyses for these patients and their cancers.

Research

His over-arching goal in translational research is to unearth the germline underpinnings of deadly brain tumors in children and young adults and take these discoveries forward to improve diagnostics and clinical care for these young patients through innovative, biomarker-driven clinical trials. Specifically, his ongoing research is dedicated to comprehensively deciphering the immuno-biology of CNS cancers in children and young adults that arise from germline DNA replication-repair deficiency, and harness this data to design novel, personalized mono and combinatorial, immune-directed clinical trials for these patients. He co-leads the International RRD Consortium (https://replicationrepair.ca) with Prof. Dr. Uri Tabori and is currently involved with multiple international consortia (PBTC, CONNECT, PNOC among others) to both design clinical trials and develop biomarker analyses for RRD brain and other cancers. His translational immuno-oncology and biomarkers group is currently leading biomarker analyses for multiple clinical trials and is also foraying into a cancer interception program for children and young adults with brain tumors.

Education and experience

• 2012–2015: Doctorate of Medicine (DM), Pediatric Hematology Oncology, Advanced Pediatric Center, Postgraduate Institute of Medical and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, India
• 2009–2012: Doctor of Medicine (MD), Pediatrics, Advanced Pediatric Center, Postgraduate Institute of Medical and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, India
• 2003–2009: Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBBS), Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata

Achievements

• 2024: Young SIOP Network Leadership Assembly, SIOP
• 2023: Young Investigator Award, SITC – World Immunotherapy Council Young Investigator Day
• 2023: Young Investigator Award, SIOP  

1. Das A, MacFarland SP, Meade J, Hansford JR, Schneider KW, Kuiper RP, Jongmans MCJ, Lesmana H, Schultz KAP, Nichols KE, Durno C, Zelley K, Porter CC, States LJ, Ben-Shachar S, Savage SA, Kalish JM, Walsh MF, Scott HS, Plon SE, Tabori U. Clinical updates and surveillance recommendations for DNA replication-repair deficiency syndromes in children and young adults. Clin Cancer Res. 2024 Jun 11. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-23-3994. Epub ahead of print. PA
2. Das A, Sudhaman S, Morgenstern D, et al. Genomic predictors of response to PD-1 inhibition in children with germline DNA replication repair deficiency. Nat Med. 2022 Jan;28(1):125-135. PA
3. Das A, Fernandez NR, Levine A, Bianchi V, Stengs LK, Chung J, Negm L, Dimayacyac JR, Chang Y, Nobre L, Ercan AB, Sanchez-Ramirez S, Sudhaman S, Edwards M, Larouche V, Samuel D, Van Damme A, Gass D, Ziegler DS, Bielack SS, Koschmann C, Zelcer S, Yalon-Oren M, Campino GA, Sarosiek T, Nichols KE, Loret De Mola R, Bielamowicz K, Sabel M, Frojd CA, Wood MD, Glover JM, Lee YY, Vanan M, Adamski JK, Perreault S, Chamdine O, Hjort MA, Zapotocky M, Carceller F, Wright E, Fedorakova I, Lossos A, Tanaka R, Osborn M, Blumenthal DT, Aronson M, Bartels U, Huang A, Ramaswamy V, Malkin D, Shlien A, Villani A, Dirks PB, Pugh TJ, Getz G, Maruvka YE, Tsang DS, Ertl-Wagner B, Hawkins C, Bouffet E, Morgenstern DA, Tabori U. Combined immunotherapy improves outcome for replication repair deficient (RRD) high-grade glioma failing anti-PD1 monotherapy: A report from the International RRD Consortium. Cancer Discov. 2023 Oct 12. doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-23-0559. Epub ahead of print. PA/ SRA
4. Das A, Tabori U, Sambira Nahum LC, Collins NB, Deyell R, Dvir R, Faure-Conter C, Hassall TE, Minturn JE, Edwards M, Brookes E, Bianchi V, Levine A, Stone SC, Sudhaman S, Sanchez Ramirez S, Ercan AB, Stengs L, Chung J, Negm L, Getz G, Maruvka YE, Ertl-Wagner B, Ohashi PS, Pugh T, Hawkins C, Bouffet E, Morgenstern DA. Efficacy of Nivolumab in Pediatric Cancers with High Mutation Burden and Mismatch Repair Deficiency. Clin Cancer Res. 2023 Dec 1;29(23):4770-4783. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-23-0411. PA
5. Ercan AB, Aronson M, Fernandez NR, Chang Y, Levine A, et al, Das A, Tabori U. Clinical and biological landscape of constitutional mismatch-repair deficiency syndrome: an International Replication Repair Deficiency Consortium cohort study. Lancet Oncol. 2024 Mar 26:S1470-2045(24)00026-3. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(24)00026-3. Epub ahead of print. SRA

See a full list of Dr. Anirban Das' publications.