Damian Kovalovsky, Ph.D.

Damian Kovalovsky, Ph.D.
Staff Scientist
Experimental Transplantation and Immunotherapy Branch
Head, T-Cell Engineering Facility

Dr. Kovalovsky directs the Branch's T-Cell Engineering Facility, providing support for the pre-clinical development of new T-cell therapies and analysis of several research endpoints related to the immune response in ongoing immunotherapy clinical trials.

Areas of Expertise

1) hematopoietic differentiation, 2) T-cell response, 3) immunology

Contact Info

Damian Kovalovsky, Ph.D.
Center for Cancer Research
National Cancer Institute
Building 10, Room 12C217
Bethesda, MD 20892
Ph: 240-858-3242
Fax: 240-541-4566
damian.kovalovsky@nih.gov

The T-Cell Engineering Facility provides support for the development and implementation of novel immunotherapies as well as the analysis of immune endpoints in ongoing clinical trials.

NIH Scientific Focus Areas:
Developmental Biology, Immunology
View Dr. Kovalovsky's PubMed Summary.

Selected Key Publications

  1. Zbtb1 prevents default myeloid differentiation of lymphoid-primed multipotent progenitors.
    Zhang X, Lu Y, Cao X, Zhen T, Kovalovsky D.
    Oncotarget. 7: 58768-58778, 2016. [ Journal Article ]
  2. Zbtb1 safeguards genome integrity and prevents p53-mediated apoptosis in proliferating lymphoid progenitors.
    Cao X, Lu Y, Zhang X, Kovalovsky D.
    J Immunol. 197: 1199-211, 2016. [ Journal Article ]
  3. PLZF Controls the Development of Fetal-Derived IL-17+Vγ6+ γδ T cells.
    Lu Y, Cao X, Zhang X, Kovalovsky D.
    J Immunol. 195: 4273-81, 2015. [ Journal Article ]
  4. PLZF induces the spontaneous acquisition of memory/effector functions in T cells independently of NKT cell-related signals.
    Kovalovsky D, Alonzo ES, Uche OU, Eidson M, Nichols KE, Sant'Angelo DB.
    J Immunol. 184: 6746-55, 2010. [ Journal Article ]
  5. The BTB-zinc finger transcriptional regulator PLZF controls the development of invariant natural killer T cell effector functions.
    Kovalovsky D, Uche OU, Eladad S, Hobbs RM, Yi W, Alonzo E, Chua K, Eidson M, Kim HJ, Im JS, Pandolfi PP, Sant'Angelo DB
    Nat Immunol. 9: 1055-64, 2008. [ Journal Article ]

Dr. Kovalovsky received his Ph.D from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He obtained postdoctoral training at the Molecular Oncology Research Institute, Tufts-New England Medical Center and at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he studied the mechanisms of negative selection of thymocytes as well as the differentiation of iNKT cells. Before joining the Experimental Transplantation and Immunology Branch, he was an investigator in the Experimental Immunology Branch where he studied the transcription factors controlling the differentiation of hematopoietic progenitors and T-cells.

Name Position
Samantha Simon Ph.D. Biologist (Contr.)
Elisaveta Voynova Ph.D. Scientist (Contr.)