Yasodha Natkunam, M.D., Ph.D

Clinical Focus

• Hematopathology
• Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
• Anatomic/Clinical Pathology

Administrative Appointments

• Co-Director, Hematopathology (BM), Stanford (2009 - present)
• Co-Director, Immunodiagnosis Laboratory, Stanford (2005 - present)
• Co-Director, Post Sophomore Fellowship, Stanford (2003 - present)

Professional Education

Postdoctoral Advisees

Sheren Younes

Graduate & Fellowship Program Affiliations

• Pathology

Community & International Work

• Improving Pathology Facilities in Underserved Communities, Sri Lanka 

Industry Relationships

Stanford is committed to ethical and transparent interactions with our industry partners. It is our policy to disclose payments of $5,000 or more, equity valued at $5,000 or more in a publicly traded company, or any equity in a privately held company, to physicians and scientists employed by Stanford University from companies or other commercial entities with which they interact as part of their professional activities. View Full Information

Research Interests

My laboratory studies the tissue expression pattern of proteins that are of potential interest for the diagnosis, prognostic stratification and therapy of patients with lymphoma and leukemia. We are currently investigating prognostic markers in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma such that risk groups can be better defined. We are also interested in the immunodiagnostic and molecular characterization of rare and aggressive hematopoietic tumors such as Natural Killer/T-cell lymphomas, histiocytic malignancies and childhood lymphomas.

Clinical Trials

• Genome, Proteome and Tissue Microarray in Childhood Acute Leukemia Recruiting
• Phase II study of Atorvastatin safety and antitumor effects in non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Recruiting
• Phase I/II Intratumoral DC Immunotherapy With Gemcitabine & XRT in Unresectable Pancreatic Cancer Completed

Publications

• Immunoarchitectural patterns in nodal marginal zone B-cell lymphoma: a study of 51 cases. Salama ME, Lossos IS, Warnke RA, Natkunam Y. Am J Clin Pathol. 2009; 132 (1): 39-49
• Lymphoma cell VEGFR2 expression detected by immunohistochemistry predicts poor overall survival in diffuse large B cell lymphoma treated with immunochemotherapy (R-CHOP). Gratzinger D, Advani R, Zhao S, Talreja N, Tibshirani RJ, Shyam R, Horning S, Sehn LH, Farinha P, Briones J, Lossos IS, Gascoyne RD, Natkunam Y. Br J Haematol. 2009
• Extracellular signal-regulated kinase positively regulates the oncogenic activity of MCT-1 in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Dai B, Zhao XF, Hagner P, Shapiro P, Mazan-Mamczarz K, Zhao S, Natkunam Y, Gartenhaus RB. Cancer Res. 2009; 69 (19): 7835-43
• Microtubule-associated protein-2 is a sensitive marker of primary and metastatic neuroblastoma. Krishnan C, Higgins JP, West RB, Natkunam Y, Heerema-McKenney A, Arber DA. Am J Surg Pathol. 2009; 33 (11): 1695-704
• Characterization of c-Maf transcription factor in normal and neoplastic hematolymphoid tissue and its relevance in plasma cell neoplasia. Natkunam Y, Tedoldi S, Paterson JC, Zhao S, Rodriguez-Justo M, Beck AH, Siebert R, Mason DY, Marafioti T. Am J Clin Pathol. 2009; 132 (3): 361-71