Research Program: Transplant Biology & Therapy
Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Hematology-Oncology

verneris@umn.edu
612-626-2961 — office
Preferred method of contact: phone

Dr. Verneris's clinical profile
(University of Minnesota Physicians website)

Dr. Verneris is an assistant professor of pediatrics, Division of Hematology-Oncology, Blood and Marrow Transplantation, and the Masonic Cancer Center. His clinical interests include umbilical cord blood and/or bone marrow transplantation for acute leukemias, prevention of graft-versus-host disease and graft-versus-leukemia.

He received his medical degree in 1992 from the Dartmouth-Brown Program in Medicine (Hanover, New Hampshire and Providence, Rhode Island). He completed his pediatric internship and residency at Children's National Medical Center, Washington, D.C. His pediatric hematology/oncology fellowship was completed at Stanford University, Stanford, Calif., where he was a staff physician from 1998 to 2002, prior to joining the faculty at the University of Minnesota. He is board certified in pediatrics and pediatric hematology/oncology.

Dr. Verneris's research interests include immunology, transplantation biology and therapy, and translational research. Areas of specific interest include:

• NK cell development and differentiation from hematopoietic progenitor cells
• NK cell activating and inhibitory NK receptors
• The influence of immunosuppressive medications on NK cell function.
• Other studies are aimed at enhancing NK cell responses to malignant diseases and adoptive transfer of NK cells to kill residual leukemia/cancer cells.

Dr. Verneris serves on the University of Minnesota Institutional Biosafety Committee and is a reviewer for multiple scientific journals. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and is currently recipient of the Alexander Charles Jundt Research Award. Dr. Verneris is principal investigator on a number of grants, including two from the National Institutes of Health (K08-HL004505 and P30CA077598-07, pilot 19) and the Children's Oncology Group. He has 71 peer-reviewed publications.

Research Interests

• Laboratory Based Research: NK cell development from progenitor cells. Effect of immune suppressive agents on NK cell function. Role of co-stimulatory molecules on NK cell function
• Translational Research: Large scale expansion of NK cells and adoptive transfer following allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation
• Clinical Research: Double umbilical cord blood transplantation for relapsed and refractory acute leukemias. Bone marrow transplantation for pediatric solid tumors

Selected Publications

Grzywacz B, Kataria N, Kataria N, Blazar BR, Miller JS and Verneris MR. Natural killer differentiation by myeloid progenitors. Blood 2011;117:3548-3558.

Burke MJ, Vogel RI, Janardan SK, Brunstein C, Smith AR, Miller JS, Weisdorf D, Wagner JE, Verneris MR. Early lymphocyte recovery and Detection after umbilical cord blood transplantation (UCBT) for hematologic malignancies. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2011;17:831-840.

Verneris MR, Eapen M, Duerst R, Carpenter PA, Burke MJ, et al. Reduced intensity conditioning regimens for allogeneic transplantation in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2010;16:1237-1244.

Verneris MR, Burke MJ. Novel approaches to prevent leukemia relapse following allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation. Curr Hematol Malig Rep. 2010 ;5:157-162.

Verneris MR, Brunstein CG, Barker J, MacMillan ML, DeFor T, McKenna DH, Burke MJ, Blazar BR, Miller JS, McGlave PB, Weisdorf DJ, Wagner JE. Relapse risk after umbilical cord blood transplantation: enhanced graft versus leukemia effect in recipients of two units. Blood. 2009;114:4293-4299.

Woll PS, Grzywacz B, Tian X, Marcus RK, Knorr DA, Verneris MR, Kaufman DS. Human embryonic stem cells differentiate into a homogeneous population of natural killer cells with potent in vivo anti-tumor activity. Blood. 2009 Apr 13. [Epub ahead of print]

Brunstein CG, Wagner JE, Weisdorf DJ, Cooley S, Noreen H, Barker JN, Defor T, Verneris MR, Blazar BR, Miller JS. Negative effect of KIR alloreactivity in recipients of umbilical cord blood transplantation depends on transplantation conditioning intensity. Blood. 2009;113:6094-7101

Burke MJ, Trotz B, Luo X, Weisdorf DJ, Baker KS, Wagner JE, Verneris MR. Imatinib use either pre- or post-allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (Allo-HCT) does not increase cardiac toxicity in chronic myelogenous leukemia patients. 2009 ;44:169-174.

Bachanova V, Verneris MR, DeFor T, Brunstein CG, Weisdorf DJ. Prolonged survival in adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia after reduced-intensity conditioning with cord blood or sibling donor transplantation. Blood. 2009 ;113:2902-2905.

Tang Q, Grzywacz B, Wang H, Kataria N, Cao Q, Wagner JE, Blazar BR, Miller JS, Verneris MR. Umbilical cord blood T cells express multiple natural cytotoxicity receptors after IL-15 stimulation, but only NKp30 is functional. J Immunol. 2008;181:4507-4715.

Hui SK, Verneris MR, Higgins P, Gerbi B, Weigel B, Baker SK, Fraser C, Tomblyn M, Dusenbery K. Helical tomotherapy targeting total bone marrow - first clinical experience at the University of Minnesota. Acta Oncol. 2007;46:250-255.

Wang H, Grzywacz B, Sukovich D, McCullar V, Lee AB, Blazar BR, Cornfield D, Miller JS, Verneris MR. The unexpected effect of cyclosporin A on CD56+CD16- and CD56+CD16+ natural killer cell subpopulations. Blood. 2007;110:1530-1539.

Grzywacz B, Kataria N, Sikora M, Oostendorp RA, Dzierzak EA, Blazar BR, Miller JS, Verneris MR. Coordinated acquisition of inhibitory and activating receptors and functional properties by developing human natural killer cells. Blood. 2006;108:3824-3833

Fraser CJ, Weigel BJ, Perentesis JP, Dusenbery KE, De For TE, Baker KS, Verneris MR. Autologous stem cell transplantation for high-risk Ewing's sarcoma and other pediatric solid tumors. Bone Marrow Transplant. 2006;37:175-181.

Verneris MR, Arshi A, Kornacker M, Edinger M and Negrin RS. Low levels of Her2/neu expressed by Ewing's family tumor cell lines can redirect cytokine-induced killer cells. Clin Cancer Res. 2005;11:4561-4570.

Verneris MR, Karami M, Baker J, Jayaswal A, Negrin RS. Role of NKG2D signaling in the cytotoxicity of activated and expanded CD8+ T cells. Blood. 2004;103:3065-3072.