Assistant Professor
Areas of Interest
Skin & soft tissue cancers; Intra-abdominal cancers; Mechanistic underpinnings of resistance to immune checkpoint blockade in solid tumors; Peripheral transcriptomic signatures as biomarkers of response to immune checkpoint blockade; Natural killer cell education and immune competence
Biography
Dr. Piyush Kumar Sharma joined the UAB Division of Surgical Oncology in September 2026, with a combined research and clinical appointment.
He earned his medical degree from the All India Institute of Medical Science, New Delhi, and obtained his Ph.D. in oncology from the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Oxford. Dr. Sharma completed his general surgery residency at the University of Colorado and his complex general surgical oncology fellowship at the University of Miami. He also completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in tumor immunology at Washington University in St. Louis.
His research interests include the mechanistic underpinnings of resistance to immune checkpoint blockade in solid tumors and the TCR repertoire characterization in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
He is a member of both the Society of Surgical Oncology and the American College of Surgeons.
Selected Publications
Pabon CM, Kumar Sharma P, Spieler BO, Tuerff D, Hosein PJ. Identifying subsets of patients with non-immunogenic gastrointestinal cancers for checkpoint immunotherapy. Surgical Oncology Clinics of North America. 2026 Apr; 35(2):347-365. (PMID: 41903993)
Milotay G, Little M, Watson R, Muldoon D, Tong O, Tay lor C, Sun B, MacKay S, Nassiri I, Bremke J, Akin-Adigun O, Kumar Sharma P, Cooper R, Danielli S, Santo FM, Verge de Los Aires A, Gilchrist J, Ng E, Chong AY, Mentzer A, Woodcock V, Coupe N, Klenerman P, Payne MJ, Middleton MM, Fairfax BP. CMV serostatus is associated with improved survival and delayed toxicity onset following anti-PD-1 checkpoint blockade. Nature Medicine. 2025 Jul;31(7):2350-2364. (PMID:40269332)
Sivakumar S, Jainarayanan A, Arbe-Barnes E, Kumar Sharma P, Ni Leathlobhair M, Amin S, Heij L, Hegde S, Magen A, Tucci, Sun B, Wu S, Anand NM, Slawinski H, Revale S, Nassiri I, Webber J, Frampton A, Wiltberger G, Neumann U, Charlton P, Spiers L, Elliott T, Sivakumar PV, Ratushny A V, Middleton M, Peppa D, Fairfax B, Merad M, Dustin ML, Abu-Shah E, BashfordRogers R. Distinct immune cell infiltration patterns in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) exhibit divergent immune cell selection and immunosuppressive mechanisms. Nature Communications. 2025 Feb 6;16(1):1397 (PMID:39915477)
Cooper RA, Taylor CA, Watson RA, Tong O, Nassiri I, Kumar Sharma P, Little M, Ye W, Koturan S, Danielli S, Middleton MR, Fairfax BP. Peripheral monocyte transcriptomics associated with immune checkpoint blockade outcomes in metastatic melanoma. medRxiv. 2024.01.25.24301653
Watson RA, Taylor CA, Tong O, Cooper R, Jungkurth E, Kumar Sharma P, Storey B, Ye W, Verge de los Aires A, Santo FM, Nassiri I, Gilchrist JJ, Ieremia E, Middleton MR, Fairfax BP. Deep sequencing of the T cell Receptor reveals common and reproducible CD8+ signatures of response to checkpoint immunotherapy. bioRxiv. 2023.02.11.52808
Taylor CA, Watson RA, Tong O, Ye W, Nassiri I, Gilchrist JJ, Verge de los Aires A, Kumar Sharma P, Koturan S, Cooper RA, Woodcock V, Shine B, James T, Coupe N, Payne MJ, Naranbhai V, Groha S, Freedman ML, Choueri TK, Middleton MR, Gusev A, Fairfax BP. IL7 genetic variation and toxicity to immune checkpoint blockade in patients with melanoma. Nature Medicine. 2022 Dec;28(12):2592-2600. (PMID: 36526722)
Kotanidis CP, Xie C, Alexander D, Rodrigues JCL, ….; COMBAT Consortium; ORFAN investigators. Constructing custom-made radiotranscriptomic signatures of vascular inflammation from routine CT angiograms: a prospective outcomes validation study in COVID-19. Lancet Digital Health. 2022 Aug 26:S2589-7500(22)00132-7. (PMID: 36038496)
Gilchrist JJ, Makino S, Naranbhai V, Kumar Sharma P, Koturan S, Tong O, Taylor CA, Watson RA, Verge de los Aires A, Lau E, Danielli S, Hameiri-Bowen D, Lee W, Ng E, Whalley J, Knight JC, Fairfax BP. Natural Killer cells demonstrate distinct eQTL and transcriptome-wide disease associations, highlighting their role in autoimmunity. Nature Communications. 2022 Jul14;13(1): 4073. (PMID:35835762)
COMBAT Consortium. COVID-19 Multi-omics Blood ATlas (COMBAT) Consortium. A blood atlas of COVID-19 defines hallmarks of disease severity and specificity. Cell. 2022 Mar 3;185(5):916- 938.e58. (PMID: 35216673)
Peng Y, Felce SL,…., Kumar Sharma P, Sun B,…, Knight JC, Dong T. An immunodominant NP105-113-B*07:02 cytotoxic T cell response controls viral replication and is associated with less severe COVID-19 disease. Nature Immunology. 23, 50–61 (2022). (PMID: 34853448)
Education
Medical School
All India Institute of Medical Science, New Delhi, India
Graduate School
Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine - University of Oxford
Doctor of Philosophy in Oncology
Residency
University of Colorado School of Medicine
General Surgery Residency
Fellowship
University of Miami School of Medicine
Complex General Surgical Oncology
Contact
Phone
Patient Appointments and Questions: 205-934-3028
Email
pksharma@uabmc.edu