ASCI / Emerging-Generation Awards, 2026

Pablo Sánchez Vela, MD, is a physician-scientist interested in using human genomics and genetically engineered models to understand the causes and consequences of clonal hematopoiesis. 

While he attended medical school in Valencia (Spain), he worked in the joint pathology unit of the UCV and CIPF. It was here where he built his early interest in pursuing a career in hematology/oncology. During the last year of medical school, he participated in a clinical elective at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) in New York City. His firsthand interaction with physician-scientist at MSK convinced him to relocate his career as a medical oncology resident at the HUVR in Seville (Spain) to the United States. For the past years, he has been a postdoc at the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program at MSK where he is currently a Senior Research Scientist.

During his time in the lab and through strong collaborative networks, he has studied how clonal hematopoiesis (CH), the detection of mutations in white blood cells in the absence of signs of malignant transformation, mediates subsequent comorbidities in patients with solid tumors. Pairing clinico-genomic data, genetically engineered murine models, and single-cell technologies, he has identified the mechanisms and nominated in vivo specific anti-inflammatory therapies to prevent CH-associated solid tumor treatment resistance and metastatic progression. He aims to start biomarker-driven clinical trials to directly test these and other hypothesis in the specific contexts where these somatic mutations in immune cells matter the most.

Ultimately, Dr. Sánchez-Vela’s goal is to become an independent clinician and investigator in the field of Hematology/Oncology focusing on the study and the interception of the determinants of clonal evolution in cancer and pre-cancerous conditions.