Vinod Chandran
MBBS, MD, DM, PhD, FRCPC
Not currently accepting new graduate students.
Dr. Chandran is a rheumatologist and clinician-scientist affiliated with the Schroeder Arthritis Institute, and the Departments of Medicine, Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology and the Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto. He holds an MD/PhD with specialties in internal medicine, immunology, rheumatology and genetic epidemiology.
Dr. Chandran currently serves as the Co-Director of the Psoriatic Arthritis Research Program at the University Health Network. His research interests focus on the development of biomarker-based strategies to improve early diagnosis and prognosis of psoriatic disease (PsD; psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis [PsA]), as well as identify novel treatment targets through proteomics and mechanistic studies and strategies to reduce its impact on society.
Dr. Chandran’s research has been supported by grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), The Arthritis Society, the Krembil Foundation, the Arthritis Research Foundation, and the National Psoriasis Foundation. He has published extensively (>200 articles) on genetics/genomics/proteomics and clinical aspects of psoriatic disease classification, and his H-index is 59 (Google Scholar).
Research Synopsis
Dr. Chandran’s scientific expertise is in the genetic and molecular epidemiology of psoriatic disease (PsD; psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis [PsA]). This lifelong disease strikes patients in their youth, and is currently incurable, leading to progressive joint damage, functional limitation, poor mental health, reduced quality of life, and increased mortality. His translational research program focuses on understanding PsD pathobiology with particular emphasis on untargeted global discovery of novel biomarkers and drug targets using high throughput and augmented intelligence technologies.
His main goal is the improved and personalized management of PsD by:
- aiming at early diagnosis of PsA;
- identifying patients with psoriasis at high risk of developing PsA and developing interventions to intercept this transition;
- identifying subjects with PsA at high risk of developing arthritis mutilans; and
- developing drug or other interventions to treat the estimated 40% of PsA patients not responding to current therapy.
Dr. Chandran is currently looking for graduate trainees (PhD/MSc) for the following projects:
- Metabolomics of psoriatic disease in order to identify metabolomic markers for diagnosis, stratification, and treatment response.
- Integrated omics coupled with machine learning to develop a psoriatic disease data integration portal.
Selected Publications
Koussiouris J, Looby N, Anderson M, Kulasingam V, Chandran V. Metabolomics Studies in Psoriatic Disease: A Review. Metabolites. 2021 Jun 10;11(6):375. doi: 10.3390/metabo11060375. PMID: 34200760; PMCID: PMC8230373.
Looby N, Roszkowska A, Reyes-Garcés N, Yu M, Bączek T, Kulasingam V, Pawliszyn J, Chandran V. Serum metabolic fingerprinting of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis patients using solid-phase microextraction-liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry. Metabolomics. 2021 Jun 16;17(7):59. doi: 10.1007/s11306-021-01805-3. PMID: 34137950; PMCID: PMC8211611.
Abji F, Rasti M, Gómez-Aristizábal A, Muytjens C, Saifeddine M, Mihara K, Motahhari M, Gandhi R, Viswanathan S, Hollenberg MD, Oikonomopoulou K, Chandran V. Proteinase-Mediated Macrophage Signaling in Psoriatic Arthritis. Front Immunol. 2021 Mar 8;11:629726. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.629726. PMID: 33763056; PMCID: PMC7982406.
Rahmati S, Li Q, Rahman P, Chandran V. Insights into the pathogenesis of psoriatic arthritis from genetic studies. Semin Immunopathol. 2021 Apr;43(2):221-234. doi: 10.1007/s00281-021-00843-2. Epub 2021 Mar 12. PMID: 33712923.
Wong A, Ye JY, Cook RJ, Gladman DD, Chandran V. Depression and Anxiety Reduce the Probability of Achieving a State of Sustained Minimal Disease Activity in Patients with Psoriatic Arthritis. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2021 Mar 4. doi: 10.1002/acr.24593. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33662181.
Rahmati S, O'Rielly DD, Li Q, Codner D, Dohey A, Jenkins K, Jurisica I, Gladman DD, Chandran V, Rahman P. Rho-GTPase pathways may differentiate treatment response to TNF-alpha and IL-17A inhibitors in psoriatic arthritis. Sci Rep. 2020 Dec 10;10(1):21703. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-78866-2. PMID: 33303908; PMCID: PMC7728744.
Yerushalmi M, Elalouf O, Anderson M, Chandran V. The skin microbiome in psoriatic disease: A systematic review and critical appraisal. J Transl Autoimmun. 2019 Aug 20;2:100009. doi: 10.1016/j.jtauto.2019.100009. PMID: 32743498; PMCID: PMC7388378.
Chandran V. Pathway to biomarker discovery in psoriatic arthritis. Expert Rev Clin Immunol. 2020 May;16(5):471-478. doi: 10.1080/1744666X.2020.1752667. Epub 2020 Apr 17. PMID: 32250175.
Rida MA, Chandran V. Challenges in the clinical diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis. Clin Immunol. 2020 May;214:108390. doi: 10.1016/j.clim.2020.108390. Epub 2020 Mar 18. PMID: 32200113.
Abji F, Ye JY, Cook RJ, Oikonomopoulou K, Chandran V. The association between synovial fluid serine proteinase activity and response to intra-articular corticosteroid injection in psoriatic arthritis. Clin Rheumatol. 2020 Aug;39(8):2355-2361. doi: 10.1007/s10067-020-05003-9. Epub 2020 Feb 25. PMID: 32100195.
Appointments
Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine, Departments of Medicine (Rheumatology), Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology and Institute of Medical Science.
Scientist, Schroeder Arthritis Institute, Krembil Research Institute, University Health Network.
Honours and Awards
Canadian Rheumatology Association Young Investigator Award (2017)