Vanda A. Lennon

Vanda A. Lennon, M.D., Ph.D., is a Professor at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, with primary appointment in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology and joint appointments in the Department of Immunology and Department of Neurology. She is a leading researcher in neuroimmunology, focusing on paraneoplastic disorders, autoimmunity, and tumor immunology.

• Primary Appointment: Consultant, Division of Clinical Biochemistry & Immunology, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology
• Joint Appointments: Consultant, Department of Immunology; Consultant, Department of Neurology
• Academic Rank: Professor of Immunology and Professor of Neurology
• Institution: Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN

Dr. Lennon’s research centers on the antigenicity of proteins targeted in paraneoplastic autoimmunity, particularly voltage-gated calcium and potassium channels and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (AChR). She investigates how tumors express neural antigens that trigger autoimmune responses, leading to neurological symptoms that can precede cancer diagnosis. Her work has major implications for understanding myasthenia gravis, autoimmune autonomic neuropathies, and neuromyelitis optica. She studies IgG autoantibodies as markers of T-cell activation and uses DNA vaccines to explore cytotoxic T-cell responses.

Analysis of her recent publications reveals a consistent focus on autoimmune neurological disorders linked to cancer, neural autoantibodies, and biomarker discovery. Her research spans molecular immunology, clinical neurology, and translational medicine, with strong emphasis on identifying early cancer markers through neurological autoimmunity.

• Dorothy A. Adair Professorship in Gastrointestinal Research, Mayo Clinic, 2012

Dr. Lennon has secured multiple NIH grants, including projects on neuromyelitis optica and autoimmune gastrointestinal dysmotility. She collaborates extensively with teams in psychiatry, neurology, and immunology. Her lab has established tumor cell lines to study immune evasion and autoantigen expression. She has not publicly listed advisees, but her long-standing research program suggests significant mentorship activity.

She leads research within the Division of Clinical Biochemistry & Immunology and collaborates with the Enteric Neuroscience Program, Neuromuscular Disease Group, and Center for Multiple Sclerosis and Autoimmune Neurology at Mayo Clinic.