Currently, he is President of City of Hope Los Angeles and National Medical Center, Chief Physician Executive and Deana and Steve Campbell Distinguished Chair.[7]
As a physician-scientist, van den Brink studies cancer immunotherapy with a special interest in intestinal microbiome, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapy, and thymic regeneration.
Van den Brink has made a large number of discoveries regarding the role of the thymus in immune reconstitution after bone marrow transplantation,[12] the pathophysiology of graft-versus-host disease[13] and how changes in the gut flora can affect bone marrow transplantation.[14] From years of research on the relationship between microbiota and GVHD,[15] he has discovered that antibiotic treatment slows down regrowth of immune cells after transplant by depleting gut flora,[16] lactose in the diet feeds dangerous gut bacteria when the immune system is compromised in mice,[17] and a bacterial species called Blautia producta can prevent infections and GVHD in bone marrow transplantation patients.[18] He has published over 200 articles[19] that have helped improve therapeutic strategies for cancer patients.
Nguyen CL, Markey KA, Miltiadous O, Dai A, Waters N, Sadeghi K, Fei T, Shouval R, Taylor BP, Liao C, Slingerland JB, Slingerland AE, Clurman AG, Maloy MA, Bohannon L, Giardina PA, Brereton DG, Armijo GK, Fontana E, Gradissimo A, Gyurkocza B, Sung AD, Chao NJ, Devlin SM, Taur Y, Giralt SA, Perales MA, Xavier JB, Pamer EG, Peled JU, Gomes ALC, van den Brink MRM. High-resolution analyses of associations between medications, microbiome, and mortality in cancer patients.Cell. 2023 Jun 8;186(12):2705-2718.e17. Epub 2023 Jun 8. PMID 37295406; PMCID: PMC10390075.
Schluter J, Peled JU, Taylor BP, Markey KA, Smith M, Taur Y, Niehus R, Staffas A, Dai A, Fontana E, Amoretti LA, Wright RJ, Morjaria S, Fenelus M, Pessin MS, Chao NJ, Lew M, Bohannon L, Bush A, Sung AD, Hohl TM, Perales MA, van den Brink MRM, Xavier JB. "The gut microbiota is associated with immune cell dynamics in humans". Nature. 2020 Dec; 588(7837):303-307. PMID 33239790. PMCID: PMC7725892.
Peled JU, Gomes ALC, Devlin SM, Littmann ER, Taur Y, Sung AD, Weber D, Hashimoto D, Slingerland AE, Slingerland JB, Maloy M, Clurman AG, Stein-Thoeringer CK, Markey KA, Docampo MD, Burgos da Silva M, Khan N, Gessner A, Messina JA, Romero K, Lew MV, Bush A, Bohannon L, Brereton DG, Fontana E, Amoretti LA, Wright RJ, Armijo GK, Shono Y, Sanchez-Escamilla M, Castillo Flores N, Alarcon Tomas A, Lin RJ, Yáñez San Segundo L, Shah GL, Cho C, Scordo M, Politikos I, Hayasaka K, Hasegawa Y, Gyurkocza B, Ponce DM, Barker JN, Perales MA, Giralt SA, Jenq RR, Teshima T, Chao NJ, Holler E, Xavier JB, Pamer EG, van den Brink MRM. "Microbiota as Predictor of Mortality in Allogeneic Hematopoietic-Cell Transplantation". N Engl J Med. 2020 Feb 27;382(9):822-834. PMID 32101664. PMCID: PMC7534690.
Dudakov JA, Hanash AM, Jenq RR, Young LF, Singer NV, West ML, Smith OM, Holland AM, Tsai JJ, Boyd RL, van den Brink MRM. "IL-22 drives endogenous thymic regeneration in mice". Science. 2012; 336:91-95. (Perspectives in Science 2012; 336:40; Leading Edge Select in Cell 2012; 149:729) PMID22383805; PMC3616391.
Zakrzewski JL, Suh D, Markley JC, Smith OM, King C, Goldberg GL, Jenq R. Holland AM, Grubin J, Cabrera-Perez J, Brentjens RJ, Lu SX, Rizzuto G, Sant'Angelo DB, Riviere I, Sadelain M, Heller G, Zuniga-Pflucker JC, Liu C, van den Brink MRM. "Tumor immunotherapy across MHC barriers using allogeneic T-cell precursors". Nature Biotechnology 2008; 4:453-461. (commentary in Nature Reviews in Immunology 2008; 8:321) PMID18376399; PMC2731996.