Nicholas M. Ponzio, PhD
School
New Jersey Medical School
Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
Department/Program
Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Year Inducted Phone E-Mail 
2003 973-972-5238 ponzio@umdnj.edu
Biography
Nicholas M. Ponzio joined UMDNJ in 1981, and holds appointments at the New Jersey Medical School (NJMS), University Hospital (UH), and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS). He is currently a Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. Dr. Ponzio received his B.A. and M.S. degrees in biology from Seton Hall University (South Orange, NJ), and his Ph.D. in immunology from the State University of New York - Downstate Medical Center (Brooklyn, NY). Following postdoctoral training in immunology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Bronx, NY) and New York University Medical Center, he began his academic career as an Assistant Professor and then Associate Professor in the departments of Microbiology - Immunology and Pathology at Northwestern University Medical, Dental, and Graduate Schools in Chicago. In 1999, Dr. Ponzio was appointed as the Associate Director of the Neurological Institute of New Jersey (NINJ), an institute of UMDNJ-NJMS, and is the interim director for the NINJ Brain Cell Regeneration Program. Dr. Ponzio has been course director and lecturer in teaching programs at NJMS and GSBS, and was the first to develop independent courses in immunology for these programs. In addition to his teaching activities, he conducts ongoing research in cancer immunology, studying experimental models of B cell lymphoma development and growth, and designing new forms of therapy using cellular, molecular and genetic approaches. He also investigates the potential use of umbilical cord blood cells as a supplementary treatment to augment hematopoietic and immunologic reconstitution for patients in need of a bone marrow transplant. Most recently he initiated a new project to study immune mechanisms in autism. These research projects have been supported by federal, state, and private funding agencies, and Dr. Ponzio has published extensively in these areas.