PitarresiPhD

I'm excited to share the lab’s new paper on PDAC-associated cachexia on bioRxiv today, led by star postdoc @Nikita2106 Pancreatic cancer cachexia is mediated by PTHrP-driven disruption of adipose de novo lipogenesis A 🧵 below, if you're interested... biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

It was a pleasure to host Tanushree in the lab as part of the Summer Undergrad Research Program (SURP) at UMass Chan. She worked with Nikita in the lab on sexual dimorphism in cachexia. Can't wait to see what you accomplish next!

Thrilled to see our work on senescence & metastasis out! We found that chemotherapy increases ovarian cancer metastasis in a paracrine manner via fructose. Dietary fructose is sufficient to increase metastatis. This work has multiple implications related to both chemo and diet.

Our paper is out today in @NatureComms. @ChaitanyaParik developed an all-in-one cytokine and antigen mRNA therapy that can produce pancreatic cancer cures in 50% of mice! Excited to take this technology into patients with our company ImmunoScript. nature.com/articles/s4146…

NSF announced a $47 million investment to expand industry R&D opportunities for Ph.D.s in #STEM. The pilot initiative, led by @teamuidp, in partnership with universities & industry, will support four-year Ph.D. programs with real-world research placements. brnw.ch/21x4woE

⚠️ Abstracts due by July 24th! FREE virtual 2026 Cancer Metabolism Showcase & Workshop — September 8–9 ✅ Short talks & poster sessions ✅ Career panels & workshops ✅ Career Keynote from Ralph DeBerardinis 📝 Submit & register: cancermetabolismshowcase.org Please share!

Pathway to Independence Award recipient Nikita Bhalerao, PhD, aims to find earlier interventions for patients with cancer cachexia, a cancer-associated syndrome characterized by uncontrollable weight loss that occurs in up to 80 percent of pancreatic cancer patients. #PancreaticCancer @PitarresiLab

Fine work as usual by the Lim lab. Congratulations Drs Bansod, Lim and team. Blockade of Tumor TAK1 Induces DNA Damage and Immunogenic cGAS-STING Pathway. @SitemanCenter @WashUOncology sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

The @CancerCachexia Society interviewed postdoc Nikita Bhalerao from the lab earlier this week to celebrate her recent achievements. Congrats to Nikita! Full read 👉 tinyurl.com/2sf6vxjs

If you are at the @MetastasisRS meeting, stop by graduate student @peura_jessica's poster #85 at the poster session that is about to start. She has an amazing project on a new driver of metastasis in pancreatic cancer, and we would love your feedback!

We are thrilled to share our latest work out today @Dev_Cell! Appendiceal adenocarcinoma (AC) is a rare, aggressive cancer that frequently spreads to the peritoneum. Until now, lack of robust preclinical models has severely limited drug discovery. cell.com/developmental-…🧵👇 🔗

New publication from our group: what happens inside human endometrial tumors during a ketogenic diet? We analyzed paired tumor biopsies before and after a very low-carbohydrate intervention in women with endometrial cancer 🧵

Delighted to share that postdoc in the lab, Nikita Bhalerao, just got the NOA for her K99! In what has been a tough year for funding, nothing brings me more joy than to see Nikita's hard work pay off. Hiring committees, be on the lookout in the coming year!

@Aiims1742 @RiceCEVE @RiceUniversity Congrats to your daughter, Anirban!

Congratulations to my @RiceCEVE civil engineering graduate Indrani! So proud of my @RiceUniversity Owl 🦉💕 Now on to bigger things!

Very excited to report on our lab’s unexpected adventure into subtyping cancer cachexia by way of anatomy, where we study the evolution of the bodies (not the genomes!) of patients with cancer during profound weight loss. Led by Sonia Boscenco. medrxiv.org/content/10.648…

Very appreciative to @psscra for the support and excited to join the community! pershingsquarephilanthropies.org/prize-winners/…

Marcus Ruscetti, PhD, is one of 13 researchers to receive the 2026 Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize: brnw.ch/21x2d6p Dr. Ruscetti will test if eliminating senescent cells in the liver can improve responses to immunotherapy for pancreatic cancer. @Marcus_Ruscetti @psscra

Grad students Calvin Johnson and @EthanHCChang attended Immunology 2026, the annual meeting of the American Association of Immunologists, this week. They both have exciting projects about immunosuppression in PDAC and are coming back re-energized by the meeting!

A little late, but congrats to grad student Calvin Johnson on being selected for the Best Poster Award and being awarded a lightning talk for our immunology program's annual retreat last week!

Can cancer cells be roped into producing cytokines that can direct an immunotherapy? We are excited to share our study in @MCT_AACR led by @GriffinIKane with @mdgetsaphd and others @UMassBME @UMassChan @UMassCancerCtr aacrjournals.org/mct/article-ab…

Congrats to @EthanHCChang for passing his Qualifying Exam! He is building subtype specific mouse models of PDAC and already has some exciting data looking at how this alters tumor host interactions! Congrats!