@PitarresiLab

Jason R. Pitarresi. Father. Studying pancreatic cancer, cellular plasticity/metastasis, and tumor-host interactions. @pitarresilab.bsky.social

pitarresilab.com
Joined February 2021
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  • Following1.7K
  • Followers1.7K
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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/10.1101/…
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Another successful @UMassChan Cancer Center Retreat in the books! Congrats to Paula Vo for winning a best poster award and Calvin Johnson for being selected for a talk!
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An absolutely beautiful study in Nature Cancer by the Chio lab on a novel mechanism of adipose tissue wasting in pancreatic cancer. Congrats to Christine, first author Jung Seung Nam, and the rest of the @Chiolaboratory!
Christine Chio@ChiolaboratorySep 23
Very happy to share our new paper in Nature Cancer. This project started with a simple question: what drives the early loss of adipose tissue during pancreatic cancer cachexia?
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Happy to see our recent paper from @linzhou0515 online at @CR_AACR. Here we tested a panel of senescence-inducing therapies with different MoAs to uncover their unique SASP profiles and impact on immunity, and from that design effective senolytic approaches to block metastasis.
Cancer Research@CR_AACRSep 22
Now online: Senolytic Interventions Enhance the Anti-metastatic Activity of Chemotherapy in Prostate Cancer doi.org/10.1158/0008-5472.CA…
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PitarresiPhD retweeted
Marcus Goncalves
@MarcusDGonSep 21
Quantitative in vivo flux analysis reveals tumor and host lipogenic remodeling in KRAS-driven lung cancer link.springer.com/article/10…

Quantitative in vivo flux analysis reveals tumor and host lipogenic remodeling in KRAS-driven lung...

Cancer & Metabolism - Upregulation of de novo lipogenesis is a hallmark of aggressive cancers, underscoring its potential as a therapeutic target. However, metabolic studies of lipogenesis...

link.springer.com
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Excited to see our work published in @ScienceAdvances! 🎉 Very grateful to Gina DeNicola (@LabDeNicola) and all our coauthors who made this work possible. 🔗 science.org/doi/10.1126/scia…

A simple, anesthesia-free infusion technique for in vivo metabolic tracing

Accurate metabolic flux analysis requires tracer delivery that preserves physiological metabolism. Current methods may distort metabolism through isoflurane anesthesia, surgical stress, or complex...

science.org
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Fantastic work Marcus and team!
Marcus Goncalves
@MarcusDGonSep 9
New paper out in @cellpressblue ! We found that reintroducing refined starch after weight loss activates the innate immune system through the complement pathway, while sugar has the opposite effect. With @eze_dantas , @davidludwigmd , CaraEbbeling, @CantleyLab , and team. 🧵
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I am very grateful to @NIH staff for their support and efforts in helping us secure this R56 award from the NCI I'm especially appreciative of my PO for championing our work on a novel driver of pancreatic cancer metastasis that has revealed exciting therapeutic vulnerabilities!
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PitarresiPhD retweeted
Anirban Maitra@Aiims1742Aug 14
Important changes coming to how @NIH reports scores on reviewed grants - while individual reviewers will still provide an overall impact score, the investigators will only receive information on which of three broader categories their grant falls under: grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/…
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Congrats to Nikita Bhalerao in the lab on being promoted to Instructor @UMassChan last month! She is entering the academic job market this year and will come with her own funding (Early K99/R00). Search committees, be on the lookout for this stellar candidate. Congrats Nikita!
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Congrats to @ChaitanyaParik on his innovative and impactful work in the lab! Be on a look out for this rising star and his company, ImmunoScript, in the biotech space! Hope to see this therapy in patients one day.
UMass Chan Medical School
@UMassChanAug 12
A potentially transformative mRNA immunotherapy developed at @UMassChan eliminated pancreatic cancer tumors in 50 percent of treated mice models. Read about the research, published in @NatureComms: bit.ly/4g7Y30z #PancreaticCancer @ChaitanyaParik @Marcus_Ruscetti @theNCI

mRNA immunotherapy developed by UMass Chan scientists eliminates pancreatic tumors in mice

Novel mRNA treatment developed at UMass Chan Medical School eliminates pancreatic cancer tumors in 50 percent of treated mice.

umassmed.edu
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Neural niches are recurrent features of human cancer that may relay signals to nearby cells, to the immune system, + to the brain. So what’s in these niches, and what happens when cancer cells barge in? We take a look under the hood in our new preprint 1/ biorxiv.org/content/10.64898…
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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!
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Katherine Aird@airdlabJul 30
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.
Nature Aging@NatureAgingJul 30
Online now!✨Cole et al identify fructose as a component of the therapy-induced SASP in senescent ovarian cancer cells and show that it reprograms cancer cells in paracrine, promoting detachment and metastasis @airdlab nature.com/articles/s43587-0…

The chemotherapy-induced senescence-associated secretome promotes cell detachment and metastatic...

Nature Aging - Cole and colleagues identify fructose as a component of the secretome in therapy-induced senescent ovarian cancer cells that drives metastasis. Fructose metabolically reprograms...

nature.com
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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/s41467-0…

Multiplexed cytokine and antigen mRNA administration generates durable anti-tumor immunity against...

Nature Communications - Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) displays dismal immunotherapy outcomes in part through a lack of cytokine and antigen signals needed for anti-tumor immunity. The...

nature.com
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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

NSF partners with universities and industry on pilot initiative for four-year Ph.D. programs with...

The U.S. National Science Foundation announced a $47 million investment over five years, along with additional financial commitments from nearly three dozen universities and private industry...

nsf.gov
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PitarresiPhD retweeted
DeNicola Lab@LabDeNicolaJul 15
⚠️ 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!

2026 Cancer Metabolism Showcase & Workshop

cancermetabolismshowcase.org
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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
Postdoctoral fellow Nikita Bhalerao, PhD

ALT Postdoctoral fellow Nikita Bhalerao, PhD

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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/ar…
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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
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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!
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