Amyn Habib, M.D.

Dr. Amyn Habib is a Professor in the Department of Neurology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, and a Staff Physician at the VA North Texas Health Care System/ Dallas VA Medical Center. As a physician scientist, Dr. Habib attends to patients with neurological disorders and also runs an active basic science research laboratory.

He received his medical degree from Dow Medical College in Karachi, Pakistan. He did his internship at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, followed by a Neurology Residency at the University of Chicago Medical Center.  He then undertook research fellowships at the University of Chicago and at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School.  He was an Instructor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School prior to joining UT Southwestern.

His research interests include investigation of growth factor signaling pathways in glioblastoma and other cancers. His work has elucidated the interaction between normal and mutant epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR) in glioblastoma.  In addition, his laboratory has identified and characterized interactions between inflammatory and oncogenic signaling pathways in cancer.  His laboratory has provided a fundamental insight in the biology of EGFR signaling by demonstrating that constitutive and ligand-induced EGFR signaling triggers distinct and mutually exclusive downstream signaling networks.   More recent work in his laboratory has focused on mechanisms of resistance to targeted treatment in cancer with a particular focus on glioblastoma and lung cancer and identified therapeutic approaches to overcome the resistance of glioblastoma and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) to EGFR inhibition.   Additional areas of active interest in the laboratory include mechanisms that regulate the invasion and proliferation of tumor cells in glioblastoma.  His research is funded by the NIH and by the Department of Veteran’s Affairs.

Medical School

Dow Medical College - Pakistan (1986), Medicine

• Mechanisms of resistance to targeted treatment in cancer
• Molecular Mechanisms regulating glioblastoma invasion and proliferation
• The role of inflammation in gliomagenesis

Featured Publications

EGFR ligand shifts the role of EGFR from oncogene to tumour suppressor in EGFR-amplified glioblastoma by suppressing invasion through BIN3 upregulation.

Guo G, Gong K, Beckley N, Zhang Y, Yang X, Chkheidze R, Hatanpaa KJ, Garzon-Muvdi T, Koduru P, Nayab A, Jenks J, Sathe AA, Liu Y, Xing C, Wu SY, Chiang CM, Mukherjee B, Burma S, Wohlfeld B, Patel T, Mickey B, Abdullah K, Youssef M, Pan E, Gerber DE, Tian S, Sarkaria JN, McBrayer SK, Zhao D, Habib AA, Nat Cell Biol 2022 Aug

Comprehensive targeting of resistance to inhibition of RTK signaling pathways by using glucocorticoids.

Gong K, Guo G, Beckley NA, Yang X, Zhang Y, Gerber DE, Minna JD, Burma S, Zhao D, Akbay EA, Habib AA, Nat Commun 2021 Dec 12 1 7014

EGFR inhibition triggers an adaptive response driven by cooptation of antiviral signaling pathways in lung cancer

Gong K, Guo G, Panchani N, Bender M, Gerber DE, Minna JD, Fattah F, Gao B, Peyton M, Kernstine K, Mukherjee B, Burma S, Chiang CM, Zhang S, Sathe AA, Xing C, Dao KH, Zhao D, Akbay EA, and Habib AA*. Nat. Cancer 2020 1, 394

TNF-driven adaptive response mediates resistance to EGFR inhibition in lung cancer.

Gong K, Guo G, Gerber DE, Gao B, Peyton M, Huang C, Minna JD, Hatanpaa KJ, Kernstine K, Cai L, Xie Y, Zhu H, Fattah FJ, Zhang S, Takahashi M, Mukherjee B, Burma S, Dowell J, Dao K, Papadimitrakopoulou VA, Olivas V, Bivona TG, Zhao D, Habib AA J Clin Invest. 2018 Jun 1;128(6):2500-2518

A TNF-JNK-Axl-ERK signaling axis mediates primary resistance to EGFR inhibition in glioblastoma.

Guo G, Gong K, Ali S, Ali N, Shallwani S, Hatanpaa KJ, Pan E, Mickey B, Burma S, Wang DH, Kesari S, Sarkaria JN, Zhao D, Habib AA Nat. Neurosci. 2017 Aug;20(8):1074-1084. doi: 10.1038/nn.4584.

Constitutive and ligand-induced EGFR signalling triggers distinct and mutually exclusive downstream signalling networks

Chakraborty S, Li L, Puliyappadamba VT, Guo G, Hatanpaa KJ, Mickey B, Souza R, Vo P, Herz J, Chen MR, Boothman DA, Pandita TK, Wang DH, Sen GC, Habib AA. Nature Communications 2014 Dec 15, 2014. DOI:10.1038/ncomms86811 1-15

Intrapleural nano-immunotherapy promotes innate and adaptive immune responses to enhance anti-PD-L1 therapy for malignant pleural effusion.

Liu Y, Wang L, Song Q, Ali M, Crowe WN, Kucera GL, Hawkins GA, Soker S, Thomas KW, Miller LD, Lu Y, Bellinger CR, Zhang W, Habib AA, Petty WJ, Zhao D, Nat Nanotechnol 2021 Dec

Elimination of radiation-induced senescence in the brain tumor microenvironment attenuates glioblastoma recurrence.

Fletcher-Sananikone E, Kanji S, Tomimatsu N, Macedo Di Cristofaro LF, Kollipara RK, Saha D, Floyd JR, Sung P, Hromas R, Burns TC, Kittler R, Habib AA, Mukherjee B, Burma S, Cancer Res 2021 Sep

Itraconazole Exerts its Anti-Tumor Effect in Esophageal Cancer by Suppressing the HER2/AKT Signaling Pathway.

Zhang W, Bhagwath AS, Ramzan Z, Williams TA, Subramaniyan I, Edpuganti V, Kallem RR, Dunbar KB, Ding P, Gong K, Geurkink SA, Beg MS, Kim J, Zhang Q, Habib AA, Choi SH, Lapsiwala R, Bhagwath G, Dowell JE, Melton SD, Jie C, Putnam WC, Pham TH, Wang DH, Mol Cancer Ther 2021 Aug

Tumor necrosis factor in lung cancer: Complex roles in biology and resistance to treatment.

Gong K, Guo G, Beckley N, Zhang Y, Yang X, Sharma M, Habib AA, Neoplasia 2020 Dec 23 2 189-196

• Clinical Investigator Award
  National Cancer Institute (1999)