Esra Akbay, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor

Undergraduate

Bilkent University (2005), Genetics

Graduate School

UT Southwestern Medical Center (2010), Cancer Biology

• Immunotherapy
• Lung cancer development
• Metabolic regulation of host anti-tumor immune responses
• Tumor microenvironment

Featured Publications

Suppression of Myeloid Cell Arginase Activity leads to Therapeutic Response in a NSCLC Mouse Model by Activating Anti-Tumor Immunity.

Miret JJ, Kirschmeier P, Koyama S, Zhu M, Li YY, Naito Y, Wu M, Malladi VS, Huang W, Walker W, Palakurthi S, Dranoff G, Hammerman PS, Pecot CV, Wong KK, Akbay EA J Immunother Cancer 2019 Feb 7 1 32

Identification and characterization of an alternative cancer-derived PD-L1 splice variant.

Hassounah NB, Malladi VS, Huang Y, Freeman SS, Beauchamp EM, Koyama S, Souders N, Martin S, Dranoff G, Wong KK, Pedamallu CS, Hammerman PS, Akbay EA Cancer Immunol. Immunother. 2018 Dec

Polymerase-mediated ultramutagenesis in mice produces diverse cancers with high mutational load.

Li HD, Cuevas I, Zhang M, Lu C, Alam MM, Fu YX, You MJ, Akbay EA, Zhang H, Castrillon DH J. Clin. Invest. 2018 Aug 128 9 4179-4191

Autochthonous murine models for the study of smoker and never-smoker associated lung cancers.

Akbay EA, Kim J Transl Lung Cancer Res 2018 Aug 7 4 464-486

Interleukin-17A Promotes Lung Tumor Progression Through Neutrophil Attraction to Tumor Sites and Mediating Resistance to PD-1 Blockade

Akbay EA*, Koyama S, Liu Y, Dries R, Bufe LE, Silkes M, Alam, MM, Magee DM, Jones R, Jinushi M, Kulkarni M, Carretero J, Wang X, Warner-Hatten T, Cavanaugh JD, Osa A, Kumanogoh A, Freeman GJ, Awad MM, Christiani DC, Bueno R, Hammerman PS, Dranoff G*, Wong, KK*. J Thorac Oncol 2017

STK11/LKB1 Deficiency Promotes Neutrophil Recruitment and Proinflammatory Cytokine Production to Suppress T-cell Activity in the Lung Tumor Microenvironment.

Koyama S, Akbay EA, Li YY, Aref AR, Skoulidis F, Herter-Sprie GS, Buczkowski KA, Liu Y, Awad MM, Denning WL, Diao L, Wang J, Parra-Cuentas ER, Wistuba II, Soucheray M, Thai T, Asahina H, Kitajima S, Altabef A, Cavanaugh JD, Rhee K, Gao P, Zhang H, Fecci PE, Shimamura T, Hellmann MD, Heymach JV, Hodi FS, Freeman GJ, Barbie DA, Dranoff G, Hammerman PS, Wong KK Cancer Res. 2016 Mar 76 5 999-1008

Adaptive resistance to therapeutic PD-1 blockade is associated with upregulation of alternative immune checkpoints.

Koyama S, Akbay EA, Li YY, Herter-Sprie GS, Buczkowski KA, Richards WG, Gandhi L, Redig AJ, Rodig SJ, Asahina H, Jones RE, Kulkarni MM, Kuraguchi M, Palakurthi S, Fecci PE, Johnson BE, Janne PA, Engelman JA, Gangadharan SP, Costa DB, Freeman GJ, Bueno R, Hodi FS, Dranoff G, Wong KK, Hammerman PS Nat Commun 2016 Feb 7 10501

Activation of the PD-1 pathway contributes to immune escape in EGFR-driven lung tumors.

Akbay EA, Koyama S, Carretero J, Altabef A, Tchaicha JH, Christensen CL, Mikse OR, Cherniack AD, Beauchamp EM, Pugh TJ, Wilkerson MD, Fecci PE, Butaney M, Reibel JB, Soucheray M, Cohoon TJ, Janne PA, Meyerson M, Hayes DN, Shapiro GI, Shimamura T, Sholl LM, Rodig SJ, Freeman GJ, Hammerman PS, Dranoff G, Wong KK Cancer Discov 2013 Dec 3 12 1355-63

Pulsatile MEK Inhibition Improves Anti-tumor Immunity and T Cell Function in Murine Kras Mutant Lung Cancer.

Choi H, Deng J, Li S, Silk T, Dong L, Brea EJ, Houghton S, Redmond D, Zhong H, Boiarsky J, Akbay EA, Smith PD, Merghoub T, Wong KK, Wolchok JD, Cell Rep 2019 Apr 27 3 806-819.e5

Clinical implications of monitoring nivolumab immunokinetics in non-small cell lung cancer patients.

Osa A, Uenami T, Koyama S, Fujimoto K, Okuzaki D, Takimoto T, Hirata H, Yano Y, Yokota S, Kinehara Y, Naito Y, Otsuka T, Kanazu M, Kuroyama M, Hamaguchi M, Koba T, Futami Y, Ishijima M, Suga Y, Akazawa Y, Machiyama H, Iwahori K, Takamatsu H, Nagatomo I, Takeda Y, Kida H, Akbay EA, Hammerman PS, Wong KK, Dranoff G, Mori M, Kijima T, Kumanogoh A JCI Insight 2018 Oct 3 19

• Society of Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) (2018)
• American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
• International Association of the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC)