Esra Akbay, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor

Undergraduate

Bilkent University (2005), Genetics

Graduate School

Univ of Tx Southwestern Med Ct (2010), Cancer Biology

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

Featured Publications

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

Evasion of Innate Immunity Contributes to Small Cell Lung Cancer Progression and Metastasis.

Zhu M, Huang Y, Bender ME, Girard L, Kollipara R, Eglenen-Polat B, Naito Y, Savage TK, Huffman KE, Koyama S, Kumanogoh A, Minna JD, Johnson JE, Akbay EA, Cancer Res 2021 Jan

Characterization of the immune landscape of EGFR-mutant NSCLC identifies CD73/adenosine pathway as a potential therapeutic target.

Le X, Negrao MV, Reuben A, Federico L, Diao L, McGrail D, Nilsson M, Robichaux J, Munoz IG, Patel S, Elamin Y, Fan YH, Lee WC, Parra E, Solis Soto LM, Chen R, Li J, Karpinets T, Khairullah R, Kadara H, Behrens C, Sepesi B, Wang R, Zhu M, Wang L, Vaporiciyan A, Roth J, Swisher S, Haymaker C, Zhang J, Wang J, Wong KK, Byers LA, Bernatchez C, Zhang J, Wistuba II, Gibbons DL, Akbay EA, Heymach JV, J Thorac Oncol 2020 Dec

EGFR inhibition triggers an adaptive response by co-opting antiviral signaling pathways in lung cancer

Ke Gong, Gao Guo, Nishah Panchani, Matthew E. Bender, David E. Gerber, John D. Minna, Farjana Fattah, Boning Gao, Michael Peyton, Kemp Kernstine, Bipasha Mukherjee, Sandeep Burma, Cheng-Ming Chiang, Shanrong Zhang, Adwait Amod Sathe, Chao Xing, Kathryn H. Dao, Dawen Zhao, Esra A. Akbay & Amyn A. Habib. Nature Cancer 06 April 2020

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

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