Esra Akbay, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
School Medical School
Department Pathology
Graduate Programs Cancer Biology, Immunology
Education
- Undergraduate
- Bilkent University (2005), Genetics
- Graduate School
- Univ of Tx Southwestern Med Ct (2010), Cancer Biology
Research Interest
- Immune resistance
- Lung cancer development
- Metabolic regulation of host anti-tumor immune responses
- Tumor microenvironment
Publications
Featured Publications
- A telomere-targeting drug depletes cancer initiating cells and promotes anti-tumor immunity in small cell lung cancer.
- Eglenen-Polat B, Kowash RR, Huang HC, Siteni S, Zhu M, Chen K, Bender ME, Mender I, Stastny V, Drapkin BJ, Raj P, Minna JD, Xu L, Shay JW, Akbay EA, Nat Commun 2024 Jan 15 1 672
- Loss of p53 and mutational heterogeneity drives immune resistance in an autochthonous mouse lung cancer model with high tumor mutational burden.
- Zhu M, Kim J, Deng Q, Ricciuti B, Alessi JV, Eglenen-Polat B, Bender ME, Huang HC, Kowash RR, Cuevas I, Bennett ZT, Gao J, Minna JD, Castrillon DH, Awad MM, Xu L, Akbay EA, Cancer Cell 2023 Sep
- Tumor intrinsic and extrinsic functions of CD73 and the adenosine pathway in lung cancer.
- Kowash RR, Akbay EA, Front Immunol 2023 14 1130358
- 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
Professional Associations/Affiliations
- American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
- International Association of the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC)
- Society of Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) (2018)