Esra Akbay, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor

Undergraduate

Bilkent University (2005), Genetics

Graduate School

UT Southwestern Medical Center (2010), Cancer Biology

• Immunotherapy
• Lung cancer development
• Role of metabolic dysregulation in host-tumor interactions
• Tumor microenvironment

Featured Publications

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

Kinase domain activation of FGFR2 yields high-grade lung adenocarcinoma sensitive to a Pan-FGFR inhibitor in a mouse model of NSCLC.

Tchaicha JH, Akbay EA, Altabef A, Mikse OR, Kikuchi E, Rhee K, Liao RG, Bronson RT, Sholl LM, Meyerson M, Hammerman PS, Wong KK Cancer Res. 2014 Sep 74 17 4676-84

Co-clinical trials demonstrate superiority of crizotinib to chemotherapy in ALK-rearranged non-small cell lung cancer and predict strategies to overcome resistance.

Chen Z, Akbay E, Mikse O, Tupper T, Cheng K, Wang Y, Tan X, Altabef A, Woo SA, Chen L, Reibel JB, Janne PA, Sharpless NE, Engelman JA, Shapiro GI, Kung AL, Wong KK Clin. Cancer Res. 2014 Mar 20 5 1204-11

D-2-hydroxyglutarate produced by mutant IDH2 causes cardiomyopathy and neurodegeneration in mice.

Akbay EA, Moslehi J, Christensen CL, Saha S, Tchaicha JH, Ramkissoon SH, Stewart KM, Carretero J, Kikuchi E, Zhang H, Cohoon TJ, Murray S, Liu W, Uno K, Fisch S, Jones K, Gurumurthy S, Gliser C, Choe S, Keenan M, Son J, Stanley I, Losman JA, Padera R, Bronson RT, Asara JM, Abdel-Wahab O, Amrein PC, Fathi AT, Danial NN, Kimmelman AC, Kung AL, Ligon KL, Yen KE, Kaelin WG, Bardeesy N, Wong KK Genes Dev. 2014 Mar 28 5 479-90

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

JAK2/IDH-mutant-driven myeloproliferative neoplasm is sensitive to combined targeted inhibition.

McKenney AS, Lau AN, Somasundara AVH, Spitzer B, Intlekofer AM, Ahn J, Shank K, Rapaport FT, Patel MA, Papalexi E, Shih AH, Chiu A, Freinkman E, Akbay EA, Steadman M, Nagaraja R, Yen K, Teruya-Feldstein J, Wong KK, Rampal R, Heiden MGV, Thompson CB, Levine RL J. Clin. Invest. 2018 Jan

Lkb1 inactivation drives lung cancer lineage switching governed by Polycomb Repressive Complex 2.

Zhang H, Fillmore Brainson C, Koyama S, Redig AJ, Chen T, Li S, Gupta M, Garcia-de-Alba C, Paschini M, Herter-Sprie GS, Lu G, Zhang X, Marsh BP, Tuminello SJ, Xu C, Chen Z, Wang X, Akbay EA, Zheng M, Palakurthi S, Sholl LM, Rustgi AK, Kwiatkowski DJ, Diehl JA, Bass AJ, Sharpless NE, Dranoff G, Hammerman PS, Ji H, Bardeesy N, Saur D, Watanabe H, Kim CF, Wong KK Nat Commun 2017 Apr 8 14922

Co-clinical quantitative tumor volume imaging in ALK-rearranged NSCLC treated with crizotinib.

Nishino M, Sacher AG, Gandhi L, Chen Z, Akbay E, Fedorov A, Westin CF, Hatabu H, Johnson BE, Hammerman P, Wong KK Eur J Radiol 2017 Mar 88 15-20

• Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) Scholar Award
  (2016-2020)
• International Association of the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) Young Investigator Award
  (2016-2017)
• William Guy Forbeck Foundation Scholar Award
  (2015-2015)
• American Association of Cancer Research (AACR)- Women in Cancer Research Scholar Award
  (2014-2014)
• Outstanding Cancer Related Poster Award at the Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center 3rd Annual Scientific Retreat, UT Southwestern Medical Center
  (2008-2008)

• American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
• American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)
• International Association of the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC)