Esra Akbay, Ph.D. Titles and Appointments 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 Novel and potent MICA/B antibody is therapeutically effective in KRAS LKB1 mutant lung cancer models. Kowash RR, Sabnani M, Gray LT, Deng Q, Saleh NUA, Girard L, Naito Y, Masahiro K, Minna JD, Gerber DE, Koyama S, Liu ZL, Baruah H, Akbay EA, J Immunother Cancer 2025 Jan 13 1 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 Results 1-10 of 44 1 2 3 4 5 Next Last 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)
