Anup K. Biswas, PhD

  • Assistant Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology (in the Institute for Cancer Genetics) at CUMC
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Overview

Email:akb2180@cumc.columbia.edu

Academic Appointments

  • Assistant Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology (in the Institute for Cancer Genetics) at CUMC

Gender

  • Male

Research

Our laboratory is interested in understanding the mechanisms that drive metastasis and resistance to targeted therapies in lung cancer.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the United States. The vast majority of deaths in lung cancer result from metastasis, in which cancer cells disseminate from the primary tumor in the lungs and colonize vital organs such as the brain, bone, and liver. Metastatic lung cancer is almost always incurable due to a lack of effective anti-metastatic therapies. Among metastases, brain metastasis occurs in 50% of lung cancer patients and is particularly debilitating since it causes a decline in cognition, mobility, and daily functioning. With limited therapeutic options, brain metastasis becomes rapidly fatal. Our laboratory aims to identify the critical mediators of metastasis and develop new therapeutic strategies to eliminate metastatic growth in lung cancer. In our recent studies, we identified a novel S100A9–ALDH1A1–Retinoic Acid (RA) signaling axis in lung cancer cells that drives lethal brain relapse and can be targeted by RA-receptor antagonists to prevent metastatic progression and EGFR-targeted therapy resistance (Biswas et al. Cancer Discovery, 2022, PMID: 35078784).

Our laboratory investigates two broad areas of lung cancer biology:
(1) to identify the molecular determinants of brain metastasis in lung cancer, and (2) to investigate mechanisms of acquired resistance to targeted therapies used in lung cancer.

Related News:

New Research Reveals Promising Drug Target in Recurrent Lung Cancer

Selected Publications

  • Biswas AK, Han S, Tai Y, Ma W, Coker C, Quinn SA, Shakri AR, Zhong TJ, Scholze H, Lagos GG, Mela A, Manova-Todorova K, de Stanchina E, Ferrando AA, Mendelsohn C, Canoll P, Yu HA, Paik PK, Saqi A, Shu CA, Kris MG, Massague J, Acharyya S. Targeting S100A9-ALDH1A1-retinoic acid signaling to suppress brain relapse in EGFR-mutant lung cancer. Cancer Discovery. 2022. 12(4):1002-1021. PMID: 35078784; PMCID: PMC8983473
  • Paik PK, Luo J, Ai N, Kim R, Ahn L, Biswas A, Coker C, Ma W, Wong P, Buonocore DJ, Lai WV, Chaft JE, Acharyya S, Massagué J, Kris MG. Phase I trial of the TNF-α inhibitor certolizumab plus chemotherapy in stage IV lung adenocarcinomas. Nat Commun. 2022 Oct 15;13(1):6095. PMID: 36241629; PMCID: PMC9568581.
  • Manickavinayaham S, Vélez-Cruz R, Biswas AK, Bedford E, Klein BJ, Kutateladze TG, Liu B, Bedford MT, Johnson DG. E2F1 acetylation directs p300/CBP-mediated histone acetylation at DNA double-strand breaks to facilitate repair. Nat Commun. 2019 Oct 30;10(1):4951. 2260-2269PMID: 31666529; PMCID: PMC6821830.
  • Biswas AK, Acharyya S. Understanding cachexia in the context of metastatic progression. Nature Reviews Cancer. 2020. 20(5):274-284. PMID: 32235902.
  • Biswas AK and Acharyya, S. Cancer-associated cachexia: a systemic consequence of cancer progression. Annual Review of Cancer Biology. 2020. 4: 391-411.
  • Biswas AK, Acharyya S. The etiology and impact of muscle wasting in metastatic cancer. Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine. 2020. 10(10): a037416. PMID: 31615873; PMCID: PMC7528856.
  • Wang G*, Biswas AK*, Ma W*, Kandpal M, Coker C, Grandgenett PM, Hollingsworth MA, Jain R, Tanji K, L?pez-Pintado S, Borczuk A, Hebert D, Jenkitkasemwong S, Hojyo S, Davuluri R, Knutson MD, Fukada T and Acharyya S. Metastatic cancers promote cachexia through ZIP14 upregulation in skeletal muscle. Nature Medicine. 2018. 24(6):770-781. PMID: 29875463; PMCID: PMC6015555 (* Equal contribution).
  • Biswas AK, Mitchell DL, Johnson DG. E2F1 responds to ultraviolet radiation by directly stimulating DNA repair and suppressing carcinogenesis. Cancer Res. 2014; 74(12):3369-77. PMID: 24741006; PMCID: PMC4083823.

Link to my Bibliography: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/collections/mybibliography/