Samarth Hegde
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY·Microbiology & Immunology·Early-career
Solid tumors often escape the immune system by recruiting immune helpers that work for the tumor. Monocytes and macrophages, immune cells that normally clean up debris and control inflammation, build up inside tumors, where they suppress immune attack and help tumors resist treatment.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Biology
- Topics
myelopoiesis
tumor microenvironment
macrophages
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2029
What they work on
- Determine how NRF2, a regulator of the oxidative stress response, changes chromatin and metabolism in bone marrow myeloid progenitors exposed to tumors, using CUT&RUN chromatin mapping and probe-based flow cytometry.
- Profile oxidative stress responses in samples collected over time from pancreatic cancer patients on standard chemotherapy, using targeted cytometry and chromatin assays.
- Test how chemotherapy-induced bone marrow stress and the resulting myeloid expansion drive relapse and metastasis in mouse models of chemotherapy-resistant pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
More about the research
These cells start as progenitors in the bone marrow. Tumors send inflammatory signals that push the marrow to make more of them, a process called myelopoiesis. Chemotherapy also damages the bone marrow, which then rebounds by making mostly myeloid cells. Treatments that block these cells will likely need to target the link between the tumor and the bone marrow, not just the tumor itself.
Why it matters
Pancreatic cancer often resists chemotherapy and comes back. Learning how chemotherapy-stressed bone marrow produces immune-suppressing myeloid cells could reveal new targets, such as NRF2-driven pathways. These targets could support myeloid-directed immunotherapies that work alongside existing treatments to lower resistance and relapse in pancreatic cancer.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Wantong Yao
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Define the molecular pathways through which a newly identified stress-response regulator helps pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cells survive nutrient shortage, low oxygen and oxidative stress, and evade the immune system.
Nicholas Woods
University of Nebraska Medical Center, NE·Medicine & Clinical Research
Test whether Tazemetostat, which blocks the gene-silencing complex PRC2, prevents chemotherapy-induced shifts in tumor subtype, using organoids grown from tumors of Black and White PDAC patients.
John McAuliffe
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY·Medicine & Clinical Research
Determine whether pancreatic cancer cells circulating in the blood or spread to organs like the liver express NR2F1, a gene-switching receptor linked to dormancy, in mice and in human patients.
The school
Albert Einstein College of Medicine: 21 labs on PI Pages, $361M a year on research, 36 research doctorates a year.
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