Albert Koong
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Many solid tumors contain regions starved of oxygen, a condition called hypoxia. Hypoxic tumor regions resist many treatments, including radiation and drugs that unleash the immune system.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Microbiology & Immunology
Biology
- Topics
tumor hypoxia
hypoxia-inducible factor
pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Dec 2027
What they work on
- Identify the HIF2-dependent factor that cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) secrete to push macrophages toward an immune-suppressing M2 state in pancreatic cancer, using mass spectrometry, and determine how it is produced and how it alters macrophages.
- Define how HIF2 signaling in CAFs suppresses CD8+ killer T cells and converts T cells into regulatory T cells, using mouse models of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and co-culture methods.
- Test HIF2 inhibitors, repurposed from kidney cancer, in combination with immune checkpoint blockade as a way to improve immunotherapy responses in mouse models of pancreatic cancer.
- Determine whether oxygen is needed for radiation to trigger ferroptosis, by exposing lung and esophageal cancer cells, including SLC7A11- and ATF4-deficient lines, to varying oxygen levels and measuring radiosensitivity and lipid peroxidation.
- Test whether hyperbaric oxygen or HIF/ATF4 inhibitors overcome acquired radiation resistance in mouse tumor xenografts, tracking tumor growth by bioluminescence imaging and hypoxia by 18F-FAZA PET imaging.
More about the research
Both of the lab's projects ask how low oxygen helps cancers survive therapy, and whether blocking the cell's oxygen-sensing machinery can make treatment work better. A central player is the hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs), proteins that build up when oxygen is low and switch on survival genes.
Why it matters
Pancreatic cancer responds poorly to immunotherapy, and lung and esophageal cancers often become resistant to radiation. This work could support repurposing an FDA-approved HIF2 inhibitor to improve immunotherapy responses in pancreatic cancer. It could also show whether raising tumor oxygen or blocking HIF and ATF4 restores radiation sensitivity. Mapping poorly oxygenated tumor regions may help select patients for follow-up treatments.
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.
Samarth Hegde
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY·Microbiology & Immunology·Early-career
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.
Kenneth Olive
Columbia University, NY·Pharmacology
Trace how genetic resistance to pan-RAS inhibitors such as RMC-7977 evolves in pancreatic tumors, including MYC copy number gains, using mouse and human models and clinical trial samples, and identify new vulnerabilities it creates.
The school
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center: 23 labs on PI Pages, $1.4B a year on research.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.