Research
Although the overall five-year survival of patients with pancreatic cancer is dismal, there are substantial differences in disease progression, therapeutic response, and overall survival between cases with clinically and pathologically indistinguishable characteristics. Our inability to distinguish between these cases presents a major challenge in patient clinical management and continues to prevent our ability to treat this disease. Therefore, there is an urgent clinical need to better understand the molecular mechanisms behind of this disease to enable the improvement of therapeutic strategies.
Keratin 17 (K17) is a novel, tumor-cell specific biomarker that identifies the patient subgroup with the most aggressive disease in several types of solid tumor malignancies including PDAC even among patients with advanced-stage disease and in cases with negative surgical margins in PDAC. More recently, analyses of a PDAC clinical trial shows that K17-expressing PDACs are the least responsive to adjuvant therapy, suggesting that K17 can predict response to therapy. PDAC tumors are composed of immunosuppressive cells and tumor-associated stroma that contribute to poor response to chemo and immunotherapy. We and others have shown that K17 expression is associated with immune-mediated functions in tissues, and we recently observed differences in spatial relationships between tumor cells and macrophage infiltration in PDAC.
Our research focuses on understanding how K17 impacts immune cell function while enhancing tumor growth and metastasis. Additionally, we aim to determine the biological contribution of K17 on tumor aggression and response to standard-of-care therapeutic agents. These studies may lead to the development of a novel prevision medicine tool and can provide pre-clinical evidence of a novel therapeutic target in PDAC.
Research Interests:
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Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma
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Biomarkers
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Immunohistochemistry
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Western Blot
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Cancer Biology
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Tumor Immunology
Meet The Team
Kenneth Shroyer, MD, PhD
Principal Investigator
Chairman Department of Pathology
Natalia Marchenko, PhD
Luisa Escobar-Hoyos, PhD
Co- Director
Research Assistant Professor
Lyanne A Delgado Coka
Lab Manager
Senior Research Support Specialist
Lyanne is currently working on a project that utilizes multiomics to characterize the tumor microenvironment in pancreatic cancer. This research holds the potential to identify signatures that could guide clinical management of patients.
Monisankar Ghosh, PhD
Dr. Ghosh is a Research Scientist and is currently working to uncover the molecular mechanisms through which Keratin-17 promotes an inflammatory microenvironment, ultimately leading to tumor progression.
Thomas Beggs
Thomas is a third-year biology undergraduate student on the premed track, with a dedicated research focus on exploring the mechanisms behind K17, its role in chemoresistance, and how it contributes to tumor progression.
Shayan Sarkar
Shayan is a doctoral candidate affiliated to the Molecular and Cellular Biology Graduate Program at Stony Brook University. The overall goal of his project is to demystify the mechanism by which Keratin-17 drives biological aggression in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).
Minxin Huang
Minxin is a PhD student in Pharmacology. Her research focuses on uncovering therapeutic strategies for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).
Brandon Arroyo
Brandon is a first year graduate student in the Molecular and Cellular Biology PhD program. He graduated from CUNY Hunter with a major in Biological Sciences. Part of his work is focused on determining Keratin 17's relation to the immune environment of pancreatic tumors.
Kayla Schwartz
Kayla is rising junior majoring in Biomedical Engineering and minoring in chemistry at the University of Buffalo. Kayla is interested in broadening her research endeavors.
Sruthi Babu, MBBS, MPH, PhD
Surgical Pathologist.
Her work is focused on identifying urine cytology based diagnostic biomarker for bladder cancer and prognostic biomarkers in lung and upper tract urothelial carcinomas.
Jacky Lin
Jacky, a second-year medical student, is focused in exploring the unique morphology and distinct biomarker expression patterns present at the invasive front of pancreatic cancer.
Nicolas Oltean
Nick is a second-year medical student whose research interests include the identification of diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive biomarkers for head and neck carcinomas.
Jorge Villar- Samaniego
Jorge is a post-baccalaureate research volunteer actively involved in multiple projects. His research primarily explores pancreatic cancer evolution, dynamics, and plasticity, while also providing valuable support across other laboratory initiatives.
Fjord Deda
Fjord is a third-year undergraduate student at Stony Brook University studying biochemistry on the pre-med track. His current research focus is on identifying novel companion protein biomarkers for K17-negative urothelial carcinoma subtypes.
Tristan Kwai
Tristan is a third-year undergraduate student at Stony Brook University studying biochemistry on the pre-med track. His current research focus is on understanding the impact of Keratin 17 in the immune microenvironment leveraging tools like mIF.