BMB PhD Program Faculty
Daniel Zabransky
Daniel Zabransky
Targeting the GI cancer microenvironment
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Assistant Professor
Department of Oncology
School of Medicine
Research Overview
Our laboratory studies how aging shapes the tumor microenvironment (TME) and drives cancer progression, with a primary focus on pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). PDAC is one of the most lethal malignancies and disproportionately affects older adults, who experience worse outcomes and limited responses to current therapies. We have shown that age-associated changes in fibroblasts create a more tumor-promoting TME that accelerates the growth and spread of PDAC. We are particularly interested in how secreted factors mediate these age-driven effects and whether targeting them can improve treatment responses for patients with PDAC.
In addition to our work in PDAC, we investigate the immunobiology of cholangiocarcinoma, another aggressive gastrointestinal cancer. Our group has developed unique models of IDH1-mutant cholangiocarcinoma, which we use to study disease mechanisms and test new therapeutic strategies for this rare malignancy.
Topic Areas
Topic Areas
Selected Publications
- Kao C, Charmsaz S, Tsai HL, Aziz K, Shu DH, Munjal K, Griffin E, Leatherman JM, Lipson EJ, Ged Y, Hoffman-Censits J, Li HL, Hallab E, Brancati M, Nakazawa M, Alden S, Thoburn C, Gross NE, Hernandez AG, Coyne EM, Kartalia E, Baretti M, Jaffee EM, Bansal S, Tang L, Chandler GS, Mohindra R, Ho WJ, Yarchoan M, Zabransky DJ. Age-related divergence of circulating immune responses in patients with solid tumors treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors. Nature Communications, 2025.
- Zabransky DJ, Kartalia E, Lee JW, Leatherman JM, Charmsaz S, Young SE, Chhabra Y, Franch-Expósito S, Kang M, Maru S, Rastkari N, Davis M, Dalton WB, Oshima K, Baretti M, Azad NS, Jaffee EM, Yarchoan M. Tumor-derived CCL2 drives tumor growth and immunosuppression in IDH1- mutant cholangiocarcinoma. Hepatology, 2024.
- Zabransky DJ, Chhabra Y, Fane ME, Kartalia E, Leatherman JM, Hüser L, Zimmerman JW, Delitto D, Han S, Armstrong TD, Charmsaz S, Guinn S, Pramod S, Thompson ED, Hughes SJ, O'Connell J, Egan JM, Jaffee EM, Weeraratna AT. Fibroblasts in the Aged Pancreas Drive Pancreatic Cancer Progression. Cancer Research, 2024.
- Zabransky DJ, Danilova L, Leatherman JM, Lopez-Vidal TY, Sanchez J, Charmsaz S, Gross NE, Shin S, Yuan X, Hernandez A, Yang H, Xavier S, Shu D, Saeed A, Munjal K, Kamdar Z, Kagohara LT, Jaffee EM, Yarchoan M, Ho WJ. Profiling of syngeneic mouse HCC tumor models as a framework to understand anti-PD-1 sensitive tumor microenvironments. Hepatology, 2023.
- Zabransky DJ, Jaffee EM, Weeraratna AT. Shared genetic and epigenetic changes link aging and cancer. Trends in Cell Biology, 2022.