BMB PhD Program Faculty
Ashani Weeraratna
Ashani Weeraratna
Cancer, aging, and microenvironments
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Master's Degrees
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Doctor of Public Health (DrPH)
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E.V. McCollum Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Bloomberg Distinguished Professor
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department, School of Public Health
Oncology Department, School of Medicine
Research Overview
My laboratory focuses on trying to unravel the molecular mechanisms that lead to metastatic progression and therapy resistance. We are investigating the link between changes in the tumor microenvironment and melanoma progression, and further, how these changes may affect response to therapy. More recently, we have become very interested in how the aging microenvironment guides changes leading to increased metastasis and therapy resistance, as well as cell-autonomous aspects of therapy resistance, and have demonstrated that normal age-related changes in the microenvironment can contribute to multiple aspects of melanomagenesis and therapy resistance.
Additional Titles
Associate Director of Laboratory Research, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
Selected Publications
- Chhabra Y, Fane ME, Pramod S, Hüser L, Zabransky DJ, Wang V, Dixit A, Zhao R, Kumah E, Brezka ML, Truskowski K, Nandi A, Marino-Bravante GE, Carey AE, Gour N, Maranto DA, Rocha MR, Harper EI, Ruiz J, Lipson EJ, Jaffee EM, Bibee K, Sunshine JC, Ji H, Weeraratna AT. Sex-dependent effects in the aged melanoma tumor microenvironment influence invasion and resistance to targeted therapy. Cell, 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.
- Marino-Bravante GE, Carey AE, Hüser L, Dixit A, Wang V, Kaur A, Liu Y, Ding S, Schnellmann R, Gerecht S, Gu L, Eisinger-Mathason TSK, Chhabra Y, Weeraratna AT. Age-dependent loss of HAPLN1 erodes vascular integrity via indirect upregulation of endothelial ICAM1 in melanoma. Nature Aging, 2024.
- Fane ME, Chhabra Y, Alicea GM, Maranto DA, Douglass SM, Webster MR, Rebecca VW, Marino GE, Almeida F, Ecker BL, Zabransky DJ, Hüser L, Beer T, Tang HY, Kossenkov A, Herlyn M, Speicher DW, Xu W, Xu X, Jaffee EM, Aguirre-Ghiso JA, Weeraratna AT. Stromal changes in the aged lung induce an emergence from melanoma dormancy. Nature, 2022.
- Alicea GM, Rebecca VW, Goldman AR, Fane ME, Douglass SM, Behera R, Webster MR, Kugel CH, Ecker BL, Caino MC, Kossenkov AV, Tang HY, Frederick DT, Flaherty KT, Xu X, Liu Q, Gabrilovich DI, Herlyn M, Blair IA, Schug ZT, Speicher DW, Weeraratna AT. Changes in Aged Fibroblast Lipid Metabolism Induce Age-dependent Melanoma Cell Resistance to Targeted Therapy Via the Fatty Acid Transporter FATP2. Cancer Discovery, 2020.