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PitarresiLab @pitarresilab.bsky.social · 21h

Congrats to @calvinjohnsonio.bsky.social in the lab for being selected to give a talk at our cancer center retreat. You did a fantastic job!!

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PitarresiLab @pitarresilab.bsky.social · 8d

Congrats to postdoc @nikitab.bsky.social for being awarded an AACR Scholar-in-Training award for this year's #AACRPan25 conference.

Be sure to check out her poster # B049 today from 6-9pm!

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PitarresiLab @pitarresilab.bsky.social · 13d

Thank you, Jeremy!

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PitarresiLab @pitarresilab.bsky.social · 13d

Thanks Giulia! I'm looking forward to watching your talk when it's put on the meeting app!

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PitarresiLab @pitarresilab.bsky.social · 14d

For those attending the Cancer Cachexia Society @cancercachexia.bsky.social meeting in person who just saw my talk, I know there was no chance for questions for the virtual talks today...but I am happy to connect on here, in the meeting's Whova app, or via email.

Please reach out!

#FOMO

PitarresiLab @pitarresilab.bsky.social · 14d

Excited for my talk tomorrow at the 8th Cancer Cachexia Conference meeting, where I will present our work showing that tumor derived PTHrP is a new driver of pancreatic cancer cachexia.

Check out our preprint for the full story:
biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

@cancercachexia.bsky.social

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PitarresiLab @pitarresilab.bsky.social · 14d

Unfortunately, due to a last minute family medical issue, I will not be able to attend in person but will give my talk virtually and am available on here or via email to discuss our work after!

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PitarresiLab @pitarresilab.bsky.social · 14d

Excited for my talk tomorrow at the 8th Cancer Cachexia Conference meeting, where I will present our work showing that tumor derived PTHrP is a new driver of pancreatic cancer cachexia.

Check out our preprint for the full story:
biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

@cancercachexia.bsky.social

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PitarresiLab @pitarresilab.bsky.social · 16d

A fantastic write-up about grad student @jessicapeura.bsky.social's recent NIH F31 award and how she uses her life experiences to motivate her work looking at pancreatic cancer metastasis! Pieces like this remind me how lucky I am to be PI, where we get to train the next gen of passionate scientists

UMass Chan Medical School @umasschan.bsky.social · 16d

PhD candidate Jessica Peura is studying pancreatic cancer in the lab of Jason Pitarresi, PhD, to prevent families like her own from experiencing cancer-related loss. Discover how her research aims to stop cancer from spreading: direc.to/nqgr

@jessicapeura.bsky.social @pitarresilab.bsky.social

PhD candidate Jessica Peura studies pancreatic cancer; honors mother through grant-funded research

PhD candidate Jessica Peura has earned a prestigious NIH grant to advance her research on pancreatic cancer. After the death of her mother, she’s determined to help prevent families from experiencing ...

direc.to

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PitarresiLab @pitarresilab.bsky.social · Aug 15

As a PI during these tough financial times, we really appreciate societies like @theaacr.bsky.social for supporting our trainees to attend conferences that are critical for their growth!

🙏 Thank you @AACR_CEO Margaret Foti!

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PitarresiLab @pitarresilab.bsky.social · Aug 15

Congrats to postdoc @nikitab.bsky.social for winning the Margaret Foti @theaacr.bsky.social Scholar-in-Training Award for next month's Pancreatic AACR conference!

If you see her at the conference, be sure to ask her about her work on PDAC cachexia, bioRxiv link below!

biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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PitarresiLab @pitarresilab.bsky.social · Aug 5

Congrats to @calvinjohnsonio.bsky.social in the lab for being awarded a competitive slot on the Innate Immunity T32 @umasschan.bsky.social!

In addition to being an amazing scientist, Calvin is also an elite Cat 2 cyclist. He is the one in black, attacking the breakaway group below!

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Reposted by PitarresiLab

Chrystal Paulos @chrystalpaulos.bsky.social · Jul 25

🧵1/ New in @Cancer_Cell: Our lab discovered that Th17 cells must team up with B cells to eliminate tumors, and prevent it from coming back.
🔗 Read: www.cell.com/cancer-cell/...
🧬This unexpected immune duo sparks tumor immunity.
🖼️Image: See schematic Th17/B cell antitumor action!

Adoptively transferred Th17 cells cooperate with host B cells to achieve durable tumor immunity

Cole et al. report that adoptively transferred, tumor-specific Th17 cells engage host B cells and drive B cell proliferation and differentiation. These Th17 cells require B cells for sustained immunit...

www.cell.com

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PitarresiLab @pitarresilab.bsky.social · Jul 24

Fantastic work as always Cosimo!! Congrats to you and the team, especially first author @yijuan.bsky.social!

Cosimo Commisso @cosimocommisso.bsky.social · Jul 24

Excited to share work published in @cp-cancercell.bsky.social by @yijuan.bsky.social showing that macropinocytosis inhibition drives myCAF-to-iCAF conversion, enhancing therapeutic responses in pancreatic cancer. Thank you to our collaborators that contributed! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Macropinocytosis maintains CAF subtype identity under metabolic stress in pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) tumors are glutamine deficient, and both tumor cells and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) rely on this ami…

www.sciencedirect.com

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PitarresiLab @pitarresilab.bsky.social · Jul 24

Congrats Cosimo!!

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PitarresiLab @pitarresilab.bsky.social · Jul 11

Congrats to @calvinjohnsonio.bsky.social in the lab for winning a travel award for the AAI Advanced Course! He's leading the tumor immunology efforts in the lab and I'm excited to see what he learns at the workshop!

🙏 Grateful to the AAI for supporting trainees during these tough financial times!

a man in a suit and tie is clapping his hands in a room .

ALT: a man in a suit and tie is clapping his hands in a room .

media.tenor.com

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PitarresiLab @pitarresilab.bsky.social · Jul 10

NOA!!

🚨 Congrats to @jessicapeura.bsky.social in the lab for getting her NCI F31 notice of award today!! 🚨

With the NIH slowdowns, this has been quite the journey, but I'm happy to see some NOAs coming through for the trainees!

@umasschan.bsky.social

a man and a woman are standing next to each other in a room and congratulating each other with congrats .

ALT: a man and a woman are standing next to each other in a room and congratulating each other with congrats .

media.tenor.com

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PitarresiLab @pitarresilab.bsky.social · Jun 17

Officially welcoming our 2 new PhD students to the lab today!

Head over to our lab website to check out some fun facts about Paula (co-mentored with the Spinelli lab) and Ethan @ethanhcchang.bsky.social. Excited to have you both on board and watch the team grow...

www.pitarresilab.com/team

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Reposted by PitarresiLab

Metastasis Research Society @metastasisresearch.bsky.social · Jun 17

1/Meet the MRS ECLC Chairs! Dr. Thomas Cox @trcox.matrixandmetastasis.com is a Professor at the @garvaninstitute.bsky.social focussing on the Extracellular Matrix and Fibrosis in Cancer.
We interviewed Dr. Cox about his role as a founding member of the MRS Early Career Leadership Council 🧵👇

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Reposted by PitarresiLab

Victor Javier @vjsanchez.bsky.social · Jun 9

Pancreatic cancer cachexia is mediated by PTHrP-driven disruption of adipose de novo lipogenesis
🧪 doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Pancreatic cancer cachexia is mediated by PTHrP-driven disruption of adipose de novo lipogenesis

Pancreatic cancer patients have the highest rates and most severe forms of cancer cachexia, yet cachexia etiologies remain largely elusive, leading to a lack of effective intervening therapies. PTHrP ...

doi.org

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PitarresiLab @pitarresilab.bsky.social · Jun 7

Immensely grateful to all collaborators from the Guertin, @marcus-ruscetti.bsky.social, @game-of-chroms.bsky.social, Zhu, Kremer, Czech, Guilherme, and Hollingsworth labs. you all have made this journey an amazing one.🙏

PitarresiLab @pitarresilab.bsky.social · Jun 7

Most importantly, this paper only came together because of the fantastic community of collaborators we have built over the years.

Really proud of my team led by @nikitab.bsky.social with critical support from Yamini Ogoti, @jessicapeura.bsky.social, and @calvinjohnsonio.bsky.social

...🧵

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PitarresiLab @pitarresilab.bsky.social · Jun 7

To wrap this story up, we treated KPCY animals with a monoclonal neutralizing antibody against PTHrP (🙏 Richard Kremer), which was able to block wasting and restore DNL. We are hoping this will be a new therapeutic option for patients suffering from cancer cachexia in the near future

...🧵

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PitarresiLab @pitarresilab.bsky.social · Jun 7

This is where we relied on our adipose tissue expert collaborators (Dave Guertin, Mike Czech, Adilson Guilherme labs), who helped us delete Fasn, a key enzyme in the DNL pathway, in adipocytes. When we injected a non-cachectic cell line into these mice, we found that it became cachectic!

...🧵

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PitarresiLab @pitarresilab.bsky.social · Jun 7

To figure out how PTHrP mediates adipose tissue wasting, we performed RNA-seq on cachectic iWAT and found the usual players being upregulated (TNF, IL6, etc.), but were surprised to also see a dramatic downregulation of de novo lipogenesis (DNL) in the adipose of cachectic mice

...🧵

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PitarresiLab @pitarresilab.bsky.social · Jun 7

We knew that adipocytes have high levels of the PTHrP receptor, PTH1R. We deleted Pth1r in adipose and injected our highly cachectic PTHrP-OE cell line. This not only blocked adipose tissue wasting, but also muscle wasting, suggesting that adipose wasting may fuel muscle wasting in this model

...🧵

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