Shruthy Suresh Aggarwal
Scientist-C |
Decision Unit 2: Disease Biology
Professor |
Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research
In the Molecular Ecology of Tumor Fitness (MET-FIT) lab, Shruthy is interested to understand mechanisms dictating tumor fitness, in the context of metabolite scavenging as well as in response to the tumor microenvironment.
Current focus areas include:
- Moonlighting function of cancer cells as phagocytes
- Role of inter-organelle transport of cholesterol in melanoma metastasis and immune evasion
- CRISPR screening to identify mechanisms of resistance to CAR-T therapy in B cell lymphoma
Shruthy's group has recently reported a moonlighting function of cancer cells as phagocytes. They demonstrate that melanoma cells can perform dead cell clearance akin to macrophages and utilize dead cell derived cholesterol to achieve metastatic fitness. These findings re-define dead cell regions within a tumor not as passive bystanders but as metabolic reservoirs that can be exploited by tumor cells to survive a nutrient depleted tumor microenvironment. Shruthy's group is also studying how cholesterol transport within cancer cells impacts metastasis and immune responses.
Selected Publications
All Citations →- Identifying the Transcriptional Drivers of Metastasis Embedded within Localized Melanoma. Suresh S, Rabbie R, Garg M, Lumaquin D, Huang TH, Montal E, Ma Y, Cruz NM, Tang X, Nsengimana J, Newton-Bishop J, Hunter MV, Zhu Y, Chen K, de Stanchina E, Adams DJ, White RM. Cancer Discov. 2023 Jan 9;13(1):194–215.
- GABA Regulates Electrical Activity and Tumor Initiation in Melanoma. Tagore M, Hergenreder E, Perlee SC, Cruz NM, Menocal L, Suresh S, et al. Cancer Discov. 2023 Oct 5;13(10):2270–2291.
- Developmental chromatin programs determine oncogenic competence in melanoma. Baggiolini A, Callahan SJ, Montal E, Weiss JM, Trieu T, Tagore MM, … Suresh S, … White RM. Science. 2021 Sep 3;373(6559):eabc1048.
- Shifting the focus of zebrafish toward a model of the tumor microenvironment. Weiss JM, Lumaquin-Yin D, Montal E, Suresh S, Leonhardt CS, White RM. Elife. 2022 Dec 20;11:e69703.
- eIF5B drives integrated stress response-dependent translation of PD-L1 in lung cancer. Suresh S, Chen B, Zhu J, Golden RJ, Lu C, Evers BM, … O'Donnell KA. Nat Cancer. 2020 May;1(5):533–545.