New preprint on alpha-ketoglutarate and histone acetylation- congrats Dr. Apoorva Uboveja and co-authors

We are excited to share our newest preprint from 1st author Dr. Apoorva Uboveja. In this project, she found something totally unexpected- aKG affects histone acetylation through carnitine synthesis. This axis promoted DNA repair by homologous recombination. These data provide new evidence for a metabolically-sensitive epigenetic axis that could be targeted for cancer therapy. They also show that methylation is not the only epigenetic change that is affected by aKG. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.06.578742v1

Naveen's DoD Pilot Award recommended for funding!

Congratulations to postdoc Dr. Naveen Kumar Tangudu whose DoD Pilot Award was recommended for funding! This will further his exciting work on ferroptosis and iron metabolism as a vulnerability of CCNE1-driven ovarian cancer!

Apoorva's HERA Ovarian Cancer grant funded!

Congratulations to postdoc Dr. Apoorva Uboveja whose Outside the Box grant for the HERA Ovarian Cancer Foundation was recently funded! This will further her exciting work on carnitine metabolism in ovarian cancer and DNA damage response.

New preprint alert! First authors Naveen and Raquel identify anti-folates as a strategy to treat cancers with p16 loss

Congrats to co-first authors Drs. Naveen Kumar Tangudu and Raquel Buj on their new preprint. Using CRISPR screens and pharmacological approaches, they identified purine metabolism as a metabolic vulnerability of p16-low cancers. Read more here: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.15.549149v2

New postdoc Dr. Amadine Amalric joins the lab!

A warm welcome to Dr. Amadine Amalric, who joined the lab in early June. She comes to us from France where she studied RNA modifications in cancer. In the lab, she will studying compartmentalized metabolism and is co-mentored by our long-term collaborator Dr. Nate Snyder at Temple University.

Allison's WCRC grant funded!

Congratulations to Allison- her Magee Women’s Cancer Research Center grant to study metabolism in ovarian cancer quiescence was funded!

Aidan is now a PhD Candidate!

Big congrats to Aidan for passing his comprehensive exam this week and becoming a PhD candidate! We had a fun donut celebration!

Dr. Buj is promoted to Research Assistant Professor!

Congratulations to Raquel for her well-deserved promotion to Research Assistant Professor! Raquel has independently moved an entire arm of the lab’s research program forward by becoming an expert in the tumor microenvironment.

Congratulations to Aidan for receiving funding through the Pharmacology T32!

Congrats to Aidan- the very first proposal he wrote was funding through a spot on the highly competitive Pharmacology T32! Next up- submitting his F31!

Congratulations to Dr. Apoorva Uboveja for being named a Hillman Postdoctoral Fellow for Innovative Research!

A huge congratulations to Apoorva who was named this week as a Hillman Postdoc Fellow for Innovative Research! This will provide professional development support as she works toward her K99 application.

Macropinocytosis paper published in Journal of Cell Biology!

Out now! The lab’s paper on how ATM inhibition induces macropinocytosis to promote survival through uptake of nutrients. Congrats to all authors!

Read the paper here: https://rupress.org/jcb/article-abstract/222/1/e202007026/213697/ATM-inhibition-drives-metabolic-adaptation-via?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Congratulations Dr. Apoorva Uboveja for being awarded an OCRA Mentored Investigator Grant!

Big congrats to Dr. Uboveja- this is her first grant! A huge milestone! This award will allow her to continue her very exciting work on wildtype IDH1 in cyclin E-driven ovarian cancer.

Congratulations to Dr. Raquel Buj for receiving a career development award from MRF!

Congrats to Raquel who recently received a career development award from the Melanoma Research Foundation to better understand how a secreted factor promotes immunotherapy resistance in melanoma. This 2-year award will allow her to continue this very important work as she becomes an immunologist!

We are expanding (and moving into shiny new lab space)!

We are hiring and looking for new postdocs to move into our shiny new lab space in an old Ford factory that the University of Pittsburgh has renovated. If you are interested in senescence, metabolism, epigenetics, the microenvironment in cancer- reach out!

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Welcome new lab member Dr. Huang

Our lab expansion is underway! Dr. Zhentai Huang is our new Research Scientist and lab manager. His lengthy experience in cell culture and management is a huge benefit to our lab. We are excited to have Zhentai in the lab!

Dr. Kelly Leon, 2nd graduate student from the lab, successfully defends her PhD!

Congratulations to the newly-minted Dr. Leon for the successful defense of her PhD this morning! Her work on DOT1L and the SASP was viewed as highly impactful by her committee!

Kelly will be transitioning to a consulting position in the near future.

Excited to welcome Apoorva Uboveja as a postdoc this summer!

The lab is expanding! We are so excited for Apoorva Uboveja to join the lab this summer. She comes to us from the University of Delhi, where she received her PhD in cancer biology, studying the tumor suppressor p73. Welcome (soon) Apoorva!

Congratulations to Raquel- 1st and co-corresponding author paper accepted!

Raquel’s paper on p16 loss in abrogation of the SASP was accepted this week! We initially thought this was an uninteresting observation, and it has not only turned into a paper, but also a new direction for her work. Congratulations Raquel and co-authors Kelly Leon and Marlyn Anguelov.

Goodbye and good luck to Daniel, who is leaving to start his faculty position.

We bid a fond farewell to postdoc Daniel (Chi-Wei) Chen, who is moving back to Taiwan to start as an Assistant Professor at National Dong Hwa University. While we will miss him, this was an outstanding opportunity and huge accomplishment. Congrats!

The lab is looking to expand! Postdoc applicants and rotation students welcome!

We are looking to expand our lab team! With new anticipated funding in 2021, multiple positions are open to study metabolism, epigenetics, and senescence in cancer. We support both scientific and professional development and foster a diverse and inclusive lab environment. For more information, see: https://airdlab.com/positions.

Email Dr. Aird with a cover letter and CV if interested.