Thanks @umasschan.bsky.social for writing about postdoc @nikitab.bsky.social in the lab and her recent Rising Star Award from the National Pancreas Foundation and fellowship award from the Pancreatic Cancer Alliance. Excited to go to the NPF awards gala in Boston! www.umassmed.edu/news/news-ar...

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!!

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!

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

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

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

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...

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!

🧵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!

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

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!

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

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

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 🧵👇

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

I'm excited to share the lab’s new paper on PDAC-associated cachexia on bioRxiv today, led by star postdoc @nikitab.bsky.social “Pancreatic cancer cachexia is mediated by PTHrP-driven disruption of adipose de novo lipogenesis” A 🧵 below, if you are interested... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

I'm not sure I will ever experience this again as a PI, but THREE trainees in the lab gave invited talks today at the UMass Chan GI Research Day. Congrats to @nikitab.bsky.social @calvinjohnsonio.bsky.social @jessicapeura.bsky.social! Cahexia-Metastasis-Immunosuppression....we do it all!

The 80-year recipe stoking America’s Prosperity: 1) Free-market capital investments in brilliant ideas… 2) enabled by Engineering Innovations… 3) based on Science Research in Universities… 4) funded by Grants from the US Government. It’s time more people understood this.

My trainee just sent me this notification from the NIH about a pending F31 application. We knew it was likely to come, but it still hurt to read the words.

Congrats to first author @skyeweisse.bsky.social and co-authors @jessicapeura.bsky.social @nikitab.bsky.social @calvinjohnsonio.bsky.social on our recent collaborative effort with the Foskett lab on the role of mitochondrial calcium and MCU in pancreatic cancer metastasis @cellreports.bsky.social

“Mitochondrial Ca2+ controls pancreatic cancer growth and metastasis by regulating epithelial cell plasticity,” is now available at Cell Reports. MCU-KO blocks EMT & reduces metastasis in PDAC, reversed by Snail. @pitarresilab.bsky.social #sciencesky www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Article Mitochondrial Ca 2+ controls pancreatic cancer growth and metastasis by regulating ... - goo.gl/alerts/LVVbLH #GoogleAlerts

Congrats to @anirbanmaitra.bsky.social @linghua-wang.bsky.social and the rest of the team on this absolute tour de force to map plasticity in PDAC, in @nature.com today. So much exciting data to explore here! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congrats to grad student @calvinjohnsonio.bsky.social for being chosen for an oral presentation at the Immunology Microbiology Program (IMP) retreat!

Gov. Maura Healey came to UMass Chan Medical School on Tuesday to learn about the implications of cuts and delays to the Medical School’s NIH funding. “Institutions like UMass Chan are under threat." Watch the video to see what else Gov. Healey had to say: direc.to/nbsV #NIHfunding

Congrats to @nikitab.bsky.social for being selected to give a talk at the Cancer Cachexia Society meeting today! She did a great job representing the lab and showcasing her exciting project on the role of PTHrP in mediating PDAC-associated cancer cachexia.

Absolutely terrible news.

Princeton has announced that it is considering selling approximately $320 million of taxable bonds. The bonds are a way for the University to raise short-term funds. The major credit-rating agencies rate University bonds AAA, the highest level of creditworthiness.

I’ve taken the Senate floor and will speak for as long as I’m physically able to lift the voices of Americans who are being harmed and not being heard in this moment of crisis. Watch here:

This is absolutely devastating. My young lab has benefitted from a DOD Pancreatic Cancer Research Program Idea Development Award that allowed me to extend my research program in exciting new directions that wouldn't have happened without this critical support. Just terrible....

It feels weird to celebrate in this current climate, but really proud of my group for our paper getting accepted at Cell Reports, in collaboration with the Foskett lab at Penn! Congrats @jessicapeura.bsky.social @calvinjohnsonio.bsky.social @nikitab.bsky.social

Via pancan.org. Congress is voting on a bill that cuts Dep’t of Defense cancer research funding by more than 50% — devastating to #PancreaticCancer Research. Demand your reps approve a full-year FY25 Defense Appropriations Act that fully funds the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program.

I have confirmation from several sources now that all T32s, many F30s and F31s, and most or all Center awards (P30, P50) have been terminated at Columbia. This is quite damaging to research and to individuals. This is pure terrorism and cannot be legal. But litigation will take time...

Accepted!

Anyone have experience doing phosphoproteomics with a company? There are many options out there, so looking to see if anyone had a good experience with a company. We have a relatively simple experimental design: Pancreatic cancer cell lines +/- our gene of interest (a kinase).

Some good-ish news from NIH “Federal Register notices for study sections run by CSR (but not those by ICs) will start being permitted again” As far as I know, the timing for this is not clear, but I will be checking the Federal Register.

By crushing cancer research, what are Elon & Trump making more efficient? Their NIH funding cuts are illegal—so instead, they're suffocating the grant approval process for cancer researchers with so much red tape that labs & clinical trials will be forced to shut down.

SIRF: Sergio Acebron @acebronsp.bsky.social @cosheidelberg.bsky.social and colleagues develop a new #biosensor reporting on functional interactions between dsDNA sensor STING and #IRF3, allowing to capture STING activation upon various triggers www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

It’s like pricing 🚗s @ cost of material & labor Tooling, facilities, safety, QC, advertising, shipping etc: capped 80% ⬇️ cost Consumers save💰but co. is out of business in a week. No more cars Stupid business model Same analogy for govt-contracted maker of rockets and satellites Oh, wait…

Congrats to postdoc in the lab @nikitab.bsky.social for being awarded a Pancreatic Cancer Alliance Postdoc Fellowship!!

Welcome to the lab our 2 new rotation students, Ethan Chang @ethanhcchang.bsky.social and Janhavi Sawant @janhaviysawant.bsky.social . Head over to pitarresilab.com/team to learn more about them!

Excited to co-chair #ASBMB2025 with the incredible Dave Pagliarini! This year’s ASBMB meeting promises to showcase cutting-edge science, foster dynamic collaborations, & inspire new ideas. Don’t miss your chance to be part of it—register & submit your late breaking abstracts. t.co/UwgMdxBo15

Welcome Suheera Haq, our new undergrad from UConn, to the team! Head over to www.pitarresilab.com/team to learn more about her, her love for exploring national parks, and her passion for the NYT games!

Did you ever wonder why metastatic cancers often spread to the lungs? Amazing research from @ginevradoglioni.bsky.social! Many thanks to all collaborators, funders and patients. Wishing you all an enjoyable read and a happy new year and Ginevra a great next endeavor @salkinstitute.bsky.social

Manuscript resubmission due on Christmas Eve......

RNA sensing induced by chromosome missegregation augments anti-tumor immunity www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

Postdoc from the lab, @nikitab.bsky.social, did an amazing job presenting her work on PDAC-associated cachexia at the APA annual meeting. Congrats Nikita!

We clean up pretty nice

Jessica Peura presenting her work right now at the APA poster session. Come check out poster #320