Dr. Ankita Bansal is Assistant Professor of Biomedical & Life Sciences and Principal Investigator of the Cancer Metabolism and Therapeutics laboratory.
Ankita earned her doctorate at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where she used the nematode C. elegans as a model system to study the genetics of aging. Her research emphasized the significant physiological differences between healthspan and elongated lifespan, and found that the genes regulating longevity are different from those implicated in health. This highly cited work had a profound influence in the field of aging research.
Ankita continued her training at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania, and discovered novel pathways and combinatorial approaches to target tumor cells by limiting their nutrient availability. At the Jio Institute, her laboratory would investigate dependencies in metabolically reprogrammed cancer cells and pursue these targets for precision therapeutics.
Ankita has a deep passion for technology transfer and turning scientific advancements into useful tangible products for our patients. She has worked extensively at the top academic incubation and technology transfer centers at the University of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Mount Sinai, and wants to bridge the gap between academic research prototypes and final products. She wants to build on her academic and technology transfer experience to support the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative at the Jio Institute.
- Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA
- B. Tech in Biotechnology, GGS Indraprastha University, Delhi, India
Research Experience
- 2018-2023, Postdoctoral fellow, Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY, USA
- 2014-2018 , Postdoctoral fellow, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Schoenfeld DA, Zhou R, Zairis S, Su W, Steinbach N, Mathur D, Bansal A, Zachem AL, Tavarez B, Hasson D, Bernstein E, Rabadan R, Parsons R. Loss of PBRM1 alters promoter histone modifications and activates ALDH1A1 to drive renal cell carcinoma. Molecular Cancer Research (2022) 20(8): 1193–1207.
- Zhou RW, Xu J, Martin TC, Zachem AL, He J, Ozturk S, Demircioglu D, Bansal A, Trotta AP, Giotti B, Gryder B, Shen Y, Wu X, Carcamo S, Bosch K, Hopkins B, Tsankov A, Steinhagen R, Jones DR, Asara J, Chipuk JE, Brody R, Itzkowitz S, Chio C, Hasson D, Bernstein E, Parsons R. A local tumor microenvironment acquired super-enhancer induces an oncogenic driver for efficient growth under oxidative conditions in colorectal carcinoma. Nature Communications (2022) 13, 6041.
- Xu J, Yu X, Martin TC, Bansal A, Cheung K, Lubin A, Stratikopoulos E, Cahuzac KM, Wang L, Xie L, Zhou RW, Shen Y, Wu X, Yao S, Qiao R, Poulikakos PI, Chen X, Liu J, Jin J, Parsons R. AKT degradation selectively inhibits the growth of PI3K/PTEN pathway mutant cancers with wild-type KRAS and BRAF by destabilizing Aurora kinase B. Cancer Discovery (2021) 11(12): 3064–3089.
- Bansal A, Sanchez DJ, Nimgoankar V, Sanchez D, Riscal R, Skuli N, Simon MC. Gamma-Glutamyltransferase 1 promotes clear cell renal cell carcinoma initiation and progression. Molecular cancer research (2019) 17(9):1881–1892.
- Bansal A, Simon MC. Glutathione metabolism in cancer progression and treatment resistance. Journal of Cell Biology (2018) 217(7):2291–2298.
- Sanchez DJ, Steger DJ, Skuli N, Bansal A, Simon MC. PPARG is dispensable for clear cell renal cell carcinoma progression. Molecular Metabolism (2018) 14:139–149.
- Bansal A, Yen K, Tissenbaum HA. Dissociating lifespan and healthspan using C elegans as model system. PNAS (2015) 112(3):E277-86. (Commentary in Science)
- Bansal A, Kwon ES, Liu H, MacNeil L, Walhout AJM, Tissenbaum HA. ELT-2/4 GATA factors and SWI/SNF promote longevity by controlling Caenorhabditis elegans FOXO/DAF-16 transcription. Longevity and Healthspan (2014) 3:5.
- Narasimhan SD, Yen K, Bansal A, Kwon ES, Padmanabhan S and Tissenbaum HA. PDP-1 links the TGF-β and insulin/IGF-1 signaling pathways to regulate longevity, development and metabolism. PLoS Genetics (2011) 7(4):e1001377.
- Yen K, Le TL, Bansal A, Narasimhan SD, Cheng JX, and Tissenbaum HA. A Comparative study of fat storage quantitation in nematode Caenorhabditis elegans using label and label-free methods. PLoS One (2010) 5(9):e12810.
- Recipient of prestigious Ramalingaswami re-entry fellowship from Department of Biotechnology, Govt of India (2024-)