Farzad Esni, PhD

Summary

My lab studies pancreatic regeneration and cancer. Both tissue regeneration and cancer rely on complex interactions between cells that provide necessary signals for each process, and cells that are receptive to those signals. We have shown that the influx of macrophages during pancreatic regeneration not only serves to debride the site of injury, but it is also critical for creating microenvironments for cell-specific differentiation. In my lab, we also study a population of progenitor-like cells, which is highly abundant in the regenerating mouse pancreas. More importantly, we have identified a similar population in the adult human pancreas, which expands significantly in both chronic pancreatitis and Type 1 diabetic patients. These cells are normally found within the ductal network, but lack many ductal cell characteristics. Our lineage tracing studies show that while these cells under certain conditions can give rise to acinar and endocrine cells, upon oncogenic Kras activation, they transform to premalignant lesions and then to pancreatic invasive ductal adenocarcinoma. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is an almost uniformly fatal disease. Recent studies have suggested that it takes about 17 years from the time of tumor initiation to the time of patient's death. This timeline offers opportunities for early detection and intervention. Our goal is to better understand the transformation of noninvasive precursor lesions to invasive ductal adenocarcinomas.