N. Merchant

CREB drives acinar cells to ductal reprogramming and promotes pancreatic cancer progression in preclinical models of alcoholic pancreatitis

This study shows CREB promotes acinar-to-ductal reprogramming and pancreatic cancer progression in alcoholic pancreatitis models by enhancing fibrosis and tumor growth.

CyVerse: Cyberinfrastructure for Open Science

The paper describes CyVerse, an open-source cyberinfrastructure platform for life sciences, and outlines a strategic blueprint for managing SaaS and IaC as free and open-source software.

Neutrophil-Mediated Stromal-Tumor IL-6/STAT-3 Signaling Underlies the Association between Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio Dynamics and Chemotherapy Response in Localized Pancreatic Cancer: A Hybrid Clinical-Preclinical Study

This study shows that neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) dynamics predict chemotherapy response in pancreatic cancer and that targeting NLR improves chemosensitivity by modulating IL-6/STAT-3 signaling.

Combined MEK and STAT3 inhibition reprograms stromal inflammation to overcome immunotherapy resistance in pancreatic cancer

This paper shows that combining MEK and STAT3 inhibitors reprograms stromal inflammation and enhances immunotherapy response in pancreatic cancer.

Diet induced hyperlipidemia confers resistance to standard therapy in pancreatic cancer by selecting for "tumor protective" microbial metabolites and treatment refractory cells.

This study shows that a high-fat diet in pancreatic cancer mice increases resistance to chemotherapy by promoting microbial metabolites like queuosine, which protect tumors through PRDX1 upregulation, and this resistance can be reversed by S-adenosyl methionine.

Stroma secreted IL6 selects for stem-like population and alters pancreatic tumor microenvironment by reprogramming metabolic pathways

This study shows that stromal IL6 promotes stem-like cells and metabolic reprogramming in pancreatic tumors, creating an immune-evasive microenvironment that can be targeted to improve checkpoint inhibitor therapy.

Microbial Dysbiosis and polyamine metabolism as predictive markers for early detection during progression of pancreatic adenocarcinoma in spontaneous mouse model