Tomar Ghansah, Ph.D.

Assoc Professor, College of Medicine Molecular Medicine

Contact Info 12901 Bruce B. Downs Blvd
MDC07
Tampa FL 33612

Academic Email: ghansat@usf.edu

Academic Phone:(813) 974-1825

View My C.V.

Education

Interdisciplinary and Emerging Signature Programs

• Cancer Biology

Research Interests

• I am an active member of the Immunology Program at the Moffitt Cancer Center. I received my post-doctoral training in Transplant Immunology from Moffitt. Currently, my research focuses on Tumor Immunology/Pancreatic Cancer. Pancreatic cancer is one the top five cancers in the U.S. and is considered the most aggressive of all human cancers. Current cancer therapies are ineffective due to the expansion of regulatory immune cells such as MDSC and Tregs in pancreatic cancer patients. More specifically my research focuses on how immune regulatory cells respond to pancreatic cancer using pre-clinical pancreatic cancer animal models from USF and Moffitt in addition to clinical samples from pancreatic cancer patients from Moffitt. The overall goal of my research is to develop novel therapeutic strategies that may be translated and effective for the eradication of pancreatic cancer in humans.

Recent Publications

• Nelson N, Szekeres K, Iclozan C, Rivera IO, McGill A, Johnson G, Nwogu O, Ghansah T. Apigenin: Selective CK2 inhibitor increases Ikaros expression and improves T cell homeostasis and function in murine pancreatic cancer. PloS one. 12(2) : e0170197, 2017.
• Nelson N, Xiang S, Zhang X, Gilvary D, Djeu J, Husain K, Malafa M, Vohra N, Pilon-Thomas S, Ghansah T. Murine pancreatic adenocarcinoma reduces Ikaros expression and disrupts T cell homeostasis. PloS one. 10(1) : e0115546, 2015.
• Watson JE, Patel NA, Carter G, Moor A, Patel R, Ghansah T, Mathur A, Murr MM, Bickford P, Gould LJ, Cooper DR. Comparison of Markers and Functional Attributes of Human Adipose-Derived Stem Cells and Dedifferentiated Adipocyte Cells from Subcutaneous Fat of an Obese Diabetic Donor. Advances in wound care. 3(3) : 219-228, 2014.
• Ghansah T, Vohra N, Kinney K, Weber A, Kodumudi K, Springett G, Sarnaik AA, Pilon-Thomas S. Dendritic cell immunotherapy combined with gemcitabine chemotherapy enhances survival in a murine model of pancreatic carcinoma. Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII. 62(6) : 1083-91, 2013.
• Toomey PG, Vohra NA, Ghansah T, Sarnaik AA, Pilon-Thomas SA. Immunotherapy for gastrointestinal malignancies. Cancer control : journal of the Moffitt Cancer Center. 20(1) : 32-42, 2013.
• Ghansah TJ, Ager EC, Freeman-Junior P, Villalta F, Lima MF. Epidermal growth factor binds to a receptor on Trypanosoma cruzi amastigotes inducing signal transduction events and cell proliferation. The Journal of eukaryotic microbiology. 49(5) : 383-90, 2012.
• Ghansah T. A novel strategy for modulation of MDSC to enhance cancer immunotherapy. Oncoimmunology. 1(6) : 984-985, 2012.
• Nelson N, Szekeres K, Cooper D, Ghansah T. Preparation of myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSC) from naive and pancreatic tumor-bearing mice using flow cytometry and automated magnetic activated cell sorting (AutoMACS). Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE. (64) : e3875, 2012.
• Pilon-Thomas S, Nelson N, Vohra N, Jerald M, Pendleton L, Szekeres K, Ghansah T. Murine pancreatic adenocarcinoma dampens SHIP-1 expression and alters MDSC homeostasis and function. PloS one. 6(11) : e27729, 2011.
• Kleiman E, Carter G, Ghansah T, Patel NA, Cooper DR. Developmentally spliced PKCbetaII provides a possible link between mTORC2 and Akt kinase to regulate 3T3-L1 adipocyte insulin-stimulated glucose transport. Biochemical and biophysical research communications. 388(3) : 554-9, 2009.
• Jiang K, Apostolatos AH, Ghansah T, Watson JE, Vickers T, Cooper DR, Epling-Burnette PK, Patel NA. Identification of a novel antiapoptotic human protein kinase C delta isoform, PKCdeltaVIII in NT2 cells. Biochemistry. 47(2) : 787-97, 2008.
• Paraiso KH, Ghansah T, Costello A, Engelman RW, Kerr WG. Induced SHIP deficiency expands myeloid regulatory cells and abrogates graft-versus-host disease. Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950). 178(5) : 2893-900, 2007.
• Ghansah T, Paraiso KH, Highfill S, Desponts C, May S, McIntosh JK, Wang JW, Ninos J, Brayer J, Cheng F, Sotomayor E, Kerr WG. Expansion of myeloid suppressor cells in SHIP-deficient mice represses allogeneic T cell responses. Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950). 173(12) : 7324-30, 2004.
• Cheng F, Wang HW, Cuenca A, Huang M, Ghansah T, Brayer J, Kerr WG, Takeda K, Akira S, Schoenberger SP, Yu H, Jove R, Sotomayor EM. A critical role for Stat3 signaling in immune tolerance. Immunity. 19(3) : 425-36, 2003.
• Wang JW, Howson JM, Ghansah T, Desponts C, Ninos JM, May SL, Nguyen KH, Toyama-Sorimachi N, Kerr WG. Influence of SHIP on the NK repertoire and allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. Science (New York, N.Y.). 295(5562) : 2094-7, 2002.
• Tu Z, Ninos JM, Ma Z, Wang JW, Lemos MP, Desponts C, Ghansah T, Howson JM, Kerr WG. Embryonic and hematopoietic stem cells express a novel SH2-containing inositol 5''-phosphatase isoform that partners with the Grb2 adapter protein. Blood. 98(7) : 2028-38, 2001.