Ameya Champhekar, PhD

Ameya Champhekar, PhD

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology

Languages

English

Education

Fellowship

T Cell Development, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA, 2013

Degrees

PhD, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA, 2008
MSc, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, Maharashtra, India, 2002
BSc, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, Maharashtra, India, 2000

Contact Information

Scientific Interests

Dr. Champhekar's research is focused on two areas of cancer immunotherapy. He is interested in understanding how tumor cells respond to Interferon-gamma and leveraging the insights from this work to develop novel cancer immunotherapies. The other major research area centers around identifying novel cancer-specific solid-tumor antigens and developing cellular immunotherapies directed against these targets.

Highlighted Publications

Champhekar A, Heymans R, Saco J, Turon Font G, Gonzalez C, Gao A, Pham J, Lee J, Maryoung R, Medina E, Campbell KM, Karin D, Austin D, Damioseaux R, Ribas A. ERK mediates interferon gamma-induced melanoma cell death. Molecular Cancer. 2023 Oct 6;22(1):165. PMCID: PMC10557262

Pan Y, Phillips JW, Zhang BD, Noguchi M, Kutschera E, McLaughlin J, Nesterenko PA, Mao Z, Bangayan NJ, Wang R, Tran W, Yang HT, Wang Y, Xu Y, Obusan MB, Cheng D, Lee AH, Kadash-Edmondson KE, Champhekar A, Puig-Saus C, Ribas A, Prins RM, Seet CS, Crooks GM, Witte ON, Xing Y. IRIS: Discovery of cancer immunotherapy targets arising from pre-mRNA alternative splicing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; 2023 May 23;120(21):e2221116120. PMCID: PMC10214192

Kalbasi A, Tariveranmoshabad M, Hakimi K, Kremer S, Campbell KM, Funes JM, Vega-Crespo A, Parisi G, Champekar A, Nguyen C, Torrejon D, Shin D, Zaretsky JM, Damoiseaux RD, Speiser DE, Lopez-Casas PP, Quintero M, Ribas A. Uncoupling interferon signaling and antigen presentation to overcome immunotherapy resistance due to JAK1 loss in melanoma. Science Translational Medicine [Internet]. American Association for the Advancement of Science; 2020 Oct 14 [cited 2021 Mar 15];12(565). Available from: https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/12/565/eabb0152 PMID: 33055240


Grasso CS, Tsoi J, Onyshchenko M, Abril-Rodriguez G, Ross-Macdonald P, Wind-Rotolo M, Champhekar A, Medina E, Torrejon DY, Shin DS, Tran P, Kim YJ, Puig-Saus C, Campbell K, Vega-Crespo A, Quist M, Martignier C, Luke JJ, Wolchok JD, Johnson DB, Chmielowski B, Hodi FS, Bhatia S, Sharfman W, Urba WJ, Slingluff CL, Diab A, Haanen JBAG, Algarra SM, Pardoll DM, Anagnostou V, Topalian SL, Velculescu VE, Speiser DE, Kalbasi A, Ribas A. Conserved Interferon-γ Signaling Drives Clinical Response to Immune Checkpoint Blockade Therapy in Melanoma. Cancer Cell. 2020 Oct 12;38(4):500-515.e3. PMCID: PMC7872287


Torrejon DY, Abril-Rodriguez G, Champhekar AS, Tsoi J, Campbell KM, Kalbasi A, Parisi G, Zaretsky JM, Garcia-Diaz A, Puig-Saus C, Cheung-Lau G, Wohlwender T, Krystofinski P, Vega-Crespo A, Lee CM, Mascaro P, Grasso CS, Berent-Maoz B, Comin-Anduix B, Hu-Lieskovan S, Ribas A. Overcoming Genetically Based Resistance Mechanisms to PD- 1 Blockade. Cancer Discov. American Association for Cancer Research; 2020 Aug 1;10(8):1140–1157. PMCID: PMC7416458