Bhairavi Tolani, PhD
Assistant Professor
Biochemistry and Biophysics
School of Medicine

Bhairavi Tolani, Ph.D. provides research mentorship and supervision to surgical residents in UCSF's program as well as visiting thoracic surgeons, technicians and high school students. Dr. Tolani's research is focused on developing targeted therapies, small molecule inhibitors and biologics, for lung cancer.

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Over the past 13 years, Dr. Tolani's cancer research experience has been diverse including breast cancer, ovarian cancer, cervical cancer, lung cancer and hematological malignancies spanning academia, industry and the National Institutes of Health. Prior to graduate school, she worked at 3 biotechnology companies [Invitrogen Life Technologies, Lonza, & Digene (Qiagen)] for 3 years. While at Digene, she contributed to the development of a test to detect cervical cancer in women. Concurrently she earned her M.S. in Biomedical Sciences while conducting her thesis research on cancer stem cells and the Hedgehog pathway in breast cancer at the National Cancer Institute.

Awards

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• Hellman Fellows Fund, UCSF, 2019
• UCSF RAP Pilot Award, UCSF, 2019
• Keller Entrepreneurship Fellow, UC Davis, 2014
• "Best Poster" at Biology Interdepartmental Graduate Symposium, University of Southern California, 2010
• "Outstanding Poster Presentation" at the Spring Research Festival, The National Cancer Institute, 2004

Education & Training

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• Ph.D. Molecular Biology University of Southern California 2013
• M.S. Biomedical Sciences Hood College 2007
• B.A. Biochemistry Hood College 2004

Interests

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• therapeutic antibodies
• Lung cancer
• oncogenic signal transduction pathways
• combination drug therapy
• small molecule inhibitors for cancer
• virology
• cancer vaccine
• epigenetics
• role of Ras in cancer
• synergistic drugs
• biologics
• cancer stem cells

Websites

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• Twitter (twitter.com)

Grants and Projects

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• Pancreatic Cancer and Autophagy, UCSF RAP Pilot Award, 2019-2020
• Autophagy Inhibition as a Therapeutic Strategy in Pancreatic Cancers, Hellman Family Awards for Early Career Faculty, 2019

Publications (17)

Top publication keywords:
Viral ProteinsLymphoma, Primary EffusionI-kappa B KinaseMesotheliomaProto-Oncogene Proteins c-mycLung NeoplasmsVacuolar Proton-Translocating ATPasesDisease ProgressionApoptosisNeoplasmsReceptors, Death DomainAntineoplastic AgentsHerpesvirus 8, HumanPleural NeoplasmsGene Expression Regulation, Viral

• Ras-mutant cancers are sensitive to small molecule inhibition of V-type ATPases in mice.
  Nature biotechnology 2022 Tolani B, Celli A, Yao Y, Tan YZ, Fetter R, Liem CR, de Smith AJ, Vasanthakumar T, Bisignano P, Cotton AD, Seiple IB, Rubinstein JL, Jost M, Weissman JS
• Preclinical characterization of therapeutic antibodies targeted at the carboxy-terminus of Sonic hedgehog.
  Oncotarget 2018 Tolani B, Hoang NT, Acevedo LA, Giroux Leprieur E, Li H, He B, Jablons DM
• The pleiotropic functions of autophagy in metastasis.
  Journal of cell science 2021 Marsh T, Tolani B, Debnath J
• High-Throughput Screening: today's biochemical and cell-based approaches.
  Drug discovery today 2020 Blay V, Tolani B, Ho SP, Arkin MR
• Differential gene expression identifies KRT7 and MUC1 as potential metastasis-specific targets in sarcoma.
  Cancer management and research 2019 Jiang L, Tolani B, Yeh CC, Fan Y, Reza JA, Horvai AE, Xia E, Kratz JR, Jablons DM, Mann MJ

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• A review of soft-tissue sarcomas: translation of biological advances into treatment measures.
  Cancer management and research 2018 Hoang NT, Acevedo LA, Mann MJ, Tolani B
• Heterogeneous Contributing Factors in MPM Disease Development and Progression: Biological Advances and Clinical Implications.
  International journal of molecular sciences 2018 Tolani B, Acevedo LA, Hoang NT, He B
• Review of the clinical applications and technological advances of circulating tumor DNA in cancer monitoring.
  Therapeutics and clinical risk management 2017 Chang Y, Tolani B, Nie X, Zhi X, Hu M, He B
• Membrane-bound full-length Sonic Hedgehog identifies cancer stem cells in human non-small cell lung cancer.
  Oncotarget 2017 Giroux Leprieur E, Tolani B, Li H, Leguay F, Hoang NT, Acevedo LA, Jin JQ, Tseng HH, Yue D, Kim IJ, Wislez M, Wang C, Jablons DM, He B
• Gli promotes epithelial-mesenchymal transition in human lung adenocarcinomas.
  Oncotarget 2016 Li H, Yue D, Jin JQ, Woodard GA, Tolani B, Luh TM, Giroux-Leprieur E, Mo M, Chen Z, Che J, Zhang Z, Zhou Y, Wang L, Hao X, Jablons D, Wang C, He B
• EMX2 Is a Predictive Marker for Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Lung Squamous Cell Carcinomas.
  PloS one 2015 Yue D, Li H, Che J, Zhang Y, Tolani B, Mo M, Zhang H, Zheng Q, Yang Y, Cheng R, Jin JQ, Luh TW, Yang C, Tseng HH, Giroux-Leprieur E, Woodard GA, Hao X, Wang C, Jablons DM, He B
• Immunomodulatory drugs target IKZF1-IRF4-MYC axis in primary effusion lymphoma in a cereblon-dependent manner and display synergistic cytotoxicity with BRD4 inhibitors.
  Oncogene 2015 Gopalakrishnan R, Matta H, Tolani B, Triche T, Chaudhary PM
• Measurement of genome-wide DNA methylation predicts survival benefits from chemotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer.
  Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology 2014 Mo ML, Ma J, Chen Z, Wei B, Li H, Zhou Y, Shi H, Tolani B, Jin JQ, Tseng HH, Shen D, Zhan Y, Li J, Jablons DM, Zhang RQ, Guo Y, He B, Zhou HM
• NEMO is essential for Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus-encoded vFLIP K13-induced gene expression and protection against death receptor-induced cell death, and its N-terminal 251 residues are sufficient for this process.
  Journal of virology 2014 Tolani B, Matta H, Gopalakrishnan R, Punj V, Chaudhary PM
• Targeting Myc in KSHV-associated primary effusion lymphoma with BET bromodomain inhibitors.
  Oncogene 2013 Tolani B, Gopalakrishnan R, Punj V, Matta H, Chaudhary PM
• Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus oncoprotein K13 protects against B cell receptor-induced growth arrest and apoptosis through NF-κB activation.
  Journal of virology 2012 Graham C, Matta H, Yang Y, Yi H, Suo Y, Tolani B, Chaudhary PM
• Kaposi's sarcoma associated herpesvirus encoded viral FLICE inhibitory protein K13 activates NF-κB pathway independent of TRAF6, TAK1 and LUBAC.
  PloS one 2012 Matta H, Gopalakrishnan R, Graham C, Tolani B, Khanna A, Yi H, Suo Y, Chaudhary PM