Ben Z. Stanger, MD, PhD
Hanna Wise Professor in Cancer Research
Department: Medicine
Graduate Group Affiliations
Contact information
Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute
Division of Gastroenterology
Department of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
512 Biomedical Research Bldg II/III (Office)
527 Biomedical Research Bldg II/III (Lab)
421 Curie Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Division of Gastroenterology
Department of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
512 Biomedical Research Bldg II/III (Office)
527 Biomedical Research Bldg II/III (Lab)
421 Curie Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Publications
Links
Search PubMed for articles
Ben's personal (author) website
CAMB website
Division of Gastroenterology website
Penn Pancreatic Cancer Research Center
Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute
Search PubMed for articles
Ben's personal (author) website
CAMB website
Division of Gastroenterology website
Penn Pancreatic Cancer Research Center
Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute
Education:
SB (Life Sciences)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1988.
MD (Medicine)
Harvard Medical School, 1997.
PhD (Genetics)
Harvard Medical School, 1997.
Permanent linkSB (Life Sciences)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1988.
MD (Medicine)
Harvard Medical School, 1997.
PhD (Genetics)
Harvard Medical School, 1997.
Description of Research Expertise
Research InterestsCellular Plasticity
Pancreatic Cancer
Tumor Immunology
Metastasis
Key words: Pancreatic Cancer, Tumor Immunology, Cell Plasticity
Description of Research
Pancreas Cancer
Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is poised to become the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States. This poor outcome is attributable to two facts: (1) pancreatic cancers metastasize early, before clinical detection, and (2) current anti-cancer therapies are inadequate. Our laboratory tackles these problems by understanding how tumors evolve and identifying vulnerabilities that will lead to better therapies. Our efforts include studies of the tumor microenvironment (with a focus on immune cells), metabolism, cellular plasticity and metastasis biology. We rely on genetically engineered mice that recapitulate salient features of the human disease, functional genomics, epigenetics, and human samples.
Rotation Projects
Please contact Dr. Stanger directly to discuss potential projects. We currently have NO open postdoctoral positions.
Lab personnel:
Ben Stanger, MD, PhD - Principal Investigator
Lily Watson - Lab Manager
Sean O'Connor - Research Coordinator
Austin Good, MD PhD - Postdoctoral Researcher
Cole Edwards, PhD - Postdoctoral Researcher
Feiyan Mo, PhD - Postdoctoral Researcher
Minh Than, MD PhD - Postdoctoral Researcher
Erin Hollander - Post-Graduate Student
Benjamin Kahn – Post-Graduate Student
Margo Orlen - Post-Graduate Student
Noah Cheng - Graduate Student
Jayne McDevitt - Graduate Student
William Sullivan - Graduate Student
Jane Xie - Graduate Student
Misha Gujja - Penn Undergraduate
Shreya Nair - Penn Undergraduate
Executive Administrator:
Fran Tucker
ftucker@upenn.edu
Selected Publications
Than MT, Stanger BZ: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: the Everest of cancer biology. J Clin Invest 135(14): e191936, Jul 2025.Orlen MI, Vostrejs WP, Sor R, McDevitt JC, Kemp SB, Kim IK, Kramer AB, Tovbis Shifrin N, Markosyan N, Clendenin C, Singh M, Quintana E, Menard M, Vonderheide RH, Stanger BZ: T-cell dependency of tumor regressions and complete responses with RAS(ON) multi-selective inhibition in preclinical models of PDAC. Cancer Discov 15(8): 1697-1716, Aug 2025.
Kahn BM, Ng RWS, Kim IK, Eskandarian C, Chen CO, Huang B, Lucas A, Li L, Maillard I, Stanger BZ: Intrinsic properties of the lymph node render it immunologically susceptible to metastasis. Cancer Discov 15(9): 1949-1968, Sep 2025.
Katsuda T, Sussman JH, Ito K, Katznelson A, Yuan S, Takenaka N, Li J, Merrell AJ, Cure H, Li Q, Rasool RU, Asangani IA, Zaret KS, Stanger BZ: Cellular reprogramming in vivo initiated by SOX4 pioneer factor activity. Nat Commun 15(1): 1761, Feb 2024.
Kim I-K, Diamond MS, Yuan S, Kemp SB, Kahn BM, Li Q, Lin JH, Li J, Norgard RJ, Thomas SK, Merolle M, Katsuda T, Tobias JW, Baslan T, Politi K, Vonderheide RH, Stanger BZ: Plasticity-induced repression of Irf6 underlies acquired resistance to cancer immunotherapy in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Nat Commun 15(1): 1532, Feb 2024.
Kemp SB, Cheng N, Markosyan N, Sor R, Kim I-K, Hallin J, Shoush J, Quinones L, Brown NV, Bassett JB, Joshi N, Yuan S, Smith M, Vostrejs WP, Perez-Vale KZ, Kahn B, Mo F, Donahue TR, Radu CG, Clendenin C, Christensen JG, Vonderheide RH, Stanger BZ: Efficacy of a small molecule inhibitor of KrasG12D in immunocompetent models of pancreatic cancer. Cancer Discov 13(2): 298-311, Feb 2023.
Maddipati R, Norgard RJ, Baslan T, Rathi KS, Zhang A, Saeid A, Higashihara T, Wu F, Kumar A, Annamalai V, Bhattacharya S, Raman P, Adkisson CA, Pitarresi JR, Wengyn MD, Yamazoe T, Millstein ID, Bermeo J, Carpenter EL, McAuliffe, Oktay MH, Brekken RA, Lowe SW, lacobuzio-Donahue CA, Notta F, Stanger BZ.: MYC levels regulate metastatic heterogeneity in pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Cancer Discov 12(2): 542-561, Feb 2022.
Li J, Stanger BZ: The tumor as organizer model. Science 363(6431): 1038-1039, Mar 2019.
Ben Stanger: From One Cell: A Journey into Life's Origins and the Future of Medicine. W.W. Norton Aug 2023.