Faculty

Constantinos Koumenis, Ph.D.

faculty photo
Richard H. Chamberlain Professor of Radiation Oncology
Department: Radiation Oncology

Contact information
University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine
3400 Civic Center Blvd., Bldg 421
Smilow Center for Translational Research, Room 8-124
Philadelphia, PA 19104-5156
Office: 215-898-0076
Fax: 215-898-0090
Lab: 215-898-0078
Education:
BS (Pharmacy with honors)
Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece, 1989.
PhD (Biochemistry)
University of Houston, Houston, Texas, 1994.
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Description of Research Expertise

KEYWORDS:
Tumor Microenvironment, Tumor Metabolism, Integrated Stress Response, drug screens, radiosensitizers.

RESEARCH INTERESTS: Develop novel, more physiologically relevant animal models of incidental radiation damage and employing novel radiation delivery technologies (such as FLASH RT) in order to develop biomarkers of response to RT and to improve the therapeutic window of RT.


My laboratory is primarily interested in two broad areas:

1. To understand the mechanisms by which components of the microenvironment (e.g. hypoxia, low nutrient availability) interact with cellular survival/apoptotic pathways to produce a more resistant tumor phenotype. Once we understand the regulation and function of these survival pathways, we then design cell-based and assays to screen small molecule libraries for compounds that inhibit these processes and test them alone or in combination with genotoxic agents in several animal tumor models.

2. To increase the therapeutic effectiveness of ionizing radiation (IR) by either employing existing compounds with relatively safe toxicity profiles or employ screening strategies to identify novel and potent radiation sensitizers. We are also interested in developing novel delivery approaches for such compounds, such as biocompatible nanoparticles.


ROTATION PROJECTS:
Currently the lab is accepting 2 new rotation students.

Selected Publications

1: Gregucci F, Spada S, Barcellos-Hoff MH, Bhardwaj N, Chan Wah Hak C, Fiorentino A, Guha C, Guzman ML, Harrington K, Herrera FG, Honeychurch J, reseHong T, Iturri L, Jaffee E, Karam SD, Knott SRV, Koumenis C, Lyden D, Marciscano AE, Melcher A, Mondini M, Mondino A, Morris ZS, Pitroda S, Quezada SA, Santambrogio L, Shiao S, Stagg J, Telarovic I, Timmerman R, Vozenin MC, Weichselbaum R, Welsh J, Wilkins A, Xu C, Zappasodi R, Zou W, Bobard A, Demaria S, Galluzzi L, Deutsch E, Formenti SC : Updates on radiotherapy-immunotherapy combinations: Proceedings of 6th annual ImmunoRad conference. Oncoimmunology Oncoimmunology 21(10 ), June 2023.

Tan HS, Teo KBK, Dong L, Friberg A, Koumenis C, Diffenderfer E, Zou JW.: Modeling ultra-high dose rate electron and proton FLASH effect with the physicochemical approach Phys Med Biol. 10(68): 14, July 2023.

Morral C, Ayyaz A, Kuo HC, Fink M, Verginadis I, Daniel AR, Burner DN, Driver LM, Satow S, Hasapis S, Ghinnagow R, Luo L, Ma Y, Attardi LD, Koumenis C, Minn AJ, Wrana JL, Lee CL, Kirsch DG : p53 promotes revival stem cells in the regenerating intestine after severe radiation injury. bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2023.04.27.538576. , april 2023.

Leli NM, Koumenis C. : A Novel Ubiquitin Complex Regulates Aneuploid Epithelial Tumors by Moderating an Integrated Stress Response Cancer Discov 1(13), March 2023.

Zhang D, Li AM, Hu G, Huang M, Yang F, Zhang L, Wellen KE, Xu X, Conn CS, Zou W, Kahn M, Rhoades SD, Weljie AM, Fuchs SY, Amankulor N, Yoshor D, Ye J, Koumenis C, Gong Y, Fan Y. : PHGDH-mediated endothelial metabolism drives glioblastoma resistance to chimeric antigen receptor T cell immunotherapy Cell Metab 35(3): 517-534, March 2023.

Verhaegen F, Butterworth KT, Chalmers AJ, Coppes RP, de Ruysscher D, Dobiasch S, Fenwick JD, Granton PV, Heijmans SHJ, Hill MA, Koumenis C, Lauber K, Marples B, Parodi K, Persoon LCGG, Staut N, Subiel A, Vaes RDW, van Hoof S, Verginadis IL, Wilkens JJ, Williams KJ, Wilson GD, Dubois LJ. : Roadmap for precision preclinical x-ray radiation studies Phys Med Biol 31(68): 6, March 2023.

Lu Z, Bae EA, Verginadis II, Zhang H, Cho C, McBrearty N, George SS, Diehl JA, Koumenis C, Bradley LM, Fuchs SY : Induction of the activating transcription factor-4 in the intratumoral CD8+ T cells sustains their viability and anti- tumor activities Cancer Immunol Immunother 72(4): 815-826, april 2023.

: Zhang H, Yu P, Tomar VS, Chen X, Atherton MJ, Lu Z, Zhang HG, Li S, Ortiz A, Gui J, Leu NA, Yan F, Blanco A, Meyer-Ficca ML, Meyer RG, Beiting DP, Li J, Nunez-Cruz S, O'Connor RS, Johnson LR, Minn AJ, George SS, Koumenis C, Diehl JA, Milone MC, Zheng H, Fuchs SY. : Targeting PARP11 to avert immunosuppression and improve CAR T therapy in solid tumors. Nat Cancer 3(7): 808-820, July 2022.

Verginadis II, Avgousti H, Monslow J, Skoufos G, Chinga F, Kim K, Leli NM, Karagounis IV, Bell BI, Velalopoulou A, Salinas CS, Wu VS, Li Y, Ye J, Scott DA, Osterman AL, Sengupta A, Weljie A, Huang M, Zhang D, Fan Y, Radaelli E, Tobias JW, Rambow F, Karras P, Marine JC, Xu X, Hatzigeorgiou AG, Ryeom S, Diehl JA, Fuchs SY, Puré E, Koumenis C. : . A stromal Integrated Stress Response activates perivascular cancer-associated fibroblasts to drive angiogenesis and tumour progression. Nat Cell Biol. 24(6): 940-953, June 2022.

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Last updated: 10/30/2023
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