Memorial Hospital Research Laboratories

The Kayvan Keshari Lab

Kayvan R. Keshari, PhD

Fred Lebow Chair at MSK

The goal of our research program is to improve our biochemical understanding of cancer metabolism and use metabolic changes to develop non-invasive methods for diagnosis as well as approaches to treat cancer. Our work takes advantage of multi-modality methods at all scales, with a special focus in hyperpolarized magnetic resonance, allowing us the ability to bring these approaches to the clinic.

View Lab Overview

Featured News

In the Lab

Fructose Could Play a Role in Targeting Leukemia

Leukemia cells metabolize fructose in a way that could make them easier to target with drugs.

Feature

New Imaging Technique Provides Snapshot of Brain Tumor Activity

A new imaging approach could shorten the time needed to determine whether a brain tumor treatment is working.

In the Clinic

Hyperpolarized MRI: A New Tool to Assess Treatment Response within Days

Hyperpolarized MRI could allow doctors to get a read on a tumor’s response to treatment quickly.

Publications Highlights

DeBerardinis, R. J., & Keshari, K. R. (2022). Metabolic analysis as a driver for discovery, diagnosis, and therapy. Cell, 185(15), 2678–2689. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2022.06.029

Tee, S. S., Kim, N., Cullen, Q., Eskandari, R., Mamakhanyan, A., Srouji, R. M., Chirayil, R., Jeong, S., Shakiba, M., Kastenhuber, E. R., Chen, S., Sigel, C., Lowe, S. W., Jarnagin, W. R., Thompson, C. B., Schietinger, A., & Keshari, K. R. (2022). Ketohexokinase-mediated fructose metabolism is lost in hepatocellular carcinoma and can be leveraged for metabolic imaging. Science advances, 8(14), eabm7985. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abm7985

Jeong, S., Savino, A. M., Chirayil, R., Barin, E., Cheng, Y., Park, S. M., Schurer, A., Mullarky, E., Cantley, L. C., Kharas, M. G., & Keshari, K. R. (2021). High Fructose Drives the Serine Synthesis Pathway in Acute Myeloid Leukemic Cells. Cell metabolism, 33(1), 145–159.e6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2020.12.005

Granlund, K. L., Tee, S. S., Vargas, H. A., Lyashchenko, S. K., Reznik, E., Fine, S., Laudone, V., Eastham, J. A., Touijer, K. A., Reuter, V. E., Gonen, M., Sosa, R. E., Nicholson, D., Guo, Y. W., Chen, A. P., Tropp, J., Robb, F., Hricak, H., & Keshari, K. R. (2020). Hyperpolarized MRI of Human Prostate Cancer Reveals Increased Lactate with Tumor Grade Driven by Monocarboxylate Transporter 1. Cell metabolism, 31(1), 105–114.e3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2019.08.024

Salamanca-Cardona, L., Shah, H., Poot, A. J., Correa, F. M., Di Gialleonardo, V., Lui, H., Miloushev, V. Z., Granlund, K. L., Tee, S. S., Cross, J. R., Thompson, C. B., & Keshari, K. R. (2017). In Vivo Imaging of Glutamine Metabolism to the Oncometabolite 2-Hydroxyglutarate in IDH1/2 Mutant Tumors. Cell metabolism, 26(6), 830–841.e3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2017.10.001

View All Publications

People

Kayvan R. Keshari, PhD

Fred Lebow Chair at MSK

Biochemist and Bioengineer Kayvan Keshari explores changes in cancer metabolism to develop advanced imaging techniques and cancer therapeutics.
BA, University of California, Berkeley
PhD, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

[email protected]: Email Address
View physician profile: Physician profile

Members

Marjan Berishaj
Senior Research Technician

Ross Boltyanskiy, PhD — Ross Boltyanskiy
Assistant Director- Imaging & Bioengineering Lead

Yolanda Bryce, MD — Yolanda Bryce
Assistant Attending

Elizabeth Coffee
Instructor, Neuro-Oncology

John Consiglio

Celia Martinez de la Torre
Research Scholar

Thasin Peyear

Graduate Student

Briana Turner

Graduate Student

Lab Alumni

Valentina Di Gialleonardo
Research Scholar

Alex Poot, PhD — Alex Poot
Research Fellow

Steven Truong
Graduate Research Assistant

Lab Affiliations

Achievements

NIH Pathway Independent Award 2012

Open Positions

To learn more about available postdoctoral opportunities, please visit our Career Center

To learn more about compensation and benefits for postdoctoral researchers at MSK, please visit Resources for Postdocs

Career Opportunities

Apply now

Get in Touch

[email protected]

Lab Head Email
@KeshariLab

Disclosures

Doctors and faculty members often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community.

MSK requires doctors and faculty members to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public.

Kayvan R. Keshari discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

Atish Technologies, Inc.
Equity; Intellectual Property Rights
GE Healthcare
Professional Services and Activities
Imaginostics, Inc.
Equity

Mi2 Holdings LLC
Equity; Professional Services and Activities (Uncompensated)
NVision Imaging Technologies GmbH
Equity; Professional Services and Activities

The information published here is a complement to other publicly reported data and is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.

This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2023 through disclosure submission in spring 2024). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.

Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at [email protected].

View all disclosures

Changing how the world understands and treats cancer

Training the next generation of clinicians and scientists

We’re here for you.

Make an appointment

Speak to a care advisor

We treat every type of cancer, including the most important one: yours.

Partner with us to treat your patient’s cancer.

CALL OUR DEDICATED CLINICIAN ACCESS NUMBER

Our mission: Ending cancer for life.

In the U.S.

Outside of the U.S.