Nikita Bhalerao
nikitab.bsky.social
Nikita Bhalerao
@nikitab.bsky.social
Postdoc with Jason Pitarresi | Pancreas cancer and tumor-host metabolism researcher | UAB —> UMass Chan 🇮🇳🇺🇸
Pinned
I’m honored to be recognized with the Rising Star Award by The National Pancreas Foundation. Grateful to @umasschan.bsky.social for the feature and to all the colleagues, mentors, and friends for the support!
Reposted by Nikita Bhalerao
Now online in Cancer Discovery @aacrjournals.bsky.social: p21-Positive Senescent Stromal Cells Promote Prostate Cancer Immune Suppression & Progression that Can Be Reversed by Senolytic Therapy - by Lin Zhou, @marcus-ruscetti.bsky.social, and colleagues doi.org/10.1158/2159... @umasschan.bsky.social
October 28, 2025 at 3:00 PM
I’m honored to be recognized with the Rising Star Award by The National Pancreas Foundation. Grateful to @umasschan.bsky.social for the feature and to all the colleagues, mentors, and friends for the support!
October 25, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Reposted by Nikita Bhalerao
Whelp, I did not make the cut. Luckily, I have been given an amazing opportunity elsewhere; and who knows, maybe in a few years things there will be a similar position.

But maybe this is a good opportunity to talk about what it's like to apply for academic positions as a postdoc:
Whelp, fingers crossed: application submitted for my dream job!

A total of 42 pages for the application, an additional 106 pages for my most relevant papers; it's a doozy!
a cartoon character holding a stack of papers with the word intuitive in blue
Alt: a cartoon character holding a stack of papers, and dropping them on someone else's desk
media.tenor.com
October 1, 2025 at 10:53 AM
We have got a super cool story (you can say I’m a lil biased). If you’re attending, please feel free to share your feedback/insights/thoughts!
Excited for my talk tomorrow at the 8th Cancer Cachexia Conference meeting, where I will present our work showing that tumor derived PTHrP is a new driver of pancreatic cancer cachexia.

Check out our preprint for the full story:
biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

@cancercachexia.bsky.social
September 24, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Reposted by Nikita Bhalerao
Our department is recruiting a new tenure track Assistant/Associate Professor. Come join the #1 physiology department in the country and some awesome colleagues doing high impact science and training the next generation of scientists

jobs.sciencecareers.org/job/674815/a...
Assistant/Associate Professor - Tenure Track - Physiology - University of Michigan, Ann Arbor job with University of Michigan Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology | 674815
Tenure track assistant/associate professor in the Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology at the University of Michigan Medical School.
jobs.sciencecareers.org
August 28, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Honored to receive the Scholar-in-Training Award at #AACRpan25 and grateful for the support 🙏 Excited to meet old friends, make new ones and network with the amazing pancreas cancer community!
Congrats to postdoc @nikitab.bsky.social for winning the Margaret Foti @theaacr.bsky.social Scholar-in-Training Award for next month's Pancreatic AACR conference!

If you see her at the conference, be sure to ask her about her work on PDAC cachexia, bioRxiv link below!

biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
August 16, 2025 at 12:52 AM
Reposted by Nikita Bhalerao
Thanks Nature Cancer for the chance to reflect on some factors that led me to study cancer metabolism. For the trainees and other young scientists: the critical events that shape your career might not be obvious while they are happening. Keep an open mind and trust your instincts.

rdcu.be/evi4I
An unexpected career in cancer metabolism
Nature Cancer - Ralph DeBerardinis obtained an MD and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, then trained in Pediatrics and Medical Genetics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He moved...
rdcu.be
July 8, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Reposted by Nikita Bhalerao
Excited to share our new work in PDAC Cachexia. This work demonstrated that addition of factors like advanced age in murine models can uncover signatures that might have been obscured in other models.
Grateful for @jdoles.bsky.social ‘s mentorship and support!
Looking forward to all feedback :)
Cachexia is a devastating cancer comorbidity that impacts numerous cancer outcomes. In @jem.org, @aneedasgupta.bsky.social, @jdoles.bsky.social et al describe a novel metabolic pathway/target w/ clinical implications for the treatment of cachectic #PancreaticCancer rupress.org/jem/article/...
July 2, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by Nikita Bhalerao
I'm excited to share the lab’s new paper on PDAC-associated cachexia on bioRxiv today, led by star postdoc @nikitab.bsky.social

“Pancreatic cancer cachexia is mediated by PTHrP-driven disruption of adipose de novo lipogenesis”

A 🧵 below, if you are interested...

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
June 7, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Reposted by Nikita Bhalerao
Abstracts are due TOMORROW! Please share!
📢🚨Deadline to submit an abstract for the 2025 Showcase is this Friday, March 21st!📢🚨

Registration free!
Speakers chosen from abstracts and non-faculty only!
Amazing poster session and workshops!

Sign up today at: www.cancermetabolismshowcase.org
9:30 AM - 3 PM EST, May 5th and 6th, 2025
www.cancermetabolismshowcase.org
March 20, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Reposted by Nikita Bhalerao
Hi #metabolism #pancreaticcancer #lipidtime twitter! Excited to share @patrickjonker.bsky.social work on how the microenvironment limits the metabolic capacity of pancreatic cancers (PDAC), which sensitizes these tumors to dietary interventions. 1/17
Microenvironmental arginine restriction sensitizes pancreatic cancers to polyunsaturated fatty acids by suppression of lipid synthesis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.10.642426v1
March 14, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Reposted by Nikita Bhalerao
Bluetorial: Women, courage, and leadership

What follows will include some generalizations based on population averages of what I have experienced over the course of my career. There are, of course, exceptions in every group who are substantially more to one extreme or the other.
a cartoon says hey everybody an old man 's talking while bart simpson looks on
ALT: a cartoon says hey everybody an old man 's talking while bart simpson looks on
media.tenor.com
March 9, 2025 at 4:33 AM
Incredibly grateful for the support from @pitarresilab.bsky.social and PCA!
Congrats to postdoc in the lab @nikitab.bsky.social for being awarded a Pancreatic Cancer Alliance Postdoc Fellowship!!
January 29, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by Nikita Bhalerao
I’m really proud to announce the 2025 Cancer Metabolism Showcase and Workshop, May 5th and 6th, 9:30 AM - 3 PM EST. This year, our Keynote Speaker is Dr. Jeffrey Rathmell from VUMC.

I'm excited to come together, talk science, and support researchers in our field.

www.cancermetabolismshowcase.org
9:30 AM - 3 PM EST, May 5th and 6th, 2025
www.cancermetabolismshowcase.org
January 23, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Reposted by Nikita Bhalerao
Hi #immunosky @rafrancescone.bsky.social and I are looking for a postdoc candidate interested in immunology, with experience in flow cytometry, to run projects exploring mechanisms of immunosuppression in pancreatic cancer. Come to beautiful Michigan! Official announcement soon. DM us
November 30, 2024 at 3:56 PM
No better 1st post on this platform than this - the Pitarresi and Ruscetti labs at UMass Chan raising awareness on World Pancreas Cancer Day. Surely a long way to go but fueled by a singular purpose of defeating this deadly malignancy!
November 21, 2024 at 7:29 PM