Steven Bensinger, VMD, PhD

Dr. Steven Bensinger's laboratory is focused on understanding how lipid metabolism influences the growth of rapidly dividing normal and neoplastic tissues. They have recently identified a cholesterol metabolic checkpoint that regulates cell cycle progression in a wide variety of normal and cancer cells. Key ongoing studies include elucidating the regulatory networks that control lipid biosynthetic program in normal cells, and how these networks become dysregulated in cancer. Other important studies in the laboratory focus on understanding how lipid signals alter immune responses, resulting in basic immune dysfunction and autoimmune diseases.

Bensinger SJ, Christofk HR. New aspects of the Warburg effect in cancer cell biology. Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2012 Jun;23(4):352-61. Epub 2012 Mar 8

Frank MJ, Dawson DW, Bensinger SJ, Hong JS, Knosp WM, Xu L, Balatoni CE, Allen EL, Shen RR, Bar-Sagi D, Martin GR, Teitell MA. Expression of sprouty2 inhibits B-cell proliferation and is epigenetically silenced in mouse and human B-cell lymphomas. Blood. 2009 Mar 12;113(11):2478-87. Epub 2009 Jan 15

Guo D, Prins RM, Dang J, Kuga D, Iwanami A, Soto H, Lin KY, Huang TT, Akhavan D, Hock MB, Zhu S, Kofman AA, Bensinger SJ, Yong WH, Vinters HV, Horvath S, Watson AD, Kuhn JG, Robins HI, Mehta MP, Wen PY, DeAngelis LM, Prados MD, Mellinghoff IK, Cloughesy TF, Mischel PS. EGFR signaling through an Akt-SREBP-1-dependent, rapamycin-resistant pathway sensitizes glioblastomas to antilipogenic therapy. Sci Signal. 2009 Dec 15;2(101):ra82.

Bensinger SJ, Bradley MN, Joseph SB, Zelcer N, Janssen EM, Hausner MA, Shih R, Parks JS, Edwards PA, Jamieson BD, Tontonoz P. LXR signaling couples sterol metabolism to proliferation in the acquired immune response. Cell. 2008 Jul 11;134(1):97-111.

Bensinger SJ, Tontonoz P. Integration of metabolism and inflammation by lipid-activated nuclear receptors. Nature. 2008 Jul 24;454(7203):470-7.