The Venkatesh Lab

Congrats to @lexifranklin39.bsky.social for her Top Poster Presentation Award in Neurobiology at the 2026 Cancer Neuroscience Symposium sponsored by MD Anderson Cancer Center. Way to go Lexi, excellent work!

@mdanderson.bsky.social @mgbresearch.bsky.social

So proud of Rachel Davis who was awarded the Young Investigator Award at the Cancer Neuroscience Symposium 2026 sponsored by MD Anderson's Cancer Neuroscience Program.

Congrats Rachel!

@mdanderson.bsky.social @mgbresearch.bsky.social

The Venkatesh lab is looking for a junior technician to join us this summer. If you are interested in working in cancer neuroscience, check out the job description below and see if it is a good fit for your goals!

www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...

Humans of HBI - Hannah Farnsworth Hannah's research aims to uncover how brain tumors integrate into neural networks and influence cognitive processes such as learning and behavior.

Meet Hannah Farnsworth on #HumansofHBI
brain.harvard.edu/hbi_humans/h...

@venkatesh-lab.bsky.social

Submit an abstract by January 12 for the AACR Special Conference on Brain Cancer (March 23-25, 2026; Philadelphia), chaired by Stephen J. Bagley, Michelle Monje, and Mario L. Suva. Learn more:
buff.ly/9MkKUbq
#AACRbrain26 @michellemonje.bsky.social

Happy to have one of our amazing grad students, Hannah Farnsworth, featured in @harvardbrainsci.bsky.social 's #HumansofHBI. You can check out the article here and learn more about Hannah's work in the lab!

brain.harvard.edu/hbi_humans/h...

📢 Registration (free!) for the NCI webinar series 'Fueling Cancer Progression by the Nervous System' is open!

🧠🔬 Amongst many excellent speakers, Frank Winkler and @venkatesh-lab.bsky.social discuss #cancerneuroscience of #brainmetastasis

📅 6 exciting topics are covered by leaders in the field 💡!

Happy Halloween from the Venkatesh Lab! @mgbresearch.bsky.social

Venkatesh Lab Fall Outing -- Apple Picking!

Big thanks to @mgbresearch.bsky.social for featuring our lab's first paper.

Exciting time to be in Cancer Neuroscience! Thank you to The Transmitter for featuring our lab's work.

Please join us on 10/3 at 3pm at the Shaw-Roxbury Branch of the @bpl.boston.gov! All ages welcome!

Great to see all our student's shine at the @cshlnews.bsky.social's Biology of Cancer: Microenvironment & Metastasis meeting! Props to Rachel Davis & Hannah Farnsworth for a job well done on their poster presentations. Very proud of all our hardworking future PhDs!

Wired for growth: neuron–tumour signalling in the lung and brain increases growth of a hard-to-treat cancer Signalling between neurons and tumour cells in the lung and brain promotes the growth of small-cell lung cancer. These interactions might be a therapeutic target.

Signalling between neurons and tumour cells in the lung and brain promotes the growth of small-cell lung cancer

go.nature.com/4gzoMmI

So proud of Lexi Franklin, who delivered an outstanding talk at @cshlnews.bsky.social’s Biology of Cancer: Microenvironment & Metastasis meeting yesterday! Keep an eye out for more exciting work from our lab, Rachel Davis and Hannah Farnsworth will be presenting their posters soon!

Grateful for generous support from
The Charles Hood Foundation
The Sontag Foundation
The ChadTough Foundation

Functional synapses between neurons and small cell lung cancer - Nature Small cell lung cancer cells form functional synapses with glutamatergic neurons, receiving synaptic transmissions and deriving a proliferative advantage from these interactions.

Happy to share that fantastic, complementary studies done by Filippo Beleggia and Christian Reinhardt similarly found SCLC cells utilize glutamatergic signaling to promote tumor growth www.nature.com/articles/s41...

In an effort to drive our work towards clinical translation, we treated SCLC brain allografts with Levetiracetam, and observed a decrease in tumor proliferation and tumor volume, highlighting the potential of therapeutic targeting neuron-SCLC interactions.

SCLC cells exhibit a reciprocal effect on neurons and contribute to their hyperexcitability, further driving neuron-SCLC interactions.

Direct SCLC cell membrane depolarization is sufficient to promote the growth of SCLC tumors.

#SCLC cells in the brain co-opt neuronal activity-regulated mechanisms to promote growth and progression. Optogenetic stimulation of cortical neuronal activity via both glutamatergic and GABAergic circuits drives proliferation and invasion of SCLC.

In collaboration with the phenomenal electrophysiologist Wengang Wang and Bernardo Sabatini we demonstrate that SCLC cells exhibit electrical currents and consequent calcium transients in response to neuronal activity.

Using SCLC brain allograft model, we discover bona fide neuron-to-synapses SCLC, for the first time for tumors of non-CNS origin.

We demonstrate that a population of #SCLC cells upregulates synaptic genes when exposed to neurons in activity-dependent manner. With @BizarMd team we further show overexpression of synaptic signature in patients with SCLC #brain metastasis compared to #SCLC lesions outside the brain.

We found #vagus nerve transection starkly inhibits primary SCLC tumor formation in the lung, highlighting a critical role for innervation in SCLC initiation & progression. Shout out to pulmonary biologists Yin Liu & Mark Krasnow, and SCLC experts @juliensage.bsky.social and Fangfei Qu!

Neurons and nerves regulate progression of several tumor types both in and outside of the central nervous system, but the extent to which the nervous system regulates lung cancer progression, either in the lung or when metastatic to brain, had yet to be explored.

This 6-year effort was co-led by Sol Savchuck (@stanfordmedicine.bsky.social & @mgbneurosurgres.bsky.social) and Kaylee Gentry @itsybitsyfitc.bsky.social (@mgbresearch.bsky.social Neurology). Tweetorial written by Sol Savchuck!

Neuronal activity-dependent mechanisms of small cell lung cancer pathogenesis - Nature Glutamatergic and GABAergic (γ-aminobutyric acid-producing) cortical neuronal activity drives proliferation of small lung cell cancer via paracrine interactions and through synapses formed with tumour...

We are excited to share the Venkatesh Lab’s first publication in collaboration with @michellemonje.bsky.social team uncovering how neuronal activity influences the progression of small cell lung cancer #SCLC in the lung and brain. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Neuronal activity-dependent mechanisms of small cell lung cancer pathogenesis - Nature Glutamatergic and GABAergic (γ-aminobutyric acid-producing) cortical neuronal activity drives proliferation of small lung cell cancer via paracrine interactions and through synapses formed with tumour...

Check out the Venkatesh lab's new paper in Nature, where we uncover how neural activity drives small cell lung cancer (SCLC) progression. Grateful to my PI Humsa Venkatesh, my co-first author Solomiia Savchuk, & a huge thanks to all the incredible co-authors.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The cancer hijacking story expands.....
2 new reports of small cell lung cancer provide evidence for hijacking of neurons, formation of synapses, to promote tumor growth. May help to come up with therapies for this very aggressive, fatal form of cancer
www.nature.com/articles/s41...