#  Sahar Nissim 

Assistant Professor

 

 

 



   ![nissim_sahar.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum5321/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/bbsphd/files/nissim_sahar.jpg?itok=Y-YSki1g) 

 



 

 location\_on Brigham and Women's HospitalNew Research Building, Room 45877 Ave Louis PasteurBoston, MA 02115 

 email <snissim@bwh.harvard.edu> 

 laptop\_windows [Lab Website](https://nissimlab.org) 

 laptop\_windows [Publications](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1fC8hH7ueqf5f/bibliography/public/) 

 

 



 

Fundamental questions remain unanswered about pancreas biology and the earliest processes that lead to pancreatic cancer, including:

• What are the transcription factor networks and epigenetic barriers that maintain normal cell identity in the exocrine pancreas?  
• How is cell identity destabilized by an oncogenic Kras mutation, inflammation, or obesity to promote cancer?  
• How is “memory” of prior inflammation encoded in cells to enhance cancer potential?  
• How do these perturbations reprogram the pancreas microenvironment to promote immune evasion?  
• How do these perturbations dysregulate endocrine populations to promote diabetes, cachexia, and other metabolic disturbances seen with pancreatic cancer?  
• And, can we target these events to pioneer an interception strategy for pancreatic cancer?

The Nissim lab seeks to answer these questions using cutting-edge methodologies including single-cell and spatial transcriptomics and epigenomics in mouse models and patient samples, CRISPR-mediated somatic engineering in vivo, gene discovery in hereditary cancer families seen at DFCI, and human acinar cell cultures.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers, and treatment options including immunotherapy remain notoriously ineffective. The Nissim lab seeks to understand the signaling and epigenetic changes occurring in the earliest stages of cancer initiation in order to pioneer an interception strategy for pancreatic cancer. Cancer interception seeks to actively interfere with the earliest events in cancer development in order to prevent progression to more heterogeneous and intractable disease. Interception strategies have yet to be identified for most cancers and would be transformative for how we manage cancer.

The Nissim lab is a young and vibrant team located in the state-of-the-art New Research Building in the Harvard Medical School campus. The lab is also part of the Hale Family Pancreatic Cancer Research Center at Dana-Farber, a lively community of investigators with diverse interests for collaborative projects on pancreatic cancer (<https://halecenter.dfci.harvard.edu/>), and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Division of Genetics.



 

 

 





 

 

- ## Program Affiliation
    
     [Genetics](/bbs-faculty/genetics)
- ## People
    
     [Faculty](/people/faculty)
- ## Location
    
     [Brigham and Women's Hospital](/location/brigham-and-womens-hospital)