Human Oncology & Pathogenesis Program

The A. Ari Hakimi Lab

Research

Ari Hakimi
A. Ari Hakimi, MD

The Hakimi Lab aims to understand immune infiltration, inflammation, and the tumor microenvironment in RCC to identify novel therapeutic targets to overcome resistance to systemic therapies. These studies apply bulk, single-cell and spatial RNA sequencing, flow cytometry, and immunogenomic analyses to both patient samples and novel, immunocompetent kidney cancer mouse lines that we have developed.

Current Projects:

  • Targeting myeloid populations in RCC
  • impact of obesity on immune response in RCC
  • Genetically engineered mouse models and cell lines of RCC
  • Immune response in non clear cell subtypes of RCC

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Hakimi Lab Members

Publications Highlights

Hakimi AA, Furberg H, Zabor EC, Jacobsen A, Schultz N, Ciriello G, Mikklineni N, Fiegoli B, Kim PH, Voss MH, Shen H, Laird PW, Sander C, Reuter VE, Motzer RJ, Hsieh JJ, Russo P. An epidemiologic and genomic investigation into the obesity paradox in renal cell carcinoma. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2013;105(24):1862-70. PMC3866155.

Hakimi AA, Reznik E, Lee CH, Creighton CJ, Brannon AR, Luna A, Aksoy BA, Liu EM, Shen R, Lee W, Chen Y, Stirdivant SM, Russo P, Chen YB, Tickoo SK, Reuter VE, Cheng EH, Sander C, Hsieh JJ. An integrated metabolic atlas of clear cell renal cell carcinoma. Cancer Cell. 2016; 29(1):104-116. PMC4809063.

Sanchez A, Furberg H, Kuo F, Vuong L, Ged Y, Patil S, Ostrovnaya I, Petruzella S, Reising A, Patel P, Mano R, Coleman J, Russo P, Liu CH, Dannenberg AJ, Chan TA, Motzer R, Voss MH, Hakimi AA. Transcriptomic signatures related to the obesity paradox in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma: a cohort study. Lancet Oncol. 2020; 21(2):283-293. PMC7082892.

Tang C, Xie AX, Liu EM, Kuo F, Kim M, DiNatale RG, Golkaram M, Chen YB, Gupta S, Motzer RJ, Russo P, Coleman J, Carlo MI, Voss MH, Kotecha RR, Lee CH, Tansey W, Schultz N, Hakimi AA*, Reznik E. mmunometabolic coevolution defines unique microenvironmental niches in ccRCC. Cell Metabolism. 2023 Jun 28:S1550-4131(23)00215-2. PMID 37413991 (*co–senior author).

Hakimi AA, Voss MD, Kuo F, Sanchez A, Liu M, Nixon BG, Vuong L, Ostrovnaya I, Chen YB, Reuter V, Riaz N, Cheng Y, Patel P, Marker M, Reising A, Li MO, Chan TA, Motzer R. Transcriptomic profiling of the tumor microenvironment reveals distinct subgroups of clear cell renal cell cancer - data from a randomized Phase III trial. Cancer Discov. 2019;9(4):510-525. PMC6697163.

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People

Ari Hakimi

A. Ari Hakimi, MD

  • Physician-Scientist A. Ari Hakimi, MD studies genetic and metabolic mechanisms of immune response in kidney cancers.
hakimia@mskcc.org
Email Address
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Physician profile

Members

Doris Zheng
Doris Zheng
Senior Research Technician
Lynda Vuong
Scientific Research Lead
Daniel Barbakoff
Medical Student
Lina Posada Calderon
Lina Posada Calderon
Urology Fellow
Siqi Chen
Siqi Chen
Senior Research Scientist
Hui Jiang
Research Associate
Yash Khandwala
Research Fellow
Fengshen (David) Kuo
Bioinformatics Software Engineer
Andrea Lopez-Sanmiguel
Graduate Research Assistant
Amrita (Nargund) Mangalvedhekar
Scientific Research Lead
Nicole Rittenhouse
Research Technician
Zizhuo Yang
Zizhuo Yang
Graduate Research Assistant

Open Positions

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Disclosures

Members of the MSK Community 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. These activities outside of MSK further our mission, provide productive collaborations, and promote the practical application of scientific discoveries.

MSK requires doctors, faculty members, and leaders 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. Not all disclosed interests and relationships present conflicts of interest. MSK reviews all disclosed interests and relationships to assess whether a conflict of interest exists and whether formal COI management is needed.

A. Ari Hakimi discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

  • Merck & Co Inc.
    Professional Services and Activities (Uncompensated)

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, 2024 through disclosure submission in spring 2025). 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 ecoi@mskcc.org.


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