Memorial Hospital Research Laboratories

The Kayvan Keshari Lab

Kayvan R. Keshari, PhD

Fred Lebow Chair at MSK

The goal of our research program is to improve our biochemical understanding of cancer metabolism and use metabolic changes to develop non-invasive methods for diagnosis as well as approaches to treat cancer. Our work takes advantage of multi-modality methods at all scales, with a special focus in hyperpolarized magnetic resonance, allowing us the ability to bring these approaches to the clinic.

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Featured News

In the Lab

MSK Biochemist and bioengineer Dr. Kayvan Keshari

Retooled Immune Cells Use Fructose to Turbocharge Themselves Against Cancer

Learn how engineering immune cells to metabolize fructose could supercharge them to fight cancer.

In the Lab

Fructose Could Play a Role in Targeting Leukemia

Leukemia cells metabolize fructose in a way that could make them easier to target with drugs.

Feature

New Imaging Technique Provides Snapshot of Brain Tumor Activity

A new imaging approach could shorten the time needed to determine whether a brain tumor treatment is working.

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Publications Highlights

Schild T, Wallisch P, Zhao Y, Wang YT, Haughton L, Chirayil R, Pierpont K, Chen K, Nunes-Violante S, Cross J, de Stanchina E, Thompson CB, Scheinberg DA, Perry JSA, Keshari KR. (2025) Metabolic engineering to facilitate anti-tumor immunity Cancer Cell. Mar 10;43(3):552-562.e9. doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2025.02.004.

Patel S, Porcari P, Coffee E, Kim N, Berishaj M, Peyear T, Zhang G, Keshari KR. (2024) Simultaneous noninvasive quantification of redox and downstream glycolytic fluxes reveals compartmentalized brain metabolism. Science Advances Dec 20;10(51):eadr2058. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adr2058.

Marin-Valencia I, Kocabas A, Rodriguez-Navas C, Miloushev VZ, González-Rodríguez M, Lees H, Henry KE, Vaynshteyn J, Longo V, Deh K, Eskandari R, Mamakhanyan A, Berishaj M, Keshari KR. (2024) Imaging brain glucose metabolism in vivo reveals propionate as a major anaplerotic substrate in pyruvate dehydrogenase deficiency Cell Metabolism Jun 4;36(6):1394-1410.e12. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2024.05.002

Keshari KR, Heller DA, Boltyanskiy R, Hricak H, Magaldi T, Overholtzer M. Engineering focusing on cancer. (2024) Cancer Cell Jul 8;42(7):1138-1141. doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2024.04.013.

Pigliapochi R, Peyear T, Ruan T, Keshari KR. (2024) Hyperpolarized Nano-NMR Platform for Quantification of Mass Limited Samples. Analytical Chemistry. Jul 22:10.1021/acs.analchem.4c02378. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.4c02378

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People

Kayvan R. Keshari, PhD

Fred Lebow Chair at MSK

Biochemist and Bioengineer Kayvan Keshari explores changes in cancer metabolism to develop advanced imaging techniques and cancer therapeutics.
BA, University of California, Berkeley
PhD, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

rahimikk@mskcc.org: Email Address
View physician profile: Physician profile

Members

Marjan Berishaj
Senior Research Technician

Ross Boltyanskiy, PhD — Ross Boltyanskiy
Assistant Director- Imaging & Bioengineering Lead

Elizabeth Coffee
Instructor, Neuro-Oncology

John Consiglio

Engineering Specialist

Celia Martinez de la Torre
Research Scholar

Thasin Peyear

Graduate Student

Roberta Pigliapochi
Senior Research Scientist

Aisha Pintor

Project Coordinator

Briana Turner

Graduate Student

Lab Alumni

Yolanda Bryce, MD — Yolanda Bryce
Assistant Attending

Valentina Di Gialleonardo
Research Scholar

Alex Poot, PhD — Alex Poot
Research Fellow

Steven Truong
Graduate Research Assistant

Lab Affiliations

Achievements

2012 Pathway Independent Award
2012 Junior Fellow, International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
2019 NIH Rising Stars
2020 Distinguished Investigator, American Academy of Radiology and Biomedical Research
2024 Fellow, World Molecular Imaging Society

2025 Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering

Open Positions

To learn more about available postdoctoral opportunities, please visit our Career Center

To learn more about compensation and benefits for postdoctoral researchers at MSK, please visit Resources for Postdocs

Career Opportunities

Apply now

Get in Touch

rahimikk@mskcc.org

Lab Head Email
@KeshariLab

Disclosures

Doctors and faculty members 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.

MSK requires doctors and faculty members 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.

Kayvan R. Keshari discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

Atish Technologies, Inc.
Equity; Intellectual Property Rights
GE Healthcare
Professional Services and Activities
Imaginostics, Inc.
Equity

Mi2 Holdings LLC
Equity; Professional Services and Activities (Uncompensated)
NVision Imaging Technologies GmbH
Equity; Professional Services and Activities

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, 2023 through disclosure submission in spring 2024). 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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