Kathleen McAndrews, Ph.D.
Department of Cancer Biology, Division of Discovery Science
Present Title & Affiliation
Dual/Joint/Adjunct Appointment
Assistant Professor, Cancer Biology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2015 | Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, US, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Ph.D |
| 2010 | University of Nevada Reno, Reno, Nevada, US, Chemical Engineering, BS |
Postgraduate Training
| 2015-2022 | Postdoctoral Fellowship, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas |
Experience & Service
Faculty Academic Appointments
Instructor, Cancer Biology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, 2022 - 2024
Intramural Institutional Committee Activities
Member, Ahmed Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research Translational Research Leadership Group, UT MD Anderson, 2026 - Present
Extramural Institutional Committee Activities
Member, AAEV 2025 Scientific Program Committee, American Association of Extracellular Vesicles, 2025 - 2025
Co-chair, American Association of Extracellular Vesicles 2023 Annual Meeting Planning Committee, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2023
Trainee representative, Education and Training Internal Advisory Board, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2022 - 2023
Program coordinator, postdoctoral trainees, American Association of Extracellular Vesicles, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2021 - Present
Committee member, Breakthroughs Advisory Council, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2021 - Present
Member, NCI Tumor Microenvironment Network Junior Investigator Meeting Planning Committee, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2016
Editorial Activities
Editorial board member, Extracellular Vesicle, 2022 - Present
Honors & Awards
| 2015 | Georgia Tech Career, Research, and Innovation Development Conference Travel Award |
| 2011 | Georgia Tech ChBE Exemplary Academic Achievement Award |
Professional Memberships
Grant & Contract Support
| Date: | 2026 - 2031 |
| Title: | Dissecting the role of extracellular vesicles and matrix in wound healing |
| Funding Source: | NIGMS |
| Role: | PI |
| ID: | R35GM165366 |
| Date: | 2025 - 2027 |
| Title: | Shelby Lavine Pancreatic Scholar Program |
| Funding Source: | Ahmed Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research |
| Role: | PI |
| Date: | 2025 - 2027 |
| Title: | Dilip Mullick Early Career Scholar in Basic Pancreatic Cancer Research |
| Funding Source: | Mrs. Mona Mullick and the Mullick Foundation |
| Role: | PI |
| Date: | 2024 - 2026 |
| Title: | Unraveling the functional contribution of extracellular vesicles in pancreatic cancer |
| Funding Source: | NCI |
| Role: | PI |
| ID: | K22CA276360 |
| Date: | 2021 - 2023 |
| Title: | Ergon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship |
| Funding Source: | Ergon Foundation |
| Role: | PI |
| Date: | 2011 - 2013 |
| Title: | Cell and Tissue Engineering Biotechnology Training Program |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NIGMS |
| Role: | Key |
| ID: | T32GM008433 |
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- McAndrews KM, Mahadevan KK, Li B, Comptdaer AM, Sockwell AM, Morse SJ, Kelly PJ, Patel SI, Kirtley ML, Moreno Diaz BA, Lyu H, Peng DH, Khazaei S, Schalck A, Zhou X, Sugimoto H, Bickert AA, Sthanam LK, Taylor MR, Kumbhar SV, Arian KA, Barekatain Y, Paradiso F, Guerrero PA, Bernard V, Sobhani N, Camacho-Acevedo AN, Bornes KE, Tran PT, Maitra A, Heffernan TP, Kalluri R. CDK8 remodels the tumor microenvironment and promotes resistance to KRASG12D inhibitors and daraxonrasib in PDAC. EMBO J, 2026. e-Pub 2026. PMID: 42436354.
- McAndrews, KM, Paradiso, F, Stalnecker, CA, Chellakkan Selvanesan, B, Thege, F, Peng, D, Moreno Diaz, BA, Sugimoto, H, Patel, SI, Mahadevan, KK, Kirtley, ML, Wills, D, Sockwell, AM, Fonseca, AF, Liu, Y, Rajapakshe, K, Yee, N, Tran, PT, Omar, HA, Tedeschi, A, Schischlik-Siegl, F, Boghossian, AS, Rees, MG, Ronan, MM, Roth, JA, Rudolph, D, Aichinger, M, Ebner, F, Artemov, AV, Lipp, J, Pisarsky, L, Herrmann, VL, Park, JE, Rippmann, JF, Schaaf, O, Chandler, V, Williams, M, Deckard, CE, Wang, L, Der, CJ, Vellano, CP, Guerrero, PA, Heffernan, TP, Kalluri, R, Maitra, A. An allele-agnostic mutant-KRAS inhibitor suppresses tumor maintenance signals and reprograms tumor immunity in pancreatic cancer. Science translational medicine 17(814), 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 40901924.
- Luo X, McAndrews KM, Arian KA, Morse SJ, Boeker V, Kumbhar SV, Hu Y, Mahadevan KK, Church KA, Chitta S, Ryujin NT, Hensel J, Dai J, Dowlatshahi DP, Sugimoto H, Kirtley ML, LeBleu VS, Shalapour S, Simmons JH, Kalluri R. Development of an engineered extracellular vesicles-based vaccine platform for combined delivery of mRNA and protein to induce functional immunity. J Control Release 374:550-562, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 39146981.
- Mahadevan, KK, McAndrews, KM, LeBleu, V, Yang, S, Lyu, H, Li, B, Sockwell, AM, Kirtley, ML, Morse, SJ, Moreno Diaz, BA, Kim, M, Feng, N, Lopez, AM, Guerrero, PA, Paradiso, F, Sugimoto, H, Arian, KA, Ying, H, Barekatain, Y, Sthanam, LK, Kelly, PJ, Maitra, A, Heffernan, TP, Kalluri, R. KRASG12D inhibition reprograms the microenvironment of early and advanced pancreatic cancer to promote FAS-mediated killing by CD8+ T cells. Cancer cell 41(9):1606-1620.e8, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37625401.
- McAndrews KM, Chen Y, Darpolor JK, Zheng X, Yang S, Carstens JL, Li B, Wang H, Miyake T, Correa de Sampaio P, Kirtley ML, Natale M, Wu CC, Sugimoto H, LeBleu VS, Kalluri R. Identification of Functional Heterogeneity of Carcinoma-Associated Fibroblasts with Distinct IL6-Mediated Therapy Resistance in Pancreatic Cancer. Cancer Discov 12(6):1580-1597, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35348629.
- McAndrews KM, Miyake T, Ehsanipour EA, Kelly PJ, Becker LM, McGrail DJ, Sugimoto H, LeBleu VS, Ge Y, Kalluri R. Dermal αSMA+ myofibroblasts orchestrate skin wound repair via β1 integrin and independent of type I collagen production. EMBO J 41(7):e109470, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35212000.
- El-Shennawy L, Hoffmann AD, Dashzeveg NK, McAndrews KM, Mehl PJ, Cornish D, Yu Z, Tokars VL, Nicolaescu V, Tomatsidou A, Mao C, Felicelli CJ, Tsai CF, Ostiguin C, Jia Y, Li L, Furlong K, Wysocki J, Luo X, Ruivo CF, Batlle D, Hope TJ, Shen Y, Chae YK, Zhang H, LeBleu VS, Shi T, Swaminathan S, Luo Y, Missiakas D, Randall GC, Demonbreun AR, Ison MG, Kalluri R, Fang D, Liu H. Circulating ACE2-expressing extracellular vesicles block broad strains of SARS-CoV-2. Nat Commun 13(1):405, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35058437.
- McAndrews KM, Xiao F, Chronopoulos A, LeBleu VS, Kugeratski FG, Kalluri R. Exosome-mediated delivery of CRISPR/Cas9 for targeting of oncogenic KrasG12D in pancreatic cancer. Life Sci Alliance 4(9), 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 34282051.
- McAndrews KM, Vázquez-Arreguín K, Kwak C, Sugimoto H, Zheng X, Li B, Kirtley ML, LeBleu VS, Kalluri R. αSMA+ fibroblasts suppress Lgr5+ cancer stem cells and restrain colorectal cancer progression. Oncogene 40(26):4440-4452, 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 34108617.
- McAndrews KM, Che SPY, LeBleu VS, Kalluri R. Effective delivery of STING agonist using exosomes suppresses tumor growth and enhances antitumor immunity. J Biol Chem 296:100523, 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 33711340.
- Hensel J, McAndrews KM, McGrail DJ, Dowlatshahi DP, LeBleu VS, Kalluri R. Protection against SARS-CoV-2 by BCG vaccination is not supported by epidemiological analyses. Sci Rep 10(1):18377, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 33110184.
- McAndrews KM, Dowlatshahi DP, Dai J, Becker LM, Hensel J, Snowden LM, Leveille JM, Brunner MR, Holden KW, Hopkins NS, Harris AM, Kumpati J, Whitt MA, Lee JJ, Ostrosky-Zeichner LL, Papanna R, LeBleu VS, Allison JP, Kalluri R. Heterogeneous antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor binding domain and nucleocapsid with implications for COVID-19 immunity. JCI Insight 5(18), 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32796155.
- McAndrews KM, McGrail DJ, Ravikumar N, Dawson MR. Mesenchymal Stem Cells Induce Directional Migration of Invasive Breast Cancer Cells through TGF-β. Sci Rep 5:16941, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26585689.
- McAndrews KM, Yi J, McGrail DJ, Dawson MR. Enhanced Adhesion of Stromal Cells to Invasive Cancer Cells Regulated by Cadherin 11. ACS Chem Biol 10(8):1932-8, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26046821.
- McAndrews KM, Kim MJ, Lam TY, McGrail DJ, Dawson MR. Architectural and mechanical cues direct mesenchymal stem cell interactions with crosslinked gelatin scaffolds. Tissue Eng Part A 20(23-24):3252-60, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 24873687.
- McAndrews KM, McGrail DJ, Quach ND, Dawson MR. Spatially coordinated changes in intracellular rheology and extracellular force exertion during mesenchymal stem cell differentiation. Phys Biol 11(5):056004, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 25156989.
Review Articles
- Kalluri, R, McAndrews, KM. The role of extracellular vesicles in cancer. Cell 186(8):1610-1626, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37059067.
- McAndrews KM, Kalluri R. Mechanisms associated with biogenesis of exosomes in cancer. Mol Cancer 18(1):52, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 30925917.
Editorials
- McAndrews KM. Oncogenic KRAS Promotes Extracellular DNA Clearance to Drive Immunosuppression in Colorectal Cancer. Cancer Res 86(14):3371–3373, 2026. PMID: 42452977.
- McAndrews KM, Chen Y, Kalluri R. Stromal Cells Exhibit Prevalent Genetic Aberrations in Colorectal Cancer. Cancer Cell 38(6):774-775, 2020. PMID: 33321084.
- McAndrews KM, Kalluri R. A map of human breast cancer: new players in stromal-immune crosstalk. EMBO J 39(19):e106368, 2020. PMID: 32909627.
- McAndrews KM, LeBleu VS, Kalluri R. SIRT1 Regulates Lysosome Function and Exosome Secretion. Dev Cell 49(3):302-303, 2019. PMID: 31063745.
- McAndrews KM, Kalluri R. Nischarin Regulates Secretion of Exosomes and Cancer Progression. Cancer Res 79(9):2099-2101, 2019. PMID: 31043427.
Book Chapters
- McAndrews, KM, Mahadevan, KK, Kalluri, R. Mouse Models to Evaluate the Functional Role of the Tumor Microenvironment in Cancer Progression and Therapy Responses. In: Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine, 2024.
- Dawson MR, Tseng Y, Lee JSH, McAndrews KM. Intracellular particle tracking rheology. In: Handbook on imaging in biological mechanics. CRC Press, 377-384, 2014.
Patient Reviews
CV information above last modified August 31, 2026