Abhinav K. Jain, Ph.D.
Department of Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis, Division of Discovery Science
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Associate Professor, Department of Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis, Division of Discovery Science, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Dual/Joint/Adjunct Appointment
Associate Member, GSBS, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX
Member, Graduate Program in Genetics & Epigenetics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX
Research Interests
Advances in genomic studies in recent years reveal that a majority of our genome previously considered as ‘junk DNA’ consists of regulatory elements that control gene expression, and produce numerous long non-coding transcripts (lncRNAs) that regulate a variety of biological processes. Our long-term research goals are to identify the factors (proteins or non-coding RNAs) that control epigenetic regulation of gene expression during development and disease. This highly intricate epigenetic machinery is often deregulated during disease progression, thus a better understanding of modulators of chromatin is necessary to understand the disease and discover new therapeutic opportunities. Our work was one of the firsts to demonstrate that p53 plays significant roles in altering the epigenetic bivalency to promote differentiation of human Embryonic Stem Cells (hESCs) (PLoS Bio. 2012, Nuc Acids Res. 2014). By integrating genomic p53 enrichment profiles and p53-regulated transcriptomes, we identified several p53-regulated lncRNAs that control the stem cell state, including an ESC-specific lncRNA that we named as LncPRESS1, which safeguards pluripotency by maintaining ES-specific histone acetylation marks (Mol. Cell 2016). My ongoing research is focused on determining the functional significance of these p53-regulated lncRNAs (RNA Biol. 2020) in different cancer models by using variety of molecular and biochemical and genome-wide sequencing approaches. In addition, we have discovered that many relatively under-studied epigenetic modifiers and histone reader proteins that interact with these lncRNAs are aberrantly expressed in cancers and play key roles in disease pathogenesis, an active area of investigation in our group. Our ongoing research interests are: a) transcriptome profiling studies to illuminate functions of tumor suppressor p53, b) comparative genomics to identify and delineate the functions and mechanism of action of these new p53-regulate lncRNA transcripts in development and disease, and c) to determine the functions of readers of histone post-translational modifications that regulate chromatin dynamics in cancer with ultimate aim of developing targeted therapeutics.
I am also the founding Co-Director of the Epigenomics Profiling Core (EpiCore) at MD Anderson Cancer Center, and the lead for all chromatin-based methods and technologies. EpiCore is a unique resource for investigators to be at the forefront of cancer epigenetics. I have broad expertise in designing and overseeing several large studies to determine protein-DNA enrichment and chromatin accessibility genome wide to assess epigenomic landscapes. The overall goal of the core is to facilitate epigenomics research by providing expertise and access to full-service protocols such as, ChIP-Seq CUT&RUN, ATAC-Seq to assess epigenomic landscapes. I routinely collaborate with investigators and share my expertise to determine disease specific chromatin abnormalities and test the effectiveness of new therapeutics that target the epigenome. These productive collaborations have led to exciting discoveries and continue to result in a number of high impact publications.
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2007 | Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, US, Ph.D. in Pharmacology |
| 2000 | BITS-Pilani, Pilani, IN, ME in Biotechnology |
| 1999 | Institute of Pharmacy, Nagpur University, Nagpur, IN, B.Pharm in Pharmacy |
Postgraduate Training
| 2008-2011 | Odyssey Fellow, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas |
| 2007-2012 | Postdoctoral Fellow, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas |
Experience & Service
Academic Appointments
Assistant Professor, Department of Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, 2017 - 2023
Instructor, Department of Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2014 - 2017
Instructor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2012 - 2014
Administrative Appointments/Responsibilities
Division Professionalism Ambassador, Center of Professionalism, Support & Success (CPSS), The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, 2024 - Present
Co-Director, Department of Epigenomics Profiling Core (EpiCore), The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2017 - Present
Other Appointments/Responsibilities
Postdoctoral Associate, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 2007
Postdoctoral Fellow, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2007 - 2012
Graduate Student, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 2002 - 2007
Industrial Research Trainee, Zydus Research Center, Ahemedabad, 2001 - 2002
Institutional Committee Activities
Member, Odyssey Program Committee, 2024 - Present
Member, Mid-Career Faculty Committee, 2023 - Present
Member, Mid-Career Faculty Committee, 2023 - Present
Member, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston GSBS Genetics & Epigenetics Graduate Program's Communications Committee, 2023 - Present
Faculty advisor, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston GSBS Genetics & Epigenetics Graduate Program's Newsletter Committee, 2023 - 2023
Faculty advisor, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston GSBS Genetics & Epigenetics Graduate Program's Retreat Planning Committee, 2023 - 2023
EMC Department Representative, The Faculty Senate, 2022 - Present
Member, Research Enablement, Activities and Conduct Team (REACT), 2021 - Present
Reviewer, MDACC Academic Review Committee, 2021 - Present
Member, The Human Embryonic & Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Research Oversight (HEIPSCRO), 2020 - Present
Member, MDACC Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) Project, 2019 - 2021
Member (Reviewer), The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston GSBS Genetics & Epigenetics Graduate Program's Admissions Committee, 2019 - Present
Member, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston GSBS Genetics & Epigenetics Graduate Program's Community Committee, 2018 - 2020
Faculty chair, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston GSBS Genetics & Epigenetics Graduate Program's Student Rotation Talks, 2018 - 2019
Honors & Awards
| 2015 | Poster Award, Genes and Development Program Retreat, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2012 | AMGEN Abstract Award, Trainee Research Day, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2012 | The Harold C. and Mary L. Daily Endowment Fund Fellowship Award, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2012 - 2014 | RNA Center Award of Excellence in RNAi and ncRNA Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2012 | Poster Award, Genes and Development Program Retreat, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2011 | Poster Award, Center for Cancer Epigenetics Retreat, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2011 | Poster Award, Genes and Development Program Retreat, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2010 | AMGEN Poster Award, Trainee Research Day, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2010 | Poster Award, Center for Cancer Epigenetics Retreat, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2008 - 2011 | Odyssey Postdoctoral Fellowship Award, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2006 | Kleberg Jr. Student Speaker Award, Baylor College of Medicine |
| 2006 | Student Travel Fellowship Award, Gordon Research Conference |
| 2001 - 2002 | Biotechnology Industrial Fellowship Award, Biotech Consortium of India Ltd |
| 2001 | Professor S. S. Parmar Excellence in Research, Indian Academy of Neurosciences |
Professional Memberships
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Zhou J, Chen Q, Ren R, Yang J, Liu B, Horton JR, Chang C, Li C, Maksoud L, Yang Y, Rotili D, Jain AK, Zhang X, Blumenthal RM, Chen T, Gao Y, Valente S, Mai A, Cheng X. Quinoline-based compounds can inhibit diverse enzymes that act on DNA. Cell Chem Biol, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 39437789.
- Asemota S, Effah W, Holt J, Johnson D, Cripe L, Ponnusamy S, Thiyagarajan T, Khosrosereshki Y, Hwang DJ, He Y, Grimes B, Fleming MD, Pritchard FE, Hendrix A, Fan M, Jain A, Choi HY, Makowski L, Hayes DN, Miller DD, Pfeffer LM, Santhanam B, Narayanan R. A molecular switch from tumor suppressor to oncogene in ER+ve breast cancer: Role of androgen receptor, JAK-STAT, and lineage plasticity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 39312663.
- Lee HM, Saw AK, Morris VK, Napolitano S, Bristow C, Srinivasan S, Peoples M, Sorokin A, Marie PK, Schulz J, Singh AK, Terranova C, Coker O, Jain AK, Kopetz S, Rai K. Epigenome reprogramming through H3K27 and H3K4 trimethylation as a resistance mechanism to DNA methylation inhibition in BRAFV600E-mutated colorectal cancer. Clin Cancer Res 24(1166), 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 39269307.
- Kumar B, Singh A, Basar R, Uprety N, Li Y, Fan H, Nunez Cortes AK, Kaplan M, Acharya S, Shaim H, Xu AC, Wu M, Ensley E, Fang D, Banerjee PP, Garcia LM, Tiberti S, Lin P, Rafei H, Munir MN, Moore M, Shanley M, Mendt M, Kerbauy LN, Liu B, Biederstadt A, Gokdemir E, Ghosh S, Kundu K, Reyes-Silva F, Jiang XR, Wan X, Gilbert AL, Dede M, Mohanty V, Dou J, Zhang P, Liu E, Muniz-Feliciano L, Deyter GM, Jain AK, Rodriguez-Sevilla JJ, Colla S, Garcia-Manero G, Shpall EJ, Chen K, Abbas HA, Rai K, Rezvani K, Daher M. BATF is a major driver of NK cell epigenetic reprogramming and dysfunction in AML. Sci Transl Med 16(764), 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 39259809.
- IGVF Consortium. Deciphering the impact of genomic variation on function. Nature 633:47-57, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 39232149.
- Shanley, M, Daher, M, Dou, J, Li, S, Basar, R, Rafei, H, Dede, M, Gumin, J, Pantaleόn Garcίa, J, Nunez Cortes, AK, He, S, Jones, C, Acharya, S, Fowlkes, NW, Xiong, D, Singh, S, Shaim, H, Hicks, SC, Liu, B, Jain, A, Zaman, MF, Miao, Q, Li, YE, Uprety, N, Liu, E, Muniz-Feliciano, L, Deyter, GM, Mohanty, V, Zhang, P, Evans, S, Shpall, EJ, Lang Jr, FF, Chen, K, Rezvani, K. Interleukin-21 engineering enhances NK cell activity against glioblastoma via CEBPD. Cancer cell 42(8):1450-1466.e11, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 39137729.
- Deogharia, M, Venegas-Zamora, L, Agrawal, A, Shi, M, Jain, A, McHugh, K, Altamirano, F, Marian, AJ, Gurha, P. Histone demethylase KDM5 regulates cardiomyocyte maturation by promoting fatty acid oxidation, oxidative phosphorylation, and myofibrillar organization. Cardiovascular Research 120(6):630-643, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 38230606.
- Mahadevan KK, LeBleu VS, Ramirez EV, Chen Y, Li B, Sockwell AM, Gagea M, Sugimoto H, Sthanam LK, Tampe D, Zeisberg M, Ying H, Jain AK, DePinho RA, Maitra A, McAndrews KM, Kalluri R. Elimination of oncogenic KRAS in genetic mouse models eradicates pancreatic cancer by inducing FAS-dependent apoptosis by CD8+ T cells. Dev Cell 58(17):1562-1577.e8, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37625403.
- Saha D, Hailu S, Hada A, Lee J, Luo J, Ranish JA, Lin YC, Feola K, Persinger J, Jain A, Liu B, Lu Y, Sen P, Bartholomew B. The AT-hook is an evolutionarily conserved auto-regulatory domain of SWI/SNF required for cell lineage priming. Nat Commun 14(1):4682, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37542049.
- Fan H, Wang F, Zeng A, Murison A, Tomczak K, Hao D, Jelloul FZ, Wang B, Barrodia P, Liang S, Chen K, Wang L, Zhao Z, Rai K, Jain AK, Dick J, Daver N, Futreal A, Abbas HA. Single Cell Chromatin Accessibility Profiling of Acute Myeloid Leukemia Reveals Heterogeneous Lineage Composition at Time of Therapy-Resistance. Commun Biol 6(1):765, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37479893.
- Gencel-Augusto J, Su X, Qi Y, Whitley EM, Pant V, Xiong S, Shah V, Lin J, Perez E, Fiorotto ML, Mahmud I, Jain AK, Lorenzi PL, Navin NE, Richie ER, Lozano G. Dimeric p53 mutant elicit unique tumor suppressive activities through an altered metabolic program. Cancer Discov 13(5):1230–1249, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37067911.
- Ling Mak CS, Zhu M, Liang X, Wang F, Yuan F, Hoang A, Song X, Shepherd P, Liang D, Suh J, Pradhan B, Park J, Zhang M, Metzger E, Schüle R, Jain AK, Karasik E, Foster BA, Lee MG, Corn P, Logothetis CJ, Aparicio AM, Navone NM, Troncoso P, Tan Z, Zhang J, Lin S, Wang G. KDM4A promotes the progression of neuroendocrine prostate cancer. bioRxiv, 2023. e-Pub 2023.
- Thiyagarajan T, Ponnusamy S, Hwang D, He Y, Asemota S, Young KL, Johnson DL, Bocharova V, Zhou W, Jain AK, Petricoin EF, Pfeffer LM, Miller DD, Narayanan AR. Inhibiting Androgen Receptor Splice Variants with Cysteine-Selective Irreversible Covalent Inhibitors to Treat Prostate Cancer. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 12(1), 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 36577061.
- Saha D, Animireddy S, Lee J, Lin Y, Feola K, Jain AK, Lu Y, Liu B, Bartholomew B. An RNA binding module of SWI/SNF is required for activation of cell-type specific enhancers and super-enhancers in early development. bioRxiv, 2022. e-Pub 2022.
- Piya S, Yang Y, Bhattacharya S, Sharma P, Ma H, Mu H, He H, Ruvolo V, Baran N, Davis RE, Jain AK, Konopleava M, Kantarjian H, Andreeff M, You MJ, Borthakur G. Targeting the NOTCH1-MYC-CD44 axis in leukemia-initiating cells in T-ALL. Leukemia 36(5):1261-1273, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35173274.
- Mak CSL, Zhu M, Liang X, Wang F, Hoang AG, Song X, Shepherd P, Liang D, Park J, Zhang M, Metzger E, Schule R, Jain AK, Lee MG, Corn P, Logothetis CJ, Aparicio A, Navone N, Troncoso P, Zhang J, Lin S, Wang G. KDM4A promotes NEPC progression through regulation of MYC expression. bioRxiv, 2022. e-Pub 2022.
- Van HT, Harkins PR, Patel A, Jain AK, Lu Y, Bedford MT, Santos MA. Methyl-lysine readers PHF20 and PHF20L1 define two distinct gene expression-regulating NSL complexes. J Biol Chem 298(3):101588, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35033534.
- Zhu M, Peng R, Liang X, Lan Z, Tang M, Hou P, Song JH, Mak CSL, Park J, Zheng SE, Huang A, Ma X, Chen R, Chang Q, Logothetis CJ, Jain AK, Lin SH, Katayama H, Hanash S, Wang G. P4HA2-induced prolyl hydroxylation suppresses YAP1-mediated prostate cancer cell migration, invasion, and metastasis. Oncogene 40(41):6049-6056, 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 34471235.
- Shah VV, Duncan AD, Jiang S, Stratton SA, Allton KL, Yam C, Jain A, Krause PM, Lu Y, Cai S, Tu Y, Zhou X, Zhang X, Jiang Y, Carroll CL, Kang Z, Liu B, Shen J, Gagea M, Manu SM, Huo L, Gilcrease M, Powell RT, Guo L, Stephan C, Davies PJ, Parker-Thornburg J, Lozano G, Behringer RR, Piwnica-Worms H, Chang JT, Moulder SL, Barton MC. Mammary-specific expression of Trim24 establishes a mouse model of human metaplastic breast cancer. Nat Commun 12(1):5389, 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 34508101.
- Cermakova K, Smith ER, Chan YS, Cabrera ML, Chambers C, Jarvis MI, Simon LM, Xu Y, Jain AK, Putluri N, Chen R, Ripley TR, Veiseh O, Hodges C. SMARCA4 regulates spatially restricted metabolic plasticity in 3D multicellular tissue. bioRxiv, 2021. e-Pub 2021.
- Vantaku V, Putluri V, Bader DA, Maity S, Ma J, Arnold JM, Rajapakshe K, Donepudi SR, von Rundstedt FC, Devarakonda V, Dubrulle J, Karanam B, McGuire SE, Stossi F, Jain AK, Coarfa C, Cao Q, Sikora AG, Villanueva H, Kavuri SM, Lotan Y, Sreekumar A, Putluri N. Epigenetic loss of AOX1 expression via EZH2 leads to metabolic deregulations and promotes bladder cancer progression. Oncogene 39(40):6265-6285, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 31383940.
- Liang J, Wang L, Wang C, Shen J, Su B, Marisetty AL, Fang D, Kassab C, Jeong KJ, Zhao W, Lu Y, Jain AK, Zhou Z, Liang H, Sun S, Lu C, Xu Z, Yu Q, Shao S, Chen X, Gao M, Claret FX, Ding Z, Chen J, Chen P, Barton MC, Peng G, Mills GB, Heimberger AB. Verteporfin Inhibits PD-L1 through Autophagy and the STAT1-IRF1-TRIM28 Signaling Axis, Exerting Antitumor Efficacy. Cancer Immunol Res 8(7):952-965, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32265228.
- Tandon N, Goller K, Wang F, Soibam B, Gagea M, Jain AK, Schwarts RJ, Liu Y. Aberrant Expression of Embryonic Mesendoderm Factor MESP1 Promotes Tumorigenesis. EBioMedicine 50:55-66, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31761621.
- Bosnakovski D, Gearhart MD, Toso EA, Recht OO, Cucak A, Jain AK, Barton MC, Kyba M. p53-independent DUX4 pathology. Dis Model Mech 10(10), 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28754837.
- Li J, Xi Y, Li W, McCarthy RL, Stratton S, Zou W, Li W, Dent SY, Jain AK, Barton MC. TRIM28 interacts with EZH2 and SWI/SNF to activate genes that promote mammosphere formation. Oncogene 36(21):2991-3001, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28068325.
- Jain AK, Xi Y, McCarthy R, Allton K, Akdemir KC, Patel LR, Aronow B, Lin C, Li W, Yang L, Barton MC. LncPRESS1 is a p53-regulated lncRNA that safeguards pluripotency by disrupting SIRT6 mediated de-acetylation of histone H3K56. Mol Cell 64(5):967-981, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27912097.
Invited Articles
- Jain AK. Emerging roles of long non-coding RNAs in the p53 network. RNA Biol 17(11):1648-1656, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32432959.
- Jain AK, and Barton MC. p53: emerging roles in stem cells, development and beyond. Development 145(dev.158360), 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29654218.
- Jain AK, Barton MC. Bromodomain histone readers and cancer. J Mol Biol 429(13), 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27890782.
- Jain AK, Barton MC. Outside the p53 RING: Transcription Regulation by Chromatin-Bound MDM2. Mol Cell 62(6):805-807, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27315554.
Patient Reviews
CV information above last modified June 13, 2025