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2025 Grantee: Jérémy Nigri, PhD
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Research Project: CAF-Driven Sensory Innervation and Pain in Pancreatic Cancer Progression
Award: 2025 Pancreatic Cancer Action Network Fellowship, funded by the Francois Wallace Monahan Fund in memory of Michael Insel
Award Period: September 1, 2025 – August 31, 2027
Amount: $175,000
Biographical Highlights
Dr. Jérémy Nigri received his PhD in Cancer Biology from the Cancer Research Center of Marseille (Marseille, France) in the lab of Dr. Richard Tomasini. His doctoral research centered on how communication between different cell types within the tumor microenvironment stimulates cancer cells to thrive and drives overall tumor progression.
Dr. Nigri is currently a post-doctoral fellow under Dr. David Tuveson at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Dr. Tuveson was the recipient of a 2003 PanCAN Career Development Award and an emeritus member of PanCAN’s Scientific and Medical Advisory Board. Dr. Nigri’s current research investigates the cellular changes in pancreatic tissue during inflammation and cancer development with a particular focus on the cancer-promoting interplay between nerves and cancer-associated fibroblasts. He ultimately aims to tackle a critical and often overlooked aspect of pancreatic cancer – severe pain, which drastically reduces patients’ quality of life and is linked to poorer prognoses.
Project Overview
A pancreatic tumor isn’t composed solely of cancer cells. In fact, a hallmark feature of late-stage pancreatic tumors is that cancer cells make up less than 20% of the total tumor mass, with the remaining 80% being the tumor microenvironment (TME). The TME refers to the complex “neighborhood” surrounding the cancer cells, consisting of fibroblasts (connective tissue cells), nerves, immune cells, blood vessels, extracellular matrix, etc. Mounting evidence has demonstrated that the TME doesn’t simply co-exist with the cancer cells but rather actively plays a crucial, functional role in promoting oncogenesis and clinical outcomes. Dr. Nigri hypothesizes that specific fibroblast populations actively orchestrate nerve infiltration and activation within the tumor, thereby driving neuron-mediated pain.
For his Fellowship project, generously funded by the Francois Wallace Monahan fund in memory of Michael Insel, Dr. Nigri will characterize nerve-fibroblast interactions using a genetically-engineered mouse model across different disease states, including normal pancreatic tissue, pancreatitis (inflammation), and pancreatic cancer. He will conduct multi-level functional studies, ranging from pain-associated behaviors, pancreatic pathology, and gene expression signatures. His research will provide a deeper molecular understanding of the crosstalk between fibroblasts and neurons and ultimately define the role of fibroblasts in activating neuron-mediated pain in pancreatic cancer.
Untangling the complex interplay between fibroblasts and neurons in pancreatic cancer will illuminate the pathways driving pain and advance our understanding of how the nervous system is engaged in pancreatic cancer biology. This would enable the exploration of novel strategies for the severe pain syndrome that afflicts too many patients with pancreatic cancer.
