Professional Positions

Tsinghua University Beijing, China

Assistant Professor 2021- Present

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center New York, NY, USA

Research Fellow 2015 – 2017

Research Associate 2018 – 2021

Research Area

Metastasis accounts for more than 90% of deaths associated with cancer, hence it is critical to develop new avenues of therapies to target metastasis. Our research is focused on developing new sequencing technologies and applying them to identify the survival pressures experienced by metastatic cancer cells in order to identify new therapeutic vulnerabilities in metastasis. We recently developed a new technology (Flura-seq) that allows us to study the under-represented metastatic cancer cells in their native tissue microenvironment. We are applying Flura-seq, ATAC-seq, ChIP-seq, single cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq), RNA-FISH and other technologies to 1) investigate the evolution of metastasis from early stage to late stage, 2) identify the crosstalk between metastatic cancer cells and different immune cells, and 3) develop targeted combination therapies against metastatic cancers.

Education

•University of California San Diego La Jolla, CA, USA

PhD, Biomedical Sciences 2008 – 2014

•Hanover College Hanover, IN, USA

BA Physics and BA Mathematics 2004 – 2008

Awards

·Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellowship, Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation 2016-2019

Publications

•Basnet H, Su XB, Tan Y, Meisenhelder J, Merkurjev D, Ohgi KA, Hunter T, Pillus L, Rosenfeld, MG. Tyrosine phosphorylation in Histone H2A by CK2 kinase regulates transcriptional elongation. Nature. 516(7530): 267-71 (2014).

•Basnet H, Tian L, Ganesh K, Huang Y, Macalinao DG, Brogi E, Finley L, Massague J. Flura-seq identifies organ- specific metabolic adaptations during early metastatic colonization. eLIFE. (2019).

•Basnet H, Massague J. Labeling and isolation of Fluorouracil tagged RNA by cytosine deaminase expression.

Bio-protocol (2019).

•Singh N*, Basnet H*, Wiltshire T, Mohammad DH, Thompson JR, Heroux A, Botuyan MV, Yaffe MB, Couch FJ, Rosenfeld MG, Mer G. Dual recognition of phosphoserine and phosphotyrosine in histone variant H2A.X by DNA damage response protein MCPH1. PNAS. 109 (36): 14381-14386 (2012). (* equal contribution)

•Ganesh K, Basnet H, Laughney AM, Kaygusuz Y, He L, O’Rourke KP, Reuter V, Huang, Y, Er EE, Masilionis I, Weiser MR, Saltz LB, Garcia-Aguilar J, Koche R, Lowe SW, Pe’er D, Shia J, Massagué, J. L1CAM defines the regenerative origin of metastasis-initiating cells in colorectal cancer. Nature Cancer . (1): 28-45 (2020).

•Lee JH, Sánchez-Rivera FJ, He L, Basnet H, Chen FX, Spina E, Li L, Torner C, Chan JE, Yarlagadda DVK, Park JS, Sussman C, Rudin CM, Lowe SW, Tammela T, Macias MJ, Koche RP, Massague J. TGF-β and RAS jointly unmask primed enhancers to drive metastasis. Cell (2024). In press.

•Su Jie, Morgani SM, David CJ, Wang Q, Er EE, Huang Y, Basnet H, Zou Y, Shu W, Hendrickson RC, Soni RK, Hadjantonakis A, Massague J. Basis for EMT coupling to fibrogenic and developmental programs. Nature . 577(7791): 566-571 (2020).

•Huang Y, Hu J, Chen F, Lecomte N, Basnet H, David CJ, Witkin PA, Leach SD, Iacobuzio-Donahue C, Massague J. ID1 mediates escape from TGFβ tumor suppression in pancreatic cancer. Cancer Discovery. 10(1): 142-157 (2019).

•Malladi S, Macalinao DG, Jin X, He L, Basnet H, Zou Y, de Stanchina E, Massague J. Metastatic latency and immune evasion through autocrine inhibition of WNT. Cell. 165(1): 45-60 (2016).

•Wang J*, Telese F*, Tan Y*, Li W, Jin C, He X, Basnet H, Ma Q, Merkurjev D, Zhu X, Liu Z, Zhang J, Ohgi K, Taylor H, White RR, Tazearsalan C, Sun Y, Macfarlan TS, Pfaff SL, Rosenfeld MG. LSD1n is an H4K20 demethylase regulating memory formation via transcriptional elongation control. Nat Neurosci. 18(9): 1256-64 (2015). (* equal contribution)

•Tumaneng K, Schlegelmilch K, Russell R, Yimlamai D, Basnet H, Mahadevan N, Fitamant J, Bardeesy N, Camargo FD, Guan KL. YAP mediates crosstalk between the Hippo and PI3K-TOR pathways by suppressing PTEN via miR-29. Nat Cell Biol. 14:1322-1329 (2012).

·Veldkamp CT, Ziarek JJ, Su J, Basnet H, Lennertz R, Weiner JJ, Peterson FC, Volkman BF. Monomeric structure of the cardioprotective chemokine SDF-1/CXCL12. Protein Sci. 18 (7): 1359-69. (2009).

·Veldkamp CT, Seibert C, Peterson FC, Cruz NB, Haugner JC, Basnet H, Sakmar TP, Volkman BF. Structural Basis of CXCR4 Sulfotyrosine Recognition by the Chemokine SDF-1/CXCL12. Sci Signal. 1 (37). (2008).

·Basnet H. Design of a Chemical Engine. Nepal Journal of Science and Technology. 4: 67-70. (2002).

Patents

·Basnet H and Massague J. Labeling, Isolation, & Analysis of RNA from rare cell populations (PCT/US18/22092) (Patent pending)

·Basnet H. Chemical Engine operated by using adsorption of pressurized gas. Three Claims. (Nepal Patent no 54/60)