Bangyan L. Stiles

Bangyan L. Stiles, PhD, is the Boyd P. and Elsie D. Welin Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Southern California (USC) School of Pharmacy. She joined USC Mann in December 2005, was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2012, and became a full professor in 2016. Her research program focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms of chronic disease pathogenesis with particular emphasis on lipid metabolism in cancer development, specifically targeting the phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K) and related signaling pathways.

Dr. Stiles' research interests span multiple interconnected areas of biomedical science. Her work primarily investigates how metabolic changes drive cancer development, with a special focus on liver cancer where fatty liver disease is a common co-morbidity. She has made significant contributions to understanding the relationship between non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), fibrosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Her laboratory discovered that steatosis is a critical step for liver cancer development and identified Wnt produced from macrophages as niche factors that promote tumor development due to steatosis. Additionally, her research on pancreatic beta-cells has contributed to understanding how aged beta-cells lose their response to growth/regeneration signals and how this relates to diabetes onset.

The research trends in Dr. Stiles' publications show a strong focus on the intersection of metabolism and cancer, particularly examining how PTEN/AKT signaling regulates liver and pancreatic pathophysiology. Her work spans from basic molecular mechanisms to translational applications, with significant emphasis on tumor initiating cells, macrophage-tumor cell interactions, and the inflammatory microenvironment in cancer development. The publications demonstrate increasing sophistication in understanding the crosstalk between metabolic pathways and cancer signaling, with recent work focusing on specific AKT isoforms, chemokine signaling in the tumor microenvironment, and transcriptional regulation in metabolic liver disease.

Dr. Stiles has received substantial research funding as Principal Investigator on multiple NIH grants, including R01DK131492 (The Role of ERRa in liver lipid dysfunction and pathology), R01CA154986 (The role of PTEN and AKT2 in the malignant transformation of liver progenitor cells), and R01DK084241 (The mechanism of beta-cell regeneration). Her laboratory has trained numerous researchers who have contributed to her extensive publication record of over 100 papers with more than 13,000 reads and 5,913 citations on ResearchGate.

Her laboratory focuses on the molecular mechanisms linking metabolic disease to cancer development, with particular expertise in PTEN/AKT signaling, liver pathophysiology, and pancreatic beta-cell regeneration. The lab employs a range of techniques including mouse models of liver disease and cancer, molecular biology approaches, and translational studies aimed at developing therapeutic interventions for metabolic liver disease and associated cancers.