Pavithra Viswanath, PhD

Associate Professor
Associate Adjunct Professor

Biography

Dr. Pavithra Viswanath is an Associate Professor in the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at UCSF. She graduated with a Ph D in Biochemistry from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India. The overall vision of her research is to harness insights from tumor genetics, epigenetics, and biology to drive the preclinical development of novel, metabolic imaging biomarkers that will ultimately benefit patients by enabling the non-invasive assessment of tumor burden and response to therapy. In parallel, she will pinpoint metabolic vulnerabilities in the tumor and immune microenvironment that can be exploited for the development of novel therapeutic agents. Her long-term vision is to develop an integrated, clinically translatable metabolic therapy and imaging strategy for patients battling cancer.

Education

2020 - Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion Training, University of California San Francisco
PhD, 08/2007 - Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science
MS, 08/2003 - Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science
BS, 08/2000 - Microbiology, St. Xavier's college

Honors and Awards

Margaret Hart Surbeck Travel Award, Dept. of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, UCSF, 2019
Inaugural Women in Neuro-oncology Basic/Translational Science Research Award, Society for Neuro-oncology, 2019
Career Enhancement Program Award, UCSF Brain Tumor Center, 2018-2019
Career Enhancement Program Award, UCSF Brain Tumor Center, 2017-2018

Publications

Batsios G, Udutha S, Taglang C, Gillespie AM, Lau B, Ji S, Phoenix T, Mueller S, Venneti S, Koschmann C, Viswanath P. GABA production induced by imipridones is a targetable and imageable metabolic alteration in diffuse midline gliomas. bioRxiv. 2024 Jun 10.
Udutha S, Taglang C, Batsios G, Gillespie AM, Tran M, Ronen SM, Ten Hoeve J, Graeber TG, Viswanath P. Telomerase reverse transcriptase induces targetable alterations in glutathione and nucleotide biosynthesis in glioblastomas. bioRxiv. 2023 Nov 16.
Batsios G, Taglang C, Gillespie AM, Viswanath P. Imaging telomerase reverse transcriptase expression in oligodendrogliomas using hyperpolarized δ-[1-13C]-gluconolactone. Neurooncol Adv. 2023 Jan-Dec; 5(1):vdad092.
Minami N, Hong D, Taglang C, Batsios G, Gillespie AM, Viswanath P, Stevers N, Barger CJ, Costello JF, Ronen SM. Hyperpolarized δ-[1- 13C]gluconolactone imaging visualizes response to TERT or GABPB1 targeting therapy for glioblastoma. Sci Rep. 2023 03 30; 13(1):5190.
Minami N, Hong D, Stevers N, Barger CJ, Radoul M, Hong C, Chen L, Kim Y, Batsios G, Gillespie AM, Pieper RO, Costello JF, Viswanath P, Ronen SM. Imaging biomarkers of TERT or GABPB1 silencing in TERT-positive glioblastoma. Neuro Oncol. 2022 11 02; 24(11):1898-1910.
Vaidya MV, Zhang B, Hong D, Brown R, Batsios G, Viswanath P, Paska J, Wulf G, Grant AK, Ronen SM, Larson PEZ. A 13C/31P surface coil to visualize metabolism and energetics in the rodent brain at 3 Tesla. J Magn Reson. 2022 10; 343:107286.
Batsios G, Taglang C, Tran M, Stevers N, Barger C, Gillespie AM, Ronen SM, Costello JF, Viswanath P. Deuterium Metabolic Imaging Reports on TERT Expression and Early Response to Therapy in Cancer. Clin Cancer Res. 2022 08 15; 28(16):3526-3536.
Taglang C, Batsios G, Mukherjee J, Tran M, Gillespie AM, Hong D, Ronen SM, Artee Luchman H, Pieper RO, Viswanath P. Deuterium magnetic resonance spectroscopy enables noninvasive metabolic imaging of tumor burden and response to therapy in low-grade gliomas. Neuro Oncol. 2022 07 01; 24(7):1101-1112.
Hong D, Batsios G, Viswanath P, Gillespie AM, Vaidya M, Larson PEZ, Ronen SM. Acquisition and quantification pipeline for in vivo hyperpolarized 13 C MR spectroscopy. Magn Reson Med. 2022 04; 87(4):1673-1687.
Viswanath P, Batsios G, Ayyappan V, Taglang C, Gillespie AM, Larson PEZ, Luchman HA, Costello JF, Pieper RO, Ronen SM. Metabolic imaging detects elevated glucose flux through the pentose phosphate pathway associated with TERT expression in low-grade gliomas. Neuro Oncol. 2021 09 01; 23(9):1509-1522.
Polvoy I, Qin H, Flavell RR, Gordon J, Viswanath P, Sriram R, Ohliger MA, Wilson DM. Deuterium Metabolic Imaging-Rediscovery of a Spectroscopic Tool. Metabolites. 2021 Aug 25; 11(9).
Batsios G, Taglang C, Cao P, Gillespie AM, Najac C, Subramani E, Wilson DM, Flavell RR, Larson PEZ, Ronen SM, Viswanath P. Imaging 6-Phosphogluconolactonase Activity in Brain Tumors In Vivo Using Hyperpolarized δ-[1-13C]gluconolactone. Front Oncol. 2021; 11:589570.
Radoul M, Hong D, Gillespie AM, Najac C, Viswanath P, Pieper RO, Costello JF, Luchman HA, Ronen SM. Early Noninvasive Metabolic Biomarkers of Mutant IDH Inhibition in Glioma. Metabolites. 2021 Feb 13; 11(2).
Viswanath P, Batsios G, Mukherjee J, Gillespie AM, Larson PEZ, Luchman HA, Phillips JJ, Costello JF, Pieper RO, Ronen SM. Non-invasive assessment of telomere maintenance mechanisms in brain tumors. Nat Commun. 2021 01 04; 12(1):92.
Zhao N, Huang Y, Wang YH, Muir RK, Chen YC, Wei J, Hooshdaran N, Viswanath P, Seo Y, Ruggero D, Renslo AR, Evans MJ. Ferronostics: Measuring Tumoral Ferrous Iron with PET to Predict Sensitivity to Iron-Targeted Cancer Therapies. J Nucl Med. 2021 Jul 01; 62(7):949-955.
Subramani E, Radoul M, Najac C, Batsios G, Molloy AR, Hong D, Gillespie AM, Santos RD, Viswanath P, Costello JF, Pieper RO, Ronen SM. Glutamate Is a Noninvasive Metabolic Biomarker of IDH1-Mutant Glioma Response to Temozolomide Treatment. Cancer Res. 2020 11 15; 80(22):5098-5108.
Molloy AR, Najac C, Viswanath P, Lakhani A, Subramani E, Batsios G, Radoul M, Gillespie AM, Pieper RO, Ronen SM. MR-detectable metabolic biomarkers of response to mutant IDH inhibition in low-grade glioma. Theranostics. 2020; 10(19):8757-8770.
Batsios G, Najac C, Cao P, Viswanath P, Subramani E, Saito Y, Gillespie AM, Yoshihara HAI, Larson P, Sando S, Ronen SM. In vivo detection of γ-glutamyl-transferase up-regulation in glioma using hyperpolarized γ-glutamyl-[1-13C]glycine. Sci Rep. 2020 04 10; 10(1):6244.
Batsios G, Viswanath P, Subramani E, Najac C, Gillespie AM, Santos RD, Molloy AR, Pieper RO, Ronen SM. PI3K/mTOR inhibition of IDH1 mutant glioma leads to reduced 2HG production that is associated with increased survival. Sci Rep. 2019 07 19; 9(1):10521.
Najac C, Radoul M, Le Page LM, Batsios G, Subramani E, Viswanath P, Gillespie AM, Ronen SM. In vivo investigation of hyperpolarized [1,3-13C2]acetoacetate as a metabolic probe in normal brain and in glioma. Sci Rep. 2019 03 04; 9(1):3402.
Radoul M, Najac C, Viswanath P, Mukherjee J, Kelly M, Gillespie AM, Chaumeil MM, Eriksson P, Delos Santos R, Pieper RO, Ronen SM. HDAC inhibition in glioblastoma monitored by hyperpolarized 13 C MRSI. NMR Biomed. 2019 02; 32(2):e4044.
Viswanath P, Radoul M, Izquierdo-Garcia JL, Luchman HA, Gregory Cairncross J, Pieper RO, Phillips JJ, Ronen SM. Mutant IDH1 gliomas downregulate phosphocholine and phosphoethanolamine synthesis in a 2-hydroxyglutarate-dependent manner. Cancer Metab. 2018; 6:3.
Viswanath P, Radoul M, Izquierdo-Garcia JL, Ong WQ, Luchman HA, Cairncross JG, Huang B, Pieper RO, Phillips JJ, Ronen SM. 2-Hydroxyglutarate-Mediated Autophagy of the Endoplasmic Reticulum Leads to an Unusual Downregulation of Phospholipid Biosynthesis in Mutant IDH1 Gliomas. Cancer Res. 2018 05 01; 78(9):2290-2304.
Mazor T, Chesnelong C, Pankov A, Jalbert LE, Hong C, Hayes J, Smirnov IV, Marshall R, Souza CF, Shen Y, Viswanath P, Noushmehr H, Ronen SM, Jones SJM, Marra MA, Cairncross JG, Perry A, Nelson SJ, Chang SM, Bollen AW, Molinaro AM, Bengtsson H, Olshen AB, Weiss S, Phillips JJ, Luchman HA, Costello JF. Clonal expansion and epigenetic reprogramming following deletion or amplification of mutant IDH1. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 10 03; 114(40):10743-10748.
Viswanath P, Morayya S, Rautela N, Sinha A. Development of a rapid and reliable assay for in vitro determination of compound cidality against the asexual stages of Plasmodium falciparum. Acta Parasitol. 2016 Dec 01; 61(4):828-835.
Ohba S, Mukherjee J, Johannessen TC, Mancini A, Chow TT, Wood M, Jones L, Mazor T, Marshall RE, Viswanath P, Walsh KM, Perry A, Bell RJ, Phillips JJ, Costello JF, Ronen SM, Pieper RO. Mutant IDH1 Expression Drives TERT Promoter Reactivation as Part of the Cellular Transformation Process. Cancer Res. 2016 11 15; 76(22):6680-6689.
Johannessen TA, Mukherjee J, Viswanath P, Ohba S, Ronen SM, Bjerkvig R, Pieper RO. Rapid Conversion of Mutant IDH1 from Driver to Passenger in a Model of Human Gliomagenesis. Mol Cancer Res. 2016 10; 14(10):976-983.
Chaumeil MM, Radoul M, Najac C, Eriksson P, Viswanath P, Blough MD, Chesnelong C, Luchman HA, Cairncross JG, Ronen SM. Hyperpolarized (13)C MR imaging detects no lactate production in mutant IDH1 gliomas: Implications for diagnosis and response monitoring. Neuroimage Clin. 2016; 12:180-9.
Viswanath P, Najac C, Izquierdo-Garcia JL, Pankov A, Hong C, Eriksson P, Costello JF, Pieper RO, Ronen SM. Mutant IDH1 expression is associated with down-regulation of monocarboxylate transporters. Oncotarget. 2016 Jun 07; 7(23):34942-55.
Viswanath P, Chaumeil MM, Ronen SM. Molecular Imaging of Metabolic Reprograming in Mutant IDH Cells. Front Oncol. 2016; 6:60.
Viswanath P, Ronen SM. Metabolic reprogramming of pyruvate dehydrogenase is essential for the proliferation of glioma cells expressing mutant IDH1. Mol Cell Oncol. 2016 Apr 01; 3(2):e1077922.
Izquierdo-Garcia JL, Viswanath P, Eriksson P, Cai L, Radoul M, Chaumeil MM, Blough M, Luchman HA, Weiss S, Cairncross JG, Phillips JJ, Pieper RO, Ronen SM. IDH1 Mutation Induces Reprogramming of Pyruvate Metabolism. Cancer Res. 2015 Aug 01; 75(15):2999-3009.
Hameed P S, Solapure S, Patil V, Henrich PP, Magistrado PA, Bharath S, Murugan K, Viswanath P, Puttur J, Srivastava A, Bellale E, Panduga V, Shanbag G, Awasthy D, Landge S, Morayya S, Koushik K, Saralaya R, Raichurkar A, Rautela N, Roy Choudhury N, Ambady A, Nandishaiah R, Reddy J, Prabhakar KR, Menasinakai S, Rudrapatna S, Chatterji M, Jiménez-Díaz MB, Martínez MS, Sanz LM, Coburn-Flynn O, Fidock DA, Lukens AK, Wirth DF, Bandodkar B, Mukherjee K, McLaughlin RE, Waterson D, Rosenbrier-Ribeiro L, Hickling K, Balasubramanian V, Warner P, Hosagrahara V, Dudley A, Iyer PS, Narayanan S, Kavanagh S, Sambandamurthy VK. Triaminopyrimidine is a fast-killing and long-acting antimalarial clinical candidate. Nat Commun. 2015 Mar 31; 6:6715.
Izquierdo-Garcia JL, Viswanath P, Eriksson P, Chaumeil MM, Pieper RO, Phillips JJ, Ronen SM. Metabolic reprogramming in mutant IDH1 glioma cells. PLoS One. 2015; 10(2):e0118781.
Hameed P S, Chinnapattu M, Shanbag G, Manjrekar P, Koushik K, Raichurkar A, Patil V, Jatheendranath S, Rudrapatna SS, Barde SP, Rautela N, Awasthy D, Morayya S, Narayan C, Kavanagh S, Saralaya R, Bharath S, Viswanath P, Mukherjee K, Bandodkar B, Srivastava A, Panduga V, Reddy J, Prabhakar KR, Sinha A, Jiménez-Díaz MB, Martínez MS, Angulo-Barturen I, Ferrer S, Sanz LM, Gamo FJ, Duffy S, Avery VM, Magistrado PA, Lukens AK, Wirth DF, Waterson D, Balasubramanian V, Iyer PS, Narayanan S, Hosagrahara V, Sambandamurthy VK, Ramachandran S. Aminoazabenzimidazoles, a novel class of orally active antimalarial agents. J Med Chem. 2014 Jul 10; 57(13):5702-13.
Lotharius J, Gamo-Benito FJ, Angulo-Barturen I, Clark J, Connelly M, Ferrer-Bazaga S, Parkinson T, Viswanath P, Bandodkar B, Rautela N, Bharath S, Duffy S, Avery VM, Möhrle JJ, Guy RK, Wells T. Repositioning: the fast track to new anti-malarial medicines? Malar J. 2014 Apr 14; 13:143.