Student Spotlight

Each month we highlight one of our MSTP students. This month's highlight is: 

Student Spotlight photo. 

Rushil Shah

Area of Study: Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program
Hometown: Las Vegas, Nevada

Academics

Research interests

  • Immunometabolism
  • T Cell Differentiation and Fate Commitment
  • Tumor and Autoimmune Immunotherapy

Awards, honors, publications:

  • American Society of Hematology Abstract Achievement Award (2022, 2023, 2024)
  • Yenyuwadee S, Sanchez-Trincado Lopez JL, Shah R., Rosato PC, Boussiotis VA. The evolving role of tissue-resident memory T cells in infections and cancer. Science Advances 2022 Aug 19;8(33):eabo5871. doi:10.1126/sciadv.abo5871. Epub 2022 Aug 17. PMID: 35977028; PMCID: PMC9385156.
  • Sasitorn Yenyuwadee, Konstantinos Aliazis, Qi Wang, Anthos Christofides, Rushil Shah, Nikolaos Patsoukis,Vassiliki A. Boussiotis, Immune cellular components and signaling pathways in the tumor microenvironment, Seminars in Cancer Biology, Volume 86, Part 2,2022, Pages 187-201, ISSN 1044-579X,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semcancer.2022.08.004.
  • Alan T. Yeo, Rushil Shah, Konstantinos Aliazis, Rinku Pal, Tuoye Xu, Piyan Zhang, Shruti Rawal, Christopher M. Rose, Frederick S. Varn, Vicky Appleman, Joon Yoon, Hemant Varma, Steve P. Gygi, Roel G.W. Verhaak, Vassiliki A. Boussiotis, and Al Charest; Driver Mutations Dictate the Immunologic Landscape and Response to Checkpoint Immunotherapy of Glioblastoma. Cancer Immunology Research, 11(5), 629-645. https://doi.org/10.1158/2326-6066.cir-22-0655
  • Rushil Shah, Betul Ibis, Monisha Kashyap, Vassiliki A. Boussiotis, The role of ROS in tumor infiltrating immune cells and cancer immunotherapy, Metabolism, Volume 151, 2024, 155747, ISSN 0026- 0495,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.metabol.2023.155747.
  • Tingting Fan, Rushil Shah and Ruoning Wang; Metabolic Footprint and Logic through the T-Cell Life Cycle. Current Opinion in Immunology
  • Konstantinos Aliazis, Anthos Christofides, Rushil Shah, Vaughn Rogers, Sizun Jiang, Alain Charest, Vassiliki A. Boussiotis; Features of the tumor microenvironment responsible for cancer progression and immunotherapy outcomes; Nature Cancer.
  • Rushil Shah and Ruoning Wang; ASPiring metabolic-immunotherapy by ASParaginase; Nature Metabolism https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-025-01241-w
  • Rushil Shah*, Fengxia Gao*, Gang Xin, Ruoning Wang; Metabolic dialogue shapes immune response in theTumor Microenvironment; European Journal of Immunology; https://doi.org/10.1002/eji.202451102.

Long term goals/ aspirations

  • Hiking Mt. Everest Base Camp
  • Running a Marathon in under 4 hours
  • Working as a line chef in a Michelin star restaurant

Post MSTP Training dream job

  • Working as a physician scientist in the bay area

Fun Facts

What you enjoy outside of school

  • Running and Tennis with fellow MSTP students
  • Unplugging and hiking for a few days in the mountains
  • Creative fusion cooking (recently: cacio e pepe tteokbokki + yuzu kosho hummus)

A talent you have always wanted

Playing the piano

Favorite book

The Song of the Cell by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Favorite quote

“I have learned to love the thing I most wish had never happened.” – Stephen Colbert

Can’t live without

Specialty lattes with house made syrups (shoutout vanilla rose mandarin latte from moonbird)

If you weren’t in MSTP, what would you be doing now?

Probably hiking somewhere in Switzerland and working at a hillside restaurant

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