Kristy A. Brown, Ph.D.

Professional Background

Kristy A. Brown, PhD, received her doctorate in reproduction from the Université de Montréal in 2006. She completed postdoctoral training at Prince Henry’s Institute in Australia, first as an FQRNT Postdoctoral Fellow and subsequently as a Terry Fox Foundation Fellow of the National Cancer Institute of Canada. Supported by multiple NHMRC awards, she rose to become Co‑Head of the Metabolism and Cancer Laboratory at Prince Henry’s Institute.

In 2014, Dr. Brown was appointed Research Group Head at the Hudson Institute for Medical Research, where she was recognized with the Mavis Robertson Award from the National Breast Cancer Foundation. She joined the Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine in 2017 and was promoted to Associate Professor of Biochemistry in Medicine in 2020. In 2022, she received the Emilie Lippmann and Janice Jacobs McCarthy Research Scholar Award in Breast Cancer.

Dr. Brown was recruited to the University of Kansas Medical Center in 2023 as Associate Professor of Metabolism and Cancer and Co‑Program Leader for the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at the University of Kansas Cancer Center (KUCC). In 2026, she became Co-Leader of the Obesity, Metabolic Health, and Cancer Program within KUCC. She is also a member of the KU Diabetes Institute and serves as Co‑Director of Research Program Development for the Kansas Center for Metabolism and Obesity Research (KC‑MORE) COBRE.

Dr. Brown has authored 89 peer‑reviewed publications and two books, holds two patents, and has delivered more than 90 invited lectures worldwide, alongside extensive public outreach efforts. She is ranked among the top 0.007% of published authors for ‘aromatase’, 0.11% for ‘obesity’, and 0.13% for ‘breast cancer’ (Expertscape).

• BSc, Biochemistry, McGill University, Montreal, QC
• PhD, Reproduction, Universite de Montreal, Montreal, QC
• Post Doctoral Fellowship, FQRNT Postdoctoral Felow, Prince Henry's Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne, Australia, Clayton, VIC
• Post Doctoral Fellowship, Terry Fox Foundation Fellow through an Award from the NCIC, Prince Henry's Insitute of Medical Research, Melbourne, Australia, Clayton, VIC

• Endocrine Society, Endocrine Society, Secretary-Treasurer, 2024 - Present
• Endocrine Society, Finance and Audit Committee, Member, 2021 - 2024
• Endocrine Society, Associate Editor, 2020 - 2025
• Endocrine Society, Annual Meeting Steering Committee, Basic Science, Chair, 2017 - 2018
• Endocrine Society, Research Affairs Core Committee, Member, 2016 - 2017
• Endocrine Society, Annual Meeting Steering Committee, Member, 2013 - 2016
• American Association for Cancer Research, Member, 2012 - Present

Research

Overview

Obesity is a leading modifiable risk factor for at least 13 types of cancers, including hormone receptor‑positive breast cancer after menopause. Several local and systemic changes are hypothesized to support this relationship, including increased circulating insulin and glucose, as well as adipose‑derived estrogens, adipokines, and inflammatory mediators. Metabolic pathways governing energy production and use are dysregulated in tumor cells, and this dysregulation is now recognized as a hallmark of cancer. Dr. Brown's team has led groundbreaking work defining the role of metabolic pathways in the breast microenvironment and in regulating aromatase, the estrogen‑producing enzyme, in driving breast cancer risk in obesity. From these discoveries, they identified the AMPK‑activating anti‑diabetic drug metformin as a tissue‑selective inhibitor of estrogen production.

Through these studies, an appetite‑regulating hormone emerged as a potential breast cancer therapeutic. Ghrelin and its unacylated form, des‑acyl ghrelin, are produced predominantly by the gut, with circulating levels inversely associated with obesity. The team found that both ghrelin and des‑acyl ghrelin potently inhibit aromatase and estrogen production in breast adipose tissue, providing an additional mechanism for obesity‑associated increases in aromatase and supporting the therapeutic potential of des‑acyl ghrelin analogues. Their work has also examined effects of des‑acyl ghrelin effects on tumor growth. Effects appear to be tumor‑type specific and dependent on interaction with the extracellular matrix.

Building on this work, the impact of obesity and breast adipose‑derived factors on tumorigenesis was explored. The lab focused on whether poor metabolic health may contribute to breast cancer penetrance in BRCA mutation carriers. These women face elevated breast and ovarian cancer risk, yet little is known as to whether modifiable risk factors contribute to tumor formation. In NIH‑funded studies, body mass index (BMI) and markers of metabolic dysfunction were found to be positively correlated with more DNA damage in the non-cancerous breast epithelium of BRCA mutation carriers. Data in high fat diet-fed Brca1-/+ mice support a role for obesity in driving DNA damage in the normal mammary gland. Mechanistic studies have demonstrated that the estrogen receptor degrader fulvestrant or anti-diabetic drug metformin can reduce DNA damage in human tissue, suggesting potential opportunities for intervention. Using a carcinogen-induced Brca1 -/+ model developed in the Brown lab, high fat feeding was found to lead to increased tumor penetrance.

• Identifying metabolic vulnerabilities of breast epithelium in BRCA1 mutation carriers with obesity and impact of exercise and anti-obesity medications for cancer prevention: a focus on mitochondrial function and DNA damage, V Foundation for Cancer Research, PI
• Characterizing the autologous fat graft microenvironment resulting from differential intraoperative processing techniques: A comparative analysis and its clinical implications, National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Cancer Institute (NCI), R21, Multi-Principal Investigator
• In-vivo Characterization of White Adipose Tissue with Quantitative Ultrasound, National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Cancer Institute (NCI), R21 Site-PI, Site-PI
• Digital Lifestyle Intervention to Improve Normal Weight Obesity in Primary Breast Cancer, American Institute for Cancer Research, Site-PI

• Bhardwaj P, Iyengar NM, Zahid H, Carter KM, Byun DJ, Choi MH, Sun Q, Savenkov O, Louka C, Liu C, Piloco P, Acosta M, Bareja R, Elemento O, Foronda M, Dow LE, Oshchepkova S, Giri DD, Pollak M, Zhou XK, Hopkins BD, Laughney AM, Frey MK, Ellenson LH, Morrow M, Spector JA, Cantley LC, Brown KA. 2023. Obesity promotes breast epithelium DNA damage in women carrying a germline mutation in BRCA1 or BRCA2.. Science translational medicine, 15 (684), eade1857
• Liu S, Benito-Martin A, Pelissier Vatter FA, Hanif SZ, Liu C, Bhardwaj P, Sethupathy P, Farghli AR, Piloco P, Paik P, Mushannen M, Dong X, Otterburn DM, Cohen L, Bareja R, Krumsiek J, Cohen-Gould L, Calto S, Spector JA, Elemento O, Lyden DC, Brown KA. 2023. Breast adipose tissue-derived extracellular vesicles from obese women alter tumor cell metabolism.. EMBO reports, 24 (12), e57339
• Hoshino A, Kim HS, Bojmar L, Gyan KE, Cioffi M, Hernandez J, Zambirinis CP, Rodrigues G, Molina H, Heissel S, Mark MT, Steiner L, Benito-Martin A, Lucotti S, Di Giannatale A, Offer K, Nakajima M, Williams C, Nogués L, Pelissier Vatter FA, Hashimoto A, Davies AE, Freitas D, Kenific CM, Ararso Y, Buehring W, Lauritzen P, Ogitani Y, Sugiura K, Takahashi N, Alečković M, Bailey KA, Jolissant JS, Wang H, Harris A, Schaeffer LM, García-Santos G, Posner Z, Balachandran VP, Khakoo Y, Raju GP, Scherz A, Sagi I, Scherz-Shouval R, Yarden Y, Oren M, Malladi M, Petriccione M, De Braganca KC, Donzelli M, Fischer C, Vitolano S, Wright GP, Ganshaw L, Marrano M, Ahmed A, DeStefano J, Danzer E, Roehrl MHA, Lacayo NJ, Vincent TC, Weiser MR, Brady MS, Meyers PA, Wexler LH, Ambati SR, Chou AJ, Slotkin EK, Modak S, Roberts SS, Basu EM, Diolaiti D, Krantz BA, Cardoso F, Simpson AL, Berger M, Rudin CM, Simeone DM, Jain M, Ghajar CM, Batra SK, Stanger BZ, Bui J, Brown KA, Rajasekhar VK, Healey JH, de Sousa M, Kramer K, Sheth S, Baisch J, Pascual V, Heaton TE, La Quaglia MP, Pisapia DJ, Schwartz R, Zhang H, Liu Y, Shukla A, Blavier L, DeClerck YA, LaBarge M, Bissell MJ, Caffrey TC, Grandgenett PM, Hollingsworth MA, Bromberg J, Costa-Silva B, Peinado H, Kang Y, Garcia BA, O'Reilly EM, Kelsen D, Trippett TM, Jones DR, Matei IR, Jarnagin WR, Lyden D. 2020. Extracellular Vesicle and Particle Biomarkers Define Multiple Human Cancers.. Cell, 182 (4), 1044-1061.e18
• Brown KA. 2021. Metabolic pathways in obesity-related breast cancer.. Nature reviews. Endocrinology, 17 (6), 350-363
• Ardenkjær-Skinnerup J, Saar D, Petersen PSS, Pedersen M, Svingen T, Kragelund BB, Hadrup N, Ravn-Haren G, Emanuelli B, Brown KA, Vogel U. 2024. PPARγ antagonists induce aromatase transcription in adipose tissue cultures.. Biochemical pharmacology, 222, 116095
• Brown KA, Scherer PE. 2023. Update on Adipose Tissue and Cancer.. Endocrine reviews, 44 (6), 961-974
• Zahid H, Subbaramaiah K, Iyengar NM, Zhou XK, Chen IC, Bhardwaj P, Gucalp A, Morrow M, Hudis CA, Dannenberg AJ, Brown KA. 2018. Leptin regulation of the p53-HIF1α/PKM2-aromatase axis in breast adipose stromal cells: a novel mechanism for the obesity-breast cancer link.. International journal of obesity (2005), 42 (4), 711-720
• Wang X, Docanto MM, Sasano H, Lo C, Simpson ER, Brown KA. 2015. Prostaglandin E2 inhibits p53 in human breast adipose stromal cells: a novel mechanism for the regulation of aromatase in obesity and breast cancer.. Cancer research, 75 (4), 645-55
• Au CC, Furness JB, Britt K, Oshchepkova S, Ladumor H, Soo KY, Callaghan B, Gerard C, Inghirami G, Mittal V, Wang Y, Huang XY, Spector JA, Andreopoulou E, Zumbo P, Betel D, Dow L, Brown KA. 2020. Three-dimensional growth of breast cancer cells potentiates the anti-tumor effects of unacylated ghrelin and AZP-531.. eLife, 9