About me
Currently, I’m a postdoctoral fellow in the Fertig Lab at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. My work focuses on integrating longitudinal human spatial datasets with multi-organ murine single-cell analyses to define how communication between the primary tumor microenvironment and distant organs drives organ-specific metastatic evolution.
In August 2025, I defended my dissertation titled, “The Role of Oncogenic KRAS on Lung Reprogramming during Primary Tumor Formation and Metastatic Spread.” This work focused on premetastatic niche formation during pancreatic cancer progression in the Pasca di Magliano Lab at the University of Michigan. My research combined extensive in vivo mouse modeling with large-scale single-cell RNA sequencing datasets to characterize cellular and transcriptional changes in the lung microenvironment during tumor progression and metastasis.
First Author Publications
Lasse Opsahl EL, Espinoza CE, Olivei AC, Okoye JO, Watkoske H, Hoffman MT, Avritt FR, Elhossiny AM, Bischoff AC, Donahue KL, Poggi M, Kadiyala P, Arya N, Shi J, Lee KE, Zhang Y, Carpenter ES, Szczepanski JM, Frankel TL, Pasca di Magliano M, Galban S. Fibroblast STAT3 Activation Drives Organ-Specific Premetastatic Niche Formation. Cancer Res. 2026 Jan 2. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-25-3472.
Lasse-Opsahl EL, Barravecchia I, McLintock E, Lee JM, Ferris SF, Espinoza CE, Hinshaw R, Cavanaugh S, Robotti M, Rober L, Brown K, Abdelmalak KY, Galban CJ, Frankel TL, Zhang Y, Pasca di Magliano M, Galban S. KRASG12D drives immunosuppression in lung adenocarcinoma through paracrine signaling. JCI Insight. 2025 Jan 9;10(1):e182228. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.182228.
Reviews
Lasse Opsahl EL, Pasca di Magliano M. Two Shots on Goal: Combination of RAS Inhibition and Immunotherapy Drives Long-term Remission in Pancreatic Cancer. Cancer Discov. 2025 Aug 4;15(8):1537-1539. doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-25-0878.
Publications
de la Caridad Delgado Herrera D, Roman AA, Campbell RN, Lasse-Opsahl E, McCracken C, Sadzewicz L, Tallon L, Fertig EJ, Ferrer CM. GSTT1 promotes stemness and FGFR inhibitor sensitivity in pancreatic cancer through regulation of CD133 (PROM1). Cancer Lett. 2026 Jul 24:218733. doi: 10.1016/j.canlet.2026.218733.
Matos-Romero V, Gómez-Becerril J, Forjaz A, Dequiedt L, Newton T, Joshi S, Shen Y, Hanna E, Nair P, Sivasubramanian A, Wang JSH, Lasse-Opsahl EL, Bell ATF, Fróis-Vieira D, Czum J, Steenbergen C, Dai DF, Wood LD, Kagohara LT, Fertig EJ, di Magliano MP, Shatzel JJ, McCarty OJT, Lo JO, Rosenberg A, Hruban RH, Muñoz-Barrutia A, Wirtz D, Kiemen AL. CODAvision: best practices and a user-friendly interface for rapid, customizable segmentation of medical images. Nat Protoc. 2026 Jul 7. doi: 10.1038/s41596-026-01404-3.
Zhang Y, Kadiyala P, Yan W, Brown K, Avritt FR, Donahue KL, Procario MC, Okoye JO, Giridharan T, Elhossiny AM, Espinoza CE, Awad D, Lasse Opsahl EL, Medina-Cabrera PI, Velez-Delgado A, Menjivar RE, Yang OA, Yang S, He X, Gupta S, Tariq R, Brandt AR, Wang X, denDekker A, Nwosu ZC, Carpenter ES, Courtney AH, Bednar F, Frankel TL, Lyssiotis CA, Zheng B, Kryczek I, Pasca di Magliano M. Targeting CCR1 remodels the tumor microenvironment and relieves immune suppression in pancreatic cancer. Cancer Immunol Res. 2026 May 28. doi: 10.1158/2326-6066.CIR-25-1300.
Bischoff AC, Brown K, Lasse Opsahl EL, Watkoske HR, Espinoza CE, Okoye JO, Olivei AC, Green LM, Rai R, The S, Yan W, denDekker AD, Carpenter ES, Shi J, Bednar F, Frankel TL, Zhang Y, Pasca di Magliano M. Wilm's Tumor 1-Expressing Stromal Cells Promote Pancreatic Cancer Progression. Cancer Res. 2025 Oct 1. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-25-1014.
Ruckert MT, Walsh RM, Bye BA, Eades AE, Yan W, Bednar F, Shi J, Lasse Opsahl EL, Pasca di Magliano M, Lyssiotis CA, VanSaun MN & Silveira VS. DUSP6 is upregulated in metastasis and influences migration and metabolism in pancreatic cancer cells. Sci Rep. 2025 Sep 30;15(1):33996. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-12967-8.
Pearson AN, Waninger J, Huber AK, Holcomb EA, James JG, Kyi J, Elaimy AL, Wang Z, Lasse Opsahl EL, SenGupta S, Elliott DA, Choi E, Zhang Q, Morgan MA, Chang DT, Lawrence TS, Courtney A, Shah YM, Knight JS, Pasca di Magliano M, Yoo S, Crivelli S, Parent CA, Ramnath N, Bryant AK, Zou W, Green MD. Liver metastases license neutrophils through IL-1 to potentiate cancer progression. Cancer Immunol Res. 2025 Sep 4. doi: 10.1158/2326-6066.CIR-24-1074.
Steele NG, Sirihorachai VR, Elhossiny AM, Loveless IM, Kadiyala P, Bonilla M, Lasse-Opsahl EL, Solano Vargas C, Donahue KL, Kemp SB, Gunchick V, Shah YM, Frankel TL, Bednar F, Rao A, Allen BL, Shi J, Sahai V, Crawford HC, Carpenter ES, Pasca di Magliano M. Primary and metastatic cellular landscapes in human pancreatic cancer. iScience. 2025 Jun 26;28(8):113012. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2025.113012.
Zhang ZY, Li Q, Bai Y, Cavender SM, Miao Y, Nguele Meke F, Lasse-Opsahl EL, Zhu P, Doody GM, Tao WA. The PRL2 Phosphatase Upregulates miR-21 through Activation of the JAK2/STAT3 Pathway to Downregulate the PTEN Tumor Suppressor. Biochem J. 2024 Dec 12:BCJ20240626. doi: 10.1042/BCJ20240626.
Donahue KL, Watkoske HR, Kadiyala P, Du W, Brown K, Scales MK, Elhossiny AM, Espinoza CE, Lasse Opsahl EL, Griffith BD, Wen Y, Sun L, Velez-Delgado A, Renollet NM, Morales J, Nedzesky NM, Baliira RK, Menjivar RE, Medina-Cabrera PI, Rao A, Allen B, Shi J, Frankel TL, Carpenter ES, Bednar F, Zhang Y, Pasca di Magliano M. Oncogenic KRAS-Dependent Stromal Interleukin-33 Directs the Pancreatic Microenvironment to Promote Tumor Growth. Cancer Discov. 2024 Oct 4;14(10):1964-1989. doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-24-0100.
Velez-Delgado A, Donahue KL, Brown KL, Du W, Irizarry-Negron V, Menjivar RE, Lasse Opsahl EL, Steele NG, The S, Lazarus J, Sirihorachai VR, Yan W, Kemp SB, Kerk SA, Bollampally M, Yang S, Scales MK, Avritt FR, Lima F, Lyssiotis CA, Rao A, Crawford HC, Bednar F, Frankel TL, Allen BL, Zhang Y, Pasca di Magliano M. Extrinsic KRAS Signaling Shapes the Pancreatic Microenvironment Through Fibroblast Reprogramming. Cell Mol Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2022;13(6):1673-1699. doi: 10.1016/j.jcmgh.2022.02.016.
