Rodney Infante, M.D., Ph.D.

Kern and Marnie Wildenthal President's Research Council Professorship in Medical Science

Internal Medicine - Digestive and Liver Diseases

Biography

Rodney Infante, M.D., Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and the Center for Human Nutrition at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He specializes in general gastroenterology and cancer cachexia.

Dr. Infante earned his medical and doctoral degree at UT Southwestern Medical School and UT Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. He completed a residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and then returned to UT Southwestern for advanced fellowship training in gastroenterology and human nutrition.

Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in internal medicine and gastroenterology, he joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2017.

Dr. Infante’s research focuses on body fat regulation in cachexia and obesity, with the goal of discovering new therapies to treat both conditions. He has delivered numerous presentations and published many professional papers, several of which are regarded as classics on the topic of cholesterol transport.

In 2019, he received a Career Award for Medical Scientists from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and a research scholar award from the American Gastroenterological Association.

Education & Training

Residency - Massachusetts General Hospital (2012-2014), Internal Medicine
Fellowship - UT Southwestern Medical Center (2014-2017), Gastroenterology
Medical School - UT Southwestern Medical School (2003-2012)

Books & Publications

Publications
- Reply.
  Rich NE, Iyengar P, Infante RE, Singal AG, Clinical gastroenterology and hepatology : the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association 2022 Feb
- Primary Tumor Fluorine-18 Fluorodeoxydglucose (¹⁸F-FDG) Is Associated With Cancer-Associated Weight Loss in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) and Portends Worse Survival.
  Olaechea S, Gannavarapu BS, Alvarez C, Gilmore A, Sarver B, Xie D, Infante R, Iyengar P, Frontiers in oncology 2022 12 900712
- Cytokine-Mediated STAT3 Transcription Supports ATGL/CGI-58-Dependent Adipocyte Lipolysis in Cancer Cachexia.
  Gandhi AY, Yu J, Gupta A, Guo T, Iyengar P, Infante RE, Frontiers in oncology 2022 12 841758
- Associations of Prior Chronic Use of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) and Glucocorticoids With Cachexia Incidence and Survival.
  Olaechea S, Gilmore A, Alvarez C, Gannavarapu BS, Infante R, Iyengar P, Frontiers in oncology 2022 12 922418
- The influence of tumour fluorodeoxyglucose avidity and cachexia development on patient survival in oesophageal or gastroesophageal junction cancer.
  Olaechea S, Gannavarapu BS, Gilmore A, Alvarez C, Iyengar P, Infante R, JCSM clinical reports 2021 Oct 6 4 128-136
- Cachexia is Prevalent in Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Associated with Worse Prognosis.
  Rich NE, Phen S, Desai N, Mittal S, Yopp AC, Yang JD, Marrero JA, Iyengar P, Infante RE, Singal AG, Clinical gastroenterology and hepatology : the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association 2021 Sep
- LIFR-a-dependent adipocyte signaling in obesity limits adipose expansion contributing to fatty liver disease.
  Guo T, Gupta A, Yu J, Granados JZ, Gandhi AY, Evers BM, Iyengar P, Infante RE, iScience 2021 Mar 24 3 102227
- JAK Inhibitors Suppress Cancer Cachexia-Associated Anorexia and Adipose Wasting in Mice.
  Arora G, Gupta A, Guo T, Gandhi A, Laine A, Williams D, Ahn C, Iyengar P, Infante R, JCSM rapid communications 2020 Jul-Dec 3 2 115-128
- Cholesterol Stabilizes TAZ in Hepatocytes to Promote Experimental Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis.
  Wang X, Cai B, Yang X, Sonubi OO, Zheng Z, Ramakrishnan R, Shi H, Valenti L, Pajvani UB, Sandhu J, Infante RE, Radhakrishnan A, Covey DF, Guan KL, Buck J, Levin LR, Tontonoz P, Schwabe RF, Tabas I, Cell metabolism 2020 Apr
- JAK Inhibitors Suppress Cancer Cachexia-Associated Anorexia and Adipose Wasting in Mice.
  Arora G., Gupta A., Guo T., Gandhi A., Laine A., Williams D., Ahn C., Iyengar P., and Infante R. Journal of Cachexia, Saropenia, and Muscle Rapid Communications 2020 In Press
- Ostreolysin A and anthrolysin O use different mechanisms to control movement of cholesterol from the plasma membrane to the endoplasmic reticulum.
  Johnson KA, Endapally S, Vazquez DC, Infante RE, Radhakrishnan A, The Journal of biological chemistry 2019 Oct
- Monitoring and Modulating Intracellular Cholesterol Trafficking Using ALOD4, a Cholesterol-Binding Protein.
  Endapally S, Infante RE, Radhakrishnan A Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) 2019 1949 153-163
- Cachexia-associated adipose loss induced by tumor-secreted leukemia inhibitory factor is counterbalanced by decreased leptin.
  Arora GK, Gupta A, Narayanan S, Guo T, Iyengar P, Infante RE JCI insight 2018 Jul 3 14
- Impact of Socioeconomic Status on Pretreatment Weight Loss and Survival in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer.
  Lau SKM, Gannavarapu BS, Carter K, Gao A, Ahn C, Meyer JJ, Sher DJ, Jatoi A, Infante R, Iyengar P Journal of oncology practice 2018 Mar JOP2017025239
- Prevalence and Survival Impact of Pretreatment Cancer-Associated Weight Loss: A Tool for Guiding Early Palliative Care.
  Gannavarapu BS, Lau SKM, Carter K, Cannon NA, Gao A, Ahn C, Meyer JJ, Sher DJ, Jatoi A, Infante R, Iyengar P Journal of oncology practice 2018 Feb JOP2017025221
- Continuous transport of a small fraction of plasma membrane cholesterol to endoplasmic reticulum regulates total cellular cholesterol.
  Infante RE, Radhakrishnan A eLife 2017 Apr 6
- Identification of surface residues on Niemann-Pick C2 essential for hydrophobic handoff of cholesterol to NPC1 in lysosomes.
  Wang ML, Motamed M, Infante RE, Abi-Mosleh L, Kwon HJ, Brown MS, Goldstein JL Cell metabolism 2010 Aug 12 2 166-73
- Cyclodextrin overcomes deficient lysosome-to-endoplasmic reticulum transport of cholesterol in Niemann-Pick type C cells.
  Abi-Mosleh L, Infante RE, Radhakrishnan A, Goldstein JL, Brown MS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2009 Nov 106 46 19316-21
- Structure of N-terminal domain of NPC1 reveals distinct subdomains for binding and transfer of cholesterol.
  Kwon HJ, Abi-Mosleh L, Wang ML, Deisenhofer J, Goldstein JL, Brown MS, Infante RE Cell 2009 Jun 137 7 1213-24
- NPC2 facilitates bidirectional transfer of cholesterol between NPC1 and lipid bilayers, a step in cholesterol egress from lysosomes.
  Infante RE, Wang ML, Radhakrishnan A, Kwon HJ, Brown MS, Goldstein JL Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2008 Oct 105 40 15287-92
- Purified NPC1 protein. I. Binding of cholesterol and oxysterols to a 1278-amino acid membrane protein.
  Infante RE, Abi-Mosleh L, Radhakrishnan A, Dale JD, Brown MS, Goldstein JL The Journal of biological chemistry 2008 Jan 283 2 1052-63
- Purified NPC1 protein: II. Localization of sterol binding to a 240-amino acid soluble luminal loop.
  Infante RE, Radhakrishnan A, Abi-Mosleh L, Kinch LN, Wang ML, Grishin NV, Goldstein JL, Brown MS The Journal of biological chemistry 2008 Jan 283 2 1064-75

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