Nitin Shirole, PhD

I am from India, and I did my undergraduate degree in Biotechnology at R.T.M. Nagpur University. I earned a master's in biological sciences with Luis Cruz-Vera at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, working on tryptophan-dependent regulation of the ribosome function. I completed my PhD in genetics at Stony Brook University and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cancer Center, on truncating TP53 mutations that produce isoforms with pro-tumorigenic activity.

I joined the Kaelin lab in 2017 as a postdoctoral fellow. I work on hypoxia inducible factors in clear cell renal cell carcinoma. I recently found that cyclin D1 accounts for much of the cell-autonomous HIF2α dependence in this disease, PMID: 40178040.

My other focus is determining HIF1α versus HIF2α paralog transcriptional target selectivity. 

I was promoted to Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School in 2025.

When not at the bench, I enjoy spending time with my cats Loaf and Jammy. I also enjoy biking and running.