Biography
I completed my fellowship training at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) under the supervision of Drs. David Louis and John Iafrate which resulted in a key publication on the mechanism of treatment failure in glioblastoma. Also, ongoing active collaboration with MGH has resulted in additional publications in advanced diagnostics and precision medicine. I am also a contributor to several chapters of the 2016 WHO Classification of Tumours of the Central Nervous System, edited by Dr Louis. Key local collaborators includes Dr Marco Marra, who is also my mentor and with whom I have published over 10 papers in the past six years. We are actively collaborating on elucidating the molecular pathogenesis of glioma, particularly of CIC in oligodendroglioma. In 2012, we had discovered recurrent mutations in this gene in a majority of 1p19q-codeleted, IDH mutated oligodendroglioma. This result was later confirmed in multiple other studies including the TCGA Low Grade Glioma project. I am also collaborating with Dr Marra in the Personalized OncoGenomics (POG) program of which I am leading the pathology effort which is also branching out to involve large scale epigenomics and proteomic investigations. I lead the initial panel sequencing in which I implemented the Ion Torrent AmpliSeq Cancer panel pipeline for the first 120 cases in POG. I was intimately involved in optimizing and improving the assay as well as in the analyzing the data. Results were correlated and validated against whole genome data in each POG case. I also work very closely with Dr David Huntsman and co- authored numerous papers on molecular pathology. We share a strong belief that molecular profiling has an important role in elucidating the mechanism of disease. My qualification as a board- certified neuropathologist with postdoctoral training in molecular experimental neuro-oncology and fellowship training in molecular genetic pathology allows me to contribute in a meaningful way to this grant application. Also, my ongoing involvement with the POG program also gives me a unique perspective on the challenges and promises of genomic- based profiling of pathology tissue particularly in the cost/benefit of panel vs exome vs whole genome sequencing.
