Research Summary

I am a neurosurgeon-scientist, and I have been running a neurosurgical practice caring for brain tumor patients and a basic science lab in the UCSF Brain Tumor Research Center (BTRC) since my initial faculty appointment at UCSF in 2008. Throughout that time, my lab has been well funded by the NIH and numerous private foundations, with the central focus of the lab being mechanisms of angiogenesis, invasion, and therapeutic resistance in brain tumors like glioblastoma, metastases, and pituitary tumors. My clinical practice has developed in parallel with my laboratory, with my glioblastoma and pituitary tumor surgical cases often providing valuable tissue for lab research as part of my clinical and translational research programs. The expertise from my scientific and clinical research has been supplemented by numerous successful collaborations with academic and industry investigators in the past eight years. As a neurosurgeon-scientist, I have mentored numerous medical and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and neurosurgery residents on scientific and clinical projects, as well as assisting them developing their careers integrating dual roles combining neurosurgical practices with scientific investigation. My position as a neurosurgeon and scientist specializing in the care of patients with aggressive brain tumors and the role of the tumor microenvironment in driving this aggressive biology and therapeutic resistance uniquely positions me to serve as PI for a variety of grants.

Research Funding

  • September 17, 2018 - August 31, 2023 - Modeling and druggable-genome screening of glioblastoma invasion using regional biopsy-guided biomaterials systems , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA227136
  • September 30, 2013 - June 30, 2022 - Tumor cell and microenvironment changes causing antiangiogenic therapy resistance , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01NS079697
  • July 1, 2009 - June 30, 2014 - Characterizing and Targeting Tumoral Factors Recruiting Perivascular Progenitors , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: K02NS064167

Education

Stanford University (Stanford, CA), BS, 1993, Biological Sciences
Stanford University (Stanford, CA), MS, 1993, Biological Sciences
Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA), MD, 2000, Medicine
Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA), PhD, 2000, Neuroscience

Honors & Awards

  • 2004
    Preuss Award, best basic science brain tumor research, American Association of Neurologic Surgeons (AANS) meeting, "Generation of Brain Tumor Neovasculature from Transplanted Bone Marrow."
  • 2005
    Ronald L. Bittner Award, best brain tumor research, American Association of Neurologic Surgeons (AANS) meeting
  • 2005
    William Scoville Resident Research Award, New England Neurosurgery meeting, "Generation of Glioma Neovasculature from Transplanted Bone Marrow."
  • 2005
    Congress of Neurologic Surgeons (CNS) Resident Research Award, "Enhanced Replication of Oncolytic HSV in Glioma Cells that Evade Temozolomide Chemotherapy Through DNA Repair."
  • 2005
    American Academy of Neurologic Surgeons Resident Research Award, "Stromal Derived Factor-1 Interacts with Environmental Cues to Induce Bone Marrow-Derived Cells to Differentiate into Tumor Endothelium and Pericytes."
  • 2006
    Mahaley Award, best clinical study in neuro-oncology, presented at American Association of Neurologic Surgeons (AANS) meeting
  • 2006
    Integra Foundation Award, best benign brain and peripheral nerve tumor research, presented at Congress of Neurologic Surgeons (CNS) meeting
  • 2007
    Synthes Skull Base Award, Congress of Neurologic Surgeons (CNS) meeting
  • 2009
    American Brian Tumor Association (ABTA) Young Investigator Award, Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) meeting

Selected Publications

  1. Jain S, Rick JW, Joshi RS, Beniwal A, Spatz J, Gill S, Chang AC, Choudhary N, Nguyen AT, Sudhir S, Chalif EJ, Chen JS, Chandra A, Haddad AF, Wadhwa H, Shah SS, Choi S, Hayes JL, Wang L, Yagnik G, Costello JF, Diaz A, Heiland DH, Aghi MK. Single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics reveal cancer-associated fibroblasts in glioblastoma with protumoral effects. J Clin Invest. 2023 Mar 01; 133(5).  View on PubMed
  2. Choudhary N, Osorio RC, Oh JY, Aghi MK. Metabolic Barriers to Glioblastoma Immunotherapy. Cancers (Basel). 2023 Feb 28; 15(5).  View on PubMed
  3. Garcia JH, Akins EA, Jain S, Wolf KJ, Zhang J, Choudhary N, Lad M, Shukla P, Gill S, Carson W, Carette L, Zheng A, Kumar S, Aghi MK. Multi-omic screening of invasive GBM cells in engineered biomaterials and patient biopsies reveals targetable transsulfuration pathway alterations. bioRxiv. 2023 Feb 24.  View on PubMed
  4. Osorio RC, Aabedi AA, Carson W, Badani A, Chalif E, Theodosopoulos PV, Kunwar S, Aghi MK, Goldschmidt E. Risk Factors for Significant Postoperative Hemorrhage After Pituitary Neuroendocrine Tumor Resection: A Case-Control Study of 1066 Surgeries. Neurosurgery. 2023 Feb 16.  View on PubMed
  5. Sampson JH, Singh Achrol A, Aghi MK, Bankiewiecz K, Bexon M, Brem S, Brenner A, Chandhasin C, Chowdhary S, Coello M, Ellingson BM, Floyd JR, Han S, Kesari S, Mardor Y, Merchant F, Merchant N, Randazzo D, Vogelbaum M, Vrionis F, Wembacher-Schroeder E, Zabek M, Butowski N. Targeting the IL4 Receptor with MDNA55 in Patients with Recurrent Glioblastoma: Results of a Phase 2b Trial. Neuro Oncol. 2023 Jan 14.  View on PubMed
  6. Morshed RA, Saggi S, Cummins DD, Molinaro AM, Young JS, Viner JA, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Goldschmidt E, Boreta L, Braunstein SE, Chang EF, McDermott MW, Berger MS, Theodosopoulos PV, Hervey-Jumper SL, Aghi MK, Daras M. Identification of risk factors associated with leptomeningeal disease after resection of brain metastases. J Neurosurg. 2023 Jan 13; 1-12.  View on PubMed
  7. Hervey-Jumper SL, Zhang Y, Phillips JJ, Morshed RA, Young JS, McCoy L, Lafontaine M, Luks T, Ammanuel S, Kakaizada S, Egladyous A, Gogos A, Villanueva-Meyer J, Shai A, Warrier G, Rice T, Crane J, Wrensch M, Wiencke JK, Daras M, Oberheim Bush NA, Taylor JW, Butowski N, Clarke J, Chang S, Chang E, Aghi M, Theodosopoulos P, McDermott M, Jakola AS, Kavouridis VK, Nawabi N, Solheim O, Smith T, Berger MS, Molinaro AM. Interactive Effects of Molecular, Therapeutic, and Patient Factors on Outcome of Diffuse Low-Grade Glioma. J Clin Oncol. 2023 Jan 04; JCO2102929.  View on PubMed
  8. Wang EJ, Haddad AF, Young JS, Morshed RA, Wu JPH, Salha DM, Butowski N, Aghi MK. Recent advances in the molecular prognostication of meningiomas. Front Oncol. 2022; 12:910199.  View on PubMed
  9. Oh JY, Osorio RC, Jung J, Carrete L, Choudhary N, Lad M, Saha A, Aghi MK. Transcriptomic Profiles of Normal Pituitary Cells and Pituitary Neuroendocrine Tumor Cells. Cancers (Basel). 2022 Dec 24; 15(1).  View on PubMed
  10. Osorio RC, Oh JY, Choudhary N, Lad M, Savastano L, Aghi MK. Pituitary adenomas and cerebrovascular disease: A review on pathophysiology, prevalence, and treatment. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2022; 13:1064216.  View on PubMed
  11. Patel A, Mummaneni PV, Zheng J, Rosner BI, Thombley R, Sorour O, Theodosopoulos PV, Aghi MK, Berger MS, Chang EF, Chou D, Manley GT, DiGiorgio AM. On-Call Junior Neurosurgery Residents Spend 9 hours of Their On-Call Shift Actively Using the Electronic Health Record. Neurosurgery. 2022 Dec 12.  View on PubMed
  12. Chalif EJ, Aghi MK. Facility Volume and Pituitary Surgery. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2022 Nov 12; 1945998221120379.  View on PubMed
  13. Chalif EJ, Morshed RA, Oh T, Dalle Ore C, Aghi MK, Gupta N. Neurosurgical Outcomes for Pediatric Central Nervous System Tumors in the United States. Neurosurgery. 2023 Feb 01; 92(2):407-420.  View on PubMed
  14. Haddad AF, Aghi MK, Butowski N. Novel intraoperative strategies for enhancing tumor control: Future directions. Neuro Oncol. 2022 11 02; 24(Suppl 6):S25-S32.  View on PubMed
  15. Osorio RC, Pereira MP, Oh T, Joshi RS, Haddad AF, Pereira KM, Donohue KC, Peeran Z, Carson W, Badani A, Wang EJ, Sudhir S, Chandra A, Jain S, Beniwal A, Gurrola J, El-Sayed IH, Blevins LS, Theodosopoulos PV, Kunwar S, Aghi MK. Correlation between tumor volume and serum prolactin and its effect on surgical outcomes in a cohort of 219 prolactinoma patients. J Neurosurg. 2022 Oct 14; 1-11.  View on PubMed
  16. Young JS, Aghi MK. Chronic convection-enhanced intratumoural delivery of chemotherapy for glioblastoma. Lancet Oncol. 2022 11; 23(11):1347-1348.  View on PubMed
  17. Zhang Y, Lucas CG, Young JS, Morshed RA, McCoy L, Oberheim Bush NA, Taylor JW, Daras M, Butowski NA, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Cha S, Wrensch M, Wiencke JK, Lee JC, Pekmezci M, Phillips JJ, Perry A, Bollen AW, Aghi MK, Theodosopoulos P, Chang EF, Hervey-Jumper SL, Berger MS, Clarke JL, Chang SM, Molinaro AM, Solomon DA. Prospective genomically guided identification of "early/evolving" and "undersampled" IDH-wildtype glioblastoma leads to improved clinical outcomes. Neuro Oncol. 2022 10 03; 24(10):1749-1762.  View on PubMed
  18. El-Sayed IH, Jiam NT, Theodosopoulos PV, McDermott MW, Gurrola JG, Aghi MK. Formal Closure of Endoscopic Endonasal Skull Base Defects With a "Bow Tie" Tri-Layer Graft. Laryngoscope. 2022 Sep 28.  View on PubMed
  19. Reihl SJ, Garcia JH, Morshed RA, Sankaran S, DiGiorgio A, Chou D, Theodosopoulos PV, Aghi MK, Berger MS, Chang EF, Mummaneni PV. Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Neurosurgical Transfers: A Single Tertiary Center Study. World Neurosurg. 2022 10; 166:e915-e923.  View on PubMed
  20. Young JS, Kidwell RL, Zheng A, Haddad AF, Aghi MK, Raleigh DR, Schulte JD, Butowski NA. CDK 4/6 inhibitors for the treatment of meningioma. Front Oncol. 2022; 12:931371.  View on PubMed

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