Research Summary

I am a cell and molecular biologist and a board-certified medical oncologist. I lead a basic and translational research program focused on signal transduction and cancer genetics and the molecular basis of tumor initiation and progression. My discoveries have provided insight into the function and regulation of critical cancer-driving proteins including oncogenic receptor tyrosine kinases and RAS pathway genes. Of note, recent work that forms the basis of this proposal uncovered a distinct mode of kinase-mediated RAS signaling in cancer via membraneless cytoplasmic protein granules. My work also uncovered drug resistance programs mediated by NF-kappaB and Hippo-YAP pathway signaling and lineage plasticity switches in lung cancer and cancer dormancy. The overall goal of my research program is to understand the regulatory principles underlying cell signaling pathways, cancer growth, and metastasis through hypothesis-driven investigations in order to improve cancer therapy and patient survival. I direct the NCI-funded U54 Bay Area Drug Resistance and Sensitivity Center within the Cancer Moonshot program. I have successfully mentored over 20 individuals into independent academic and industry positions over the last 10 years and serve as co-PI on the UCSF NCI-funded K12 translational oncology training program. I am a Chan-Zuckerberg Biohub Senior Investigator and an elected member of the ASCI.

Research Funding

  • September 2022 - August 2027  - Bay Area Team Against Acquired Resistance, Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: U54CA224081
  • January 2022 - December 2026 - Characterization of YAP as a rational companion target in lung cancer , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA204302
  • July 1, 2021 - June 30, 2026 - UCSF Paul Calabresi K12 Career Development Program in Clinical Oncology, Co-Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: K12CA260225
  • July 1, 2019 - June 30, 2024 - (PQ7) Defining a new mode of RAS signaling in cancer from cytoplasmic protein granules , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA231300

Education

Vanderbilt University, B.S., 1998, Molecular Biology
New York University, School of Medicine, Ph.D., 2004, Cell and Mol. Biology
New York University, School of Medicine, M.D., 2005, Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard, 2005-2007, Internal Medicine
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 2007-2011, Medical Oncology

Honors & Awards

  • 2022
    Chan-Zuckerberg Biohub Senior Investigator
  • 2020
    Editor-in-Chief, npj Precision Oncology
  • 2019, 2021
    ALK Positive Lung Cancer Patient Advocate Research Award
  • 2016
    American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), elected member
  • 2015
    Pew Charitable Trust and Stewart Foundation Scholar
  • 2014
    Lung Cancer Innovators Award (Addario and Van Auken Foundations)
  • 2013
    Searle Scholar Award
  • 2012
    NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (DP2)
  • 2012
    Visiting Scholar Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Program at Cal. State
  • 2012
    Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Clinical Scientist Development Award
  • 2012
    American Lung Association Lung Cancer Discovery Award
  • 2012
    Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award Finalist
  • 2012
    Sidney Kimmel Foundation Kimmel Scholar Award
  • 2012
    National Lung Cancer Partnership Young Investigator Award
  • 2011
    NIH/NCI Clinical Investigator Career Development Award (K08)
  • 2010
    Uniting Against Lung Cancer Research Award
  • 2010
    American Society of Clinical Oncology Young Investigator Award
  • 2009
    Julia Zelmanovich Young Alumnus Award, NYU School of Medicine
  • 2008-2010
    Charles A. Dana Foundation Clinical Scholars Research Fellowship
  • 2007
    US Patent 20060083742 Prenyl-electrostatic Switch
  • 2005
    Medical Science Writing Award, NYU School of Medicine
  • 1998-2005
    NIH Medical Scientist Training Program Award
  • 1998
    Vanderbilt University Research Excellence Award
  • 1998
    Vanderbilt University Honors Degree in Molecular Biology

Selected Publications

  1. Menon S, Gracilla D, Breese MR, Lin YP, Cruz FD, Feinberg T, de Stanchina E, Galic AF, Allegakoen H, Perati S, Wen N, Heslin A, Horlbeck MA, Weissman J, Sweet-Cordero EA, Bivona TG, Tulpule A. FET fusion oncoproteins disrupt physiologic DNA repair networks in cancer. bioRxiv. 2024 Nov 21.  View on PubMed
  2. Gonzalez-Martinez D, Roth L, Mumford TR, Guan J, Le A, Doebele RC, Huang B, Tulpule A, Niewiadomska-Bugaj M, Bivona TG, Bugaj LJ. Oncogenic EML4-ALK assemblies suppress growth factor perception and modulate drug tolerance. Nat Commun. 2024 Nov 02; 15(1):9473.  View on PubMed
  3. Skoulidis F, Araujo HA, Do MT, Qian Y, Sun X, Cobo AG, Le JT, Montesion M, Palmer R, Jahchan N, Juan JM, Min C, Yu Y, Pan X, Arbour KC, Vokes N, Schmidt ST, Molkentine D, Owen DH, Memmott R, Patil PD, Marmarelis ME, Awad MM, Murray JC, Hellyer JA, Gainor JF, Dimou A, Bestvina CM, Shu CA, Riess JW, Blakely CM, Pecot CV, Mezquita L, Tabbó F, Scheffler M, Digumarthy S, Mooradian MJ, Sacher AG, Lau SCM, Saltos AN, Rotow J, Johnson RP, Liu C, Stewart T, Goldberg SB, Killam J, Walther Z, Schalper K, Davies KD, Woodcock MG, Anagnostou V, Marrone KA, Forde PM, Ricciuti B, Venkatraman D, Van Allen EM, Cummings AL, Goldman JW, Shaish H, Kier M, Katz S, Aggarwal C, Ni Y, Azok JT, Segal J, Ritterhouse L, Neal JW, Lacroix L, Elamin YY, Negrao MV, Le X, Lam VK, Lewis WE, Kemp HN, Carter B, Roth JA, Swisher S, Lee R, Zhou T, Poteete A, Kong Y, Takehara T, Paula AG, Parra Cuentas ER, Behrens C, Wistuba II, Zhang J, Blumenschein GR, Gay C, Byers LA, Gibbons DL, Tsao A, Lee JJ, Bivona TG, Camidge DR, Gray JE, Lieghl N, Levy B, Brahmer JR, Garassino MC, Gandara DR, Garon EB, Rizvi NA, Scagliotti GV, Wolf J, Planchard D, Besse B, Herbst RS, Wakelee HA, Pennell NA, Shaw AT, Jänne PA, Carbone DP, Hellmann MD, Rudin CM, Albacker L, Mann H, Zhu Z, Lai Z, Stewart R, Peters S, Johnson ML, Wong KK, Huang A, Winslow MM, Rosen MJ, Winters IP, Papadimitrakopoulou VA, Cascone T, Jewsbury P, Heymach JV. CTLA4 blockade abrogates KEAP1/STK11-related resistance to PD-(L)1 inhibitors. Nature. 2024 Oct 09.  View on PubMed
  4. Yadav P, Ortega JG, Tamaki W, Chien C, Chang KC, Biswas N, Pan S, Nilsson J, Yin X, Bhattacharyya A, Boostanpour K, Jujaray T, Wang J, Tsukui T, Sheppard D, Li B, Maishan M, Taenaka H, Matthay MA, Muramatsu R, Maliskova L, Ghosh A, Eckalbar WL, Molofsky AB, Wolters PJ, Tamaki SJ, Bivona T, Abate AR, Wagner A, Tharp KM, Bhattacharya M. Macrophage-fibroblast crosstalk drives Arg1-dependent lung fibrosis via ornithine loading. bioRxiv. 2024 Jul 31.  View on PubMed
  5. Blakely CM, Urisman A, Gubens MA, Mulvey CK, Allen GM, Shiboski SC, Rotow JK, Chakrabarti T, Kerr DL, Aredo JV, Bacaltos B, Gee M, Tan L, Jones KD, Devine WP, Doebele RC, Aisner DL, Patil T, Schenk EL, Bivona TG, Riess JW, Coleman M, Kratz JR, Jablons DM. Neoadjuvant Osimertinib for the Treatment of Stage I-IIIA Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor-Mutated Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Phase II Multicenter Study. J Clin Oncol. 2024 Sep 10; 42(26):3105-3114.  View on PubMed
  6. Lara MS, Riess JW, Goldman JW, Jiang F, Bivona TG, Blakely CM. Current Trial Report: A Multicenter Phase I/Ib study of Capmatinib Plus Trametinib in Patients With Metastatic Nonsmall Cell Lung Center Harboring MET Exon 14 Skipping Mutations and Other MET-Alterations. Clin Lung Cancer. 2024 Dec; 25(8):732-737.  View on PubMed
  7. Hobor S, Al Bakir M, Hiley CT, Skrzypski M, Frankell AM, Bakker B, Watkins TBK, Markovets A, Dry JR, Brown AP, van der Aart J, van den Bos H, Spierings D, Oukrif D, Novelli M, Chakrabarti T, Rabinowitz AH, Ait Hassou L, Litière S, Kerr DL, Tan L, Kelly G, Moore DA, Renshaw MJ, Venkatesan S, Hill W, Huebner A, Martínez-Ruiz C, Black JRM, Wu W, Angelova M, McGranahan N, Downward J, Chmielecki J, Barrett C, Litchfield K, Chew SK, Blakely CM, de Bruin EC, Foijer F, Vousden KH, Bivona TG, TRACERx consortium, Hynds RE, Kanu N, Zaccaria S, Grönroos E, Swanton C. Mixed responses to targeted therapy driven by chromosomal instability through p53 dysfunction and genome doubling. Nat Commun. 2024 Jun 13; 15(1):4871.  View on PubMed
  8. Azad TD, Nanjo S, Jin MC, Chabon JJ, Kurtz DM, Chaudhuri AA, Connolly ID, Hui AB, Liu CL, Merriott D, Ko R, Yoo C, Carter J, Chen E, Bonilla R, Hata A, Katakami N, Irie K, Yano S, Okimoto R, Bivona TG, Newman AM, Iv M, Nagpal S, Gephart MH, Alizadeh AA, Diehn M. Quantification of cerebrospinal fluid tumor DNA in lung cancer patients with suspected leptomeningeal carcinomatosis. NPJ Precis Oncol. 2024 May 28; 8(1):121.  View on PubMed
  9. Haderk F, Chou YT, Cech L, Fernández-Méndez C, Yu J, Olivas V, Meraz IM, Barbosa Rabago D, Kerr DL, Gomez C, Allegakoen DV, Guan J, Shah KN, Herrington KA, Gbenedio OM, Nanjo S, Majidi M, Tamaki W, Pourmoghadam YK, Rotow JK, McCoach CE, Riess JW, Gutkind JS, Tang TT, Post L, Huang B, Santisteban P, Goodarzi H, Bandyopadhyay S, Kuo CJ, Roose JP, Wu W, Blakely CM, Roth JA, Bivona TG. Focal adhesion kinase-YAP signaling axis drives drug-tolerant persister cells and residual disease in lung cancer. Nat Commun. 2024 May 03; 15(1):3741.  View on PubMed
  10. Sinha S, Vegesna R, Mukherjee S, Kammula AV, Dhruba SR, Wu W, Kerr DL, Nair NU, Jones MG, Yosef N, Stroganov OV, Grishagin I, Aldape KD, Blakely CM, Jiang P, Thomas CJ, Benes CH, Bivona TG, Schäffer AA, Ruppin E. PERCEPTION predicts patient response and resistance to treatment using single-cell transcriptomics of their tumors. Nat Cancer. 2024 Jun; 5(6):938-952.  View on PubMed
  11. Bivona TG. Phase-Separated Biomolecular Condensation in Cancer: New Horizons and Next Frontiers. Cancer Discov. 2024 Apr 04; 14(4):630-634.  View on PubMed
  12. Gencel-Augusto J, Bivona TG. Unlocking the EGFR-mediated epitranscriptome: A pathway to novel therapies. Mol Cell. 2023 12 07; 83(23):4199-4201.  View on PubMed
  13. Caswell DR, Gui P, Mayekar MK, Law EK, Pich O, Bailey C, Boumelha J, Kerr DL, Blakely CM, Manabe T, Martinez-Ruiz C, Bakker B, De Dios Palomino Villcas J, I Vokes N, Dietzen M, Angelova M, Gini B, Tamaki W, Allegakoen P, Wu W, Humpton TJ, Hill W, Tomaschko M, Lu WT, Haderk F, Al Bakir M, Nagano A, Gimeno-Valiente F, de Carné Trécesson S, Vendramin R, Barbè V, Mugabo M, Weeden CE, Rowan A, McCoach CE, Almeida B, Green M, Gomez C, Nanjo S, Barbosa D, Moore C, Przewrocka J, Black JRM, Grönroos E, Suarez-Bonnet A, Priestnall SL, Zverev C, Lighterness S, Cormack J, Olivas V, Cech L, Andrews T, Rule B, Jiao Y, Zhang X, Ashford P, Durfee C, Venkatesan S, Temiz NA, Tan L, Larson LK, Argyris PP, Brown WL, Yu EA, Rotow JK, Guha U, Roper N, Yu J, Vogel RI, Thomas NJ, Marra A, Selenica P, Yu H, Bakhoum SF, Chew SK, Reis-Filho JS, Jamal-Hanjani M, Vousden KH, McGranahan N, Van Allen EM, Kanu N, Harris RS, Downward J, Bivona TG, Swanton C. The role of APOBEC3B in lung tumor evolution and targeted cancer therapy resistance. Nat Genet. 2024 Jan; 56(1):60-73.  View on PubMed
  14. Allegakoen DV, Kwong K, Morales J, Bivona TG, Sabnis AJ. The essential chaperone DNAJC17 activates HSP70 to coordinate RNA splicing and G2-M progression. bioRxiv. 2023 Oct 26.  View on PubMed
  15. Gencel-Augusto J, Wu W, Bivona TG. Long Non-Coding RNAs as Emerging Targets in Lung Cancer. Cancers (Basel). 2023 Jun 10; 15(12).  View on PubMed
  16. Meraz IM, Majidi M, Fang B, Meng F, Gao L, Shao R, Song R, Li F, Lissanu Y, Chen H, Ha MJ, Wang Q, Wang J, Shpall E, Jung SY, Haderk F, Gui P, Riess JW, Olivas V, Bivona TG, Roth JA. Author Correction: 3-Phosphoinositide-dependent kinase 1 drives acquired resistance to osimertinib. Commun Biol. 2023 Jun 06; 6(1):608.  View on PubMed
  17. Menon S, Breese MR, Lin YP, Allegakoen H, Perati S, Heslin A, Horlbeck MA, Weissman J, Sweet-Cordero EA, Bivona TG, Tulpule A. FET fusion oncoproteins disrupt physiologic DNA repair networks and induce ATR synthetic lethality in cancer. Res Sq. 2023 May 29.  View on PubMed
  18. Meraz IM, Majidi M, Fang B, Meng F, Gao L, Shao R, Song R, Li F, Lissanu Y, Chen H, Ha MJ, Wang Q, Wang J, Shpall E, Jung SY, Haderk F, Gui P, Riess JW, Olivas V, Bivona TG, Roth JA. 3-Phosphoinositide-dependent kinase 1 drives acquired resistance to osimertinib. Commun Biol. 2023 05 11; 6(1):509.  View on PubMed
  19. Morales J, Allegakoen DV, Garcia JA, Kwong K, Sahu PK, Fajardo DA, Pan Y, Horlbeck MA, Weissman JS, Gustafson WC, Bivona TG, Sabnis AJ. GATOR2-dependent mTORC1 activity is a therapeutic vulnerability in FOXO1 fusion-positive rhabdomyosarcoma. JCI Insight. 2022 12 08; 7(23).  View on PubMed
  20. Lara MS, Gubens MA, Bacaltos B, Daran L, Lim SL, Li T, Gandara DR, Bivona TG, Riess JW, Blakely CM. Phase 1 Study of Ceritinib Combined With Trametinib in Patients With Advanced ALK- or ROS1-Positive NSCLC. JTO Clin Res Rep. 2022 Dec; 3(12):100436.  View on PubMed

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