Research Summary

Dr. Franklin Huang is a physician-scientist and medical oncologist who cares for patients with prostate cancer.

Huang's lab examines genetic differences between cancer cells and normal tissue, aiming to determine what makes certain tumors more aggressive. His work seeks to understand prostate cancer in African Americans and to develop better treatments. His other areas of study include finding new drug targets for cancer patients with precision medicine (an approach that individualizes treatment by considering factors such as genetics and environment) and global oncology (a field focused on expanding access to cancer prevention and treatment). His research receives support from the National Institutes of Health, the United States Department of Defense, the Prostate Cancer Foundation, the Benioff Initiative for Prostate Cancer Research, the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub San Francisco, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Huang earned his doctorate in genetics from Harvard Medical School and his medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He completed a residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellowship in hematology and oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; both hospitals are Harvard affiliates. He is a co-founder of Global Oncology, a nonprofit working to improve cancer care for underserved patients around the world.

Education

  • Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, AB, 06/99, Biology
  • Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, MD, 05/08, Medicine
  • Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, PhD, 06/07, Genetics
  • Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, 06/08-06/10, Residency in Internal Medicine,
  • Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MAPostdoctoral06/18Hematology and Medical Oncology

 

Honors & Awards

  • 2022
    Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator
  • 2015
    DFCI Community Service Award
  • 2015
    Partners in Excellence Award
  • 2014
    Prostate Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award
  • 2014
    American Society of Clinical Oncology Young Investigator Award
  • 2013
    John R. Svenson Fellowship in Genomics
  • 2006
    Medical Scientist Training Program Award
  • 2006
    Albert J. Ryan Foundation Fellow
  • 2004
    International Bioiron Society Travel Award
  • 2001
    Forum for International Health and Tropical Medicine Travel Award

Selected Publications

  1. Kwon DH, Scheuner MT, McPhaul M, Hearst E, Sumra S, Ursem C, Walker E, Wang S, Huang FW, Aggarwal RR, Belkora J. Germline testing for veterans with advanced prostate cancer: concerns about service-connected benefits. JNCI Cancer Spectr. 2024 Sep 02; 8(5).  View on PubMed
  2. Weinstein HNW, Hu K, Fish L, Chen YA, Allegakoen P, Pham JH, Hui KSF, Chang CH, Tutar M, Benitez-Rivera L, Baco MB, Song H, Giacomelli AO, Vazquez F, Ghandi M, Goodarzi H, Huang FW. RPL22 is a tumor suppressor in MSI-high cancers and a splicing regulator of MDM4. Cell Rep. 2024 08 27; 43(8):114622.  View on PubMed
  3. Choudhury AD, Kwak L, Cheung A, Allaire KM, Marquez J, Yang DD, Tripathi A, Kilar JM, Flynn M, Maynard B, Reichel R, Pace AF, Chen BK, Van Allen EM, Kilbridge K, Wei XX, McGregor BA, Pomerantz MM, Bhatt RS, Sweeney CJ, Bubley GJ, Jacene HA, Taplin ME, Huang FW, Harshman LC, Fong L. Randomized Phase II Study Evaluating the Addition of Pembrolizumab to Radium-223 in Metastatic Castration-resistant Prostate Cancer. Cancer Immunol Res. 2024 Jun 04; 12(6):704-718.  View on PubMed
  4. Weinstein HNW, Hu K, Fish L, Chen YA, Allegakoen P, Hui KSF, Pham JH, Baco MB, Song H, Giacomelli AO, Vazquez F, Ghandi M, Goodarzi H, Huang FW. RPL22 is a tumor suppressor in MSI-high cancers and a key splicing regulator of MDM4. bioRxiv. 2023 Dec 10.  View on PubMed
  5. COVID Tissue Atlas Consortium, Granados AA, Bucher S, Song H, Agrawal A, Chen AT, Peng T, Neff N, Pisco AO, Huang F, Wang B. Single-nuclei characterization of pervasive transcriptional signatures across organs in response to COVID-19. Elife. 2023 10 13; 12.  View on PubMed
  6. Le T, Rojas PS, Fakunle M, Huang FW. Racial disparity in the genomics of precision oncology of prostate cancer. Cancer Rep (Hoboken). 2023 09; 6 Suppl 1:e1867.  View on PubMed
  7. Huang FW, Song H, Weinstein HN, Xie J, Cooperberg MR, Hicks J, Mummert L, De Marzo AM, Sfanos KS. Club-like cells in proliferative inflammatory atrophy of the prostate. J Pathol. 2023 09; 261(1):85-95.  View on PubMed
  8. Ding YC, Song H, Adamson AW, Schmolze D, Hu D, Huntsman S, Steele L, Patrick CS, Tao S, Hernandez N, Adams CD, Fejerman L, Gardner K, Nápoles AM, Pérez-Stable EJ, Weitzel JN, Bengtsson H, Huang FW, Neuhausen SL, Ziv E. Profiling the Somatic Mutational Landscape of Breast Tumors from Hispanic/Latina Women Reveals Conserved and Unique Characteristics. Cancer Res. 2023 08 01; 83(15):2600-2613.  View on PubMed
  9. Wong W, Dickerson JC, Valtis YK, Habet M, Bernard M, Kelly L, Lattin J, Garrity P, Sood R, Ohanian A, Chege MW, Bhatt AS, Huang FW, Yacab R. Cancer Demographics and Time-to-Care in Belize. Oncologist. 2023 06 02; 28(6):e350-e358.  View on PubMed
  10. Dutta R, Vallurupalli M, McVeigh Q, Huang FW, Rebbeck TR. Understanding inequities in precision oncology diagnostics. Nat Cancer. 2023 06; 4(6):787-794.  View on PubMed
  11. Xiao A, Shahmarvand N, Nagy A, Kumar J, Van Ziffle J, Devine P, Huang F, Lezama L, Li P, Ohgami RS. TFG::ALK fusion in ALK positive large B-cell lymphoma: a case report and review of literature. Front Oncol. 2023; 13:1174606.  View on PubMed
  12. Cheung ATM, Palapattu EL, Pompa IR, Aldrighetti CM, Niemierko A, Willers H, Huang F, Vapiwala N, Van Allen E, Kamran SC. Racial and ethnic disparities in a real-world precision oncology data registry. NPJ Precis Oncol. 2023 Jan 19; 7(1):7.  View on PubMed
  13. Mavura Y, Song H, Xie J, Tamayo P, Mohammed A, Lawal AT, Bello A, Ibrahim S, Faruk M, Huang FW. Transcriptomic profiling and genomic rearrangement landscape of Nigerian prostate cancer. Prostate. 2023 04; 83(5):395-402.  View on PubMed
  14. Germanos AA, Arora S, Zheng Y, Goddard ET, Coleman IM, Ku AT, Wilkinson S, Song H, Brady NJ, Amezquita RA, Zager M, Long A, Yang YC, Bielas JH, Gottardo R, Rickman DS, Huang FW, Ghajar CM, Nelson PS, Sowalsky AG, Setty M, Hsieh AC. Defining cellular population dynamics at single-cell resolution during prostate cancer progression. Elife. 2022 12 13; 11.  View on PubMed
  15. Gupta N, Song H, Wu W, Ponce RK, Lin YK, Kim JW, Small EJ, Feng FY, Huang FW, Okimoto RA. The CIC-ERF co-deletion underlies fusion-independent activation of ETS family member, ETV1, to drive prostate cancer progression. Elife. 2022 Nov 16; 11.  View on PubMed
  16. Sjöström M, Zhao SG, Levy S, Zhang M, Ning Y, Shrestha R, Lundberg A, Herberts C, Foye A, Aggarwal R, Hua JT, Li H, Bergamaschi A, Maurice-Dror C, Maheshwari A, Chen S, Ng SWS, Ye W, Petricca J, Fraser M, Chesner L, Perry MD, Moreno-Rodriguez T, Chen WS, Alumkal JJ, Chou J, Morgans AK, Beer TM, Thomas GV, Gleave M, Lloyd P, Phillips T, McCarthy E, Haffner MC, Zoubeidi A, Annala M, Reiter RE, Rettig MB, Witte ON, Fong L, Bose R, Huang FW, Luo J, Bjartell A, Lang JM, Mahajan NP, Lara PN, Evans CP, Tran PT, Posadas EM, He C, Cui XL, Huang J, Zwart W, Gilbert LA, Maher CA, Boutros PC, Chi KN, Ashworth A, Small EJ, He HH, Wyatt AW, Quigley DA, Feng FY. The 5-Hydroxymethylcytosine Landscape of Prostate Cancer. Cancer Res. 2022 11 02; 82(21):3888-3902.  View on PubMed
  17. Song H, Bucher S, Rosenberg K, Tsui M, Burhan D, Hoffman D, Cho SJ, Rangaswami A, Breese M, Leung S, Ventura MVP, Sweet-Cordero EA, Huang FW, Nijagal A, Wang B. Single-cell analysis of hepatoblastoma identifies tumor signatures that predict chemotherapy susceptibility using patient-specific tumor spheroids. Nat Commun. 2022 08 25; 13(1):4878.  View on PubMed
  18. Tabula Sapiens Consortium*, Jones RC, Karkanias J, Krasnow MA, Pisco AO, Quake SR, Salzman J, Yosef N, Bulthaup B, Brown P, Harper W, Hemenez M, Ponnusamy R, Salehi A, Sanagavarapu BA, Spallino E, Aaron KA, Concepcion W, Gardner JM, Kelly B, Neidlinger N, Wang Z, Crasta S, Kolluru S, Morri M, Tan SY, Travaglini KJ, Xu C, Alcántara-Hernández M, Almanzar N, Antony J, Beyersdorf B, Burhan D, Calcuttawala K, Carter MM, Chan CKF, Chang CA, Chang S, Colville A, Culver RN, Cvijovic I, D'Amato G, Ezran C, Galdos FX, Gillich A, Goodyer WR, Hang Y, Hayashi A, Houshdaran S, Huang X, Irwin JC, Jang S, Juanico JV, Kershner AM, Kim S, Kiss B, Kong W, Kumar ME, Kuo AH, Li B, Loeb GB, Lu WJ, Mantri S, Markovic M, McAlpine PL, de Morree A, Mrouj K, Mukherjee S, Muser T, Neuhöfer P, Nguyen TD, Perez K, Puluca N, Qi Z, Rao P, Raquer-McKay H, Schaum N, Scott B, Seddighzadeh B, Segal J, Sen S, Sikandar S, Spencer SP, Steffes LC, Subramaniam VR, Swarup A, Swift M, Van Treuren W, Trimm E, Veizades S, Vijayakumar S, Vo KC, Vorperian SK, Wang W, Weinstein HNW, Winkler J, Wu TTH, Xie J, Yung AR, Zhang Y, Detweiler AM, Mekonen H, Neff NF, Sit RV, Tan M, Yan J, Bean GR, Charu V, Forgó E, Martin BA, Ozawa MG, Silva O, Toland A, Vemuri VNP, Afik S, Awayan K, Botvinnik OB, Byrne A, Chen M, Dehghannasiri R, Gayoso A, Granados AA, Li Q, Mahmoudabadi G, McGeever A, Olivieri JE, Park M, Ravikumar N, Stanley G, Tan W, Tarashansky AJ, Vanheusden R, Wang P, Wang S, Xing G, Dethlefsen L, Ezran C, Gillich A, Hang Y, Ho PY, Irwin JC, Jang S, Leylek R, Liu S, Maltzman JS, Metzger RJ, Phansalkar R, Sasagawa K, Sinha R, Song H, Swarup A, Trimm E, Veizades S, Wang B, Beachy PA, Clarke MF, Giudice LC, Huang FW, Huang KC, Idoyaga J, Kim SK, Kuo CS, Nguyen P, Rando TA, Red-Horse K, Reiter J, Relman DA, Sonnenburg JL, Wu A, Wu SM, Wyss-Coray T. The Tabula Sapiens: A multiple-organ, single-cell transcriptomic atlas of humans. Science. 2022 05 13; 376(6594):eabl4896.  View on PubMed
  19. Shah NJ, Patel VG, Zhong X, Pina L, Hawley JE, Lin E, Gartrell BA, Febles VA, Wise DR, Qin Q, Mellgard G, Joshi H, Nauseef JT, Green DA, Vlachostergios PJ, Kwon DH, Huang F, Liaw B, Tagawa S, Kantoff P, Morris MJ, Oh WK. The Impact of Androgen Deprivation Therapy on COVID-19 Illness in Men With Prostate Cancer. JNCI Cancer Spectr. 2022 05 02; 6(3).  View on PubMed
  20. Nyame YA, Cooperberg MR, Cumberbatch MG, Eggener SE, Etzioni R, Gomez SL, Haiman C, Huang F, Lee CT, Litwin MS, Lyratzopoulos G, Mohler JL, Murphy AB, Pettaway C, Powell IJ, Sasieni P, Schaeffer EM, Shariat SF, Gore JL. Deconstructing, Addressing, and Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Inequities in Prostate Cancer Care. Eur Urol. 2022 10; 82(4):341-351.  View on PubMed

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