Research Summary

Dr. Molinaro's research interest and expertise are focused on developing and implementing statistical and machine learning methods in cancer research, spanning basic research, translational, and clinical studies. In her current roles as the Director of Biomedical Statistics and Informatics for the UCSF Department of Neurological Surgery and Biostatistics Core Director for both the Brain SPORE and Program Project, Dr. Molinaro advises study design and modeling, and analyzes data from all UCSF Brain Tumor Center projects in imaging, genetics, genomics, epidemiology and immunology. She is the co-PI of the Brain SPORE Project to develop immune profile markers for risk prediction in glioblastoma patients and the co-PI of the Program Project Project to use machine learning and AI to develop spatial maps of risk from anatomical, physiological, and metabolic images.

Dr. Molinaro has over one-hundred and fifty publications in addition to authoring three book chapters and several freely available software packages for the analysis of high-dimensional data. Dr. Molinaro is an elected member of the National Cancer Institute’s Brain Malignancies Steering Committee and the International Statistical Institute. She serves as a member of the Society for Neuro-Oncology’s Committee for Women and Diversity and is an organizer for SNO’s Biostatistics Education Efforts for Online Learning. Dr. Molinaro is the Editor for the “Series on Biostatistics for the Practicing Clinician" for Neuro-Oncology Practice, and serves on the Editorial Board for Neuro-Oncology Practice, Neuro-Oncology, and Neuro-Oncology Advances.

Research Funding

  • September 20, 2002 - August 31, 2023 - Brain Tumor SPORE Grant , Co-Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: P50CA097257
  • July 10, 2012 - April 30, 2018 - Novel Tree-based Statistical Methods for Cancer Risk Prediction , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA163687
  • June 1, 2006 - August 31, 2017 - Yale SPORE in Skin Cancer , Co-Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: P50CA121974
  • July 6, 2006 - June 30, 2009 - Statistical Methods for Predicting Survival Outcomes from Genomic Data , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: K22CA123146

Education

Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL BS, 05/92, Statistics
University of California, Berkeley, CA, MA, 05/00, Biostatistics
University of California, Berkeley, CA, PhD, 01/04, Biostatistics
National Cancer Institute, Rockville, MD, 06/04-06/05, Cancer Prevention / Biostatistics

Honors & Awards

  • 2004
    Evelyn Fix Prize, University of California, Berkeley
  • 2004
    Chin Long Chiang Biostatistics Student of the Year, University of California, Berkeley
  • 2006
    Elected as a Member of the International Statistical Institute.
  • 2008
    Teacher of the Year Award, Yale University School of Public Health
  • 2009
    Selected as a Yale Center for Clinical Investigation Scholar, Yale University School of Medicine
  • 2013
    Diane D. Ralston Clinical and Basic Neuroscience Teaching Award, UCSF
  • 2017
    Selected for the Teaching Scholars Program, UCSF

Selected Publications

  1. Guerra G, Nakase T, Kachuri L, McCoy L, Hansen HM, Rice T, Wiemels JL, Wiencke JK, Molinaro AM, Wrensch M, Francis SS. Association of immunoglobulin E levels with glioma risk and survival. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2025 Mar 01; 117(3):545-553.  View on PubMed
  2. Kachuri L, Guerra GA, Nakase T, Wendt GA, Hansen HM, Molinaro AM, Bracci P, McCoy L, Rice T, Wiencke JK, Eckel-Passow JE, Jenkins RB, Wrensch M, Francis SS. Genetic predisposition to altered blood cell homeostasis is associated with glioma risk and survival. Nat Commun. 2025 Jan 14; 16(1):658.  View on PubMed
  3. Lucas CG, Al-Adli NN, Young JS, Gupta R, Morshed RA, Wu J, Ravindranathan A, Shai A, Oberheim Bush NA, Taylor JW, de Groot J, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Pekmezci M, Perry A, Bollen AW, Theodosopoulos PV, Aghi MK, Chang EF, Hervey-Jumper SL, Raleigh DR, Molinaro AM, Costello JF, Diaz AA, Clarke JL, Butowski NA, Phillips JJ, Chang SM, Berger MS, Solomon DA. Longitudinal multimodal profiling of IDH-wildtype glioblastoma reveals the molecular evolution and cellular phenotypes underlying prognostically different treatment responses. Neuro Oncol. 2025 Jan 12; 27(1):89-105.  View on PubMed
  4. Narsinh KH, Kumar K, Bankiewicz K, Martin AJ, Berger M, Clarke J, Taylor J, Bush NAO, Molinaro AM, Aghi M, Butowski N. A phase I study of convection-enhanced delivery (CED) of liposomal-irinotecan using real-time magnetic resonance imaging in patients with recurrent high-grade glioma. J Neurooncol. 2025 Mar; 172(1):219-227.  View on PubMed
  5. Guerra G, Wendt G, McCoy L, Hansen HM, Kachuri L, Molinaro AM, Rice T, Guan V, Capistrano L, Hsieh A, Kalsi V, Sallee J, Taylor JW, Clarke JL, Almaraz ER, Wiencke JK, Eckel-Passow JE, Jenkins RB, Wrensch M, Francis SS. Functional germline variants in DNA damage repair pathways are associated with altered survival in adults with glioma treated with temozolomide. Neuro Oncol. 2025 Jan 02.  View on PubMed
  6. Gerritsen JKW, Karschnia P, Young JS, van den Bent MJ, Chang SM, Smith TR, Nahed BV, Rincon-Torroella J, Bettegowda C, Sanai N, Krieg SM, Maruyama T, Schucht P, Broekman MLD, Tonn JC, Wen PY, De Vleeschouwer S, Vincent AJPE, Hervey-Jumper S, Berger MS, Mekary RA, Molinaro AM. Practical and statistical aspects of subgroup analyses in surgical neuro-oncology: A comprehensive review from the PIONEER Consortium. Neuro Oncol. 2024 Dec 07.  View on PubMed
  7. Zhang Z, Sehgal K, Shirai K, Butler RA, Wiencke JK, Koestler DC, Ramush G, Lee MK, Molinaro AM, Stolrow HG, Birnbaum A, Salas LA, Haddad RI, Kelsey KT, Christensen BC. Methylation cytometric pretreatment blood immune profiles with tumor mutation burden as prognostic indicators for survival outcomes in head and neck cancer patients on anti-PD-1 therapy. NPJ Precis Oncol. 2024 Nov 18; 8(1):267.  View on PubMed
  8. Moore CL, Gross CP, Hart L, Molinaro AM, Rhodes D, Singh D, Baloescu C. Construction and performance of a clinical prediction rule for ureteral stone without the use of race or ethnicity: A new STONE score. J Am Coll Emerg Physicians Open. 2024 Dec; 5(6):e13324.  View on PubMed
  9. Karschnia P, Young JS, Youssef GC, Dono A, Häni L, Sciortino T, Bruno F, Juenger ST, Teske N, Dietrich J, Weller M, Vogelbaum MA, van den Bent M, Beck J, Thon N, Gerritsen JKW, Hervey-Jumper S, Cahill DP, Chang SM, Rudà R, Bello L, Schnell O, Esquenazi Y, Ruge MI, Grau SJ, Huang RY, Wen PY, Berger MS, Molinaro AM, Tonn JC, RANO resect group. Development and validation of a clinical risk model for postoperative outcome in newly diagnosed glioblastoma: a report of the RANO resect group. Neuro Oncol. 2024 Nov 04.  View on PubMed
  10. Mehari M, Sibih Y, Dada A, Chang SM, Wen PY, Molinaro AM, Chukwueke UN, Budhu JA, Jackson S, McFaline-Figueroa JR, Porter A, Hervey-Jumper SL. Enhancing neuro-oncology care through equity-driven applications of artificial intelligence. Neuro Oncol. 2024 Nov 04; 26(11):1951-1963.  View on PubMed
  11. Pike SC, Wiencke JK, Zhang Z, Molinaro AM, Hansen HM, Koestler DC, Christensen BC, Kelsey KT, Salas LA. Glioma immune microenvironment composition calculator (GIMiCC): a method of estimating the proportions of eighteen cell types from DNA methylation microarray data. Acta Neuropathol Commun. 2024 Oct 28; 12(1):170.  View on PubMed
  12. Guerra G, Wendt G, McCoy L, Hansen HM, Kachuri L, Molinaro AM, Rice T, Guan V, Capistrano L, Hsieh A, Kalsi V, Sallee J, Taylor JW, Clarke JL, Rodriguez Almaraz E, Wiencke JK, Eckel-Passow JE, Jenkins RB, Wrensch M, Francis SS. Functional germline variants in DNA damage repair pathways are associated with altered survival in adults with glioma treated with temozolomide. medRxiv. 2024 Oct 10.  View on PubMed
  13. Guerra G, Nakase T, Kachuri L, McCoy L, Hansen HM, Rice T, Wiemels JL, Wiencke JK, Molinaro AM, Wrensch M, Francis SS. Association of immunoglobulin E levels with glioma risk and survival. medRxiv. 2024 Sep 23.  View on PubMed
  14. Yonk MG, Lim MA, Thompson CM, Tora MS, Lakhina Y, Du Y, Hoang KB, Molinaro AM, Boulis NM, Hassaneen W, Lei K. Improving glioma drug delivery: A multifaceted approach for glioma drug development. Pharmacol Res. 2024 Oct; 208:107390.  View on PubMed
  15. Taylor JW, Warrier G, Hansen HM, McCoy L, Rice T, Guerra G, Francis SS, Clarke JL, Bracci PM, Hadad S, Kelsey KT, Wrensch M, Molinaro AM, Wiencke JK. Oligodendroglioma patient survival is associated with circulating B-cells and age. Neurooncol Adv. 2024 Jan-Dec; 6(1):vdae143.  View on PubMed
  16. Alsup A, Nissen E, Salas LA, Molinaro AM, Reiner A, Liu S, Madsen TE, Liu L, Auer PL, Christensen BC, Wiencke JK, Kelsey KT, Koestler DC. An assessment of compositional methods for the analysis of DNA methylation-based deconvolution estimates. Epigenomics. 2024; 16(15-16):1067-1080.  View on PubMed
  17. Ellison J, Caliva F, Damasceno P, Luks TL, LaFontaine M, Cluceru J, Kemisetti A, Li Y, Molinaro AM, Pedoia V, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Lupo JM. Improving the Generalizability of Deep Learning for T2-Lesion Segmentation of Gliomas in the Post-Treatment Setting. Bioengineering (Basel). 2024 May 16; 11(5).  View on PubMed
  18. Mueller S, Kline C, Franson A, van der Lugt J, Prados M, Waszak SM, Plasschaert SLA, Molinaro AM, Koschmann C, Nazarian J. Rational combination platform trial design for children and young adults with diffuse midline glioma: A report from PNOC. Neuro Oncol. 2024 May 03; 26(Supplement_2):S125-S135.  View on PubMed
  19. Mendez-Gomez HR, DeVries A, Castillo P, von Roemeling C, Qdaisat S, Stover BD, Xie C, Weidert F, Zhao C, Moor R, Liu R, Soni D, Ogando-Rivas E, Chardon-Robles J, McGuiness J, Zhang D, Chung MC, Marconi C, Michel S, Barpujari A, Jobin GW, Thomas N, Ma X, Campaneria Y, Grippin A, Karachi A, Li D, Sahay B, Elliott L, Foster TP, Coleman KE, Milner RJ, Sawyer WG, Ligon JA, Simon E, Cleaver B, Wynne K, Hodik M, Molinaro AM, Guan J, Kellish P, Doty A, Lee JH, Massini T, Kresak JL, Huang J, Hwang EI, Kline C, Carrera-Justiz S, Rahman M, Gatica S, Mueller S, Prados M, Ghiaseddin AP, Silver NL, Mitchell DA, Sayour EJ. RNA aggregates harness the danger response for potent cancer immunotherapy. Cell. 2024 May 09; 187(10):2521-2535.e21.  View on PubMed
  20. Ramakrishnan D, Brüningk SC, von Reppert M, Memon F, Maleki N, Aneja S, Kazerooni AF, Nabavizadeh A, Lin M, Bousabarah K, Molinaro A, Nicolaides T, Prados M, Mueller S, Aboian MS. Comparison of Volumetric and 2D Measurements and Longitudinal Trajectories in the Response Assessment of BRAF V600E-Mutant Pediatric Gliomas in the Pacific Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Consortium Clinical Trial. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2024 04 08; 45(4):475-482.  View on PubMed

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