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. Wen PY, van den Bent M, Youssef G, Cloughesy TF, Ellingson BM, Weller M, Galanis E, Barboriak DP, de Groot J, Gilbert MR, Huang R, Lassman AB, Mehta M, Molinaro AM, Preusser M, Rahman R, Shankar LK, Stupp R, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Wick W, Macdonald DR, Reardon DA, Vogelbaum MA, Chang SM. RANO 2.0: Update to the Response Assessment in Neuro-Oncology Criteria for High- and Low-Grade Gliomas in Adults. J Clin Oncol. 2023 Nov 20; 41(33):5187-5199.  View on PubMed
  2. Saijo A, Ogino H, Butowski NA, Tedesco MR, Gibson D, Watchmaker PB, Okada K, Wang AS, Shai A, Salazar AM, Molinaro AM, Rabbitt JE, Shahin M, Perry A, Clarke JL, Taylor JW, Daras M, Oberheim Bush NA, Hervey-Jumper SL, Phillips JJ, Chang SM, Hilf N, Mayer-Mokler A, Keler T, Berger MS, Okada H. A combinatory vaccine with IMA950 plus varlilumab promotes effector memory T-cell differentiation in the peripheral blood of patients with low-grade gliomas. Neuro Oncol. 2024 02 02; 26(2):335-347.  View on PubMed
  3. Karschnia P, Dono A, Young JS, Juenger ST, Teske N, Häni L, Sciortino T, Mau CY, Bruno F, Nunez L, Morshed RA, Haddad AF, Weller M, van den Bent M, Beck J, Hervey-Jumper S, Molinaro AM, Tandon N, Rudà R, Vogelbaum MA, Bello L, Schnell O, Grau SJ, Chang SM, Berger MS, Esquenazi Y, Tonn JC. Prognostic evaluation of re-resection for recurrent glioblastoma using the novel RANO classification for extent of resection: A report of the RANO resect group. Neuro Oncol. 2023 09 05; 25(9):1672-1685.  View on PubMed
  4. Karschnia P, Dietrich J, Bruno F, Dono A, Juenger ST, Teske N, Young JS, Sciortino T, Häni L, van den Bent M, Weller M, Vogelbaum MA, Morshed RA, Haddad AF, Molinaro AM, Tandon N, Beck J, Schnell O, Bello L, Hervey-Jumper S, Thon N, Grau SJ, Esquenazi Y, Rudà R, Chang SM, Berger MS, Cahill DP, Tonn JC. Surgical management and outcome of newly diagnosed glioblastoma without contrast enhancement (low-grade appearance): a report of the RANO resect group. Neuro Oncol. 2024 01 05; 26(1):166-177.  View on PubMed
  5. Autry AW, Vaziri S, LaFontaine M, Gordon JW, Chen HY, Kim Y, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Molinaro A, Clarke JL, Oberheim Bush NA, Xu D, Lupo JM, Larson PEZ, Vigneron DB, Chang SM, Li Y. Multi-parametric hyperpolarized 13C/1H imaging reveals Warburg-related metabolic dysfunction and associated regional heterogeneity in high-grade human gliomas. Neuroimage Clin. 2023; 39:103501.  View on PubMed
  6. Chen JQ, Salas LA, Wiencke JK, Koestler DC, Molinaro AM, Andrew AS, Seigne JD, Karagas MR, Kelsey KT, Christensen BC. Genome-scale methylation analysis identifies immune profiles and age acceleration associations with bladder cancer outcomes. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2023 Aug 01.  View on PubMed
  7. Bell-Glenn S, Salas LA, Molinaro AM, Butler RA, Christensen BC, Kelsey KT, Wiencke JK, Koestler DC. Calculating detection limits and uncertainty of reference-based deconvolution of whole-blood DNA methylation data. Epigenomics. 2023 04; 15(7):435-451.  View on PubMed
  8. Zhang Z, Wiencke JK, Kelsey KT, Koestler DC, Molinaro AM, Pike SC, Karra P, Christensen BC, Salas LA. Hierarchical deconvolution for extensive cell type resolution in the human brain using DNA methylation. Front Neurosci. 2023; 17:1198243.  View on PubMed
  9. Mueller S, Kline C, Stoller S, Lundy S, Christopher L, Reddy AT, Banerjee A, Cooney TM, Raber S, Hoffman C, Luks T, Wembacher-Schroeder E, Lummel N, Zhang Y, Bonner ER, Nazarian J, Molinaro AM, Prados M, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Gupta N. PNOC015: Repeated convection-enhanced delivery of MTX110 (aqueous panobinostat) in children with newly diagnosed diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma. Neuro Oncol. 2023 11 02; 25(11):2074-2086.  View on PubMed
  10. Guerra G, McCoy L, Hansen HM, Rice T, Molinaro AM, Wiemels JL, Wiencke JK, Wrensch M, Francis SS. Antibodies to varicella-zoster virus and three other herpesviruses and survival in adults with glioma. Neuro Oncol. 2023 06 02; 25(6):1047-1057.  View on PubMed
  11. Karschnia P, Young JS, Dono A, Häni L, Sciortino T, Bruno F, Juenger ST, Teske N, Morshed RA, Haddad AF, Zhang Y, Stoecklein S, Weller M, Vogelbaum MA, Beck J, Tandon N, Hervey-Jumper S, Molinaro AM, Rudà R, Bello L, Schnell O, Esquenazi Y, Ruge MI, Grau SJ, Berger MS, Chang SM, van den Bent M, Tonn JC. Prognostic validation of a new classification system for extent of resection in glioblastoma: A report of the RANO resect group. Neuro Oncol. 2023 05 04; 25(5):940-954.  View on PubMed
  12. Krishna S, Choudhury A, Keough MB, Seo K, Ni L, Kakaizada S, Lee A, Aabedi A, Popova G, Lipkin B, Cao C, Nava Gonzales C, Sudharshan R, Egladyous A, Almeida N, Zhang Y, Molinaro AM, Venkatesh HS, Daniel AGS, Shamardani K, Hyer J, Chang EF, Findlay A, Phillips JJ, Nagarajan S, Raleigh DR, Brang D, Monje M, Hervey-Jumper SL. Glioblastoma remodelling of human neural circuits decreases survival. Nature. 2023 05; 617(7961):599-607.  View on PubMed
  13. Nissen E, Reiner A, Liu S, Wallace RB, Molinaro AM, Salas LA, Christensen BC, Wiencke JK, Koestler DC, Kelsey KT. Assessment of immune cell profiles among post-menopausal women in the Women's Health Initiative using DNA methylation-based methods. Clin Epigenetics. 2023 04 28; 15(1):69.  View on PubMed
  14. Kondapavulur S, Silva AB, Molinaro AM, Wang DD. A Systematic Review Comparing Focused Ultrasound Surgery With Radiosurgery for Essential Tremor. Neurosurgery. 2023 09 01; 93(3):524-538.  View on PubMed
  15. 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 08 01; 139(2):402-413.  View on PubMed
  16. 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 04 10; 41(11):2029-2042.  View on PubMed
  17. Zhang Z, Butler R, Koestler DC, Bell-Glenn S, Warrier G, Molinaro AM, Christensen BC, Wiencke JK, Kelsey KT, Salas LA. Comparative analysis of the DNA methylation landscape in CD4, CD8, and B memory lineages. Clin Epigenetics. 2022 12 15; 14(1):173.  View on PubMed
  18. Tang E, Wiencke JK, Warrier G, Hansen H, McCoy L, Rice T, Bracci PM, Wrensch M, Taylor JW, Clarke JL, Koestler DC, Salas LA, Christensen BC, Kelsey KT, Molinaro AM. Evaluation of cross-platform compatibility of a DNA methylation-based glucocorticoid response biomarker. Clin Epigenetics. 2022 10 28; 14(1):136.  View on PubMed
  19. 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
  20. Karschnia P, Young JS, Dono A, Häni L, Juenger ST, Sciortino T, Bruno F, Teske N, Morshed RA, Haddad AF, Zhang Y, Stoecklein S, Vogelbaum MA, Beck J, Tandon N, Hervey-Jumper S, Molinaro AM, Rudà R, Bello L, Schnell O, Esquenazi Y, Ruge MI, Grau SJ, van den Bent M, Weller M, Berger MS, Chang SM, Tonn JC. TERT promotor status does not add prognostic information in IDH-wildtype glioblastomas fulfilling other diagnostic WHO criteria: A report of the RANO resect group. Neurooncol Adv. 2022 Jan-Dec; 4(1):vdac158.  View on PubMed

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