Research Summary

I am a Professor in the UCSF Departments of Neurological Surgery and Pathology, Director of the UCSF Brain Tumor Research Center Tissue Biorepository and Histology Core, Co-Director of the UCSF Neuropathology BTRC Biomarkers Laboratory, Co-Director of the UCSF Brain Tumor SPORE Biorepository, and Director of the Biospecimen and Biostatistics Core for a UCSF brain tumor-focused Program Project (P01). I received my MD and PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 2002, and I have over ten years of experience working in cancer and neuropathology. My research interests focus on studying how factors in the brain tumor microenvironment, including the extracellular matrix and immune cells, influence tumor development and invasion. I am the PI of an NINDS-funded R01 and an NCI-funded U01, and have published over 70 publications related to the development and therapy of brain tumors.

Research Funding

  • April 1, 2024 - January 31, 2029 - Regulating the glioma immune microenvironment , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01NS131474
  • April 1, 2019 - March 31, 2024 - Mitigation of preanalytic factors influencing brain tumor protein phosphorylation , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: U01CA229345
  • September 30, 2012 - June 30, 2018 - Heparan sulfate proteoglycans as critical regulators of brain cancer malignancy , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01NS081117
  • August 16, 2012 - June 30, 2018 - Extracellular Sulfatases As Novel Biomarkers For Early Detection of Cancer , Co-Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: U01CA168878
  • September 26, 2011 - July 31, 2016 - Biophysical and molecular dialogue of glioma cells and the brain microenvironment , Co-Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: U54CA163155
  • July 1, 2008 - June 30, 2013 - The role of microglia and macrophages in the development of brain tumors , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: K08NS063456

Education

Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, BS, 05/1994, Biology/Biochemistry
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, PhD, 05/2001, Neuroscience
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, MD, 05/2002, Medicine
University of Washington, Seattle, WA, Residency, 2002-2004, Anatomic Pathology
University of California SF, San Francisco, CA, Fellow, 2004-2006, Neuropathology

Honors & Awards

  • 2001
    Stuart Mudd Award in Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
  • 2005
    Moore Award for best paper on clinico-pathologic correlation, annual meeting of American Association of Neuropathologists
  • 2006
    Nominated UCSF School of Medicine Essential Teaching Award
  • 2006
    Young Pathologist Fellowship, American Society for Investigative Pathology, Experimental Biology annual meeting
  • 2006-08
    American Brain Tumor Association: Susan Resnick Fisher/American Brain Tumor Association Fellowship
  • 2008
    Rubinstein Award, best paper on neuro-oncology, annual meeting of American Association of Neuropathologists
  • 2010
    Aspen Cancer Conference Fellow
  • 2012
    Second place, Moore Award, Best paper on clinic-pathological correlation, annual meeting of American Association of Neuropathologists
  • 2013
    Nominated UCSF School of Medicine Essential Core Teaching Award
  • 2015
    Excellence in Teaching Award in medical education from the Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators

Selected Publications

  1. Beck JA, Mazcko C, Belluco S, Bitar M, Brat D, Bush JW, Chkheidze R, Corps KN, Frank C, Giannini C, Horbinski C, Huse JT, Koehler JW, Miller AD, Miller CR, O'Sullivan MG, Phillips JJ, Rissi DR, Schott CR, Stemmer-Rachamimov A, Yip S, LeBlanc AK Comparative pathology boards facilitate the translation of knowledge between canine and human cancer patients.  View on PubMed
  2. Piyadasa H, Oberlton B, Ribi M, Ranek JS, Averbukh I, Leow K, Amouzgar M, Liu CC, Greenwald NF, McCaffrey EF, Kumar R, Ferrian S, Tsai AG, Filiz F, Fullaway CC, Bosse M, Varra SR, Kong A, Sowers C, Gephart MH, Nuñez-Perez P, Yang E, Travers M, Schachter MJ, Liang S, Santi MR, Bucktrout S, Gherardini PF, Connolly J, Cole K, Barish ME, Brown CE, Oldridge DA, Drake RR, Phillips JJ, Okada H, Prins R, Bendall SC, Angelo M. Multi-omic landscape of human gliomas from diagnosis to treatment and recurrence. bioRxiv. 2025 Apr 09.  View on PubMed
  3. Young JS, Cho NW, Lucas CG, Najem H, Mirchia K, Chen WC, Seo K, Zakimi N, Daggubati V, Casey-Clyde T, Nguyen MP, Chen A, Phillips JJ, Ozawa T, Aghi MK, Taylor JW, DeRisi JL, Bhaduri A, Berger MS, Heimberger AB, Butowski N, Spitzer MH, Raleigh DR. IL-6 underlies microenvironment immunosuppression and resistance to therapy in glioblastoma. bioRxiv. 2025 Mar 14.  View on PubMed
  4. Wang Q, Wang J, Mathur R, Youngblood MW, Jin Q, Hou Y, Stasiak LA, Luan Y, Zhao H, Hilz S, Hong C, Chang SM, Lupo JM, Phillips JJ, Costello JF, Yue F Spatial 3D genome organization reveals intratumor heterogeneity in primary glioblastoma samples.  View on PubMed
  5. Kwok DW, Stevers NO, Etxeberria I, Nejo T, Colton Cove M, Chen LH, Jung J, Okada K, Lakshmanachetty S, Gallus M, Barpanda A, Hong C, Chan GKL, Liu J, Wu SH, Ramos E, Yamamichi A, Watchmaker PB, Ogino H, Saijo A, Du A, Grishanina NR, Woo J, Diaz A, Hervey-Jumper SL, Chang SM, Phillips JJ, Wiita AP, Klebanoff CA, Costello JF, Okada H. Tumour-wide RNA splicing aberrations generate actionable public neoantigens. Nature. 2025 Mar; 639(8054):463-473.  View on PubMed
  6. An Z, Fan QW, Wang L, Yoda H, Barata MJ, Jimenez-Morales D, Phillips JJ, Swaney DL, Stevenson E, Lee E, Krogan N, Weiss WA. EGFR and EGFRvIII coopt host defense pathways promoting progression in glioblastoma. Neuro Oncol. 2025 Feb 10; 27(2):383-397.  View on PubMed
  7. Rodriguez Almaraz E, Guerra GA, Al-Adli NN, Young JS, Dada A, Quintana D, Taylor JW, Oberheim Bush NA, Clarke JL, Butowski NA, de Groot J, Pekmezci M, Perry A, Bollen AW, Scheffler AW, Glidden DV, Phillips JJ, Costello JF, Chang EF, Hervey-Jumper S, Berger MS, Francis SS, Chang SM, Solomon DA. Longitudinal profiling of IDH-mutant astrocytomas reveals acquired RAS-MAPK pathway mutations associated with inferior survival. Neurooncol Adv. 2025 Jan-Dec; 7(1):vdaf024.  View on PubMed
  8. 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
  9. Mirchia K, Choudhury A, Joseph T, Birrueta JO, Phillips JJ, Bhaduri A, Crouch EE, Perry A, Raleigh DR. Meningeal solitary fibrous tumor cell states phenocopy cerebral vascular development and homeostasis. Neuro Oncol. 2025 Jan 12; 27(1):155-166.  View on PubMed
  10. Lee JJY, Tao R, You Z, Haldipur P, Erickson AW, Farooq H, Hendriske LD, Abeysundara N, Richman CM, Wang EY, Das Gupta N, Hadley J, Batts M, Mount CW, Wu X, Rasnitsyn A, Bailey S, Cavalli FMG, Morrissy S, Garzia L, Michealraj KA, Visvanathan A, Fong V, Palotta J, Suarez R, Livingston BG, Liu M, Luu B, Daniels C, Loukides J, Bendel A, French PJ, Kros JM, Korshunov A, Kool M, Chico Ponce de León F, Perezpeña-Diazconti M, Lach B, Singh SK, Leary SES, Cho BK, Kim SK, Wang KC, Lee JY, Tominaga T, Weiss WA, Phillips JJ, Dai S, Zadeh G, Saad AG, Bognár L, Klekner A, Pollack IF, Hamilton RL, Ra YS, Grajkowska WA, Perek-Polnik M, Thompson RC, Kenney AM, Cooper MK, Mack SC, Jabado N, Lupien M, Gallo M, Ramaswamy V, Suva ML, Suzuki H, Millen KJ, Huang LF, Northcott PA, Taylor MD ZIC1 is a context-dependent medulloblastoma driver in the rhombic lip.  View on PubMed
  11. Horbinski C, Solomon DA, Lukas RV, Packer RJ, Brastianos P, Wen PY, Snuderl M, Berger MS, Chang S, Fouladi M, Phillips JJ, Nabors B, Brat DJ, Huse JT, Aldape K, Sarkaria JN, Holdhoff M, Burns TC, Peters KB, Mellinghoff IK, Arons D, Galanis E. Molecular Testing for the World Health Organization Classification of Central Nervous System Tumors: A Review. JAMA Oncol. 2024 Dec 26.  View on PubMed
  12. de la Fuente MI, Touat M, van den Bent MJ, Preusser M, Peters KB, Young RJ, Huang RY, Ellingson BM, Capper D, Phillips JJ, Halasz LM, Shih HA, Rudà R, Lim-Fat MJ, Blumenthal DT, Weller M, Arakawa Y, Whittle JR, Ducray F, Reardon DA, Bi WL, Minniti G, Rahman R, Hervey-Jumper S, Chang SM, Wen PY. The role of vorasidenib in the treatment of isocitrate dehydrogenase-mutant glioma. Neuro Oncol. 2024 Dec 25.  View on PubMed
  13. Kim KS, Habashy K, Gould A, Zhao J, Najem H, Amidei C, Saganty R, Arrieta VA, Dmello C, Chen L, Zhang DY, Castro B, Billingham L, Levey D, Huber O, Marques M, Savitsky DA, Morin BM, Muzzio M, Canney M, Horbinski C, Zhang P, Miska J, Padney S, Zhang B, Rabadan R, Phillips JJ, Butowski N, Heimberger AB, Hu J, Stupp R, Chand D, Lee-Chang C, Sonabend AM. Fc-enhanced anti-CTLA-4, anti-PD-1, doxorubicin, and ultrasound-mediated blood-brain barrier opening: A novel combinatorial immunotherapy regimen for gliomas. Neuro Oncol. 2024 Nov 04; 26(11):2044-2060.  View on PubMed
  14. Choudhury A, Cady MA, Lucas CG, Najem H, Phillips JJ, Palikuqi B, Zakimi N, Joseph T, Birrueta JO, Chen WC, Oberheim Bush NA, Hervey-Jumper SL, Klein OD, Toedebusch CM, Horbinski CM, Magill ST, Bhaduri A, Perry A, Dickinson PJ, Heimberger AB, Ashworth A, Crouch EE, Raleigh DR. Perivascular NOTCH3+ Stem Cells Drive Meningioma Tumorigenesis and Resistance to Radiotherapy. Cancer Discov. 2024 Oct 04; 14(10):1823-1837.  View on PubMed
  15. Rodriguez A, Ahluwalia MS, Bettegowda C, Brem H, Carter BS, Chang S, Das S, Eberhart C, Garzon-Muvdi T, Hadjipanayis CG, Hawkins C, Jacques TS, Khalessi AA, McDermott MW, Mikkelsen T, Orr BA, Phillips JJ, Rosenblum M, Shelton WJ, Solomon DA, von Deimling A, Woodworth GF, Rutka JT Toward standardized brain tumor tissue processing protocols in neuro-oncology: a perspective for gliomas and beyond.  View on PubMed
  16. Schmidt C, Cohen S, Gudenas BL, Husain S, Carlson A, Westelman S, Wang L, Phillips JJ, Northcott PA, Weiss WA, Schwer B. PRDM6 promotes medulloblastoma by repressing chromatin accessibility and altering gene expression. Sci Rep. 2024 07 12; 14(1):16074.  View on PubMed
  17. Schupp PG, Shelton SJ, Brody DJ, Eliscu R, Johnson BE, Mazor T, Kelley KW, Potts MB, McDermott MW, Huang EJ, Lim DA, Pieper RO, Berger MS, Costello JF, Phillips JJ, Oldham MC. Deconstructing Intratumoral Heterogeneity through Multiomic and Multiscale Analysis of Serial Sections. Cancers (Basel). 2024 Jul 01; 16(13).  View on PubMed
  18. Lucas CG, Mirchia K, Seo K, Najem H, Chen WC, Zakimi N, Foster K, Eaton CD, Cady MA, Choudhury A, Liu SJ, Phillips JJ, Magill ST, Horbinski CM, Solomon DA, Perry A, Vasudevan HN, Heimberger AB, Raleigh DR. Spatial genomic, biochemical and cellular mechanisms underlying meningioma heterogeneity and evolution. Nat Genet. 2024 Jun; 56(6):1121-1133.  View on PubMed
  19. Beccari S, Mohamed E, Voong V, Hilz S, Lafontaine M, Shai A, Lim Y, Martinez J, Switzman B, Yu RL, Lupo JM, Chang EF, Hervey-Jumper SL, Berger MS, Costello JF, Phillips JJ. Quantitative Assessment of Preanalytic Variables on Clinical Evaluation of PI3/AKT/mTOR Signaling Activity in Diffuse Glioma. Mod Pathol. 2024 Jun; 37(6):100488.  View on PubMed
  20. Appin CL, Hong C, Suwala AK, Hilz S, Mathur R, Solomon DA, Smirnov IV, Stevers NO, Shai A, Wang A, Berger MS, Chang SM, Phillips JJ, Costello JF. Whole tumor analysis reveals early origin of the TERT promoter mutation and intercellular heterogeneity in TERT expression. Neuro Oncol. 2024 04 05; 26(4):640-652.  View on PubMed

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