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

  • 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
  • February 1, 2013 - January 31, 2024 - Rational Combined Inhibition of NF-kB and EGFR to Optimize Lung Cancer Treatment , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA169338
  • September 30, 2017 - August 31, 2022 - Bay Area Team Against Resistance , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: U54CA224081
  • August 10, 2017 - July 31, 2022 - The Cancer Target Discovery and Development Network at UCSF , Co-Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: U01CA217882
  • March 1, 2017 - February 28, 2022 - Characterization of YAP as a rational companion target in lung cancer , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA204302
  • January 11, 2017 - December 31, 2021 - Optimizing biologically-based rational polytherapy in ALK+ lung cancer , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA211052
  • September 15, 2012 - August 31, 2017 - Discovery of Rational Companion Therapeutic Targets to Optimize Cancer Treatment , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: DP2CA174497
  • September 21, 2011 - August 31, 2016 - Genetic Modifiers such as Fas Regulate Tumor-Cell Dependence on Mutant EGFR , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: K08CA154787

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. Kwong K, Pan Y, Morales J, Watson M, Allegakoen DV, Lee AG, Bivona TG, Wipf P, Guerriero CJ, Brodsky JL, Sabnis AJ In vivo manipulation of the protein homeostasis network in rhabdomyosarcoma.  View on PubMed
  2. Yadav P, Gómez Ortega J, Dabral P, Tamaki W, Chien C, Chang KC, Biswas N, Pan S, Nilsson J, Yin X, Bhattacharyya A, Boostanpour K, Jujaray T, Wang JT, Tsukui T, Molina CJ, Auyeung VC, Sheppard D, Li B, Maishan M, Taenaka H, Matthay MA, Muramatsu R, Maliskova L, Ghosh A, Eckalbar WL, Molofsky AB, Tamaki SJ, Bivona TG, Abate AR, Wagner A, Pillai SK, Wolters PJ, Tharp KM, Bhattacharya M Myeloid-mesenchymal crosstalk drives ARG1-dependent profibrotic metabolism via ornithine in lung fibrosis.  View on PubMed
  3. Zhang L, Chinnam M, Balk B, Zhang X, Wang Y, Shaurova T, Alam S, Pokharel S, Singh P, Jacobi J, Wang J, Cortes Gomez E, Habitzruther M, Seshadri M, Atanassov B, Wu W, Benevolenskaya EV, Blakely CM, Hershberger P, Long M, Bivona T, Goodrich DW Reversible therapeutic resistance in EGFR mutant lung cancer caused by RB1 loss induced lineage plasticity.  View on PubMed
  4. Fukuda K, Nanjo S, Takeuchi S, Chakrabarti T, Brown T, Dev Sahadevan SW, Arai S, Sato S, Kotani H, Nishiyama A, Sakaguchi H, Ohtsubo K, Taniguchi H, Blakely CM, Bivona TG, Yano S Targeting WEE1 to Overcome ARID1A Mutation-Driven Osimertinib Resistance in EGFR-Mutant Lung Cancer.  View on PubMed
  5. Soragni A, Knudsen ES, O'Connor TN, Tognon CE, Tyner JW, Gini B, Kim D, Bivona TG, Zang X, Witkiewicz AK, Goodrich DW, Jiang D, Gammon ST, Willey CD, Boutros PC, Sandulache VC, Osman AA, Myers JN, Mehla K, Singh PK, Chan KS, Gao H, Marathe H, National Cancer Institute (NCI) Acquired Resistance to Therapy Network (ARTNet) Acquired resistance in cancer: towards targeted therapeutic strategies.  View on PubMed
  6. Dacheux MA, Wu MJ, Scherzer MT, Nillson M, Murphy B, Schuman S, Ju Z, Bivona T, Lito P, Gumbleton M, Puri S, Akerley W, Wang J, Wang K, Heymach J, Kinsey CG, Negrao M, McMahon M, Vaishnavi A BRAFV600E-Driven Lung Tumorigenesis Requires Ligand-Mediated Activation of ERBB Receptor Signaling.  View on PubMed
  7. Bergo HC, Leak LB, Bivona TG Condensates as a Culprit in RAS Activation and Inhibitor Resistance.  View on PubMed
  8. 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, Leighl NB, 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. Author Correction: CTLA4 blockade abrogates KEAP1/STK11-related resistance to PD-(L)1 inhibitors. Nature. 2025 Feb 27.  View on PubMed
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. 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 Nov; 635(8038):462-471.  View on PubMed
  12. 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
  13. 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
  14. 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
  15. 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
  16. 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
  17. 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
  18. 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
  19. 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
  20. 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

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