Research Summary

I am an Associate Professor and Physician Scientist in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF), where I specialize in the treatment and investigation of adult and pediatric brain tumors. Eighty percent of my time is protected for laboratory research, and I am also therefore a Principle Investigator in the UCSF Department of Neurological Surgery Brain Tumor Center. My research examines how developmental signaling pathways function in cancer with the overall objectives of shedding light on the fundamental mechanisms of developmental biology, and identifying novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets to improve patient outcomes. To accomplish those goals, my laboratory makes use of biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, mouse genetics, genomics, bioinformatics and pharmacology. Our work has identified novel activators and effectors of oncogenic Hedgehog signaling in medulloblastoma, and revealed a FOXM1/WNT signaling axis that underlies meningioma proliferation. Each of these discoveries serves as the foundation for clinical trials of molecular therapy in medulloblastoma and meningioma patients that are currently under development.

Research Funding

  • August 1, 2021 - July 31, 2026 - Understanding druggable drivers of meningioma tumorigenesis , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA262311
  • July 1, 2021 - April 30, 2026 - Mechanisms of Hedgehog signaling in glioblastoma , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA251221
  • July 1, 2017 - June 30, 2022 - Understanding How Ciliary Hedgehog Signaling Causes Medulloblastoma , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: K08CA212279

Education

University of California-Berkeley, B.A. (Honors), 08/00-05/04, Molecular Cell Biology
University of California-Berkeley B.A. (Honors) 08/00 05/04 Cognitive Science
University of Chicago-Chicago M.D. 05/05 06/12 Medicine
University of Chicago-Chicago Ph.D. 07/07 05/10 Pathology
Kaiser Permanente-Santa Clara, Intern, 07/12-06/13, Internal Medicine
University of California-San Francisco, Resident, 07/13-06/17, Radiation Oncology
University of California-San Francisco, Postdoctoral Fellow, 01/15-06/17, Cancer Biology

Honors & Awards

  • 2009
    FASEB Travel Award, FASEB Gastrointestinal Tract XIII Meeting
  • 2009
    DDW Poster of Distinction, Digestive Disease Week Annual Meeting
  • 2009
    Outstanding Graduate Student Oral Presentation, University of Chicago
  • 2010
    Takeda Travel Award, Experimental Biology Annual Meeting
  • 2011
    Naomi Ragins Goldsmith Career Development Award, University of Chicago
  • 2012
    Outstanding Performance in Radiation and Cellular Oncology, University of Chicago
  • 2013
    Teaching Award in Recognition of Excellent Medical Student Education, Kaiser Permanente
  • 2015
    Clinical & Translational Science Institute Resident Research Travel Program Award, UCSF
  • 2016
    Career Award for Medical Scientists Semifinalist, Burroughs Wellcome Fund
  • 2016
    Radiological Society of North America Roentgen Resident/Fellow Research Award, UCSF
  • 2016
    Biology Abstract Travel Award, American Society for Radiation Oncology Annual Meeting
  • 2016
    Poster Walk Award, Association of Residents in Radiation Oncology
  • 2016
    Top Young Investigator Awardee, ASCO Scientific Career Development Retreat
  • 2017
    Young Oncologist Travel Grant Recipient, American Radium Society Annual Meeting
  • 2017
    Poster of Distinction, American Radium Society Annual Meeting
  • 2017
    Biology Abstract Travel Award, American Society for Radiation Oncology Annual Meeting

Selected Publications

  1. Pan S, Mirchia K, Payne E, Liu SJ, Al-Adli N, Peeran Z, Shukla P, Young JS, Gupta R, Wu J, Pak J, Ozawa T, Na B, Reddy AT, Braunstein SE, Phillips JJ, Chang S, Solomon DA, Perry A, Raleigh DR, Berger MS, Abate AR, Vasudevan HN Tumor heterogeneity underlies clinical outcome and MEK inhibitor response in somatic NF1-mutant glioblastoma.  View on PubMed
  2. Sadagopan NS, Gomez M, Tripathi S, Billingham LK, DeLay SL, Cady MA, Congivaram HTS, Chia TY, Wan H, Wang S, Raleigh DR, Kaluba FC, Lien EC, Heimberger AB, Lee-Chang C, Youngblood MW, Magill ST, Miska JM NOTCH3 drives fatty acid oxidation and ferroptosis resistance in aggressive meningiomas.  View on PubMed
  3. Boreta L, Raleigh DR Proton Craniospinal Irradiation for Leptomeningeal Metastases.  View on PubMed
  4. Haddad AF, Ramesh R, Zakimi N, Chen JS, Quintana D, Gil E, Kabir AS, Sibih YE, Lugo BM, Bhalla S, Chen WC, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Narsinh KH, Magill ST, Morshed RA, Winkler E, Theodosopoulos PV, McDermott MW, Aghi MK, Raleigh DR Preoperative embolization improves local control and modulates gene expression in atypical WHO grade 2 meningioma.  View on PubMed
  5. Groff KJ, Patel RV, Feng Y, Ghosh HS, Millares Chavez MA, O'Brien J, Chen WC, Nitturi V, Save AV, Youngblood MW, Horbinski CM, Chandler JP, Ehret F, Gui C, Wang JZ, Park K, Ajmera S, Rosenblum M, Suwala AK, Kresbach C, Mount CW, Schüller U, Santagata S, Sahm F, Bale TA, Jackson C, Richardson TE, Cai C, Nassiri F, Zadeh G, Kaul D, Capper D, Magill ST, Golfinos JG, Sen C, Patel AJ, Raleigh DR, Moliterno J, Pacione D, Snuderl M, Bi WL The effect of TERT promoter mutation on predicting meningioma outcomes: a multi-institutional cohort analysis.  View on PubMed
  6. Richman CM, Rasnitsyn A, Holgado BL, Vladoiu M, Abeysundara N, Majo S, Chabi S, Taunay LJ, Suzuki H, Shibahara I, Haapasalo J, Pallotta JG, Douglas T, Kharas K, Juraschka K, Ocsenas O, Kumar SA, Nordfors K, Guerreiro Stücklin A, Suarez RA, Zhang J, Wu X, Daniels C, Garzia L, Reimand J, Saulnier O, Merchant TE, Pouponnot C, Raleigh DR, Taylor MD, De Antonellis P Carbonic Anhydrase Inhibition Sensitizes Group 3 Medulloblastoma to Radiation Therapy.  View on PubMed
  7. Vinsland E, Salas SM, Kapustová I, Hu L, Webb S, Li X, He X, Nilsson M, Haniffa M, Barker R, Persson O, Raleigh DR, Sundström E, Lönnerberg P, Linnarsson S Cell atlas of the developing human meninges reveals a dura origin of meningioma.  View on PubMed
  8. Nguyen MP, Chen WC, Mirchia K, Choudhury A, Zakimi N, Nitturi V, Klisch TJ, Magill ST, Lucas CG, Patel AJ, Raleigh DR Pan-cancer copy number analysis identifies optimized size thresholds and co-occurrence models for individualized risk stratification.  View on PubMed
  9. Nör C, Kharas K, Rasnitsyn A, Vladoiu MC, Cho NW, Young JS, Nör F, Mankahla N, Haapasalo J, Nordfors K, Rapic S, Skowron P, Suárez RA, Bahcheli AT, Ocsenas O, Chen X, Bahrampour S, Momin A, Sundaresan L, Ong W, Hendrikse LD, Abeysundara N, Juraschka K, Ly M, Pallota JG, Douglas T, Huang N, Wang H, Mak E, Qin L, Liu J, Shen L, Luu B, Manno A, Kumar SA, Donovan LK, Fong V, Richman C, Daniels C, Garzia L, Rich JN, Hawkins C, Wu X, DaCosta R, Reimand J, Huang X, Ramaswamy V, Raleigh DR, Taylor MD Therapeutic radiation drives leptomeningeal dissemination of medulloblastoma through an innate immune process.  View on PubMed
  10. Sadagopan NS, Gomez M, Tripathi S, Billingham LK, DeLay SL, Cady MA, Congivaram HTS, Chia TY, Wan H, Wang S, Raleigh DR, Kaluba FC, Lien EC, Heimberger AB, Lee-Chang C, Youngblood MW, Magill ST, Miska JM NOTCH3 Drives Fatty Acid Oxidation and Ferroptosis Resistance in Aggressive Meningiomas.  View on PubMed
  11. Barrios J, Porter E, Capaldi DPI, Upadhaya T, Chen WC, Perks JR, Apte A, Aristophanous M, LoCastro E, Hsu D, Stone PH, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Valdes G, Jiang F, Maddalena M, Ballangrud A, Prezelski K, Lin H, Sun JY, Aldin MAK, Chau OW, Ziemer B, Seaberg M, Sneed PK, Nakamura JL, Boreta LC, Fogh SE, Raleigh DR, Chew J, Vasudevan H, Cha S, Hess C, Fragoso R, Shultz DB, Pike L, Hervey-Jumper SL, Tsang DS, Theodosopoulos P, Cooke D, Benedict SH, Sheng K, Seuntjens J, Coolens C, Deasy JO, Braunstein S, Morin O. Author Correction: Multi-institutional atlas of brain metastases informs spatial modeling for precision imaging and personalized therapy. Nat Commun. 2025 Jun 02; 16(1):5096.  View on PubMed
  12. Sibih YE, Dada AO, Cunningham E, Olshausen N, Kaur J, Jayabal V, Oten S, Herr S, Gonzales CN, Daniel A, Krishna S, Ambati VS, Aabedi AA, Umbach G, Mirchia K, Lalwani P, Chang EF, Raleigh DR, Nagarajan S, Brang D, Hervey-Jumper SL Aperiodic neural dynamics define a novel signature of glioma-induced excitation-inhibition dysregulation.  View on PubMed
  13. Nejo T, Krishna S, Yamamichi A, Lakshmanachetty S, Jimenez C, Lee KY, Baker DL, Young JS, Chen T, Phyu SSS, Phung L, Gallus M, Maldonado GC, Okada K, Ogino H, Watchmaker PB, Diebold D, Choudhury A, Daniel AGS, Cadwell CR, Raleigh DR, Hervey-Jumper SL, Okada H. Glioma-neuronal circuit remodeling induces regional immunosuppression. Nat Commun. 2025 May 22; 16(1):4770.  View on PubMed
  14. Raleigh DR. Genomic features underlying meningioma sex-specificity. Neuro Oncol. 2025 May 15; 27(4):1029-1030.  View on PubMed
  15. Barrios J, Porter E, Capaldi DPI, Upadhaya T, Chen WC, Perks JR, Apte A, Aristophanous M, LoCastro E, Hsu D, Stone PH, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Valdes G, Jiang F, Maddalena M, Ballangrud A, Prezelski K, Lin H, Sun JY, Aldin MAK, Chau OW, Ziemer B, Seaberg M, Sneed PK, Nakamura JL, Boreta LC, Fogh SE, Raleigh DR, Chew J, Vasudevan H, Cha S, Hess C, Fragoso R, Shultz DB, Pike L, Hervey-Jumper SL, Tsang DS, Theodosopoulos P, Cooke D, Benedict SH, Sheng K, Seuntjens J, Coolens C, Deasy JO, Braunstein S, Morin O. Multi-institutional atlas of brain metastases informs spatial modeling for precision imaging and personalized therapy. Nat Commun. 2025 May 15; 16(1):4536.  View on PubMed
  16. Morshed RA, Raleigh DR Genomic Alterations Have Prognostic Significance in Low Clinical Risk Meningiomas.  View on PubMed
  17. Raleigh D, Mirchia K, Oten S, Picart T, Nguyen M, Ambati V, Vasudevan H, Young J, Taylor J, Krishna S, Brang D, Phillips J, Perry A, Berger M, Chang S, de Groot J, Hervey-Jumper S. Spatial synaptic connectivity underlies oligodendroglioma evolution and recurrence. Res Sq. 2025 Apr 04.  View on PubMed
  18. 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
  19. Lin K, Zou C, Hubbard A, Sengelmann S, Goudy L, Wang IC, Sharma R, Pak J, Foster K, Ozawa T, de Groot JF, Phillips J, Vasudevan HN, Raleigh DR, Marson A, Murthy N, Gilbert LA, Berger MS, Liu SJ. Multiplexed epigenetic memory editing using CRISPRoff sensitizes glioblastoma to chemotherapy. Neuro Oncol. 2025 Feb 25.  View on PubMed
  20. Nguyen MP, Morshed RA, Youngblood MW, Perlow HK, Lucas CG, Patel AJ, Palmer JD, Horbinski CM, Magill ST, Chen WC, Raleigh DR. A targeted gene expression biomarker predicts clinic low-risk meningioma recurrence. Neuro Oncol. 2025 Feb 10; 27(2):445-454.  View on PubMed

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