Research Summary

The Solomon laboratory studies the molecular mechanisms governing human cancer development and progression. We recently discovered frequent inactivating mutations of the cohesin complex gene STAG2 in a spectrum of cancers including glioblastoma, urothelial carcinoma, Ewing sarcoma, and acute myeloid leukemia, which define molecular subgroups of these tumors with distinct clinical outcomes. The cohesin complex is responsible for sister chromatid cohesion following DNA replication and helps ensure faithful chromosome segregation during mitosis, but has also been implicated in additional cellular processes such as regulation of chromatin architecture and gene transcription. We are currently working to determine the function of cohesin during tumorigenesis and to identify therapeutic vulnerabilities in the many cancers harboring cohesin gene alterations. Other ongoing research is focused on identifying the recurrent genetic alterations that drive the many different brain tumor variants including glioblastoma, astrocytoma, oligodendroglioma, ependymoma, other gliomas, medulloblastoma, neurocytoma, meningioma, choroid plexus tumors, and pineal parenchymal tumors.

Education

College of William and Mary, B.S., 1998-2002
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, post-bac research, 2002-2004
Georgetown University School of Medicine, MD, PhD, 2004-2012
University of California San Francisco, Anatomic Pathology Residency, 2012-2014
University of California San Francisco, Neuropathology Fellowship, 2014-2016

Honors & Awards

  • 2016-2021
    UCSF Physician-Scientist Scholar Program
  • 2015-2020
    NIH Director's Early Independence Award (DP5)
  • 2015-2016
    Career Development Research Award, UCSF Brain Tumor SPORE
  • 2015
    Hans Popper Hepatopathology Society Award
  • 2014
    Stowell-Orbison Award, United States & Canada Academy of Pathology
  • 2014
    International Society of Bone & Soft Tissue Pathology Young Investigator Award
  • 2013
    Julius R. Krevans Award, San Francisco General Hospital
  • 2013
    Stowell-Orbison Award, United States & Canada Academy of Pathology
  • 2012
    Harold Weintraub Graduate Student Award, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
  • 2012
    Future Leaders in Basic Cancer Research, American Association for Cancer Research
  • 2004-2012
    Strauss Physician-Scientist Training Fellowship, Georgetown University School of Medicine

Selected Publications

  1. Lucas CG, Abdullaev Z, Bruggers CS, Mirchia K, Whipple NS, Alashari MM, Lowichik A, Cheshier S, Phillips JJ, Devine P, Solomon DA, Quezado M, Aldape KD, Perry A. Activating NTRK2 and ALK receptor tyrosine kinase fusions extend the molecular spectrum of pleomorphic xanthoastrocytomas of early childhood: a diagnostic overlap with infant-type hemispheric glioma. Acta Neuropathol. 2021 Dec 15.  View on PubMed
  2. Lucas CG, Gupta R, Wu J, Shah K, Ravindranathan A, Barreto J, Gener M, Ginn KF, Prall OWJ, Xu H, Kee D, Ko HS, Yaqoob N, Zia N, Florez A, Cha S, Perry A, Clarke JL, Chang SM, Berger MS, Solomon DA. EWSR1-BEND2 fusion defines an epigenetically distinct subtype of astroblastoma. Acta Neuropathol. 2021 Nov 25.  View on PubMed
  3. Sloan EA, Gupta R, Koelsche C, Chiang J, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Alexandrescu S, Eschbacher JM, Wang W, Mafra M, Ud Din N, Carr-Boyd E, Watson M, Punsoni M, Oviedo A, Gilani A, Kleinschmidt-DeMasters BK, Coss DJ, Lopes MB, Reddy A, Mueller S, Cho SJ, Horvai AE, Lee JC, Pekmezci M, Tihan T, Bollen AW, Rodriguez FJ, Ellison DW, Perry A, von Deimling A, Chang SM, Berger MS, Solomon DA. Intracranial mesenchymal tumors with FET-CREB fusion are composed of at least two epigenetic subgroups distinct from meningioma and extracranial sarcomas. Brain Pathol. 2021 Nov 25; e13037.  View on PubMed
  4. Schmid S, Solomon DA, Perez E, Thieme A, Kleinschmidt-DeMasters BK, Giannini C, Reinhardt A, Asa SL, Mete O, Stichel D, Siewert C, Dittmayer C, Hasselblatt M, Paulus W, Nagel C, Harter PN, Schittenhelm J, Honegger J, Rushing E, Coras R, Pfister SM, Buslei R, Koch A, Perry A, Jones DTW, von Deimling A, Capper D, Lopes MB. Genetic and epigenetic characterization of posterior pituitary tumors. Acta Neuropathol. 2021 Oct 18.  View on PubMed
  5. Carter-Febres M, Schneller N, Fair D, Solomon D, Perry A, Roy A, Linscott L, Alashari M, Kestle JR, Bruggers CS. Adjuvant Maintenance Larotrectinib Therapy in 2 Children With NTRK Fusion-positive High-grade Cancers. J Pediatr Hematol Oncol. 2021 Oct 01; 43(7):e987-e990.  View on PubMed
  6. Wu J, Gupta R, Barreto J, Doo P, Joseph NM, Lee JC, Perry A, Chang SM, Berger MS, Solomon DA. Tumor DNA requirements for accurate epigenetic-based classification of CNS neoplasia. Neuro Oncol. 2021 10 01; 23(10):1798-1800.  View on PubMed
  7. Lucas CG, Mueller S, Reddy A, Taylor JW, Oberheim Bush NA, Clarke JL, Chang SM, Gupta N, Berger MS, Perry A, Phillips JJ, Solomon DA. Diffuse hemispheric glioma, H3 G34-mutant: Genomic landscape of a new tumor entity and prospects for targeted therapy. Neuro Oncol. 2021 Sep 14.  View on PubMed
  8. Lucas CG, Devine P, Solomon DA, Giannini C, Reifenberger G, Dahiya S, Caccamo D, Perry A. Sarcomatous Meningioma: Diagnostic Pitfalls and the Utility of Molecular Testing. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 2021 Sep 10; 80(8):764-768.  View on PubMed
  9. Schreck KC, Morin A, Zhao G, Allen AN, Flannery P, Glantz M, Green AL, Jones C, Jones KL, Kilburn LB, Nazemi KJ, Samuel D, Sanford B, Solomon DA, Wang J, Pratilas CA, Nicolaides T, Mulcahy Levy JM. Deconvoluting Mechanisms of Acquired Resistance to RAF Inhibitors in BRAFV600E-Mutant Human Glioma. Clin Cancer Res. 2021 Aug 25.  View on PubMed
  10. Akinduro OO, Garcia DP, Higgins DMO, Vivas-Buitrago T, Jentoft M, Solomon DA, Daniels DJ, Pennington Z, Sherman WJ, Delgardo M, Bydon M, Kalani MA, Zanazzi G, Tsankova N, Bendok BR, McCormick PC, Sciubba DM, Lo SL, Clarke JL, Abode-Iyamah K, Quiñones-Hinojosa A. A multicenter analysis of the prognostic value of histone H3 K27M mutation in adult high-grade spinal glioma. J Neurosurg Spine. 2021 Aug 20; 1-10.  View on PubMed
  11. Gupta R, Lucas CG, Wu J, Barreto J, Shah K, Simon IB, Casavilca-Zambrano S, Brathwaite C, Zhou H, Caccamo D, Gilani A, Kleinschmidt-DeMasters BK, Lee JC, Perry A, Clarke JL, Chang SM, Berger MS, Solomon DA. Low-grade glioneuronal tumors with FGFR2 fusion resolve into a single epigenetic group corresponding to 'Polymorphous low-grade neuroepithelial tumor of the young'. Acta Neuropathol. 2021 09; 142(3):595-599.  View on PubMed
  12. Schweizer L, Thierfelder F, Thomas C, Soschinski P, Kim HY, Jödicke R, Woltering N, Förster A, Teichmann D, Siewert C, Klein K, Schmid S, Nunninger M, Thomale UW, Onken J, Mühleisen H, Schittenhelm J, Tatagiba M, von Deimling A, Reuss DE, Solomon DA, Heppner FL, Koch A, Hartmann C, Staszewski O, Capper D. Molecular characterisation of sporadic endolymphatic sac tumours and comparison to von Hippel-Lindau disease-related tumours. Neuropathol Appl Neurobiol. 2021 10; 47(6):756-767.  View on PubMed
  13. Susko MS, Chen WC, Vasudevan HN, Magill ST, Lucas CG, Oberheim Bush NA, Solomon DA, Theodosopoulos PV, McDermott MW, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Boreta L, Nakamura JL, Sneed PK, Braunstein SE, Raleigh DR. Letter: Patterns of Intermediate- and High-Risk Meningioma Recurrence After Treatment With Postoperative External Beam Radiotherapy. Neurosurgery. 2021 06 15; 89(1):E99-E101.  View on PubMed
  14. Yu Y, Villanueva-Meyer J, Grimmer MR, Hilz S, Solomon DA, Choi S, Wahl M, Mazor T, Hong C, Shai A, Phillips JJ, Wainer BH, McDermott M, Haas-Kogan D, Taylor JW, Butowski N, Clarke JL, Berger MS, Molinaro AM, Chang SM, Costello JF, Oberheim Bush NA. Temozolomide-induced hypermutation is associated with distant recurrence and reduced survival after high-grade transformation of low-grade IDH-mutant gliomas. Neuro Oncol. 2021 Apr 05.  View on PubMed
  15. Sievers P, Sill M, Schrimpf D, Stichel D, Reuss DE, Sturm D, Hench J, Frank S, Krskova L, Vicha A, Zapotocky M, Bison B, Castel D, Grill J, Debily MA, Harter PN, Snuderl M, Kramm CM, Reifenberger G, Korshunov A, Jabado N, Wesseling P, Wick W, Solomon DA, Perry A, Jacques TS, Jones C, Witt O, Pfister SM, von Deimling A, Jones DTW, Sahm F. A subset of pediatric-type thalamic gliomas share a distinct DNA methylation profile, H3K27me3 loss and frequent alteration of EGFR. Neuro Oncol. 2021 01 30; 23(1):34-43.  View on PubMed
  16. Sloan EA, Chiang J, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Alexandrescu S, Eschbacher JM, Wang W, Mafra M, Ud Din N, Carr-Boyd E, Watson M, Punsoni M, Oviedo A, Gilani A, Kleinschmidt-DeMasters BK, Coss DJ, Lopes MB, Raffel C, Berger MS, Chang SM, Reddy A, Ramani B, Ferris SP, Lee JC, Hofmann JW, Cho SJ, Horvai AE, Pekmezci M, Tihan T, Bollen AW, Rodriguez FJ, Ellison DW, Perry A, Solomon DA. Intracranial mesenchymal tumor with FET-CREB fusion-A unifying diagnosis for the spectrum of intracranial myxoid mesenchymal tumors and angiomatoid fibrous histiocytoma-like neoplasms. Brain Pathol. 2021 Jul; 31(4):e12918.  View on PubMed
  17. Gallo RA, Shoag J, Johnson TE, Solomon DA, Perry A, Podda A, Lee JY, Rong AJ. Eye-sparing Treatment of Localized Orbital Medulloepithelioma With Neoadjuvant Chemoradiation. Ophthalmic Plast Reconstr Surg. 2021 Jan-Feb 01; 37(1):e13-e16.  View on PubMed
  18. Chen WC, Vasudevan HN, Choudhury A, Pekmezci M, Lucas CG, Phillips J, Magill ST, Susko MS, Braunstein SE, Oberheim Bush NA, Boreta L, Nakamura JL, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Sneed PK, Perry A, McDermott MW, Solomon DA, Theodosopoulos PV, Raleigh DR. A Prognostic Gene-Expression Signature and Risk Score for Meningioma Recurrence After Resection. Neurosurgery. 2020 12 15; 88(1):202-210.  View on PubMed
  19. Schulte JD, Buerki RA, Lapointe S, Molinaro AM, Zhang Y, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Perry A, Phillips JJ, Tihan T, Bollen AW, Pekmezci M, Butowski N, Oberheim Bush NA, Taylor JW, Chang SM, Theodosopoulos P, Aghi MK, Hervey-Jumper SL, Berger MS, Solomon DA, Clarke JL. Clinical, radiologic, and genetic characteristics of histone H3 K27M-mutant diffuse midline gliomas in adults. Neurooncol Adv. 2020 Jan-Dec; 2(1):vdaa142.  View on PubMed
  20. Ramani B, Gupta R, Wu J, Barreto J, Bollen AW, Tihan T, Mummaneni PV, Ames C, Clark A, Oberheim Bush NA, Butowski N, Phillips D, King BE, Bator SM, Treynor EC, Zherebitskiy V, Quinn PS, Walker JB, Pekmezci M, Sullivan DV, Hofmann JW, Sloan EA, M Chang S, Berger MS, Solomon DA, Perry A. The immunohistochemical, DNA methylation, and chromosomal copy number profile of cauda equina paraganglioma is distinct from extra-spinal paraganglioma. Acta Neuropathol. 2020 12; 140(6):907-917.  View on PubMed

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