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.

My clinical interests focus on diagnostic neuropathology, particularly tumors of the central nervous system. Accurate pathologic classification of brain tumors is increasingly dependent on integration of histologic features together with specific genetic alterations that molecularly define the many CNS tumor subtypes. I have thus been working with the Clinical Cancer Genomics Laboratory to advance molecular diagnostic testing for brain tumors at UCSF, where I function as the Director of Molecular Neuro-Oncology responsible for supervising and interpreting all genomic testing performed on CNS tumors at UCSF Medical Center.

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. 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.  View on PubMed
  2. 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.  View on PubMed
  3. 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.  View on PubMed
  4. 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.  View on PubMed
  5. 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 S, Reddy A, Ramani B, Ferris SP, Lee JC, Hofmann JW, Cho SJ, Horvai AE, Pekmezci M, Tihan T, Bollen AW, Rodriguez F, 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.  View on PubMed
  6. 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.  View on PubMed
  7. 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.  View on PubMed
  8. 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.  View on PubMed
  9. 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.  View on PubMed
  10. Lucas CG, Gupta R, Doo P, Lee JC, Cadwell CR, Ramani B, Hofmann JW, Sloan EA, Kleinschmidt-DeMasters BK, Lee HS, Wood MD, Grafe M, Born D, Vogel H, Salamat S, Puccetti D, Scharnhorst D, Samuel D, Cooney T, Cham E, Jin LW, Khatib Z, Maher O, Chamyan G, Brathwaite C, Bannykh S, Mueller S, Kline CN, Banerjee A, Reddy A, Taylor JW, Clarke JL, Oberheim Bush NA, Butowski N, Gupta N, Auguste KI, Sun PP, Roland JL, Raffel C, Aghi MK, Theodosopoulos P, Chang E, Hervey-Jumper S, Phillips JJ, Pekmezci M, Bollen AW, Tihan T, Chang S, Berger MS, Perry A, Solomon DA Comprehensive analysis of diverse low-grade neuroepithelial tumors with FGFR1 alterations reveals a distinct molecular signature of rosette-forming glioneuronal tumor.  View on PubMed
  11. Ko K, Kitani T, Harris BT, Anaizi AN, Solomon D, Perry A, Toretsky J, Ozdemirli M A novel PARD3B-NUTM1 fusion in an aggressive primary CNS embryonal tumor in a young adult.  View on PubMed
  12. Vasudevan HN, Castro MRH, Lee JC, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Bush NAO, McDermott MW, Solomon DA, Perry A, Magill ST, Raleigh DR DNA methylation profiling demonstrates superior diagnostic classification to RNA-sequencing in a case of metastatic meningioma.  View on PubMed
  13. Louis DN, Wesseling P, Aldape K, Brat DJ, Capper D, Cree IA, Eberhart C, Figarella-Branger D, Fouladi M, Fuller GN, Giannini C, Haberler C, Hawkins C, Komori T, Kros JM, Ng HK, Orr BA, Park SH, Paulus W, Perry A, Pietsch T, Reifenberger G, Rosenblum M, Rous B, Sahm F, Sarkar C, Solomon DA, Tabori U, van den Bent MJ, von Deimling A, Weller M, White VA, Ellison DW cIMPACT-NOW update 6: new entity and diagnostic principle recommendations of the cIMPACT-Utrecht meeting on future CNS tumor classification and grading.  View on PubMed
  14. Mondal G, Lee JC, Ravindranathan A, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Tran QT, Allen SJ, Barreto J, Gupta R, Doo P, Van Ziffle J, Onodera C, Devine P, Grenert JP, Samuel D, Li R, Metrock LK, Jin LW, Antony R, Alashari M, Cheshier S, Whipple NS, Bruggers C, Raffel C, Gupta N, Kline CN, Reddy A, Banerjee A, Hall MD, Mehta MP, Khatib Z, Maher OM, Brathwaite C, Pekmezci M, Phillips JJ, Bollen AW, Tihan T, Lucas JT, Broniscer A, Berger MS, Perry A, Orr BA, Solomon DA Pediatric bithalamic gliomas have a distinct epigenetic signature and frequent EGFR exon 20 insertions resulting in potential sensitivity to targeted kinase inhibition.  View on PubMed
  15. Clarke M, Mackay A, Ismer B, Pickles JC, Tatevossian RG, Newman S, Bale TA, Stoler I, Izquierdo E, Temelso S, Carvalho DM, Molinari V, Burford A, Howell L, Virasami A, Fairchild AR, Avery A, Chalker J, Kristiansen M, Haupfear K, Dalton JD, Orisme W, Wen J, Hubank M, Kurian KM, Rowe C, Maybury M, Crosier S, Knipstein J, Schüller U, Kordes U, Kram DE, Snuderl M, Bridges L, Martin AJ, Doey LJ, Al-Sarraj S, Chandler C, Zebian B, Cairns C, Natrajan R, Boult JKR, Robinson SP, Sill M, Dunkel IJ, Gilheeney SW, Rosenblum MK, Hughes D, Proszek PZ, Macdonald TJ, Preusser M, Haberler C, Slavc I, Packer R, Ng HK, Caspi S, Popovic M, Faganel Kotnik B, Wood MD, Baird L, Davare MA, Solomon DA, Olsen TK, Brandal P, Farrell M, Cryan JB, Capra M, Karremann M, Schittenhelm J, Schuhmann MU, Ebinger M, Dinjens WNM, Kerl K, Hettmer S, Pietsch T, Andreiuolo F, Driever PH, Korshunov A, Hiddingh L, Worst BC, Sturm D, Zuckermann M, Witt O, Bloom T, Mitchell C, Miele E, Colafati GS, Diomedi-Camassei F, Bailey S, Moore AS, Hassall TEG, Lowis SP, Tsoli M, Cowley MJ, Ziegler DS, Karajannis MA, Aquilina K, Hargrave DR, Carceller F, Marshall LV, von Deimling A, Kramm CM, Pfister SM, Sahm F, Baker SJ, Mastronuzzi A, Carai A, Vinci M, Capper D, Popov S, Ellison DW, Jacques TS, Jones DTW, Jones C Infant High-Grade Gliomas Comprise Multiple Subgroups Characterized by Novel Targetable Gene Fusions and Favorable Outcomes.  View on PubMed
  16. Fan JM, Solomon DA, López GY, Hofmann JW, Colorado RA, Kim AS, Meisel K, Halabi C Catastrophic stroke burden in a patient with uncontrolled psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis: a case report.  View on PubMed
  17. Sloan EA, Hilz S, Gupta R, Cadwell C, Ramani B, Hofmann J, Kline CN, Banerjee A, Reddy A, Oberheim Bush NA, Chang S, Braunstein S, Chang EF, Raffel C, Gupta N, Sun PP, Kim JYH, Moes G, Alva E, Li R, Bruggers CS, Alashari M, Wetmore C, Garg S, Dishop M, Van Ziffle J, Onodera C, Devine P, Grenert JP, Lee JC, Phillips JJ, Pekmezci M, Tihan T, Bollen AW, Berger MS, Costello JF, Perry A, Solomon DA Gliomas arising in the setting of Li-Fraumeni syndrome stratify into two molecular subgroups with divergent clinicopathologic features.  View on PubMed
  18. Solomon DA An update on the central nervous system manifestations of familial tumor predisposition syndromes.  View on PubMed
  19. Pekmezci M, Phillips JJ, Dirilenoglu F, Atasever-Rezanko T, Tihan T, Solomon D, Bollen A, Perry A Loss of H3K27 trimethylation by immunohistochemistry is frequent in oligodendroglioma, IDH-mutant and 1p/19q-codeleted, but is neither a sensitive nor a specific marker.  View on PubMed
  20. Heskett MB, Sanborn JZ, Boniface C, Goode B, Chapman J, Garg K, Rabban JT, Zaloudek C, Benz SC, Spellman PT, Solomon DA, Cho RJ Multiregion exome sequencing of ovarian immature teratomas reveals 2N near-diploid genomes, paucity of somatic mutations, and extensive allelic imbalances shared across mature, immature, and disseminated components.  View on PubMed

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