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. Keck MK, Sill M, Wittmann A, Joshi P, Stichel D, Beck P, Okonechnikow K, Sievers P, Wefers AK, Roncaroli F, Avula S, McCabe MG, Hayden JT, Wesseling P, Øra I, Nistér M, Kranendonk MEG, Tops BBJ, Zapotocky M, Zamecnik J, Vasiljevic A, Fenouil T, Meyronet D, von Hoff K, Schüller U, Loiseau H, Figarella-Branger D, Kramm CM, Sturm D, Scheie D, Rauramaa T, Pesola J, Gojo J, Haberler C, Brandner S, Jacques T, Sexton Oates A, Saffery R, Koscielniak E, Baker SJ, Yip S, Snuderl M, Ud Din N, Samuel D, Schramm K, Blattner-Johnson M, Selt F, Ecker J, Milde T, von Deimling A, Korshunov A, Perry A, Pfister SM, Sahm F, Solomon DA, Jones DTW. Amplification of the PLAG-family genes-PLAGL1 and PLAGL2-is a key feature of the novel tumor type CNS embryonal tumor with PLAGL amplification. Acta Neuropathol. 2022 Nov 27.  View on PubMed
  2. Cimino PJ, Ketchum C, Turakulov R, Singh O, Abdullaev Z, Giannini C, Pytel P, Lopez GY, Colman H, Nasrallah MP, Santi M, Fernandes IL, Nirschl J, Dahiya S, Neill S, Solomon D, Perez E, Capper D, Mani H, Caccamo D, Ball M, Badruddoja M, Chkheidze R, Camelo-Piragua S, Fullmer J, Alexandrescu S, Yeaney G, Eberhart C, Martinez-Lage M, Chen J, Zach L, Kleinschmidt-DeMasters BK, Hefti M, Lopes MB, Nuechterlein N, Horbinski C, Rodriguez FJ, Quezado M, Pratt D, Aldape K. Expanded analysis of high-grade astrocytoma with piloid features identifies an epigenetically and clinically distinct subtype associated with neurofibromatosis type 1. Acta Neuropathol. 2022 Oct 22.  View on PubMed
  3. Zhang Y, Lucas CG, Young JS, Morshed RA, McCoy L, Oberheim Bush NA, Taylor JW, Daras M, Butowski NA, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Cha S, Wrensch M, Wiencke JK, Lee JC, Pekmezci M, Phillips JJ, Perry A, Bollen AW, Aghi MK, Theodosopoulos P, Chang EF, Hervey-Jumper SL, Berger MS, Clarke JL, Chang SM, Molinaro AM, Solomon DA. Prospective genomically guided identification of "early/evolving" and "undersampled" IDH-wildtype glioblastoma leads to improved clinical outcomes. Neuro Oncol. 2022 Oct 03; 24(10):1749-1762.  View on PubMed
  4. Barger CJ, Suwala AK, Soczek KM, Wang AS, Kim MY, Hong C, Doudna JA, Chang SM, Phillips JJ, Solomon DA, Costello JF. Conserved features of TERT promoter duplications reveal an activation mechanism that mimics hotspot mutations in cancer. Nat Commun. 2022 09 16; 13(1):5430.  View on PubMed
  5. Mohamed E, Kumar A, Zhang Y, Wang AS, Chen K, Lim Y, Shai A, Taylor JW, Clarke J, Hilz S, Berger MS, Solomon DA, Costello JF, Molinaro AM, Phillips JJ. PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway activity in IDH-mutant diffuse glioma and clinical implications. Neuro Oncol. 2022 09 01; 24(9):1471-1481.  View on PubMed
  6. Lucas CG, Sloan EA, Gupta R, Wu J, Pratt D, Vasudevan HN, Ravindranathan A, Barreto J, Williams EA, Shai A, Whipple NS, Bruggers CS, Maher O, Nabors B, Rodriguez M, Samuel D, Brown M, Carmichael J, Lu R, Mirchia K, Sullivan DV, Pekmezci M, Tihan T, Bollen AW, Perry A, Banerjee A, Mueller S, Gupta N, Hervey-Jumper SL, Oberheim Bush NA, Daras M, Taylor JW, Butowski NA, de Groot J, Clarke JL, Raleigh DR, Costello JF, Phillips JJ, Reddy AT, Chang SM, Berger MS, Solomon DA. Multiplatform molecular analyses refine classification of gliomas arising in patients with neurofibromatosis type 1. Acta Neuropathol. 2022 Oct; 144(4):747-765.  View on PubMed
  7. Rudà R, Capper D, Waldman AD, Pallud J, Minniti G, Kaley TJ, Bouffet E, Tabatabai G, Aronica E, Jakola AS, Pfister SM, Schiff D, Lassman AB, Solomon DA, Soffietti R, Weller M, Preusser M, Idbaih A, Wen PY, van den Bent MJ. EANO - EURACAN - SNO Guidelines on circumscribed astrocytic gliomas, glioneuronal, and neuronal tumors. Neuro Oncol. 2022 08 01.  View on PubMed
  8. Lucas CG, Davidson CJ, Alashari M, Putnam AR, Whipple NS, Bruggers CS, Mendez JS, Cheshier SH, Walker JB, Ramani B, Cadwell CR, Sullivan DV, Lu R, Mirchia K, Van Ziffle J, Devine P, Goldschmidt E, Hervey-Jumper SL, Gupta N, Oberheim Bush NA, Raleigh DR, Bollen A, Tihan T, Pekmezci M, Solomon DA, Phillips JJ, Perry A. Targeted Next-Generation Sequencing Reveals Divergent Clonal Evolution in Components of Composite Pleomorphic Xanthoastrocytoma-Ganglioglioma. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 2022 07 19; 81(8):650-657.  View on PubMed
  9. Solomon DA, Ramani B, Eiger-Moscovich M, Milman T, Uludag G, Crawford JB, Phan I, Char DH, Shields CL, Eagle RC, Bastian BC, Bloomer MM, Pekmezci M. Iris and Ciliary Body Melanocytomas Are Defined by Solitary GNAQ Mutation Without Additional Oncogenic Alterations. Ophthalmology. 2022 Jul 12.  View on PubMed
  10. Kumar A, Mohamed E, Tong S, Chen K, Mukherjee J, Lim Y, Wong CM, Boosalis Z, Shai A, Pieper RO, Gupta N, Perry A, Bollen AW, Molinaro AM, Solomon DA, Shieh JTC, Phillips JJ. CXCL14 Promotes a Robust Brain Tumor-Associated Immune Response in Glioma. Clin Cancer Res. 2022 07 01; 28(13):2898-2910.  View on PubMed
  11. Vasudevan HN, Choudhury A, Hilz S, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Chen WC, Lucas CG, Braunstein SE, Oberheim Bush NA, Butowski N, Pekmezci M, McDermott MW, Perry A, Solomon DA, Magill ST, Raleigh DR. Intratumor and informatic heterogeneity influence meningioma molecular classification. Acta Neuropathol. 2022 09; 144(3):579-583.  View on PubMed
  12. Güney E, Lucas CG, Qi Z, Yu J, Zhang R, Ohgami RS, Rubenstein JL, Boué DR, Schafernak K, Wertheim GB, Dahiya S, Giulino-Roth L, Attarbaschi A, Barth MJ, Kothari S, Abla O, Cohen AL, Mendez JS, Bollen A, Perry A, Tihan T, Pekmezci M, Solomon DA, Wen KW. A genetically distinct pediatric subtype of primary CNS large B-cell lymphoma is associated with favorable clinical outcome. Blood Adv. 2022 05 24; 6(10):3189-3193.  View on PubMed
  13. Pratt D, Lucas CG, Selvam PP, Abdullaev Z, Ketchum C, Quezado M, Armstrong TS, Gilbert MR, Papanicolau-Sengos A, Raffeld M, Choo-Wosoba H, Chan P, Whipple N, Nasrallah M, Santi M, Ramaswamy V, Giannini C, Ritzmann TA, Grundy RG, Burford A, Jones C, Hawkins C, Venneti S, Solomon DA, Aldape K. Recurrent ACVR1 mutations in posterior fossa ependymoma. Acta Neuropathol. 2022 08; 144(2):373-376.  View on PubMed
  14. Choudhury A, Magill ST, Eaton CD, Prager BC, Chen WC, Cady MA, Seo K, Lucas CG, Casey-Clyde TJ, Vasudevan HN, Liu SJ, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Lam TC, Pu JK, Li LF, Leung GK, Swaney DL, Zhang MY, Chan JW, Qiu Z, Martin MV, Susko MS, Braunstein SE, Bush NAO, Schulte JD, Butowski N, Sneed PK, Berger MS, Krogan NJ, Perry A, Phillips JJ, Solomon DA, Costello JF, McDermott MW, Rich JN, Raleigh DR. Meningioma DNA methylation groups identify biological drivers and therapeutic vulnerabilities. Nat Genet. 2022 05; 54(5):649-659.  View on PubMed
  15. Calabrese E, Rudie JD, Rauschecker AM, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Clarke JL, Solomon DA, Cha S. Combining radiomics and deep convolutional neural network features from preoperative MRI for predicting clinically relevant genetic biomarkers in glioblastoma. Neurooncol Adv. 2022 Jan-Dec; 4(1):vdac060.  View on PubMed
  16. Pratt D, Abdullaev Z, Papanicolau-Sengos A, Ketchum C, Panneer Selvam P, Chung HJ, Lee I, Raffeld M, Gilbert MR, Armstrong TS, Pytel P, Borys E, Klonoski JM, McCord M, Horbinski C, Brat D, Perry A, Solomon D, Eberhart C, Giannini C, Quezado M, Aldape K. High-grade glioma with pleomorphic and pseudopapillary features (HPAP): a proposed type of circumscribed glioma in adults harboring frequent TP53 mutations and recurrent monosomy 13. Acta Neuropathol. 2022 03; 143(3):403-414.  View on PubMed
  17. 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. 2022 02; 143(2):283-286.  View on PubMed
  18. 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. 2022 01; 143(1):109-113.  View on PubMed
  19. 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. 2022 07; 32(4):e13037.  View on PubMed
  20. 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 11 02; 23(11):1974-1976.  View on PubMed

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