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. 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 May 19.  View on PubMed
  2. 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 May 09.  View on PubMed
  3. 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 May 05.  View on PubMed
  4. 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
  5. 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 Apr 08.  View on PubMed
  6. 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 Mar 14.  View on PubMed
  7. 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
  8. 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
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. 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
  12. 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
  13. 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 11 02; 23(11):1872-1884.  View on PubMed
  14. 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 12; 142(6):1025-1043.  View on PubMed
  15. 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
  16. Li Y, Sloan E, Bollen A, Solomon D, Theodosopoulos P, Cha S. Systemic and Craniospinal Rosai Dorfman Disease with Intraparenchymal, Intramedullary and Leptomeningeal Disease. Int J Hematol Oncol Stem Cell Res. 2021 Oct 01; 15(4):260-264.  View on PubMed
  17. 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
  18. 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 09 10; 80(8):764-768.  View on PubMed
  19. 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 11 15; 27(22):6197-6208.  View on PubMed
  20. 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; 35(6):834-843.  View on PubMed

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