Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

In Vivo Crispr/Cas9 Screening Identifies Pbrm1 As A Regulator Of Myeloid Leukemia Development In Mice, Bin E Li, Grace Y Li, Wenqing Cai, Qian Zhu, Davide Seruggia, Yuko Fujiwara, Christopher R Vakoc, Stuart H Orkin

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

CRISPR/Cas9 screening approaches are powerful tool for identifying in vivo cancer dependencies. Hematopoietic malignancies are genetically complex disorders in which the sequential acquisition of somatic mutations generates clonal diversity. Over time, additional cooperating mutations may drive disease progression. Using an in vivo pooled gene editing screen of epigenetic factors in primary murine hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), we sought to uncover unrecognized genes that contribute to leukemia progression. We, first, modeled myeloid leukemia in mice by functionally abrogating both Tet2 and Tet3 in HSPCs, followed by transplantation. We, then, performed pooled CRISPR/Cas9 editing of genes encoding epigenetic factors and …

Interpreting Randomized Controlled Trials, Pavlos Msaouel, Juhee Lee, Peter F Thall

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

This article describes rationales and limitations for making inferences based on data from randomized controlled trials (RCTs). We argue that obtaining a representative random sample from a patient population is impossible for a clinical trial because patients are accrued sequentially over time and thus comprise a convenience sample, subject only to protocol entry criteria. Consequently, the trial's sample is unlikely to represent a definable patient population. We use causal diagrams to illustrate the difference between random allocation of interventions within a clinical trial sample and true simple or stratified random sampling, as executed in surveys. We argue that group-specific statistics, …

Response Patterns And Impact Of Mrd In Patients With Idh1/2-Mutated Aml Treated With Venetoclax And Hypomethylating Agents, Danielle Hammond, Sanam Loghavi, Sa A Wang, Marina Y Konopleva, Tapan M Kadia, Naval G Daver, Maro Ohanian, Ghayas C Issa, Yesid Alvarado, Nicholas J Short, Koji Sasaki, Naveen Pemmaraju, Guillermo Montalban-Bravo, Curtis A Lachowiez, Abhishek Maiti, Guillermo Garcia-Manero, Elias J Jabbour, Gautam Borthakur, Farhad Ravandi, Koichi Takahashi, Sherry R Pierce, Hagop M Kantarjian, Courtney D Dinardo

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

No abstract provided.

Researching The Future: Scenarios To Explore The Future Of Human Genome Editing, Cynthia Selin, Lauren Lambert, Stephanie Morain, John P Nelson, Dorit Barlevy, Mahmud Farooque, Haley Manley, Christopher T Scott

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Background: Forward-looking, democratically oriented governance is needed to ensure that human genome editing serves rather than undercuts public values. Scientific, policy, and ethics communities have recognized this necessity but have demonstrated limited understanding of how to fulfill it. The field of bioethics has long attempted to grapple with the unintended consequences of emerging technologies, but too often such foresight has lacked adequate scientific grounding, overemphasized regulation to the exclusion of examining underlying values, and failed to adequately engage the public.

Methods: This research investigates the application of scenario planning, a tool developed in the high-stakes, uncertainty-ridden world of corporate strategy, …

Boosting Glycolysis To Combat Fragile Bone In Type 1 Diabetes, Zixue Jin, Brendan Lee

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Individuals with type 1 diabetes (T1D) have an increased risk of osteoporosis and fracture. In this issue of Cell Chemical Biology, Ji et al.1 show that impaired glucose metabolism in the bone-forming osteoblast drives diabetic osteoporosis in Akita mice, a mouse model of T1D.

Mortality Benefit Of A Blood-Based Biomarker Panel For Lung Cancer On The Basis Of The Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, And Ovarian Cohort, Ehsan Irajizad, Johannes F Fahrmann, Tracey Marsh, Jody Vykoukal, Jennifer B Dennison, James P Long, Kim-Anh Do, Ziding Feng, Samir Hanash, Edwin J Ostrin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: To investigate the utility of integrating a panel of circulating protein biomarkers in combination with a risk model on the basis of subject characteristics to identify individuals at high risk of harboring a lethal lung cancer.

Methods: Data from an established logistic regression model that combines four-marker protein panel (4MP) together with the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) risk model (PLCOm2012) assayed in prediagnostic sera from 552 lung cancer cases and 2,193 noncases from the PLCO cohort were used in this study. Of the 552 lung cancer cases, 387 (70%) died of lung cancer. Cumulative incidence of lung …

Polygenic Risk And Chemotherapy-Related Subsequent Malignancies In Childhood Cancer Survivors: A Childhood Cancer Survivor Study And St Jude Lifetime Cohort Study Report, Cindy Im, Noha Sharafeldin, Yan Yuan, Zhaoming Wang, Yadav Sapkota, Zhanni Lu, Logan G Spector, Rebecca M Howell, Michael A Arnold, Melissa M Hudson, Kirsten K Ness, Leslie L Robison, Smita Bhatia, Gregory T Armstrong, Joseph P Neglia, Yutaka Yasui, Lucie M Turcotte

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: Chemotherapeutic exposures are associated with subsequent malignant neoplasm (SMN) risk. The role of genetic susceptibility in chemotherapy-related SMNs should be defined as use of radiation therapy (RT) decreases.

Patients and methods: SMNs among long-term childhood cancer survivors of European (EUR; N = 9,895) and African (AFR; N = 718) genetic ancestry from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study and St Jude Lifetime Cohort Study were evaluated. An externally validated 179-variant polygenic risk score (PRS) associated with pleiotropic adult cancer risk from the UK Biobank Study (N > 400,000) was computed for each survivor. SMN cumulative incidence comparing top and bottom PRS …

A Proteogenomics Data-Driven Knowledge Base Of Human Cancer, Yuxing Liao, Sara R Savage, Yongchao Dou, Zhiao Shi, Xinpei Yi, Wen Jiang, Jonathan T Lei, Bing Zhang

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

By combining mass-spectrometry-based proteomics and phosphoproteomics with genomics, epi-genomics, and transcriptomics, proteogenomics provides comprehensive molecular characterization of cancer. Using this approach, the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC) has characterized over 1,000 primary tumors spanning 10 cancer types, many with matched normal tissues. Here, we present LinkedOmicsKB, a proteogenomics data-driven knowledge base that makes consistently processed and systematically precomputed CPTAC pan-cancer proteogenomics data available to the public through ∼40,000 gene-, protein-, mutation-, and phenotype-centric web pages. Visualization techniques facilitate efficient exploration and reasoning of complex, interconnected data. Using three case studies, we illustrate the practical utility of LinkedOmicsKB in providing …

Mir-146a Inhibits Ovarian Tumor Growth In Vivo Via Targeting Immunosuppressive Neutrophils And Enhancing Cd8+ T Cell Infiltration, Rui Chen, Elaina Coleborn, Chintan Bhavsar, Yue Wang, Louisa Alim, Andrew N Wilkinson, Michelle A Tran, Gowri Irgam, Sharat Atluri, Kiefer Wong, Jae-Jun Shim, Siddharth Adityan, Ju-Seog Lee, Willem W Overwijk, Raymond Steptoe, Da Yang, Sherry Y Wu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Immunotherapies have emerged as promising strategies for cancer treatment. However, existing immunotherapies have poor activity in high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC) due to the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and the associated low tumoral CD8+ T cell (CTL) infiltration. Through multiple lines of evidence, including integrative analyses of human HGSC tumors, we have identified miR-146a as a master regulator of CTL infiltration in HGSC. Tumoral miR-146a expression is positively correlated with anti-cancer immune signatures in human HGSC tumors, and delivery of miR-146a to tumors resulted in significant reduction in tumor growth in both ID8-p53−/− and IG10 murine HGSC models. Increasing miR-146a expression …

Deep Learning Integrates Histopathology And Proteogenomics At A Pan-Cancer Level, Joshua M Wang, Runyu Hong, Elizabeth G Demicco, Jimin Tan, Rossana Lazcano, Andre L Moreira, Yize Li, Anna Calinawan, Narges Razavian, Tobias Schraink, Michael A Gillette, Gilbert S Omenn, Eunkyung An, Henry Rodriguez, Aristotelis Tsirigos, Kelly V Ruggles, Li Ding, Ana I Robles, D R Mani, Karin D Rodland, Alexander J Lazar, Wenke Liu, David Fenyö, Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

We introduce a pioneering approach that integrates pathology imaging with transcriptomics and proteomics to identify predictive histology features associated with critical clinical outcomes in cancer. We utilize 2,755 H&E-stained histopathological slides from 657 patients across 6 cancer types from CPTAC. Our models effectively recapitulate distinctions readily made by human pathologists: tumor vs. normal (AUROC = 0.995) and tissue-of-origin (AUROC = 0.979). We further investigate predictive power on tasks not normally performed from H&E alone, including TP53 prediction and pathologic stage. Importantly, we describe predictive morphologies not previously utilized in a clinical setting. The incorporation of transcriptomics and proteomics identifies pathway-level …

Sepepquant Enhances The Detection Of Possible Isoform Regulations In Shotgun Proteomics, Yongchao Dou, Yuejia Liu, Xinpei Yi, Lindsey K Olsen, Hongwen Zhu, Qiang Gao, Hu Zhou, Bing Zhang

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Shotgun proteomics is essential for protein identification and quantification in biomedical research, but protein isoform characterization is challenging due to the extensive number of peptides shared across proteins, hindering our understanding of protein isoform regulation and their roles in normal and disease biology. We systematically assess the challenge and opportunities of shotgun proteomics-based protein isoform characterization using in silico and experimental data, and then present SEPepQuant, a graph theory-based approach to maximize isoform characterization. Using published data from one induced pluripotent stem cell study and two human hepatocellular carcinoma studies, we demonstrate the ability of SEPepQuant in addressing the key …

A Multicenter Analysis Of Abnormal Chromosomal Microarray Findings In Congenital Heart Disease, Benjamin J Landis, Lindsey R Helvaty, Gabrielle C Geddes, Jiuann-Huey Ivy Lin, Svetlana A Yatsenko, Cecilia W Lo, William L Border, Stephanie Burns Wechsler, Chaya N Murali, Mahshid S Azamian, Seema R Lalani, Robert B Hinton, Vidu Garg, Kim L Mcbride, Jennelle C Hodge, Stephanie M Ware

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background

Chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA) provides an opportunity to understand genetic causes of congenital heart disease (CHD). The methods for describing cardiac phenotypes in patients with CMA abnormalities have been inconsistent, which may complicate clinical interpretation of abnormal testing results and hinder a more complete understanding of genotype–phenotype relationships.

Methods and Results

Patients with CHD and abnormal clinical CMA were accrued from 9 pediatric cardiac centers. Highly detailed cardiac phenotypes were systematically classified and analyzed for their association with CMA abnormality. Hierarchical classification of each patient into 1 CHD category facilitated broad analyses. Inclusive classification allowing multiple CHD types per …

Retraction Note: Mir20a/106a-Wtx Axis Regulates Rhogdia/Cdc42 Signaling And Colon Cancer Progression, Gui-Fang Zhu, Yang-Wei Xu, Jian Li, Hui-Lin Niu, Wen-Xia Ma, Jia Xu, Pei-Rong Zhou, Xia Liu, Dan-Li Ye, Xiao-Rong Liu, Tao Yan, Wei-Ke Zhai, Zhi-Jun Xu, Chun Liu, Lei Wang, Hao Wang, Jia-Mao Luo, Li Liu, Xuan-Qi Li, Suiqun Guo, Hui-Ping Jiang, Peng Shen, Hui-Kuan Lin, Di-Hua Yu, Yan-Qing Ding, Qing-Ling Zhang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

No abstract provided.

Neurocognitive Outcomes In Adult Survivors Of Neuroblastoma: A Report From The Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, Caroline Hesko, Wei Liu, Deo K Srivastava, Tara M Brinkman, Lisa Diller, Todd M Gibson, Kevin C Oeffinger, Wendy M Leisenring, Rebecca Howell, Gregory T Armstrong, Kevin R Krull, Tara O Henderson

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Despite survival improvements, there is a paucity of data on neurocognitive outcomes in neuroblastoma survivors. This study addresses this literature gap.

Methods: Neurocognitive impairments in survivors were compared to sibling controls from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS) using the CCSS Neurocognitive Questionnaire. Impaired emotional regulation, organization, task efficiency, and memory defined as scores ≥90th percentile of sibling norms. Modified Poisson regression models evaluated associations with treatment exposures, era of diagnosis, and chronic conditions. Analyses were stratified by age at diagnosis (≤1 and >1 year) as proxy for lower versus higher risk disease.

Results: Survivors (N = 837; median …

Single Cell Multiomics Identifies Cells And Genetic Networks Underlying Alveolar Capillary Dysplasia, Minzhe Guo, Kathryn A Wikenheiser-Brokamp, Joseph A Kitzmiller, Cheng Jiang, Guolun Wang, Allen Wang, Sebastian Preissl, Xiaomeng Hou, Justin Buchanan, Justyna A Karolak, Yifei Miao, David B Frank, William J Zacharias, Xin Sun, Yan Xu, Mingxia Gu, Pawel Stankiewicz, Vladimir V Kalinichenko, Jennifer A Wambach, Jeffrey A Whitsett

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Rationale

Alveolar capillary dysplasia with misalignment of pulmonary veins (ACDMPV) is a lethal developmental disorder of lung morphogenesis caused by insufficiency of FOXF1 (forkhead box F1) transcription factor function. The cellular and transcriptional mechanisms by which FOXF1 deficiency disrupts human lung formation are unknown.

Objectives

To identify cell types, gene networks, and cell–cell interactions underlying the pathogenesis of ACDMPV.

Methods

We used single-nucleus RNA and assay for transposase-accessible chromatin sequencing, immunofluorescence confocal microscopy, and RNA in situ hybridization to identify cell types and molecular networks influenced by FOXF1 in ACDMPV lungs.

Measurements and Main Results

Pathogenic single-nucleotide variants and copy-number …

Hematopoietic Stem And Progenitor Cells Confer Cross-Protective Trained Immunity In Mouse Models, Bailee N Kain, Brandon T Tran, Pamela N Luna, Ruoqiong Cao, Duy T Le, Marcus A Florez, Laure Maneix, Jack D Toups, Daniel E Morales-Mantilla, Scott Koh, Hyojeong Han, Roman Jaksik, Yun Huang, Andre Catic, Chad A Shaw, Katherine Y King

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

Recent studies suggest that infection reprograms hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) to enhance innate immune responses upon secondary infectious challenge, a process called “trained immunity.” However, the specificity and cell types responsible for this response remain poorly defined. We established a model of trained immunity in mice in response to Mycobacterium avium infection. scRNA-seq analysis revealed that HSPCs activate interferon gamma-response genes heterogeneously upon primary challenge, while rare cell populations expand. Macrophages derived from trained HSPCs demonstrated enhanced bacterial killing and metabolism, and a single dose of recombinant interferon gamma exposure was sufficient to induce similar training. Mice transplanted …

Genotype-By-Socioeconomic Status Interaction Influences Heart Disease Risk Scores And Carotid Artery Thickness In Mexican Americans: The Predominant Role Of Education In Comparison To Household Income And Socioeconomic Index, Vincent P. Diego, Eron G. Manusov, Xi Mao, Joanne E. Curran, Harald H. H. Goring, Marcio A. Almeida, Michael Mahaney, Juan M. Peralta, John Blangero, Sarah Williams-Blangero

School of Medicine Publications

Background: Socioeconomic status (SES) is a potent environmental determinant of health. To our knowledge, no assessment of genotype-environment interaction has been conducted to consider the joint effects of socioeconomic status and genetics on risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). We analyzed Mexican American Family Studies (MAFS) data to evaluate the hypothesis that genotype-by-environment interaction (GxE) is an important determinant of variation in CVD risk factors.

Methods: We employed a linear mixed model to investigate GxE in Mexican American extended families. We studied two proxies for CVD [Pooled Cohort Equation Risk Scores/Framingham Risk Scores (FRS/PCRS) and carotid artery intima-media thickness (CA-IMT)] in …

Speg Interactions That Regulate The Stability Of Excitation-Contraction Coupling Protein Complexes In Triads And Dyads, Chang Seok Lee, Sung Yun Jung, Rachel Sue Zhen Yee, Nadia H Agha, Jin Hong, Ting Chang, Lyle W Babcock, Jorie D Fleischman, Benjamin Clayton, Amy D Hanna, Christopher S Ward, Denise Lanza, Ayrea E Hurley, Pumin Zhang, Xander H T Wehrens, William R Lagor, George G Rodney, Susan L Hamilton

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Here we show that striated muscle preferentially expressed protein kinase α (Spegα) maintains cardiac function in hearts with Spegβ deficiency. Speg is required for stability of excitation-contraction coupling (ECC) complexes and interacts with esterase D (Esd), Cardiomyopathy-Associated Protein 5 (Cmya5), and Fibronectin Type III and SPRY Domain Containing 2 (Fsd2) in cardiac and skeletal muscle. Mice with a sequence encoding a V5/HA tag inserted into the first exon of the Speg gene (HA-Speg mice) display a >90% decrease in Spegβ but Spegα is expressed at ~50% of normal levels. Mice deficient in both Spegα and Speg β (Speg KO mice) …

Pathogen-Driven Crispr Screens Identify Trex1as A Regulator Of Dna Self-Sensing During Influenza Virus Infection, Cason R King, Yiping Liu, Katherine A Amato, Grace A Schaack, Clayton Mickelson, Autumn E Sanders, Tony Hu, Srishti Gupta, Ryan A Langlois, Judith A Smith, Andrew Mehle

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Host:pathogen interactions dictate the outcome of infection, yet the limitations of current approaches leave large regions of this interface unexplored. Here, we develop a novel fitness-based screen that queries factors important during the middle to late stages of infection. This is achieved by engineering influenza virus to direct the screen by programming dCas9 to modulate host gene expression. Our genome-wide screen for pro-viral factors identifies the cytoplasmic DNA exonuclease TREX1. TREX1 degrades cytoplasmic DNA to prevent inappropriate innate immune activation by self-DNA. We reveal that this same process aids influenza virus replication. Infection triggers release of mitochondrial DNA into the …

Precision Modulation Of Dysbiotic Adult Microbiomes With A Human-Milk-Derived Synbiotic Reshapes Gut Microbial Composition And Metabolites, Julie E Button, Casey M Cosetta, Abigail L Reens, Sarah L Brooker, Aislinn D Rowan-Nash, Richard C Lavin, Russell Saur, Shuning Zheng, Chloe A Autran, Martin L Lee, Adam K Sun, Amin M Alousi, Christine B Peterson, Andrew Y Koh, David J Rechtman, Robert R Jenq, Gregory J Mckenzie

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Manipulation of the gut microbiome using live biotherapeutic products shows promise for clinical applications but remains challenging to achieve. Here, we induced dysbiosis in 56 healthy volunteers using antibiotics to test a synbiotic comprising the infant gut microbe, Bifidobacterium longum subspecies infantis (B. infantis), and human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs). B. infantis engrafted in 76% of subjects in an HMO-dependent manner, reaching a relative abundance of up to 81%. Changes in microbiome composition and gut metabolites reflect altered recovery of engrafted subjects compared with controls. Engraftment associates with increases in lactate-consuming Veillonella, faster acetate recovery, and changes in indolelactate and p-cresol …

Gut Barrier Defects, Intestinal Immune Hyperactivation And Enhanced Lipid Catabolism Drive Lethality In Ngly1-Deficient Drosophila, Ashutosh Pandey, Antonio Galeone, Seung Yeop Han, Benjamin A Story, Gaia Consonni, William F Mueller, Lars M Steinmetz, Thomas Vaccari, Hamed Jafar-Nejad

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Intestinal barrier dysfunction leads to inflammation and associated metabolic changes. However, the relative impact of gut bacteria versus non-bacterial insults on animal health in the context of barrier dysfunction is not well understood. Here, we establish that loss of Drosophila N-glycanase 1 (Pngl) in a specific intestinal cell type leads to gut barrier defects, causing starvation and JNK overactivation. These abnormalities, along with loss of Pngl in enterocytes and fat body, result in Foxo overactivation, leading to hyperactive innate immune response and lipid catabolism and thereby contributing to lethality. Germ-free rearing of Pngl mutants rescued their developmental delay but not …

Global Impact Of Somatic Structural Variation On The Cancer Proteome, Fengju Chen, Yiqun Zhang, Darshan S Chandrashekar, Sooryanarayana Varambally, Chad J Creighton

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Both proteome and transcriptome data can help assess the relevance of non-coding somatic mutations in cancer. Here, we combine mass spectrometry-based proteomics data with whole genome sequencing data across 1307 human tumors spanning various tissues to determine the extent somatic structural variant (SV) breakpoint patterns impact protein expression of nearby genes. We find that about 25% of the hundreds of genes with SV-associated cis-regulatory alterations at the mRNA level are similarly associated at the protein level. SVs associated with enhancer hijacking, retrotransposon translocation, altered DNA methylation, or fusion transcripts are implicated in protein over-expression. SVs combined with altered protein levels …

The Use Of Prognostic Markers To Predict Disease Progression And Clinical Outcome In Monoclonal Gammopathy Of Undetermined Significance, Smouldering Multiple Myeloma And Multiple Myeloma., Róisín C. Mcmonagle

International Undergraduate Journal of Health Sciences

Multiple Myeloma (MM) is an incurable plasma cell malignancy with a complex and incompletely understood molecular pathogenesis. Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance (MGUS) and Smouldering Multiple Myeloma (SMM) precede MM, with variable risks and rates of disease progression. The continuing high relapse and death rate in MM cases has prompted research into more accurate prognostic markers to predict progression from MGUS and SMM to MM, as well as identify MM cases with aggressive disease, in order to begin early, targeted and effective therapeutic intervention. Many studies have focused on utilising current markers more effectively, including M-protein, serum-free light chain ratio, …

Cell-Type-Specific Alternative Polyadenylation Promotes Oncogenic Gene Expression In Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Progression, Kexin Huang, Yun Zhang, Xiaorui Shi, Zhiqin Yin, Weiling Zhao, Liyu Huang, Fu Wang, Xiaobo Zhou

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Disrupted alternative polyadenylation (APA) is frequently involved in tumorigenesis and cancer progression by regulating the gene expression of oncogenes and tumor suppressors. However, limited knowledge of tumor-type- and cell-type-specific APA events may lead to novel APA events and their functions being overlooked. Here, we compared APA events across different cell types in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and normal tissues and identified functionally related APA events in NSCLC. We found several cell-specific 3'-UTR alterations that regulate gene expression changes showed prognostic value in NSCLC. We further investigated the function of APA-mediated 3'-UTR shortening through loss of microRNA (miRNA)-binding sites, and …

Collagene Enables Privacy-Aware Federated And Collaborative Genomic Data Analysis, Wentao Li, Miran Kim, Kai Zhang, Han Chen, Xiaoqian Jiang, Arif Harmanci

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Growing regulatory requirements set barriers around genetic data sharing and collaborations. Moreover, existing privacy-aware paradigms are challenging to deploy in collaborative settings. We present COLLAGENE, a tool base for building secure collaborative genomic data analysis methods. COLLAGENE protects data using shared-key homomorphic encryption and combines encryption with multiparty strategies for efficient privacy-aware collaborative method development. COLLAGENE provides ready-to-run tools for encryption/decryption, matrix processing, and network transfers, which can be immediately integrated into existing pipelines. We demonstrate the usage of COLLAGENE by building a practical federated GWAS protocol for binary phenotypes and a secure meta-analysis protocol. COLLAGENE is available at https://zenodo.org/record/8125935 …

Treatment Of Older Adults With Flt3-Mutated Aml: Emerging Paradigms And The Role Of Frontline Flt3 Inhibitors, Nicholas J Short, Daniel Nguyen, Farhad Ravandi

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

FLT3 is the most frequently mutated gene in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), with FLT3 internal tandem duplication (ITD) mutations being associated with a more aggressive clinical course. While two large, randomized clinical trials have shown a survival benefit with the frontline use of an oral FLT3 inhibitor (midostaurin or quizartinib) in patients with FLT3-mutated AML, the role of FLT3 inhibitors in older adults with newly diagnosed FLT3-mutated AML remains unclear. A definitive improvement in survival has not been observed in intensively treated patients over 60 years of age receiving frontline FLT3 inhibitors. Furthermore, many patients with FLT3-mutated AML are unsuitable …

Integrative Multi-Omic Cancer Profiling Reveals Dna Methylation Patterns Associated With Therapeutic Vulnerability And Cell-Of-Origin, Wen-Wei Liang, Rita Jui-Hsien Lu, Reyka G Jayasinghe, Steven M Foltz, Eduard Porta-Pardo, Yifat Geffen, Michael C Wendl, Rossana Lazcano, Iga Kolodziejczak, Yizhe Song, Akshay Govindan, Elizabeth G Demicco, Xiang Li, Yize Li, Sunantha Sethuraman, Samuel H Payne, David Fenyö, Henry Rodriguez, Maciej Wiznerowicz, Hui Shen, D R Mani, Karin D Rodland, Alexander J Lazar, Ana I Robles, Li Ding, Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

DNA methylation plays a critical role in establishing and maintaining cellular identity. However, it is frequently dysregulated during tumor development and is closely intertwined with other genetic alterations. Here, we leveraged multi-omic profiling of 687 tumors and matched non-involved adjacent tissues from the kidney, brain, pancreas, lung, head and neck, and endometrium to identify aberrant methylation associated with RNA and protein abundance changes and build a Pan-Cancer catalog. We uncovered lineage-specific epigenetic drivers including hypomethylated FGFR2 in endometrial cancer. We showed that hypermethylated STAT5A is associated with pervasive regulon downregulation and immune cell depletion, suggesting that epigenetic regulation of STAT5A …

Krasg12d Inhibition Reprograms The Tumor Microenvironment Of Early And Advanced Pancreatic Cancer To Promote Fas-Mediated Killing By Cd8+ T Cells, Krishnan K Mahadevan, Kathleen M Mcandrews, Valerie S Lebleu, Sujuan Yang, Hengyu Lyu, Bingrui Li, Amari M Sockwell, Michelle L Kirtley, Sami J Morse, Barbara A Moreno Diaz, Michael P Kim, Ningping Feng, Anastasia M Lopez, Paola A Guerrero, Francesca Paradiso, Hikaru Sugimoto, Kent A Arian, Haoqiang Ying, Yasaman Barekatain, Lakshmi Kavitha Sthanam, Patience J Kelly, Anirban Maitra, Timothy P Heffernan, Raghu Kalluri

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The KRASG12D mutation is present in nearly half of pancreatic adenocarcinomas (PDAC). We investigated the effects of inhibiting the KRASG12D mutant protein with MRTX1133, a non-covalent small molecule inhibitor of KRASG12D, on early and advanced PDAC and its influence on the tumor microenvironment. Employing 16 different models of KRASG12D-driven PDAC, we demonstrate that MRTX1133 reverses early PDAC growth, increases intratumoral CD8+ effector T cells, decreases myeloid infiltration, and reprograms cancer associated fibroblasts. MRTX1133 leads to regression of both established PanINs and advanced PDAC. Regression of advanced PDAC requires CD8+ T cells and immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) synergizes with MRTX1133 …

Elimination Of Oncogenic Kras In Genetic Mouse Models Eradicates Pancreatic Cancer By Inducing Fas-Dependent Apoptosis By Cd8+ T Cells, Krishnan K Mahadevan, Valerie S Lebleu, Elena V Ramirez, Yang Chen, Bingrui Li, Amari M Sockwell, Mihai Gagea, Hikaru Sugimoto, Lakshmi Kavitha Sthanam, Desiree Tampe, Michael Zeisberg, Haoqiang Ying, Abhinav K Jain, Ronald A Depinho, Anirban Maitra, Kathleen M Mcandrews, Raghu Kalluri

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Oncogenic KrasG12D (Kras*) is critical for the initiation and maintenance of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), and a known repressor of tumor immunity. Conditional elimination of Kras* in genetic mouse models of PDAC leads to reactivation of Fas, CD8+ T cell mediated apoptosis, and complete eradication of tumors. Kras* elimination recruits activated CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and promotes the activation of antigen presenting cells. Mechanistically, Kras* mediated immune evasion involves epigenetic regulation of the Fas death receptor in cancer cells, via methylation of its promoter region. Further, analysis of human RNA sequencing identifies that high KRAS expressing PDAC tumors show …

Phasedancer: A Novel Targeted Assembler Of Segmental Duplications Unravels The Complexity Of The Human Chromosome 2 Fusion Going From 48 To 46 Chromosomes In Hominin Evolution, Barbara Poszewiecka, Krzysztof Gogolewski, Justyna A Karolak, Paweł Stankiewicz, Anna Gambin

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Resolving complex genomic regions rich in segmental duplications (SDs) is challenging due to the high error rate of long-read sequencing. Here, we describe a targeted approach with a novel genome assembler PhaseDancer that extends SD-rich regions of interest iteratively. We validate its robustness and efficiency using a golden-standard set of human BAC clones and in silico-generated SDs with predefined evolutionary scenarios. PhaseDancer enables extension of the incomplete complex SD-rich subtelomeric regions of Great Ape chromosomes orthologous to the human chromosome 2 (HSA2) fusion site, informing a model of HSA2 formation and unravelling the evolution of human and Great Ape genomes.