Shahab Asgharzadeh Assistant Professor Pediatrics (Division of Hematology-Oncology), Childrens Hospital Los Angeles

Education:
BS 1992 Biomedical Engineering - Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
MD 1996 Medicine - University of Illinois, Chicago, IL

Postdoctoral Research Fellowship:
1996-1999 University Of Chicago, IL

Started at USC: 2001

Research Topics: Cancer Genetics, Cancer Prevention/Epidemiology, Cancer Cell Biology, Bioinformatics

Research Description

My research program is involved in the areas of pediatric neural tumors, gene expression profiling and genomic aberrations analysis. A large portion of this work focuses on the examination of gene expression profiles and genomic profiles (DNA copy number changes and loss of heterozygosity) of tumors and their use as tools in assessing prognosis of children with neural tumors and understanding the pathogenesis of these disorders.

Our primary aim is to develop gene chip based risk stratification models that can be clinically applicable in children with neuroblastoma, a tumor of the sympathetic nervous system, and medulloblastoma, a common brain tumor. In this approach Affymetrix Exon and SNP arrays are used to identify transcript isoforms and DNA copy number/genotype of tumors. These genetic features will then be used in building prediction models for risk of disease relapse. In other areas, we are investigating genomic aspects of immune and inflammatory mechanisms occurring in the tumor microenvironment that can eradicate, control, and promote tumor growth and progression. This second aim will use the genomic data (data mining) to understand the impact of genomics on immune and inflammatory cells interactions with tumor cells and how these contribute to tumor eradication or progression.

Selected Publications

Maris JM, Mosse YP, Bradfield JP, Hou C, Monni S, Scott RH, Asgharzadeh S, Attiyeh EF, Diskin SJ, Laudenslager M, Winter C, Cole KA, Glessner JT, Kim C, Frackelton EC, Casalunovo T, Eckert AW, Capasso M, Rappaport EF, McConville C, London WB, Seeger RC, Rahman N, Devoto M, Grant SF, Li H, Hakonarson H. - Chromosome 6p22 Locus Associated with Clinically Aggressive Neuroblastoma. - N Engl J Med [ 2008 ] May 7; . PubMed

Gardner SL, Asgharzadeh S, Green A, Horn B, McCowage G, Finlay J. - Intensive induction chemotherapy followed by high dose chemotherapy with autologous hematopoietic progenitor cell rescue in young children newly diagnosed with central nervous system atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumors. - Pediatr Blood Cancer [ 2008 ] Apr 1; . PubMed

Pique-Regi R, Monso-Varona J, Ortega A, Seeger RC, Triche TJ, Asgharzadeh S. - Sparse representation and Bayesian detection of genome copy number alterations from microarray data. - Bioinformatics [ 2008 ] Feb 1;24(3):309-18 . PubMed

Fangusaro J, Finlay J, Sposto R, Ji L, Saly M, Zacharoulis S, Asgharzadeh S, Abromowitch M, Olshefski R, Halpern S, Dubowy R, Comito M, Diez B, Kellie S, Hukin J, Rosenblum M, Dunkel I, Miller DC, Allen J, Gardner S. - Intensive chemotherapy followed by consolidative myeloablative chemotherapy with autologous hematopoietic cell rescue (AuHCR) in young children with newly diagnosed supratentorial primitive neuroectodermal tumors (sPNETs): report of the Head Start I and II experience. - Pediatr Blood Cancer [ 2008 ] Feb;50(2):312-8 . PubMed

Zacharoulis S, Levy A, Chi SN, Gardner S, Rosenblum M, Miller DC, Dunkel I, Diez B, Sposto R, Ji L, Asgharzadeh S, Hukin J, Belasco J, Dubowy R, Kellie S, Termuhlen A, Finlay J. - Outcome for young children newly diagnosed with ependymoma, treated with intensive induction chemotherapy followed by myeloablative chemotherapy and autologous stem cell rescue. - Pediatr Blood Cancer [ 2007 ] Jul;49(1):34-40 . PubMed

Asgharzadeh S, Pique-Regi R, Sposto R, Wang H, Yang Y, Shimada H, Matthay K, Buckley J, Ortega A, Seeger RC. - Prognostic significance of gene expression profiles of metastatic neuroblastomas lacking MYCN gene amplification. - J Natl Cancer Inst [ 2006 ] Sep 6;98(17):1193-203 . PubMed

Metelitsa LS, Wu HW, Wang H, Yang Y, Warsi Z, Asgharzadeh S, Groshen S, Wilson SB, Seeger RC. - Natural killer T cells infiltrate neuroblastomas expressing the chemokine CCL2. - J Exp Med [ 2004 ] May 3;199(9):1213-21 . PubMed