Darryl K. Shibata Professor Pathology USC / Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center Keck School of Medicine

Education:
BS 1977 Biochemistry- University of California, Los Angeles
MS 1979 Chemistry- University of California, San Diego
MD 1983 Medicine - University of Southern California School of Medicine

Postdoctoral Research Fellowship:
1983-1984 University of California, San Diego

Started at USC: 1989

Research Topics: Cancer Genetics, Evolutionary Biology, Computational Biology, DNA Replication, Repair, Modificatio, Epigenetics

Research Description

Cancer is a multistep process involving unknown numbers of cell divisions and mutations. One great mystery is how many divisions and how many mutations. Although these numbers are fundamental to the understanding of cancer, it has been extremely difficult to obtain estimates in humans since serial observations are impractical and unethical.

My laboratory is currently focused on using genetic analysis to determine when mutations are acquired and the number of divisions which intervene between tumor initiation and clinical presentation. We are exploring the concept of molecular tumor clocks and the general translation of well established phylogenetic approaches to cancer. By analogy to the "Out-of-Africa" problem, we seek to unravel the past to determine when individual human tumors arose "Out-of-Adenoma".

Besides traditional techniques in molecular biology, we employ robotics to increase laboratory efficiency and are currently exploring the use of computers to simulate experiments. Computer simulations take minutes but help plan experiments which will take weeks of laboratory work.

Selected Publications

Basile LA, Gallaher TK, Shibata D, Miller JD, Douer D. - Multilineage hematopoietic recovery with concomitant antitumor effects using low dose Interleukin-12 in myelosuppressed tumor-bearing mice. - J Transl Med [ 2008 ] May 19;6(1):26 . PubMed

Chu M, Siegmund KD, Hao QL, Crooks GM, Tavaré S, Shibata D. - Inferring relative numbers of human leucocyte genome replications. - Br J Haematol [ 2008 ] Apr 10; . PubMed

Alhopuro P, Phichith D, Tuupanen S, Sammalkorpi H, Nybondas M, Saharinen J, Robinson JP, Yang Z, Chen LQ, Orntoft T, Mecklin JP, Järvinen H, Eng C, Moeslein G, Shibata D, Houlston RS, Lucassen A, Tomlinson IP, Launonen V, Ristimäki A, Arango D, Karhu A, Sweeney HL, Aaltonen LA. - Unregulated smooth-muscle myosin in human intestinal neoplasia. - Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A [ 2008 ] Apr 8;105(14):5513-8 . PubMed

Miller AJ, Dudley SD, Tsao JL, Shibata D, Liskay RM. - Tractable Cre-lox system for stochastic alteration of genes in mice. - Nat Methods [ 2008 ] Mar;5(3):227-9 . PubMed

Shibata D. - Mistakes make history: visualizing intestinal tectonics. - Gastroenterology [ 2008 ] Feb;134(2):628-31 . PubMed

Shibata D. - Stem cells as common ancestors in a colorectal cancer ancestral tree. - Curr Opin Gastroenterol [ 2008 ] Jan;24(1):59-63 . PubMed

Kern SE, Shibata D. - The fuzzy math of solid tumor stem cells: a perspective. - Cancer Res [ 2007 ] Oct 1;67(19):8985-8 . PubMed

Shibata D, Tavaré S. - Stem cell chronicles: autobiographies within genomes. - Stem Cell Rev [ 2007 ] Jan;3(1):94-103 . PubMed

Chu MW, Siegmund KD, Eckstam CL, Kim JY, Yang AS, Kanel GC, Tavaré S, Shibata D. - Lack of increases in methylation at three CpG-rich genomic loci in non-mitotic adult tissues during aging. - BMC Med Genet [ 2007 ] Jul 31;8:50 . PubMed

Nicolas P, Kim KM, Shibata D, Tavaré S. - The stem cell population of the human colon crypt: analysis via methylation patterns. - PLoS Comput Biol [ 2007 ] Mar 2;3(3):e28 . PubMed