Lukas Chavez's Research Focus
Lukas Chavez's Bio
Lukas Chavez is an Assistant Professor at the Sanford Burnham Prebys. He is also the Director of the Clayes Research Center for Neuro-Oncology at the Institute for Genomic Medicine at the Rady Children’s Hospital, San Diego. In this role, he works with a team of physicians and scientists to capture genomic, transcriptomic, epigenetic and functional data from pediatric brain tumor patients, and uses this information to improve diagnosis and treatment. His research interests focus on structural variants as well as circular extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) in childhood cancers. These extrachromosomal DNA circles are frequently found in highly aggressive solid tumors and represent a new target for improved therapeutic approaches.
Education
2010: Ph.D., Free University, Berlin
Honors and Recognition
2020: St. Baldrick's Scholar Award, St. Baldrick's Foundation
2019: Award of Excellence in Pediatric Neuro-Oncology, Society of Neuro-Oncology
2012–2015: Feodor-Lynen Fellowship for Postdoctoral Researchers, Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation
Publications
3D genome mapping identifies subgroup-specific chromosome conformations and tumor-dependency genes in ependymoma.
Okonechnikov K, Camgöz A, Chapman O, Wani S, Park DE, Hübner JM, Chakraborty A, Pagadala M, Bump R, Chandran S, Kraft K, Acuna-Hidalgo R, Reid D, Sikkink K, Mauermann M, Juarez EF, Jenseit A, Robinson JT, Pajtler KW, Milde T, Jäger N, Fiesel P, Morgan L, Sridhar S, Coufal NG, Levy M, Malicki D, Hobbs C, Kingsmore S, Nahas S, Snuderl M, Crawford J, Wechsler-Reya RJ, Davidson TB, Cotter J, Michaiel G, Fleischhack G, Mundlos S, Schmitt A, Carter H, Michealraj KA, Kumar SA, Taylor MD, Rich J, Buchholz F, Mesirov JP, Pfister SM, Ay F, Dixon JR, Kool M, Chavez L
Nat Commun 2023 Apr 21 ;14(1):2300
The landscape of genomic alterations across childhood cancers.
Gröbner SN, Worst BC, Weischenfeldt J, Buchhalter I, Kleinheinz K, Rudneva VA, Johann PD, Balasubramanian GP, Segura-Wang M, Brabetz S, Bender S, Hutter B, Sturm D, Pfaff E, Hübschmann D, Zipprich G, Heinold M, Eils J, Lawerenz C, Erkek S, Lambo S, Waszak S, Blattmann C, Borkhardt A, Kuhlen M, Eggert A, Fulda S, Gessler M, Wegert J, Kappler R, Baumhoer D, Burdach S, Kirschner-Schwabe R, Kontny U, Kulozik AE, Lohmann D, Hettmer S, Eckert C, Bielack S, Nathrath M, Niemeyer C, Richter GH, Schulte J, Siebert R, Westermann F, Molenaar JJ, Vassal G, Witt H, ICGC PedBrain-Seq Project, ICGC MMML-Seq Project, Burkhardt B, Kratz CP, Witt O, van Tilburg CM, Kramm CM, Fleischhack G, Dirksen U, Rutkowski S, Frühwald M, von Hoff K, Wolf S, Klingebiel T, Koscielniak E, Landgraf P, Koster J, Resnick AC, Zhang J, Liu Y, Zhou X, Waanders AJ, Zwijnenburg DA, Raman P, Brors B, Weber UD, Northcott PA, Pajtler KW, Kool M, Piro RM, Korbel JO, Schlesner M, Eils R, Jones DTW, Lichter P, Chavez L, Zapatka M, Pfister SM
Nature 2018 Mar 15 ;555(7696):321-327
Therapeutic targeting of ependymoma as informed by oncogenic enhancer profiling.
Mack SC, Pajtler KW, Chavez L, Okonechnikov K, Bertrand KC, Wang X, Erkek S, Federation A, Song A, Lee C, Wang X, McDonald L, Morrow JJ, Saiakhova A, Sin-Chan P, Wu Q, Michaelraj KA, Miller TE, Hubert CG, Ryzhova M, Garzia L, Donovan L, Dombrowski S, Factor DC, Luu B, Valentim CLL, Gimple RC, Morton A, Kim L, Prager BC, Lee JJY, Wu X, Zuccaro J, Thompson Y, Holgado BL, Reimand J, Ke SQ, Tropper A, Lai S, Vijayarajah S, Doan S, Mahadev V, Miñan AF, Gröbner SN, Lienhard M, Zapatka M, Huang Z, Aldape KD, Carcaboso AM, Houghton PJ, Keir ST, Milde T, Witt H, Li Y, Li CJ, Bian XW, Jones DTW, Scott I, Singh SK, Huang A, Dirks PB, Bouffet E, Bradner JE, Ramaswamy V, Jabado N, Rutka JT, Northcott PA, Lupien M, Lichter P, Korshunov A, Scacheri PC, Pfister SM, Kool M, Taylor MD, Rich JN
Nature 2018 Jan 4 ;553(7686):101-105
3D genome mapping identifies subgroup-specific chromosome conformations and tumor-dependency genes in ependymoma.
Okonechnikov K, Camgöz A, Chapman O, Wani S, Park DE, Hübner JM, Chakraborty A, Pagadala M, Bump R, Chandran S, Kraft K, Acuna-Hidalgo R, Reid D, Sikkink K, Mauermann M, Juarez EF, Jenseit A, Robinson JT, Pajtler KW, Milde T, Jäger N, Fiesel P, Morgan L, Sridhar S, Coufal NG, Levy M, Malicki D, Hobbs C, Kingsmore S, Nahas S, Snuderl M, Crawford J, Wechsler-Reya RJ, Davidson TB, Cotter J, Michaiel G, Fleischhack G, Mundlos S, Schmitt A, Carter H, Michealraj KA, Kumar SA, Taylor MD, Rich J, Buchholz F, Mesirov JP, Pfister SM, Ay F, Dixon JR, Kool M, Chavez L
Nat Commun 2023 Apr 21 ;14(1):2300
Transcription Elongation Machinery Is a Druggable Dependency and Potentiates Immunotherapy in Glioblastoma Stem Cells.
Qiu Z, Zhao L, Shen JZ, Liang Z, Wu Q, Yang K, Min L, Gimple RC, Yang Q, Bhargava S, Jin C, Kim C, Hinz D, Dixit D, Bernatchez JA, Prager BC, Zhang G, Dong Z, Lv D, Wang X, Kim LJY, Zhu Z, Jones KA, Zheng Y, Wang X, Siqueira-Neto JL, Chavez L, Fu XD, Spruck C, Rich JN
Cancer Discov 2022 Feb ;12(2):502-521
Notch Signaling between Cerebellar Granule Cell Progenitors.
Adachi T, Miyashita S, Yamashita M, Shimoda M, Okonechnikov K, Chavez L, Kool M, Pfister SM, Inoue T, Kawauchi D, Hoshino M
eNeuro 2021 May-Jun ;8(3)
PTEN deficiency leads to proteasome addiction: a novel vulnerability in glioblastoma.
Benitez JA, Finlay D, Castanza A, Parisian AD, Ma J, Longobardi C, Campos A, Vadla R, Izurieta A, Scerra G, Koga T, Long T, Chavez L, Mesirov JP, Vuori K, Furnari F
Neuro Oncol 2021 Jul 1 ;23(7):1072-1086
Reduced chromatin binding of MYC is a key effect of HDAC inhibition in MYC amplified medulloblastoma.
Ecker J, Thatikonda V, Sigismondo G, Selt F, Valinciute G, Oehme I, Müller C, Buhl JL, Ridinger J, Usta D, Qin N, van Tilburg CM, Herold-Mende C, Remke M, Sahm F, Westermann F, Kool M, Wechsler-Reya RJ, Chavez L, Krijgsveld J, Jäger N, Pfister SM, Witt O, Milde T
Neuro Oncol 2021 Feb 25 ;23(2):226-239
The Meningioma Enhancer Landscape Delineates Novel Subgroups and Drives Druggable Dependencies.
Prager BC, Vasudevan HN, Dixit D, Bernatchez JA, Wu Q, Wallace LC, Bhargava S, Lee D, King BH, Morton AR, Gimple RC, Pekmezci M, Zhu Z, Siqueira-Neto JL, Wang X, Xie Q, Chen C, Barnett GH, Vogelbaum MA, Mack SC, Chavez L, Perry A, Raleigh DR, Rich JN
Cancer Discov 2020 Nov ;10(11):1722-1741
