Ash A. Alizadeh, M.D., Ph.D. Associate Professor of Medicine (Oncology)

Research description: Dr. Alizadeh has a history of research and accomplishments in cancer genomics, beginning with the original development of microarray gene expression profiling for cancer classification starting with lymphomas [1]. He helped develop techniques for ultra-sensitive and non-invasive detection of tumor-derived cell-free DNA (CAPP-Seq) [2], and refined computational methods allowing its broader translation across cancers [3,4]. His group's translational research effort is focused on attaining a more sophisticated understanding of the initiation, maintenance, and progression of tumors and their response to therapy toward improving current treatment strategies [5]. In this effort, his group employs tools from functional genomics, computational biology, molecular genetics, and mouse models. Clinically, he is a practicing medical oncologist specializing in the care of patients with aggressive lymphomas. His clinical research relevant to the Stanford PCRG is focused on diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive markers for pancreas cancer, and on translating discoveries from the laboratory to the clinic.

Dr. Alizadeh’s group has collaborations with other members of the PCRG, including with Drs. Diehn, Park and Kim.

Selected relevant publications (Stanford PCRG members in bold):

  1. Alizadeh AA, Eisen MB, Davis RE, Ma C, Lossos IS, Rosenwald A, Boldrick JC, Sabet H, Tran T, Yu X, Powell JI, Yang L, Marti GE, Moore T, Hudson J, Lu L, Lewis DB, Tibshirani R, Sherlock G, Chan WC,… Botstein D, Brown PO, Staudt LM. Distinct types of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma identified by gene expression profiling. Nature. 2000 Feb;403(6769):503-11.

  2. Newman AM, Bratman SV, To J, Wynne JF, Eclov NC, Modlin LA, Liu CL, Neal JW, Wakelee HA, Merritt RE, Shrager JB, Loo BW, Alizadeh AA* (Corresponding author), Diehn M*. An ultrasensitive method for quantitating circulating tumor DNA with broad patient coverage. Nat Med. 2014 May;20(5):548-54.

  3. Newman AM, Lovejoy AF, Klass DM, Kurtz DM, Chabon JJ, Scherer F, Stehr H, Liu CL, Bratman SV, Say C, Zhou L, Carter JN, West RB, Sledge GW, Shrager JB, Loo BW Jr, Neal JW, Wakelee HA, Diehn M*, Alizadeh AA*. Integrated digital error suppression for improved detection of circulating tumor DNA. Nat Biotechnol. 2016 May;34(5):547-555.

  4. Scherer F, Kurtz DM, Newman AM, Stehr H, Craig AF, Esfahani MS, Lovejoy AF, Chabon JJ, Klass DM, Liu CL, Zhou L, Glover C, Visser BC, Poultsides GA, Advani RH, Maeda LS, Gupta NK, Levy R, Ohgami RS, Kunder CA, Diehn M*, Alizadeh AA*. Distinct biological subtypes and patterns of genome evolution in lymphoma revealed by circulating tumor DNA. Sci Transl Med. 2016;8(364):364ra155.