Featured Publications
Environmental and sex-specific molecular signatures of glioma causation
Claus EB, Cannataro VL, Gaffney SG, Townsend JP. Environmental and sex-specific molecular signatures of glioma causation. Neuro-Oncology 2021, 24: 29-36. PMID: 33942853, PMCID: PMC8730771, DOI: 10.1093/neuonc/noab103.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsIDH wild-type tumorsWild-type tumorsEnvironmental risk factorsIDH-mutant tumorsRisk factorsCases of gliomaMolecular signaturesPIK3CA mutationsPossible risk exposuresMutation subtypesCancer effectsExogenous exposureAdult gliomasTumorsWhole-exome sequencing dataGliomasKinase domainMutational signaturesCancer-causing mutationsMalesFemalesNon-coding regionsPIK3R1SexCancer mutational signatures
2022
A phylogenetic approach to study the evolution of somatic mutational processes in cancer
Miura S, Vu T, Choi J, Townsend JP, Karim S, Kumar S. A phylogenetic approach to study the evolution of somatic mutational processes in cancer. Communications Biology 2022, 5: 617. PMID: 35732905, PMCID: PMC9217972, DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-03560-0.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsMutational processesPattern of conservationFalse-positive discovery rateCollection of mutationsSomatic mutational processesPhylogenetic approachGenomic variationSomatic variationCell lineagesMutational signaturesTumor evolutionMutation signaturesPhylogenyCancer cellsDiscovery rateMutationsComputer-simulated datasetsRelative activityLineagesComputational methodsSignaturesConservationDivergenceEvolutionJoint analysis
2019
APOBEC-induced mutations and their cancer effect size in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma
Cannataro VL, Gaffney SG, Sasaki T, Issaeva N, Grewal NKS, Grandis JR, Yarbrough WG, Burtness B, Anderson KS, Townsend JP. APOBEC-induced mutations and their cancer effect size in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Oncogene 2019, 38: 3475-3487. PMID: 30647454, PMCID: PMC6499643, DOI: 10.1038/s41388-018-0657-6.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsPositive selectionCancer phenotypeStrong positive selectionIntensity of selectionEffects of mutationsBasis of mutationsSomatic genetic variantsSomatic evolutionNeutral driftMutational processesAPOBEC mutagenesisBiochemical experimentsSelection intensityMolecular understandingCytosine basesIndividual substitutionsAPOBEC3B proteinMutant stateMutational signaturesGenetic variantsNeck squamous cell carcinomaMutationsE545KGene variantsPhenotype