Sara Byron

Sara Byron Ph.D.

Research Associate Professor
Integrated Cancer Genomics Division

Director
Center for Translational Innovation

Sara Byron Ph.D.

Dr. Sara Byron is a Research Associate Professor in the Integrated Cancer Genomics Division at TGen. Her research interests center on understanding the molecular mechanisms whereby aberrations in oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes lead to tumorigenesis, evaluating the clinical consequences of aberrant pathway activation in cancer, and investigating the genetic context associated with sensitivity and resistance to inhibition of pathways dysregulated in cancer. Dr. Byron received her Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Minnesota, where she studied insulin-like growth factor receptor signaling in breast cancer under the direction of Dr. Douglas Yee. She joined TGen as a postdoctoral fellow in 2006, working with Dr. Pamela Pollock to investigate the molecular mechanisms and biological consequences of FGFR2 mutations in various tumor types, including endometrial cancer, ovarian cancer, and melanoma, and then with Dr. Suwon Kim exploring the influence of chromatin modifications on pathway regulation in breast cancer. Dr. Byron joined the Integrated Cancer Genomics Division at TGen in 2013 as part of the precision medicine team. Her main efforts focus on applying TGen’s precision medicine platform to glioblastoma as part of the Ivy Foundation Genomics–Enabled Medicine for Glioblastoma Clinical Trial. Her work centers on content analysis of exome and RNA-sequencing data and knowledgebase development to map drug-gene relationships and pharmacological considerations (such as predicted blood brain barrier penetration) for indicated therapeutics to identify clinically actionable vulnerabilities.

Temporospatial genomic profiling in glioblastoma identifies commonly altered core pathways underlying tumor progression. Mylan R Blomquist, Shannon Fortin Ensign, Fulvio D'Angelo, Joanna J Phillips, Michele Ceccarelli, Sen Peng, Rebecca F Halperin, Francesca P Caruso, Luciano Garofano, Sara A Byron, Winnie S Liang, David W Craig, John D Carpten, Michael D Prados, Jeffrey M Trent, Michael E Berens, Antonio Iavarone, Harshil Dhruv, Nhan L Tran. Neurooncol Adv. 2020 Jun 19;2(1):vdaa078. eCollection Jan-Dec 2020.

Comparative Tumor RNA Sequencing Analysis for Difficult-to-Treat Pediatric and Young Adult Patients With Cancer. Olena M Vaske, Isabel Bjork, Sofie R Salama, Holly Beale, Avanthi Tayi Shah , Lauren Sanders, Jacob Pfeil, Du L Lam, Katrina Learned, Ann Durbin, Ellen T Kephart, Rob Currie, Yulia Newton, Teresa Swatloski, Duncan McColl, John Vivian, Jingchun Zhu, Alex G Lee, Stanley G Leung, Aviv Spillinger, Heng-Yi Liu, Winnie S Liang, Sara A Byron, Michael E Berens, Adam C Resnick, Norman Lacayo, Sheri L Spunt, Arun Rangaswami, Van Huynh, Lilibeth Torno, Ashley Plant, Ivan Kirov, Keri B Zabokrtsky, S Rod Rassekh, Rebecca J Deyell, Janessa Laskin, Marco A Marra, Leonard S Sender, Sabine Mueller, E Alejandro Sweet-Cordero, Theodore C Goldstein, David Haussler. JAMA Netw Open. 2019 Oct 2;2(10):e1913968.

Genomics-Enabled Precision Medicine for Cancer. Alison Roos, Sara A Byron. Cancer Treat Res. 2019;178:137-169.

Leveraging Spatial Variation in Tumor Purity for Improved Somatic Variant Calling of Archival Tumor Only Samples. Rebecca F Halperin, Winnie S Liang, Sidharth Kulkarni, Erica E Tassone, Jonathan Adkins, Daniel Enriquez, Nhan L Tran, Nicole C Hank, James Newell, Chinnappa Kodira, Ronald Korn, Michael E Berens, Seungchan Kim, Sara A Byron. Front Oncol. 2019 Mar 20;9:119. eCollection 2019.

A pilot precision medicine trial for children with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma-PNOC003: A report from the Pacific Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Consortium. Sabine Mueller, Payal Jain, Winnie S Liang, Lindsay Kilburn, Cassie Kline, Nalin Gupta, Eshini Panditharatna, Suresh N Magge, Bo Zhang, Yuankun Zhu, John R Crawford, Anu Banerjee, Kellie Nazemi, Roger J Packer, Claudia K Petritsch, Nathalene Truffaux, Alison Roos, Sara Nasser, Joanna J Phillips, David Solomon, Annette Molinaro, Angela J Waanders, Sara A Byron, Michael E Berens, John Kuhn, Javad Nazarian, Michael Prados, Adam C Resnick. Int J Cancer. 2019 Oct 1;145(7):1889-1901. pub 2019 Apr 3.


Prospective Feasibility Trial for Genomics-Informed Treatment in Recurrent and Progressive Glioblastoma. Sara A Byron, Nhan L Tran, Rebecca F Halperin, Joanna J Phillips, John G Kuhn, John F de Groot, Howard Colman, Keith L Ligon, Patrick Y Wen, Timothy F Cloughesy, Ingo K Mellinghoff, Nicholas A Butowski, Jennie W Taylor, Jennifer L Clarke, Susan M Chang, Mitchel S Berger, Annette M Molinaro, Gerald M Maggiora, Sen Peng, Sara Nasser, Winnie S Liang, Jeffrey M Trent, Michael E Berens, John D Carpten, David W Craig, Michael D Prados. Clin Cancer Res. 2018 Jan 15;24(2):295-305. Epub 2017 Oct 26.

FGFR2 mutations are associated with poor outcomes in endometrioid endometrial cancer: An NRG Oncology/Gynecologic Oncology Group study. Yvette W Jeske, Shamshad Ali, Sara A Byron, Feng Gao, Robert S Mannel, Rahel G Ghebre, Paul A DiSilvestro, Shashikant B Lele, Michael L Pearl, Amy P Schmidt, Heather A Lankes, Nilsa C Ramirez, Golnar Rasty, Matthew Powell, Paul J Goodfellow, Pamela M Pollock. Gynecol Oncol. 2017 May;145(2):366-373. Epub 2017 Mar 15.

Translating RNA sequencing into clinical diagnostics: opportunities and challenges. Sara A Byron, Kendall R Van Keuren-Jensen, David M Engelthaler, John D Carpten, David W Craig. Nat Rev Genet. 2016 May;17(5):257-71. Epub 2016 Mar 21.

Toward precision medicine in glioblastoma: the promise and the challenges. Michael D Prados, Sara A Byron, Nhan L Tran, Joanna J Phillips, Annette M Molinaro, Keith L Ligon, Patrick Y Wen, John G Kuhn, Ingo K Mellinghoff, John F de Groot, Howard Colman, Timothy F Cloughesy, Susan M Chang, Timothy C Ryken, Waibhav D Tembe, Jeffrey A Kiefer, Michael E Berens, David W Craig, John D Carpten, Jeffrey M Trent. Neuro Oncol. 2015 Aug;17(8):1051-63. Epub 2015 May 1.

An integrated framework for reporting clinically relevant biomarkers from paired tumor/normal genomic and transcriptomic sequencing data in support of clinical trials in personalized medicine. Sara Nasser, Ahmet A Kurdolgu, Tyler Izatt, Jessica Aldrich, Megan L Russell, Alexis Christoforides, Wiabhav Tembe, Jeffery A Keifer, Jason J Corneveaux, Sara A Byron, Karen M Forman, Clarice Zuccaro, Jonathan J Keats, Patricia M Lorusso, John D Carpten, Jeffrey M Trent, David W Craig. Pac Symp Biocomput. 2015;56-67.

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