Matthew Stachler, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor
Pathology
School of Medicine

My lab works to understand the process of premalignant progression to invasive cancer, specifically focusing on cancers (esophageal and gastric adenocarcinoma) and pre-malignant conditions (columnar and intestinal metaplasia or Barrett’s esophagus) of the upper gastrointestinal tract as a model system.

As a disease that is often closely monitored and sampled, Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma provides an idea system to study the changes leading up to and driving invasive disease. Additionally, Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma are extremely important diseases to understand in their own as esophageal adenocarcinoma has one of the fastest rising incidences of any solid tumor and despite our understanding that it arises from a metaplastic field, we still do an extremely poor job of identifying patients early before advanced disease develops.

We have taken the approach to first understand the factors important in human tissues through advanced ‘omics’ and digital imaging approaches and then use this understanding to build model systems and functional studies. It is our goal to use the knowledge and understanding gained in these studies to develop novel biomarkers, screening strategies, and treatments to identify and treat people early before advanced disease develops.

• Concerted epithelial and stromal changes during progression of Barrett's Esophagus to invasive adenocarcinoma exposed by multi-scale, multi-omics analysis.
  bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology 2023 Strasser MK, Gibbs DL, Gascard P, Bons J, Hickey JW, Schürch CM, Tan Y, Black S, Chu P, Ozkan A, Basisty N, Sangwan V, Rose J, Shah S, Camilleri-Broet S, Fiset PO, Bertos N, Berube J, Djambazian H, Li…
• Bridging the Gap between Diseases of the Stomach and Lower Esophagus.
  Cancer discovery 2023 Stachler MD
• Degree of crypt atypia correlates with progression to high-grade dysplasia/adenocarcinoma in non-dysplastic Barrett's oesophagus.
  Histopathology 2023 Odze R, Frei N, Khoshiwal AM, Duits LC, Bergman J, Stachler MD
• Pilot Study Showing Feasibility of Phosphoproteomic Profiling of Pathway-Level Molecular Alterations in Barrett's Esophagus.
  Genes 2022 Moore J, Hekman R, Blum BC, Lawton M, Lehoux S, Stachler M, Pleskow D, Sawhney MS, Cummings RD, Emili A, Qureshi A
• Today's Mistakes and Tomorrow's Wisdom in Development and Use of Biomarkers for Barrett's Esophagus.
  Visceral medicine 2022 Frei NF, Stachler MD
• Abnormal TP53 Predicts Risk of Progression in Patients With Barrett's Esophagus Regardless of a Diagnosis of Dysplasia.
  Gastroenterology 2021 Redston M, Noffsinger A, Kim A, Akarca FG, Rara M, Stapleton D, Nowden L, Lash R, Bass AJ, Stachler MD
• Twists and turns from "tumor in tumor" profiling: surveillance of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) leads to detection of a lung adenocarcinoma, whose genomic characterization alters the original hematologic diagnosis.
  Cold Spring Harbor molecular case studies 2021 Terraf P, Sholl LM, Davids MS, Awad MM, Garcia EP, MacConaill LE, Dal Cin P, Kim A, Lindeman NI, Stachler M, Hwang DH, Dubuc AM
• Molecular Pathology of Gastroesophageal Cancer.
  Surgical pathology clinics 2021 Stachler MD, Jin RU
• Reprogramming of the esophageal squamous carcinoma epigenome by SOX2 promotes ADAR1 dependence.
  Nature genetics 2021 Wu Z, Zhou J, Zhang X, Zhang Z, Xie Y, Liu JB, Ho ZV, Panda A, Qiu X, Cejas P, Cañadas I, Akarca FG, McFarland JM, Nagaraja AK, Goss LB, Kesten N, Si L, Lim K, Liu Y, Zhang Y, Baek JY, Liu Y, Patil DT…
• Correction: Neoadjuvant and Adjuvant Pembrolizumab in Resectable Locally Advanced, Human Papillomavirus-unrelated Head and Neck Cancer: A Multicenter, Phase II Trial.
  Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research 2021 Uppaluri R, Campbell KM, Egloff AM, Zolkind P, Skidmore ZL, Nussenbaum B, Paniello RC, Rich JT, Jackson R, Pipkorn P, Michel LS, Ley J, Oppelt P, Dunn GP, Barnell EK, Spies NC, Lin T, Li T, Mulder DT,…
• Can Genomic Sequencing Identify High-Risk Barrett's Esophagus Earlier Than Pathologists?
  Cancer cell 2020 Stachler MD, Bass AJ
• Neoadjuvant and Adjuvant Pembrolizumab in Resectable Locally Advanced, Human Papillomavirus-Unrelated Head and Neck Cancer: A Multicenter, Phase II Trial.
  Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020 Uppaluri R, Campbell KM, Egloff AM, Zolkind P, Skidmore ZL, Nussenbaum B, Paniello RC, Rich JT, Jackson R, Pipkorn P, Michel LS, Ley J, Oppelt P, Dunn GP, Barnell EK, Spies NC, Lin T, Li T, Mulder DT,…
• Early TP53 alterations engage environmental exposures to promote gastric premalignancy in an integrative mouse model.
  Nature genetics 2020 Sethi NS, Kikuchi O, Duronio GN, Stachler MD, McFarland JM, Ferrer-Luna R, Zhang Y, Bao C, Bronson R, Patil D, Sanchez-Vega F, Liu JB, Sicinska E, Lazaro JB, Ligon KL, Beroukhim R, Bass AJ
• Risk stratification in Barrett's esophagus patients with diagnoses of indefinite for dysplasia: the definite silver bullet has not (yet) been found.
  Gastrointestinal endoscopy 2020 Frei NF, Stachler MD, Bergman JJGHM
• Gain-of-Function RHOA Mutations Promote Focal Adhesion Kinase Activation and Dependency in Diffuse Gastric Cancer.
  Cancer discovery 2019 Zhang H, Schaefer A, Wang Y, Hodge RG, Blake DR, Diehl JN, Papageorge AG, Stachler MD, Liao J, Zhou J, Wu Z, Akarca FG, de Klerk LK, Derks S, Pierobon M, Hoadley KA, Wang TC, Church G, Wong KK, …
• Colorectal Adenocarcinoma, Not Just One Disease.
  Cellular and molecular gastroenterology and hepatology 2019 Stachler MD
• Clinicopathologic and genetic characteristics of interval colorectal carcinomas favor origin from missed or incompletely excised precursors.
  Modern pathology : an official journal of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, Inc 2018 Soong TR, Nayor J, Stachler MD, Perencevich M, Jajoo K, Saltzman JR, Lindeman NI, Srivastava A
• Biomarkers for Barrett's esophagus - a contemporary review.
  Expert review of molecular diagnostics 2018 Qureshi AP, Stachler MD, Haque O, Odze RD
• Subtypes of Barrett's oesophagus and oesophageal adenocarcinoma based on genome-wide methylation analysis.
  Gut 2018 Yu M, Maden SK, Stachler M, Kaz AM, Ayers J, Guo Y, Carter KT, Willbanks A, Heinzerling TJ, O'Leary RM, Xu X, Bass A, Chandar AK, Chak A, Elliott R, Willis JE, Markowitz SD, Grady WM
• Detection of Mutations in Barrett's Esophagus Before Progression to High-Grade Dysplasia or Adenocarcinoma.
  Gastroenterology 2018 Stachler MD, Camarda ND, Deitrick C, Kim A, Agoston AT, Odze RD, Hornick JL, Nag A, Thorner AR, Ducar M, Noffsinger A, Lash RH, Redston M, Carter SL, Davison JM, Bass AJ
• Mutational landscape of goblet cell carcinoids and adenocarcinoma ex goblet cell carcinoids of the appendix is distinct from typical carcinoids and colorectal adenocarcinomas.
  Modern pathology : an official journal of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, Inc 2018 Johncilla M, Stachler M, Misdraji J, Lisovsky M, Yozu M, Lindeman N, Lauwers GY, Odze RD, Srivastava A
• Genomic Heterogeneity as a Barrier to Precision Medicine in Gastroesophageal Adenocarcinoma.
  Cancer discovery 2017 Pectasides E, Stachler MD, Derks S, Liu Y, Maron S, Islam M, Alpert L, Kwak H, Kindler H, Polite B, Sharma MR, Allen K, O'Day E, Lomnicki S, Maranto M, Kanteti R, Fitzpatrick C, Weber C, Setia N, Xiao…
• CDK4/6 or MAPK blockade enhances efficacy of EGFR inhibition in oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma.
  Nature communications 2017 Zhou J, Wu Z, Wong G, Pectasides E, Nagaraja A, Stachler M, Zhang H, Chen T, Zhang H, Liu JB, Xu X, Sicinska E, Sanchez-Vega F, Rustgi AK, Diehl JA, Wong KK, Bass AJ
• PIK3CA Mutations are Common in Many Tumor Types and are Often Associated With Other Driver Mutations.
  Applied immunohistochemistry & molecular morphology : AIMM 2016 Stachler MD, Rinehart EM, Garcia E, Lindeman NI
• Paired exome analysis of Barrett's esophagus and adenocarcinoma.
  Nature genetics 2015 Stachler MD, Taylor-Weiner A, Peng S, McKenna A, Agoston AT, Odze RD, Davison JM, Nason KS, Loda M, Leshchiner I, Stewart C, Stojanov P, Seepo S, Lawrence MS, Ferrer-Torres D, Lin J, Chang AC, Gabriel…
• Epithelial PD-L2 Expression Marks Barrett's Esophagus and Esophageal Adenocarcinoma.
  Cancer immunology research 2015 Derks S, Nason KS, Liao X, Stachler MD, Liu KX, Liu JB, Sicinska E, Goldberg MS, Freeman GJ, Rodig SJ, Davison JM, Bass AJ
• Filter Paper-based Nucleic Acid Storage in High-throughput Solid Tumor Genotyping.
  Applied immunohistochemistry & molecular morphology : AIMM 2015 Stachler M, Jia Y, Sharaf N, Wade J, Longtine J, Garcia E, Sholl LM
• Genetic and Epigenetic Alterations in Barrett's Esophagus and Esophageal Adenocarcinoma.
  Gastroenterology clinics of North America 2015 Kaz AM, Grady WM, Stachler MD, Bass AJ
• Novel molecular insights from routine genotyping of colorectal carcinomas.
  Human pathology 2015 Stachler MD, Rinehart E, Lindeman N, Odze R, Srivastava A
• Src mutation induces acquired lapatinib resistance in ERBB2-amplified human gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma models.
  PloS one 2014 Hong YS, Kim J, Pectasides E, Fox C, Hong SW, Ma Q, Wong GS, Peng S, Stachler MD, Thorner AR, Van Hummelen P, Bass AJ
• Induction of HIV-1-specific mucosal immune responses following intramuscular recombinant adenovirus serotype 26 HIV-1 vaccination of humans.
  The Journal of infectious diseases 2014 Baden LR, Liu J, Li H, Johnson JA, Walsh SR, Kleinjan JA, Engelson BA, Peter L, Abbink P, Milner DA, Golden KL, Viani KL, Stachler MD, Chen BJ, Pau MG, Weijtens M, Carey BR, Miller CA, Swann EM, Wolff…
• Critical role for IL-1β in DNA damage-induced mucositis.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2014 Kanarek N, Grivennikov SI, Leshets M, Lasry A, Alkalay I, Horwitz E, Shaul YD, Stachler M, Voronov E, Apte RN, Pagano M, Pikarsky E, Karin M, Ghosh S, Ben-Neriah Y
• Neonatal Fc receptor expression in dendritic cells mediates protective immunity against colorectal cancer.
  Immunity 2013 Baker K, Rath T, Flak MB, Arthur JC, Chen Z, Glickman JN, Zlobec I, Karamitopoulou E, Stachler MD, Odze RD, Lencer WI, Jobin C, Blumberg RS
• Case report: Calcifying fibrous tumor presenting as an asymptomatic pelvic mass.
  The Indian journal of radiology & imaging 2011 Giardino AA, Ramaiya NH, Shinagare AB, Jagannathan JP, Stachler MD, Raut CP
• Site-specific modification of AAV vector particles with biophysical probes and targeting ligands using biotin ligase.
  Molecular therapy : the journal of the American Society of Gene Therapy 2008 Stachler MD, Chen I, Ting AY, Bartlett JS
• Mosaic vectors comprised of modified AAV1 capsid proteins for efficient vector purification and targeting to vascular endothelial cells.
  Gene therapy 2006 Stachler MD, Bartlett JS
• Metabolic biotinylation provides a unique platform for the purification and targeting of multiple AAV vector serotypes.
  Molecular therapy : the journal of the American Society of Gene Therapy 2006 Arnold GS, Sasser AK, Stachler MD, Bartlett JS