Susan Zhang, MD, PhD
Assistant Clinical Professor
Medicine
School of Medicine

We made the seminal discovery that IDH1 was highly mutated in GBM, and showed its importance in human cancer for the first time. This has led to the subsequent mechanistic studies and development of targeted therapies in multiple tumor types with IDH1 mutation. My research was rated as one of the Top Ten Breakthrough of Year 2008 by Science.

During my PhD study, my second research focus was on novel cancer therapeutics using anaerobic bacteria Clostridium Novyi-NT to treat solid tumors. I was particularly interested in combining the bacterial therapy with novel immunotherapies to achieve greater response in the cancer bearing mice. I have also contributed to the preclinical safety studies and the launch of the phase I clinical trial using Clostridium Novyi-NT to treat patients with advanced solid tumors.

At UCSF, I continued my translational research in Dr. Andrei Goga's lab. I worked on identification of therapeutic biomarker and development of targeted therapy using breast cancer patient derived xenograft mouse model. We have some very exciting discovery that will be translated into human clinical trial. During my hematology oncology fellowship, I have also developed particular interest in clinical research in GI oncology under the co-mentorship of Drs. Alan Venook and Pamela Munster. This has framed my long term career goal in designing clinical trials and ultimately make an impact on the lives of cancer patients.

• SMAD4 gene mutations are associated with poor prognosis in pancreatic cancer.
  Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research 2009 Blackford A, Serrano OK, Wolfgang CL, Parmigiani G, Jones S, Zhang X, Parsons DW, Lin JC, Leary RJ, Eshleman JR, Goggins M, Jaffee EM, Iacobuzio-Donahue CA, Maitra A, Cameron JL, Olino K, Schulick R, …
• Genetic mutations associated with cigarette smoking in pancreatic cancer.
  Cancer research 2009 Blackford A, Parmigiani G, Kensler TW, Wolfgang C, Jones S, Zhang X, Parsons DW, Lin JC, Leary RJ, Eshleman JR, Goggins M, Jaffee EM, Iacobuzio-Donahue CA, Maitra A, Klein A, Cameron JL, Olino K, …
• Exomic sequencing identifies PALB2 as a pancreatic cancer susceptibility gene.
  Science (New York, N.Y.) 2009 Jones S, Hruban RH, Kamiyama M, Borges M, Zhang X, Parsons DW, Lin JC, Palmisano E, Brune K, Jaffee EM, Iacobuzio-Donahue CA, Maitra A, Parmigiani G, Kern SE, Velculescu VE, Kinzler KW, Vogelstein B, …
• An integrated genomic analysis of human glioblastoma multiforme.
  Science (New York, N.Y.) 2008 Parsons DW, Jones S, Zhang X, Lin JC, Leary RJ, Angenendt P, Mankoo P, Carter H, Siu IM, Gallia GL, Olivi A, McLendon R, Rasheed BA, Keir S, Nikolskaya T, Nikolsky Y, Busam DA, Tekleab H, Diaz LA, …
• Core signaling pathways in human pancreatic cancers revealed by global genomic analyses.
  Science (New York, N.Y.) 2008 Jones S, Zhang X, Parsons DW, Lin JC, Leary RJ, Angenendt P, Mankoo P, Carter H, Kamiyama H, Jimeno A, Hong SM, Fu B, Lin MT, Calhoun ES, Kamiyama M, Walter K, Nikolskaya T, Nikolsky Y, Hartigan J, …
• Imaging of musculoskeletal bacterial infections by [124I]FIAU-PET/CT.
  PloS one 2007 Diaz LA, Foss CA, Thornton K, Nimmagadda S, Endres CJ, Uzuner O, Seyler TM, Ulrich SD, Conway J, Bettegowda C, Agrawal N, Cheong I, Zhang X, Ladenson PW, Vogelstein BN, Mont MA, Zhou S, Kinzler KW, …
• A multidimensional analysis of genes mutated in breast and colorectal cancers.
  Genome research 2007 Lin J, Gan CM, Zhang X, Jones S, Sjöblom T, Wood LD, Parsons DW, Papadopoulos N, Kinzler KW, Vogelstein B, Parmigiani G, Velculescu VE
• Development and validation of a liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry method for the determination of DMXAA in human and mouse plasma.
  Journal of chromatography. B, Analytical technologies in the biomedical and life sciences 2007 Zhang X, Zhao M, Rudek MA, He P, Vogelstein B
• The genome and transcriptomes of the anti-tumor agent Clostridium novyi-NT.
  Nature biotechnology 2006 Bettegowda C, Huang X, Lin J, Cheong I, Kohli M, Szabo SA, Zhang X, Diaz LA, Velculescu VE, Parmigiani G, Kinzler KW, Vogelstein B, Zhou S
• Pharmacologic and toxicologic evaluation of C. novyi-NT spores.
  Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology 2005 Diaz LA, Cheong I, Foss CA, Zhang X, Peters BA, Agrawal N, Bettegowda C, Karim B, Liu G, Khan K, Huang X, Kohli M, Dang LH, Hwang P, Vogelstein A, Garrett-Mayer E, Kobrin B, Pomper M, Zhou S, Kinzler …