Shahab Asgharzadeh
CHLA
Dr. Shahab Asgharzadeh is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Pathology at the University of Southern California. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University in 1992 and medical degree from University of Illinois. He completed pediatric residency and a fellowship in clinical medical ethics at University of Chicago in 2000 and subsequently worked as a research assistant professor in Bioinformatics at Northwestern University. He completed his training in pediatric hematology-oncology at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles prior to joining the faculty of the University of Southern California in 2005.
Dr. Asgharzadeh’s research is directed toward understanding the role of the tumor microenvironment in biology of peripheral and central nervous system tumors, focusing on high-risk neuroblastomas and medulloblastomas. His research using next generation sequencing technologies, and imaging technologies has identified subgroups of these tumors with unique microenvironments. His group’s identification of tumor-associated macrophages in neuroblastomas has helped to better understand the role of the immune system in biology of these tumors. These insights are critical and led to development of novel immunotherapeutic approaches in the treatment of childhood solid tumors.
Dr. Asgharzadeh’s research program is funded by the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, CIRM, and several other foundations. He is a member of the NIH sponsored Neuroblastoma Therapeutically Applicable Research to Generate Effective Treatments (Neuroblastoma TARGET) project and an active member of the Children’s Oncology Group and serves on the COG Neuroblastoma Disease Committee.
Exploring the Neuroblastoma Tumor Microenvironment: A Spatial Biology Perspective
The talk will focus on the use of single cell and spatial biology technologies to uncover the role of tumor-associated macrophages and fibroblasts in neuroblastoma cell lineage plasticity and therapy resistance.