Researcher Spotlight: Stefano Monti, PhD

OCRI member Dr. Stefano Monti is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the BU School of Medicine with a joint appointment in Biostatistics. He maintains affiliations with the BU Bioinformatics Program, the Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering, and the Cancer Program at the Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard. Dr. Monti’s research focuses on the study of the biological mechanisms of cancer formation and treatment based on the analysis of genomic and genetic data. In particular, his lab works extensively with data generated from high-throughput biological assays and develops new methodologies of integrative data analysis aimed at providing a holistic view of multiple data sources.

Dr. Monti’s contributions include new statistical and machine learning methods of clustering, class discovery, and classification for the development of diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers, and leadership in the study design and data analysis of several genomics projects. The interdisciplinary nature of his research led him to spearhead the bioinformatics and analysis effort of a multi-institutional NIH-designated Program Project Grant on lymphoma biology and treatment, and to his involvement in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), as well as to his ongoing directorship of the Bioinformatics core of the BU Superfund Research Program.

Dr. Monti has a decade-long collaboration with lymphoma oncologists at Dana Farber and the Broad Institute, which resulted in several seminal studies on the etiology and therapeutic stratification of lymphoid malignancies. Much of this work revolves around the de-novo identification of disease subtypes, the definition of robust molecular signatures for their accurate distinction, the annotation of these signatures by data integration approaches, and the identification of subtype-dependent molecular vulnerabilities amenable to targeted treatment. Dr. Monti has been applying similar approaches to the study of other  malignancies, including lung cancer, breast cancer, and head and neck cancer, with collaborators at multiple institutions. In particular, for the past two years Dr. Monti has been working closely with Dr. Maria Kukuruzinka from the Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (GSDM) and Dr. Xaralabos Varelas and Dr. Maria Trojanowska from the Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) toward the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of tumor initiation and progression in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). OSCC is a devastating disease with very poor prognosis, limited therapeutic options, and increasing incidence worldwide.

Since joining BU School of Medicine, Dr. Monti’s interest in disease etiology and prevention has also led him to pursue a new line of research aimed at studying the environmental contributors to cancer risk based on the use of genomics approaches and high-throughput screening. He is working closely with Dr. David Sherr at BU School of Public Health, and collaborators at the Broad Institute and at the National Toxicology Program (NTP)/NIEHS toward the development of accurate and cost-effective genomic models predictive of the cancer risk from exposure to environmental chemicals. This effort has received recognition and support by the School of Medicine, through the Evans Center’s ARC initiative, by the NIH-sponsored LINCS program, and by the Art beCAUSE Foundation, among others.