Hanina Hibshoosh, MD

Hanina Hibshoosh is a board-certified anatomic pathologist who is the founding and current director of the Molecular Pathology Shared Resource of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (https://cancer.columbia.edu/research-group/molecular-pathology)(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOrYyaAbq0U). He has more than 30 years of experience in the diagnosis and molecular characterization of human malignancies. The aim of the Molecular Pathology Shared Resource (MPSR) is to facilitate tissue- based cancer research, through three service lines: (1) Tissue Banking (>38,000 tumors, >90,000 tissue blocks), project specific analyte procurement and Next Generation Banking (creating ‘off-the-shelf’ banks of DNA, RNA and tissue microarrays (TMAs) and associated clinical data for collaborative, scalable, multi-omic, research). ( 2) Tissue characterization/interrogation services: Histology/IHC/IF/TMA, pathology review service, slide digitalization and analysis. (3) Project management and consultation services. Fulfilling 5000 service requests a year from hundreds of PIs. “The services and capabilities of this shared resource are impressive” - last NCI review of MPSR.

Dr. Hibshoosh is also director of the breast pathology service within the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology and has extensive experience in general diagnostic surgical pathology. He is a member of the Academy of Clinical Excellence (ACE), member of the executive committee and membership steering committee of the ACE. Over the past thirty years, he has actively contributed to a wide spectrum of scientific studies in the fields of molecular carcinogenesis and molecular epidemiology, and co-authored >160 scientific publications with >27,300 citations (Google Scholar). Among the most important achievements of his scientific work includes contributing to the discovery and characterization of the PTEN tumor suppressor gene (short and long form) (Science 1997, Science 1913) under the direction of Dr. Ramon Parsons and to the elucidation of its role in basal breast cancer and BRCA1 related cancers. Poor prognosis in carcinoma is associated with a gene expression signature of aberrant PTEN tumor suppressor pathway activity ( Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2007). ). Activation of the PI3K pathway in cancer through inhibition of PTEN by exchange factor P-REX2a. (Science 2009). Dr. Hibshoosh also contributed to the identification of several other tumor suppressor genes related to breast cancer, including Beclin-1(Nature 1999) an important regulator of autophagy, Protocadherin 8 (PCD8)(Oncogene 2008), and BAF-180(Cancer Res 2008). Supported Dr. Gu’s work identifying Ferroptosis as a p53-mediated activity during tumor suppression (Nature 2015). Identified PAX-5 as a translocation associated gene in lymphoma, cyclin D1 role as an early event in colorectal carcinogenesis (Gastroenterology 1996) and CD24 role as an oncogene in colon cancer (Gastroenterology 1996). Identified ODC role in carcinogenesis (Oncogene 1991). He serves as the reference breast pathologist for the New York site of the Breast Cancer Family Registry (BCFR) and is also a participating pathologist in the I-SPY trials. Through the contribution to The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program, helped facilitate more than 30 high-impact publications (including 9 in Cell, 6 in Cancer Cell, and 12 in Cell Reports). He continues to contribute to similar efforts through participation in the NCI Early Onset Malignancy program, as well as the NCI Patient Derived Models Repository (PDMR) tissue procurement protocol. In recent years supported the activity of Dr. Califano’s N-1 program (master regulator analysis as a way to prioritize drug selection in cancer) and Dr. Shen’s work on prostate cancer through organoids analysis. More recently worked with Dr. Hendon and Dr. Ha on developing novel optical approaches (OCT) for the characterization of breast tissue.

Email: hhh1@cumc.columbia.edu