Human Oncology & Pathogenesis Program

The Samuel Bakhoum Lab

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Research

Samuel Bakhoum, MD, PhD
Assistant Member, Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program; Assistant Attending, Department of Radiation Oncology

Assistant Professor

The Bakhoum lab focuses on understanding the role of chromosomal instability (CIN) in tumor evolution and progression. CIN is a hallmark of human cancer and it is associated with poor prognosis, metastasis, and therapeutic resistance. It results from errors in chromosome segregation during mitosis, leading to structural and numerical chromosomal abnormalities. In addition to generating genomic heterogeneity that acts as a substrate for natural selection, CIN promotes inflammatory signaling by introducing genomic double-stranded DNA into the cytosol, engaging cytosolic DNA-sensing antiviral innate immune pathways. Our team has also identified CIN as an important driver of epigenetic heterogeneity and reprogramming in cancer. These multipronged effects distinguish CIN as a central driver of tumor evolution and as a genomic source for the crosstalk between the tumor and its microenvironment. Our lab is interested in dissecting the mechanisms linking CIN and cancer progression and translating these discoveries into novel therapeutic strategies.

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Research Projects

Samuel Bakhoum Lab Group

Featured News

Human metastatic melanoma cells in a lymph node. ENPP1, a protein involved in immune evasion, is shown in green.
Taking the STING Out of Cancer: Discovery about How Cancer Cells Evade Immune Defenses Inspires New Treatment Approach

The research identifies a protein called ENPP1 as a potential drug target in the treatment of advanced cancers with chromosome instability.
Roundup
2018
Top 10 Stories of 2018, Cancer Research Edition

Take a look back at some of the year’s biggest news in cancer research.
Sam Bakhoum, MD, PhD, has been named a winner of the 2018 National Institutes of Health Director’s Early Independence Award,
Samuel Bakhoum Awarded 2018 NIH Early Independence Award

Sam Bakhoum, MD, PhD, Assistant Attending in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), has been named a winner of the 2018 National Institutes of Health Director’s Early Independence Award, which is provided by the NIH Common Fund’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program. This award is given to exceptional scientists who have contributed significant work in biomedical research.

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Publications

Li J, Duran MA, Dhanota N, Chatila WK, Bettigole SE, Kwon J, Sriram RK, Humphries MP, Salto-Tellez M, James JA, Hanna MG, Melms JC, Vallabhaneni S, Litchfield K, Usaite I, Biswas D, Bareja R, Li HW, Martin ML, Dorsaint P, Cavallo JA, Li P, Pauli C, Gottesdiener L, DiPardo BJ, Hollmann TJ, Merghoub T, Wen HY, Reis-Filho JS, Riaz N, Su SM, Kalbasi A, Vasan N, Powell SN, Wolchok JD, Elemento O, Swanton C, Shoushtari AN, Parkes EE, Izar B, Bakhoum SF (2021) Metastasis and immune evasion from extracellular cGAMP hydrolysis. Cancer Discovery. 11, 1212-1227.

Bakhoum SF, Ngo B, Laughney AM, Cavallo JA, Murphy CJ, Ly P, Shah P, Sriram RK, Watkins TBK, Taunk NK, Duran M, Pauli C, Shaw C, Chadalavada K, Rajasekhar VK, Genovese G, Venkatesan S, BirkBak NJ, McGranahan N, Lundquist M, Laplant Q, Healy JH, Elemento O, Chung CH, Lee NY, Imielenski M, Nanjangud G, Pe’er D, Cleveland D, Powell SN, Lammerding J, Swanton C, Cantley LC (2018) Chromosomal Instability drives metastasis through a cytosolic DNA response. Nature: 553, 467-472.

Bakhoum SF (corresponding author), Cantley LC (2018) The multifaceted role of chromosomal instability in cancer and its microenvironment. Cell: 174: 1347-1360

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People

Samuel Bakhoum, MD, PhD

Samuel Bakhoum, MD, PhD

Assistant Member, Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program; Assistant Attending, Department of Radiation Oncology

Assistant Professor

  • Physician-scientist Samuel Bakhoum studies the role of chromosomal instability in tumor evolution and metastasis.
  • MD, Dartmouth Medical School
  • PhD, Dartmouth College
samuel.bakhoum@gmail.com
Email Address
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Physician profile

Members

Albert Agustinus
Albert Agustinus

Weill Cornell Graduate Student

Duaa Al-Rawi
Duaa Al-Rawi

Medical Oncology Fellow

Emma Armstrong
Emma Armstrong

Research Technician (mucosal melanoma translational program)

Daniel Bronder
Daniel Bronder

Postdoctoral Fellow

Melody Di Bona
Melody Di Bona

Postdoctoral Fellow

Mercedes Duran
Mercedes Duran

Senior Research Technician

Sergi Elizalde
Sergi Elizalde

Visiting Professor and Collaborator

Christy Hong
Christy Hong

Graduate Research Assistant

John Kwon
John Kwon

Weill Cornell Medical Student

Emanuele Lettera
Emanuele Lettera

Postdoctoral Researcher (co-mentored by Dr. Atif Khan and Dr. Simon Powell)

Jun Li
Jun Li

Postdoctoral Fellow

Michelle Thompson
Michelle Thompson

Administrative Assistant

Lab Alumni
Giscard Barbier

Administrative Assistant

Julie-Ann Cavallo-Fleming
Julie-Ann Cavallo-Fleming

Senior Research Technician

Ninjit Dhanota
Ninjit Dhanota

Current institution: Weill Cornell Medicine

Xingzhe Li

Holman Research Fellow

Anestashia Melford

Administrative Assistant

Nimi Vashi
Nimi Vashi

Postdoctoral Fellow

Lab Affiliations

Achievements

  • Josie Robertson Investigator (2018-2023)
  • AAAS Martin and Rose Wachtel Cancer Research Award (Honorable mention)
  • NIH Director’s Independence Award (2018-2023)
  • Blavatnik Regional Award for Young Scientists (Finalist) (2018)
  • Tri-Institutional Breakout Prize (2018)
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  • Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award for Medical Scientists (2018)
  • NextGen Stars, American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (2018)
  • Breast Cancer Breakthrough Award, Department of Defense (2016)
  • ASCI/AAP Outstanding Young Investigator Award (2011)
  • Norton B. Gilula Award, the American Society for Cell Biology (2008)

Open Positions

To learn more about available postdoctoral opportunities, please visit our Career Center

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Disclosures

Doctors and faculty members often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community.

MSK requires doctors and faculty members to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public.

Samuel Bakhoum discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

  • Volastra Therapeutics Inc.
    Fiduciary Role/Position; Intellectual Property Rights; Ownership / Equity Interests; Provision of Services

The information published here is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.

This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2020 through disclosure submission in spring 2021). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.

Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at ecoi@mskcc.org.


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