I am an Associate Professor in the
department of Biomedical and Health Informatics
and Associate Dean for Research at Rutgers School of Health Professions. I am also a Member of Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey,
Rutgers Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine, and
Rutgers School of Graduate Studies.
After completing my PhD in Computer Science at NYU with Bud Mishra, I obtained my PostDoctoral training in Computational Systems Biology at Columbia University Cancer Center under the mentorship of Andrea Califano (NSF Computing Innovation Fellowship) and Michael Shen (PCF Young Investigator Award). My interest in medicine was planted during four years at the Kyiv Medical University in Ukraine (where I am from).
At Rutgers, my laboratory develops and clinically adopts computational algorithms to
elucidate genomic, transcriptomic, and epigenomic
mechanisms of disease progresison and therapeutic response in cancer and other diseases,
and identifies optimal treatment strategies for patients based on their molecular profiles and clinical characteristics.
Our goal is to build a multi-level panel of markers to predict patients' risk of treatment resistance and provide personalized
advice on their optimal therapeutic course.
If you are interested in joining our lab and are willing to work hard, please contact me at amitrofa@shp.rutgers.edu
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Lab News GRANTS: * Our lab has been awarded an American Cancer Society Research Scholar Grant, totalling $792,000! Thank you, ACS! * Our lab has been awarded a New Jersey Commission on Cancer Research Bridge grant, totalling $250,000! Thank you, NJCCR! * Our lab has been awarded an R01 from the NIH National Library of Medicine, totalling $1.3 million! Thank you, NIH NLM! * Our lab has been awarded a Dean's Bridge grant from the Rutgers School of Health Professions. Thank you, Rutgers SHP! |
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PAPERS, FELLOWSHIPS, SCHOLARSHIPS, AND AWARDS:
January 2024 Our paper "Mechanism-centric regulatory network identifies NME2 and MYC programs as markers of Enzalutamide resistance in CRPC" has been accepted to Nature Communications! This has been a great collaborative effort with Sarki Abdulkadir and Vishal Kothari (Northwestern University). Congratulations to Sukanya, Mihai, and all!
August 2023 Our paper "Tissue-specific biological aging predicts progression in prostate cancer and acute myeloid leukemia" has been accepted to Frontiers in Oncology! Congratulations to all!
April 2022 I have been awarded a Presidential Fellowship for Teaching Excellence for teaching and mentoring students at Rutgers.
April 2022 Our collaborative paper "Bone progenitors pull the strings on the early metabolic rewiring occurring in prostate cancer cells" with Geraldine Gueron (IQUIBICEN, Argentina) has been accepted to Cancers!
April 2022 My PhD student Daniel Martingano has been awarded Stanley S. Bergen, Jr. M.D. Medal of Excellence from Rutgers SHP for his contributions to research and clinical practice in community settings. Congratulations, Daniel!
April 2022 Our collaborative paper "High intratumoral plasma cells content in primary prostate cancer defines a subset of tumors with potential susceptibility to immune-based treatments" with Ted Schaeffer (Northwestern) has been accepted to PCAN! Congratulations, Christina!
March 2022 Our collaborative paper "Genomic analysis and long-term outcomes of a phase 1 clinical trial on cytoreductive radical prostatectomy" with Isaac Kim (Yale University) has been accepted to Prostate International! Congratulations, Sukanya!
Jan 2022 Our collaborative paper "PACER lncRNA regulates COX-2 expression in lung cancer cells" with Carol Lutz (Rutgers) has been accepted to Oncotarget! Congratulations, Christina!
Jan 2022 Our paper "Random survival forest model identifies novel biomarkers of event-free survival in high-risk pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia" has been accepted to Computational and Structural Biotechnology! Congratulations, Zach!
June 2021 Michael Craige will be joining our lab as a PostDoctoral Computing Innovation Fellow (CIFellow) awarded by CRA/CCC/NSF! Congratulations, Michael!
June 2021 Our paper "Mechanism-centric approaches for biomarker detection and precision therapeutics in cancer" has been accepted to Frontiers in Genetics! Congratulations, Christina!
December 2020 Our book chapter "Big Data and its emerging role in precision medicine and therapeutic response" has been accepted for publication by the Royal Society of Chemistry as part of the "Detection Methods in Precision Medicine" book! Congratulations, Nusrat and Sukanya!
December 2020 Our paper "Clarithromycin use for adjunct surgical prophylaxis before non-elective cesarean deliveries to adapt to azithromycin shortages in COVID-19 pandemic" has been accepted to PLoS ONE! Congratulations, Daniel!
November 2020 Our paper "Big Data to Knowledge: application of machine learning to predictive modeling of therapeutic response in cancer" has been accepted to Current Genomics! Congratulations, Sukanya!
September 2020 Our paper "Genome-wide analysis of therapeutic response uncovers molecular pathways governing tamoxifen resistance in ER+ breast cancer" has been accepted to EBioMedicine (published by THE LANCET)! Congratulations, Sarra!
September 2020 Our collaborative paper with Columbia University (Cory Abate-Shen's lab) "A MYC and RAS co-activation signature in localized prostate cancer drives bone metastasis and castration resistance" has been accepted to Nature Cancer! Congratulations, Sukanya!
August 2020 Our lab has been awarded a Dean's Bridge grant from the Rutgers School of Health Professions. Thank you, SHP!
February 2020 My PhD student, Sukanya Panja, has been awarded a New Jersey Commission on Cancer Research (NJCCR) Pre-Doctoral Fellowship from New Jersey Department of Health. Congratulations, Sukanya!
August 2019 Our paper "pathCHEMO, a generalizable computational framework uncovers molecular pathways of chemoresistance in lung adenocarcinoma" has been accepted to Nature Communications Biology. Congratulations, Nusrat!
May 2019 My PhD student Nusrat Epsi received the Gallo Award for Outstanding Cancer Research at The 2019 Annual Retreat on Cancer Research in New Jersey. Congratulations, Nusrat!
May 2019 My PhD student Sukanya Panja received a full scholarship to attend a 1-week Epigenomics workshop at Van Andel Institute. Congratulations, Sukanya!
April 2019 Our review paper "Calling variants in the clinic: Informed variant calling decisions based on biological, clinical, and laboratory variables" has been accepted to Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal. Congratulations, Zach!
April 2019 Our lab received a Graduate Student Summer Intern grant, awarded by Rutgers SHP (funded New Jersey Health Foundation). Thank you, SHP!!
November 2018 Our collaborative paper with Columbia University (Cory Abate-Shen's lab) "NSD2 is a conserved driver of metastatic prostate cancer progression" has been accepted to Nature Communications!
September 2018 Our collaborative paper with Cory Abate-Shen's lab (Columbia University) "Cooperation of loss of NKX3.1 and inflammation in prostate cancer initiation" has been accepted to Disease Models and Mechanisms. Congratulations, Sukanya!
July 2018 My PhD student Nusrat Epsi was selected to receive Katrina Kehlet Graduate Award from NJ HIMSS. Congratulations, Nusrat!
May 2018 My PhD student Sukanya Panja received the Gallo Award for Scientific Excellence in Cancer Research at The 2018 Annual Retreat on Cancer Research in New Jersey. Congratulations, Sukanya!
April 2018 Our paper "Integrative (epi) genomic analysis to predict response to androgen-deprivation therapy in prostate cancer" has been accepted to EBioMedicine. Congratulations, Sukanya!
April 2018 Our lab received a Summer Student Intern Project grant, awarded by Rutgers SHP. Thank you, SHP!!
April 2018 I have been honored to receive an Excellence in Research Award from Rutgers SHP, sponsored by New Jersey Health Foundation. Thank you very much for this honor!!
Jan 2018 Our collaborative paper with Michael Shen's lab (Columbia University) "Differential requirements of androgen receptor in luminal progenitors during prostate regeneration and tumor initiation" has been accepted to eLIFE. Congratulations, Nusrat!
May 2017 My PhD student, Nusrat Epsi, has been awarded a Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) Student Scholarship grant to attend a GHC of Women in Computing conference. Congratulations, Nusrat!
May 2017 Our lab received a Summer Student Intern Program grant, sponsored by the New Jersey Health Foundation and awarded by Rutgers SHP. My PhD student Nusrat Epsi was selected to execute this project. Congratulations, Nusrat!
May 2017 Editorial about our Cancer Discovery paper in Nature Review Urology. Article.
May 2017 Our Cancer Discovery paper is highlighted by the ScienceDaily! Link.
April 2017 Editorial about our paper in European Urology. Article.
April 22, 2017 We joined the March for Science in NYC! Facebook.
April 2017 Our European Urology paper is highlighted by the Prostate Cancer Foundation! Twitter.
April 2017 My PhD student, Laura Harris, has been awarded a Center for Teaching Excellence faculty grant from Davenport to publish two of her PhD papers. Congratulations, Laura!
March 2017 Our collaborative paper with Cory Abate-Shen's lab (Columbia University) "Co-clinical analysis of a genetically-engineered mouse model and human prostate cancer reveals significance of NKX3.1 expression for response to 5a-reductase inhibition" has been accepted to European Urology. Congratulations, Sukanya!
January 2017 Our collaborative paper with Michael Shen's lab (Columbia University) "A computational systems approach identifies synergistic specification genes that facilitate lineage conversion to prostate tissue" has been accepted to Nature Communications.
June 2016 Our collaborative paper with Cory Abate-Shen's lab (Columbia University) "Identification of an NKX3.1-G9a-UTY transcriptional regulatory network that controls prostate differentiation" has been published in Science , paper.
April 2016 Our lab has been awarded a Dean's Intramural Pilot grant from the Rutgers School of Health Professions!