Welcome to the Stover Lab!


Our research focus is clinical computational oncology – the application of computational approaches to leverage the immense available and potential data from tumor genomic profiling to improve outcomes for patients with cancer.

The explosion of tumor genomic data rapidly advanced our understanding of cancer but requires new approaches to answer clinical questions. Specifically, we study resistance to therapy in breast and other cancers by integrating high dimensional data with patient features and outcomes. By studying patient samples, including on clinical trials, we seek to identify new mechanisms of drug resistance to standard agents as well as investigational agents such as immunotherapy.

The ultimate goal of this work is to identify predictive markers for treatment response while identifying novel susceptibilities that allow us to overcome drug resistance.

Join us in our effort to take terabytes of data and thousands of lines of code back to our true focus – patients with cancer.

Mission: To improve outcomes of patients with cancer by:
— Generating new insights into the biology and therapeutic response of cancer by integrating genomic and biological data with patient characteristics, exposures, and outcomes
—Advancing genomic approaches from discovery to development to clinical application
—Encouraging partnerships, collaboration, and the personal, professional, and academic growth of all team members.

Vision: Our vision is a world in which all cancers are treatable and curable.

 

STOVER LAB NEWS

Feb, 2024: The Stover Lab knows how to bake (and eat) cookies! Nothing beats the February grey days like 8 dozen cookies with this great crew:

Jan 2024: Dr. Stover discusses Key Data Updates in HER2+ Breast Cancer from SABCS 2023 with the always-popular Onc Brothers.

Dec 2023: Dr. Stover presents the primary biomarker analysis of the PALLAS phase III randomized controlled trial for hormone receptor positive / HER2-negative breast cancer as a plenary presentation in General Session 3 at San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, with a nice highlight in the ASCO Post!

Sept 2023: Dr. Stover contributes to an important effort to ‘Turn the Page on Breast Cancer in Ohio, seeking to address disparities in outcomes at multiple levels – published in Cancer.

June 2023: Stover Lab heads outside and has a great lab hike!

Feb 2023: David Tallman successfully defends his PhD thesis! Congratulations, Dr. Tallman!

Feb 2023: OSU undergraduate summer researcher Adith Abraham knocks it out of the park with a first author publication investigating characteristics associated with late relapse of triple negative breast cancer, published in The Breast. Congratulations to Adith! Now off to med school he goes.

Jan 2023: Important collaboration with Foundation Medicine, demonstrating that ‘tumor fraction’ through their FoundationOne LiquidCDX assay is prognostic across multiple advanced cancer types, published in Annals of Oncology. This validates our work from 2018 showing similar findings using a different assay among patients with TNBC.

Jan 2023: Computational researchers dive into genomic alterations – but do patients understand genomic testing going on with their own tumors? Quality improvement effort led by Deloris Veney and collaborator Leigha Senter published in JCO Oncology Practice seeks to address key gaps and opportunities for improvement in patient education before tumor genomic testing.

Nov, 2022: Proud to share this collaboration with the Nurses Health Study, Association of body mass index and inflammatory dietary pattern with breast cancer pathologic and genomic immunophenotype in the nurses’ health study. The 14th paper of Sarah Asad’s remarkable tenure in Stover lab is an important look at how modifiable patient factors may influence the tumor microenvironment. Congrats Sarah!

October 2022: Stover Lab & friends do pumpkin carving! Beautiful fall day, great snacks, & outstanding carving efforts

June, 2022: A big welcome to Mark Vater, a grad student in the Biological Sciences Graduate Program! We are excited to have you join the lab and work on image analyses, genomics, high dimensional data and all the stats that go along with those!

May, 2022: Congratulations to Stover Lab grad student David Tallman, who was selected to give a talk at the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program Symposium! Great discussion of our initial work on high dimensional multiplexed immunofluorescence of clinical breast cancer samples!

April, 2022: New paper out describing Alliance Standardized Translational ‘Omics Resource (A-STOR) in JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics. Our goal is to co-locate diverse high dimensional and clinical data from Alliance clinical trials to accelerate science and biomarkers. Take a look!

March, 2022: Welcome to new Stefanie Spielman Breast Bank Project Manager, Heather Lefebvre! Heather brings >15 years of breast cancer expertise to the role, with goal to expand and grow this resource for researchers at Ohio State and elsewhere.

January, 2022: Dr. Stover spoke with Susan G. Komen via FacebookLive to discuss metastases cancer – new advances, new treatments, and new diagnostics.

December, 2021: Collaboration with the Nurses’ Health Study presented as a Spotlight Poster Discussion at San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium focused on patient factors that may influence immune cells and breast cancer. Congrats to Sarah Asad who led this work and appreciate the nice profile from Oncology Times

November, 2021: Led by superstar fellow, Kate Collier, new publication in JCO Precision Oncology, entitled “Association of 17q22 Amplicon Via Cell-Free DNA With Platinum Chemotherapy Response in Metastatic Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.” Congratulations Kate!

June, 2021: Dr. Stover joined the Susan G. Komen Advocates in Science Coffee Chat to discuss bone metastases and why we should be thinking more about better ways to detect and track them for patients with metastatic breast and other cancers.

June, 2021: New paper out from Stover Lab published in Genome Medicine: “Modeling clonal structure over narrow time frames via circulating tumor DNA in metastatic breast cancer,” led by superstar Masters student (now UChicago grad student), Zach Weber. Check out a Twitter thread for a description. Congrats Zach!

May, 2021: Congratulations to David Tallman, graduate student in Stover Lab, for receiving a Poster Prize at Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology Research Day. Way to go David!

May, 2021: More to celebrate. Great news that, along with awesome Co-PIs Maryam Lustberg and Nick Larson, received Alliance Special Projects Grant for “PIN ALLIANCE: Power in Numbers”. We will build on Nick’s work harmonizing SNP data across Alliance clinical trials, deploy it to the A-STOR cloud-based clinical-genomic data repository, then build on Maryam’s expertise to investigate chemo-induced peripheral neuropathy across studies. Making big data accessible is key!

May, 2021: In our third paper on rapid relapse in triple-negative breast cancer over the past few months, Ruby Zhang, Sarah Asad, Zach Weber, and David Tallman led this work on “Genomic features of rapid versus late relapse in triple negative breast cancer” in BMC Cancer. Across these papers, we show that rapid relapse is *both* associated with tumor genomic features but also sociodemographics. Check out the nice data visualizations. Congrats Ruby and team!

April, 2021: In partnership with Leigha Senter (Cancer Genetics), Stover Lab received an NCI R21 for “Video Intervention to Address Pre-Test Patient Education for Tumor Genomic Testing”. Important that patients have all the knowledge necessary to make informed decisions about tumor genomic testing. Excited to get started

April, 2021: Congratulations to amazing Oncology Fellow Kate Collier for her ASCO Conquer Cancer Foundation Merit Award for her abstract on secondary BRCA mutations in ctDNA. Way to go Kate!

March, 2021: Another Stover Lab paper out! Outstanding work by Sarah Asad – “Sociodemographic Factors Associated With Rapid Relapse in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: A Multi-Institution Study” – in JNCCN. Supporting our recent paper, we found that timing of relapse in TNBC is associated with stage of disease and distinct sociodemographic features, including insurance type, income, and age at diagnosis. Great job Sarah and team!

Feb, 2021: Excited to share our paper led by collaborator and surgeon-researcher extraordinaire, Samilia Obeng-Gyasi “Socioeconomic and Surgical Disparities are Associated with Rapid Relapse in Patients with Triple-Negative Breast Cancer” in Annals of Surgical Oncology. We analyzed over 17,000 triple-negative breast cancers in SEER and found that Medicaid or no insurance, single status, black race, and no surgery are associated with higher odds of rapid relapse for TNBC. Take a look!

Feb, 2021: Congratulations to Janet Jenison who passed her PhD Oral Candidacy Qualification Exam! She is well under way tackling copy number mutational signatures. Awesome work Janet!

Feb, 2021: Congratulations to collaborator and friend Moray Campbell + coPI Chris McCabe on their successfully funded Dept of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program grant, “Making Radioiodine Treatment a Realistic Therapeutic Opportunity in Breast Cancer.” Look forward to supporting this cool study as a co-investigator.

December, 2020: Congratulations to Zach Weber for a Spotlight Poster Discussion of the work he led in Stover Lab on circulating tumor DNA: Modeling clonal structure over narrow time frames via circulating tumor DNA in metastatic breast cancer.

August, 2020: Congratulations to David Tallman who passed his PhD Oral Candidacy Qualification Exam! He is ready to rock some high dimensional pathology image analyses to interrogate the tumor/microenvironment at high resolution. Great job David!

August, 2020: Stover Lab funding partner, Susan G. Komen, profiles Dr. Stover and the lab’s work on liquid biopsy. We so appreciate the partnership with Susan G. Komen over the past 6 years.

July, 2020: Dr. Stover invited to Patient Power to discuss new areas in metastatic breast cancer, including ‘liquid biopsy’ and novel PET tracers. Thanks for the invitation – hopeful about these new areas.

June, 2020: Stover Lab medical oncology fellow, Kate Collier, awarded an ASCO Young Investigator Award from the Conquer Cancer Foundation at the ASCO Annual Meeting 2020. Congratulations to Kate!

May, 2020: Dr. Stover participates in a Susan G. Komen Columbus FacebookLive event with amazing advocate Tori Geib discussing the state of breast cancer care, research, and breast cancer during COVID.

May, 2020: Stover lab publishes ‘Metastatic breast cancer patient perceptions of somatic tumor genomic testing’ in BMC Cancer, led by Clinical Research Assistant Elizabeth Adams and Research Data Analyst Sarah Asad. Way to go Team!

April, 2020: Stover Lab undergrad extraordinaire, Bo Bey, awarded a competitive Pelotonia Undergraduate Fellowship. He spent his first year in the lab identifying high priority genes associated with rapid relapse in TNBC via computational approaches, and in his fellowship will follow these up in the Sizemore Lab, studying a gene implicated in brain metastasis. Way to go Bo!

April, 2020: Stover Lab perseveres through COVID social distancing by rocking some amazing funny hats during our annual Lab Retreat.

February, 2020: Congratulations to medical student Jasneet Singh, who turned her 10-week summer research rotation into a first author paper! ‘Aggressive Subsets of Metastatic Triple Negative Breast Cancer.’ Congratulations, Jasneet!

January, 2020: Circulating tumor DNA work from Masters Bioinformatics student Zach Weber selected for oral podium presentation at AACR Advances in Liquid Biopsies 2020. It was featured in an blog post on diverse uses of liquid biopsy from AACR – Congrats Zach!

December, 2019: Dr. Stover discusses “Expanding the Treatment Toolbox in ESR1-Mutant Breast Cancer” on OncLive

November, 2019: A profile of our work that was published in JCO Precision Oncology – “Prospective Decision Analysis Study of Clinical Genomic Testing in Metastatic Breast Cancer: Impact on Outcomes and Patient Perceptions.” Check it out at Journal of Clinical Pathways

October, 2019: Nice highlight of a paper the Stover Lab contributed to that was published in Cancer Discovery. Check it out here at Science Signaling.

July, 2019: Sad to say goodbye to Ruby Zhang and Adrienne Damicis who helped push forward early work from the Stover Lab. Best of luck to Ruby at the Data Science program at Harvard and to Adrienne for her new job at the Ohio Department of Health!

June, 2019: Dr. Stover honored as Ohio State University James Cancer Hospital ‘Physician Champion of Nursing’

June, 2019: Dr. Stover comments on niraparib and pembrolizumab, a new combination treatment for breast cancer on ‘DocWire’

May, 2019: Nice profile of one of Dr. Stover’s amazing patients and Komen Columbus Race Chair, Tori Geib, in ‘Columbus CEO Magazine’

May, 2019: We are excited to have Kate Collier, MD, an Ohio State Medical Oncology Fellow, join the group to work on cell-free DNA and response to immunotherapy. Welcome, Kate!

May, 2019: Dr. Stover, a science fair alumnus, featured in an article for
Ohio State Science Day 2019

April, 2019: Dr. Stover and his patient Tori Geib profiled in Columbus CEO Magazine about the upcoming Komen Race for the Cure.

March, 2019: Welcome to Jerome (Bo) Bey, a Biomedical Sciences undergraduate at Ohio State, to the Stover Lab. Bo will be investigating key regulators of rapid relapse in triple-negative breast cancer through computational approaches, then try to understand them mechanistically in the lab.

February, 2019: Dr. Stover discusses the lab’s work on how triple-negative breast cancers evolve in concert with the immune system, supported by a Pelotonia grant, on WBNS 10TV

January, 2019: We are excited to have Zach Weber, a Masters in Bioinformatics candidate, join the group to work on serial cell-free DNA sequencing. Welcome, Zach!

December, 2018: Welcome to outstanding OSU Medical Student, Junu Bae, who will be joining us as his busy classes allow this spring, then will hit liftoff this summer.

December, 2018: Stover Lab members present three abstracts at San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium 2018:
Adrienne Damicis & Sarah Asad, Ruby Zhang, and Jasneet Singh

November, 2018: Stover Lab awarded a Pelotonia Young Investigator Award and discussed the focus on evolution of triple-negative breast tumors and the tumor immune microenvironment.

August, 2018: The Stover Lab turns 1! Read about the highs and lows of the first year on Twitter

June, 2018: Summer is here – and so are summer research internships. Welcome to OSU medical student Jasneet Singh and Vanderbilt undergraduate Will Nock. Looking forward to a great summer.

June, 2018: Dr. Stover comments on Circulating Free DNA Atlas in “New Blood Test May Detect Multiple Types of Cancer at Earlier Stages” on HealthLine

May, 2018: Welcome to our newest lab members – Sarah Asad (Research Data Analyst) and Elizabeth Adams (Clinical Research Assistant). Excited to have you!

May, 2018: Dr. Stover is Ohio State’s ‘Cancer Physician of the Month’

April, 2018: Dr. Stover leads off an article in Nature Jobs about why “Collaboration is the Key to Cancer Research.”

March, 2018: Nice overview of our work on cell-free DNA in triple negative breast cancer in The Pathologist

February, 2018: Dr. Stover comments on ‘The Future of Treatment for Metastatic Breast Cancer’ in USNews Health

January, 2018: Commentary on the recent multi-analyte liquid biopsy screening test, CancerSEEK, in Medscape Oncology News, including thoughts from Dr. Stover.

January, 2018: Some recent press on our triple-negative cell-free DNA study published Jan, 2018 in Journal of Clinical Oncology:
Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center
OncLive
MedicalXpress

November, 2017: Our collaborative work demonstrating high concordance of cell-free DNA with metastatic biopsies, in partnership with the Broad Institute and Dana-Farber, highlighted in Science Daily

October, 2017: Welcome to our first two lab members, Biostatistics Masters student Adrienne Damicis and undergraduate Ruby Zhang! Excited to have you on board to tackle breast cancer together.