PROFESSOR | Radiation Oncology PROFESSOR | Environmental Medicine & Public Health PROFESSOR | Genetics and Genomic Sciences PROFESSOR | Dermatology

Biography The focus of Dr. Rosenstein’s research program is the identification of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with the development of adverse effects resulting from radiotherapy. This work has been supported by grants from NIH/NCI, the DOD Prostate Cancer Research Program and the American Cancer Society. In this context, Dr. Rosenstein established and has led the Gene-PARE (Genetic Predictors of Adverse Radiotherapy Effects) consortium consisting of 15 investigators from 5 countries to collaborate on projects in radiogenomics. Dr. Rosenstein’s group was among the first to hypothesize that possession of SNPs in certain genes may render some patients more susceptible to injuries resulting from radiotherapy. During the early years of this project, the main approach involved genotyping DNA samples derived from cancer patients treated with radiotherapy for SNPs in a limited number of candidate genes associated with radiation response. However, in recent years, the focus has shifted to a genome wide approach and his group was the first to publish a genome wide association study (GWAS) to identify SNPs associated with radiotherapy response. Dr. Rosenstein has expanded this research and work is in progress to genotype approximately 3,000 additional prostate cancer patients treated with radiotherapy from five validation cohorts to determine which SNPs specifically validate across multiple cohorts. Three years ago, Dr. Rosenstein established and has co-led the Radiogenomics Consortium (RGC) with Dr. Catharine West, representing an international consortium with 122 members from 67 institutions in 18 countries. The overall goal of the RGC is to develop a collaborative infrastructure to permit the large scale discovery GWAS and validation studies that are essential for the identification of genetic factors associated with response to radiotherapy and to develop assays to predict radiation response. Currently, there are six major collaborative studies being conducted by the RGC.