Avrum E. Spira MD

Section Chief of Medicine in Computational Biomedicine, Computational Biomedicine

Alexander Graham Bell Professor in Health Care Entrepreneurship, Computational Biomedicine

75 E. Newton St | (617) 414-6980
aspira@bu.edu

Sections

Computational Biomedicine

Centers

BU-BMC Cancer Center

Pulmonary Center

Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research

Biography

Dr. Spira is a Professor of Medicine, Pathology and Bioinformatics, and the Alexander Graham Bell Professor in Health Care Entrepreneurship at Boston University. He is founding Chief of the Division of Computational Biomedicine in the Department of Medicine and Director of the Boston University – Boston Medical Center Cancer Center. He is also an attending physician in the Medical Intensive Care Unit at Boston Medical Center.

Dr. Spira is also the Global Head of the Lung Cancer Initiative (LCI) at Johnson & Johnson, which is developing solutions to prevent, intercept and cure lung cancer.

Dr. Spira obtained his MD from McGill University in Montreal, and completed his Internal medicine residency at the University of Toronto and his fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at BMC. During his fellowship, Dr. Spira obtained a master’s degree in Bioinformatics from Boston University.

Since his 2003 appointment to the BU faculty, Dr. Spira has built a translational research program that focuses on genomic alterations associated with smoking-related lung disease, leading to a molecular test for the early detection of lung cancer that has successfully translated into the clinic (PerceptaTM) as well as a novel therapeutic for COPD that is in preclinical development. His research program is based on the paradigm that smoking and other inhaled carcinogens create a ‘field of molecular injury’ in epithelial cells that line the respiratory tract. By sampling these relatively accessible airway cells, Dr. Spira’s lab has developed novel diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers for lung cancer and COPD as well as a non-invasive approach for measuring the physiological response to a number of inhaled environmental exposures. He has co-founded both a molecular diagnostics company and a pharmaceutical company in order to translate these tools from “bench to bedside”.

He serves as Principal Investigator on grants from the National Cancer Institute (NCI); National Heart, Lung, Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the Department of Defense (DoD), and has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Spira was a permanent member of the NIH’s Cancer Biomarker Study Section (CBSS) and currently serves as Senior Editor at Cancer Prevention Research as well as Associate Editor at the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. He was elected a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) in 2010 and a member of the Association of American Physicians (AAP) in 2017.

Other Positions

Websites

BU Profile

Pulmonary, Allergy, Sleep & Critical Care Medicine Faculty

Boston Medical Center Provider Profile

Computational Biomedicine Faculty

BU Today: “Stand Up to Cancer” Dream Team

ResearchGate

Public Relations - BU Experts

Education

MD, McGill University

Engineering, MSc, Boston University

DEC, Vanier College

Publications

Published on 4/1/2024

Han G, Sinjab A, Rahal Z, Lynch AM, Treekitkarnmongkol W, Liu Y, Serrano AG, Feng J, Liang K, Khan K, Lu W, Hernandez SD, Liu Y, Cao X, Dai E, Pei G, Hu J, Abaya C, Gomez-Bolanos LI, Peng F, Chen M, Parra ER, Cascone T, Sepesi B, Moghaddam SJ, Scheet P, Negrao MV, Heymach JV, Li M, Dubinett SM, Stevenson CS, Spira AE, Fujimoto J, Solis LM, Wistuba II, Chen J, Wang L, Kadara H. Author Correction: An atlas of epithelial cell states and plasticity in lung adenocarcinoma. Nature. 2024 Apr; 628(8006):E1. PMID: 38499683.

PubMed

Published on 2/28/2024

Han G, Sinjab A, Rahal Z, Lynch AM, Treekitkarnmongkol W, Liu Y, Serrano AG, Feng J, Liang K, Khan K, Lu W, Hernandez SD, Liu Y, Cao X, Dai E, Pei G, Hu J, Abaya C, Gomez-Bolanos LI, Peng F, Chen M, Parra ER, Cascone T, Sepesi B, Moghaddam SJ, Scheet P, Negrao MV, Heymach JV, Li M, Dubinett SM, Stevenson CS, Spira AE, Fujimoto J, Solis LM, Wistuba II, Chen J, Wang L, Kadara H. An atlas of epithelial cell states and plasticity in lung adenocarcinoma. Nature. 2024 Mar; 627(8004):656-663. PMID: 38418883.

PubMed

Published on 11/27/2023

Lamb CR, Rieger-Christ KM, Reddy C, Huang J, Ding J, Johnson M, Walsh PS, Bulman WA, Lofaro LR, Wahidi MM, Feller-Kopman DJ, Spira A, Kennedy GC, Mazzone PJ. A Nasal Swab Classifier to Evaluate the Probability of Lung Cancer in Patients With Pulmonary Nodules. Chest. 2023 Nov 27. PMID: 38030063.

PubMed

Published on 10/2/2023

Yanagawa J, Tran LM, Salehi-Rad R, Lim RJ, Dumitras C, Fung E, Wallace WD, Prosper AE, Fishbein G, Shea C, Hong R, Kahangi B, Deng JJ, Gower AC, Liu B, Campbell JD, Mazzilli SA, Beane JE, Kadara H, Lenburg ME, Spira AE, Aberle DR, Krysan K, Dubinett SM. Single-Cell Characterization of Pulmonary Nodules Implicates Suppression of Immunosurveillance across Early Stages of Lung Adenocarcinoma. Cancer Res. 2023 Oct 02; 83(19):3305-3319. PMID: 37477508.

PubMed

Published on 8/11/2023

Pavel AB, Garrison C, Luo L, Liu G, Taub D, Xiao J, Juan-Guardela B, Tedrow J, Alekseyev YO, Yang IV, Geraci MW, Sciurba F, Schwartz DA, Kaminski N, Beane J, Spira A, Lenburg ME, Campbell JD. Integrative genetic and genomic networks identify microRNA associated with COPD and ILD. Sci Rep. 2023 Aug 11; 13(1):13076. PMID: 37567908.

PubMed

Published on 7/27/2023

Bruhm DC, Mathios D, Foda ZH, Annapragada AV, Medina JE, Adleff V, Chiao EJ, Ferreira L, Cristiano S, White JR, Mazzilli SA, Billatos E, Spira A, Zaidi AH, Mueller J, Kim AK, Anagnostou V, Phallen J, Scharpf RB, Velculescu VE. Single-molecule genome-wide mutation profiles of cell-free DNA for non-invasive detection of cancer. Nat Genet. 2023 Aug; 55(8):1301-1310. PMID: 37500728.

PubMed

Published on 5/8/2023

Ning B, Tilston-Lunel AM, Simonetti J, Hicks-Berthet J, Matschulat A, Pfefferkorn R, Spira A, Edwards M, Mazzilli S, Lenburg ME, Beane JE, Varelas X. Convergence of YAP/TAZ, TEAD and TP63 activity is associated with bronchial premalignant severity and progression. J Exp Clin Cancer Res. 2023 May 08; 42(1):116. PMID: 37150829.

PubMed

Published on 1/27/2023

Xu K, Diaz AA, Duan F, Lee M, Xiao X, Liu H, Liu G, Cho MH, Gower AC, Alekseyev YO, Spira A, Aberle DR, Washko GR, Billatos E, Lenburg ME. Bronchial gene expression alterations associated with radiological bronchiectasis. Eur Respir J. 2023 Jan; 61(1). PMID: 36229050.

PubMed

Published on 11/2/2022

Hao D, Han G, Sinjab A, Gomez-Bolanos LI, Lazcano R, Serrano A, Hernandez SD, Dai E, Cao X, Hu J, Dang M, Wang R, Chu Y, Song X, Zhang J, Parra ER, Wargo JA, Swisher SG, Cascone T, Sepesi B, Futreal AP, Li M, Dubinett SM, Fujimoto J, Solis Soto LM, Wistuba II, Stevenson CS, Spira A, Shalapour S, Kadara H, Wang L. The Single-Cell Immunogenomic Landscape of B and Plasma Cells in Early-Stage Lung Adenocarcinoma. Cancer Discov. 2022 Nov 02; 12(11):2626-2645. PMID: 36098652.

PubMed

Published on 10/28/2022

Xu K, Shi X, Husted C, Hong R, Wang Y, Ning B, Sullivan TB, Rieger-Christ KM, Duan F, Marques H, Gower AC, Xiao X, Liu H, Liu G, Duclos G, Platt M, Spira AE, Mazzilli SA, Billatos E, Lenburg ME, Campbell JD, Beane JE. Smoking modulates different secretory subpopulations expressing SARS-CoV-2 entry genes in the nasal and bronchial airways. Sci Rep. 2022 Oct 28; 12(1):18168. PMID: 36307504.

PubMed

View full list of 176 publications.