Sarah Anne Mazzilli PhD
Assistant Professor, Computational Biomedicine
Member, Genome Science Institute
72 East Concord Street | (617) 358-7269mazzilli@bu.edu
Sections
Computational Biomedicine
Centers
BU-BMC Cancer Center
Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research
Biography
Investigating the molecular events associated with the progression of premalignant squamous lung lesions for targeted chemoprevention.
Lung cancer kills more individuals in the United States annually than breast, colon and prostate cancers combined. Reduction of lung cancer mortality may be achieved by identification of those at the high risk of developing cancer, in addition to finding effective agents in which to intervene in the process. There has been limited success of candidate chemopreventive agents in lung cancer as most have selected based on work in pre-clinical models that do not adequately represent the precancerous and early stage lesions that are the focus in clinical chemoprevention trials for lung cancer. The interests of our laboratory involve developing models to aid in the understanding of the epithelial and immune modulations that are involved in the progression and regression of premalignant squamous lesions to frank lung squamous cell carcinoma with a particular focus on identifying and testing targeted agents on appropriate models that allow for translation to clinical intervention studies. To do this the our lab utilized novel single cell and multiplex imaging technologies to characterize the immune and epithelial alterations enabling lung carcinogenesis and study mechanisms to intercept this process. Our lab also works closely with members of the section of Computational Biomedicine as well as national and international collaborators on the Pre-Cancer Genome Atlas (PCGA) and the NCI- Human Tumor Atlas leading the effort to further understand the molecular underpinnings of lung cancer development to advance early detection and intervention.
Education
PhD, University at Buffalo, 2014
Natural Science, MS, University at Buffalo, 2007
BS, Bridgewater State University, 2005
Publications
Montanari L, Royuela L, Mazzilli S, Vandam L, Alvarez E, Llorens N, Carapinha L, Grohmannova K, Isajeva L, Ignataviciute L, Kvaternik I, Sieroslawski J, Malczewski A, Plettinckx E, Sendino R, Torres A, Yasemi I, Tavoschi L, Mravcik V. Prevalence of drug use before and during imprisonment in seven European countries (2014-2018). J Community Psychol. 2023 May 12. PMID: 37172289.
Published on 5/8/2023Ning 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.
Published on 10/28/2022Xu 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.
Published on 10/28/2021Xu K, Shi X, Husted C, Hong R, Wang Y, Ning B, Sullivan T, Rieger-Christ K, Duan F, Marques H, Gower A, Xiao X, Liu H, Liu G, Duclos G, Platt M, Spira A, Mazzilli S, Billatos E, Lenburg M, Campbell J, Beane J. Smoking Modulates Different Secretory Subpopulations Expressing SARS-CoV-2 Entry Genes in the Nasal and Bronchial Airways. Res Sq. 2021 Oct 28. PMID: 34729557.
Published on 9/1/2021Maoz A, Merenstein C, Koga Y, Potter A, Gower AC, Liu G, Zhang S, Liu H, Stevenson C, Spira A, Reid ME, Campbell JD, Mazzilli SA, Lenburg ME, Beane J. Elevated T cell repertoire diversity is associated with progression of lung squamous cell premalignant lesions. J Immunother Cancer. 2021 09; 9(9). PMID: 34580161.
Published on 6/15/2021Jaleel Z, Blasberg E, Troiano C, Montanaro P, Mazzilli S, Gertje HP, Crossland NA, Platt M, Spiegel J. Association of vaping with decreased vascular endothelial growth factor expression and decreased microvessel density in cutaneous wound healing tissue in rats. Wound Repair Regen. 2021 11; 29(6):1024-1034. PMID: 34129265.
Published on 5/4/2021Tilston-Lunel A, Mazzilli S, Kingston NM, Szymaniak AD, Hicks-Berthet J, Kern JG, Abo K, Reid ME, Perdomo C, Wilson AA, Spira A, Beane J, Varelas X. Aberrant epithelial polarity cues drive the development of precancerous airway lesions. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 05 04; 118(18). PMID: 33903236.
Published on 12/29/2020Engler AE, Ysasi AB, Pihl RMF, Villacorta-Martin C, Heston HM, Richardson HMK, Thapa BR, Moniz NR, Belkina AC, Mazzilli SA, Rock JR. Airway-Associated Macrophages in Homeostasis and Repair. Cell Rep. 2020 12 29; 33(13):108553. PMID: 33378665.
Published on 4/16/2020Rozenblatt-Rosen O, Regev A, Oberdoerffer P, Nawy T, Hupalowska A, Rood JE, Ashenberg O, Cerami E, Coffey RJ, Demir E, Ding L, Esplin ED, Ford JM, Goecks J, Ghosh S, Gray JW, Guinney J, Hanlon SE, Hughes SK, Hwang ES, Iacobuzio-Donahue CA, Jané-Valbuena J, Johnson BE, Lau KS, Lively T, Mazzilli SA, Pe'er D, Santagata S, Shalek AK, Schapiro D, Snyder MP, Sorger PK, Spira AE, Srivastava S, Tan K, West RB, Williams EH. The Human Tumor Atlas Network: Charting Tumor Transitions across Space and Time at Single-Cell Resolution. Cell. 2020 04 16; 181(2):236-249. PMID: 32302568.
Published on 12/11/2019Duclos GE, Teixeira VH, Autissier P, Gesthalter YB, Reinders-Luinge MA, Terrano R, Dumas YM, Liu G, Mazzilli SA, Brandsma CA, van den Berge M, Janes SM, Timens W, Lenburg ME, Spira A, Campbell JD, Beane J. Characterizing smoking-induced transcriptional heterogeneity in the human bronchial epithelium at single-cell resolution. Sci Adv. 2019 12; 5(12):eaaw3413. PMID: 31844660.