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Ninad Oak, PhD

Ninad Oak, PhD

  • Lead Bioinformatics Research Scientist

Departments

Divisions

Education

PhD (Molecular and Human Genetics) – Baylor College of Medicine, Houston TX
MSc (Bioinformatics)  Bioinformatics Center, University of Pune, Pune, India
BSc  Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences, Loni, India

Honors and Awards

  • 2011 Bioinformatics National CertificationGovt. of India, All India Rank 5
  • 2009-2011 G. N. Ramachandran FellowshipGovt. of India                      
  • 2009-2011 Dept. of Biotechnology Academic Fellowship, Govt. of India

About

I am a Lead Bioinformatics Research Scientist in the Division of Cancer Predisposition, with over 14 years of experience in cancer genetics and genomics. My research centers on deciphering the genetic factors behind pediatric cancers, with a focus on cancer predisposition syndromes and the application of computational tools to analyze complex genomic data. My latest work has focused on mining >6000 pediatric cancers at St. Jude for signals of cancer predisposition and understanding mechanism of ETV6 mediated regulation in mouse models of early hematopoiesis.

Mentoring has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my career. I’ve had the privilege of guiding over 15 pre- and post-doctoral students, helping them develop skills and pursue successful careers in academia and industry. I am also passionate about engaging younger students in science, mentoring high school interns on impactful projects such as understanding Wilms tumor predisposition. 

Outside of research, I love to draw sketchnotes of many scientific talks and regularly post them on my X account (@ninadoak).

Research Interests

  • Genetic Basis of Pediatric Cancer Predisposition: Investigating inherited and somatic genetic variations underlying pediatric cancer predisposition syndromes by leveraging large-scale genomic datasets, including analysis of >6,000 pediatric cancer genomes from St. Jude.
  • Functional Genomics in Mouse Models: Utilizing mouse models to perform functional genomics analyses, with a focus on understanding gene regulation and mechanisms of hematopoiesis, as well as their implications for cancer predisposition.

Selected Publications

Keenan C, Albeituni S, Oak N, Stroh A, Tillman HS, Wang Y, Freeman BB 3rd, Alemán-Arteaga S, Meyer LK, Woods R, Verbist KC, Zhou Y, Cheng C, Nichols KE. Differential effects of itacitinib, fedratinib, and ruxolitinib in mouse models of hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis. Blood 2024 Jun 6;143(23):2386-2400. 

Sharma R, Oak N, Chen W, Gogal R, Kirschner M, Beier F, Schnieders MJ, Spies M, Nichols KE, Wlodarski M. Germline landscape of RPA1, RPA2 and RPA3 variants in pediatric malignancies: identification of RPA1 as a novel cancer predisposition candidate gene. Front Oncol 2023;13:1229507.

Bloom M, Oak N, Baskin-Doerfler R, Feng R, Iacobucci I, Baviskar P, Zhao X, Stroh AN, Li C, Ozark P, Tillman HS, Li Y, Verbist KC, Albeituni S, Scott DC, King MT, McKinney-Freeman SL, Weiss MJ, Yang JJ, Nichols KE. ETV6 represses inflammatory response genes and regulates HSPC function during stress hematopoiesis in mice. Blood Adv 2023 Sep 26;7(18):5608-5623.

Albeituni S, Oak N, Tillman HS, Stroh A, Keenan C, Bloom M, Nichols KE. Cellular and transcriptional impacts of Janus kinase and/or IFN-gamma inhibition in a mouse model of primary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis. Front Immunol 2023;14:1137037.

McGee RB, Oak N*, Harrison L, Xu K, Nuccio R, Blake AK, Mostafavi R, Lewis S, Taylor LM, Kubal M, Ouma A, Hines-Dowell SJ, Cheng C, Furtado LV, Nichols KE. Pathogenic Variants in Adult-Onset Cancer Predisposition Genes in Pediatric Cancer: Prevalence and Impact on Tumor Molecular Features and Clinical Management. Clin Cancer Res 2023 Apr 3;29(7):1243-1251.

Flerlage JE, Myers JR, Maciaszek JL, Oak N, Rashkin SR, Hui Y, Wang YD, Chen W, Wu G, Chang TC, Hamilton K, Tithi SS, Goldin LR, Rotunno M, Caporaso N, Vogt A, Flamish D, Wyatt K, Liu J, Tucker M, Hahn CN, Brown AL, Scott HS, Mullighan C, Nichols KE, Metzger ML, McMaster ML, Yang JJ, Rampersaud E. Discovery of novel predisposing coding and noncoding variants in familial Hodgkin lymphoma. Blood 2023 Mar 16;141(11):1293-1307.

Salek M, Oak N, Hines MR, Maciaszek JL, Tatevossian R, Sharma A, Nichols KE, Campbell PK. Development of BRAFV600E-positive acute myeloid leukemia in a patient on long-term dabrafenib for multisystem LCH. Blood Adv 2022 Jan 7. 

Nishii R, Baskin-Doerfler R, Yang W, Oak N, Zhao X, Yang W, Hoshitsuki K, Bloom M, Verbist K, Burns M, Li Z, Lin TN, Qian M, Moriyama T, Gastier-Foster JM, Rabin KR, Raetz E, Mullighan C, Pui CH, Yeoh AE, Zhang J, Metzger ML, Klco JM, Hunger SP, Newman S, Wu G, Loh ML, Nichols KE, Yang JJ. Molecular basis of ETV6-mediated predisposition to childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Blood 2021 Jan 21;137(3):364-373.

Oak N, Cherniack AD, Mashl RJ, Hirsch FR, Ding L, Beroukhim R, Gümüş ZH, Plon SE, Huang KL. Ancestry-specific predisposing germline variants in cancer. Genome Med 2020 May 29;12(1):51.

Maciaszek JL, Oak N, Nichols KE. Recent advances in Wilms' tumor predisposition. Hum Mol Genet 2020 Oct 20;29(R2):R138-R149. 

Maciaszek JL, Oak N, Chen W, Hamilton KV, McGee RB, Nuccio R, Mostafavi R, Hines-Dowell S, Harrison L, Taylor L, Gerhardt EL, Ouma A, Edmonson MN, Patel A, Nakitandwe J, Pappo AS, Azzato EM, Shurtleff SA, Ellison DW, Downing JR, Hudson MM, Robison LL, Santana V, Newman S, Zhang J, Wang Z, Wu G, Nichols KE, Kesserwan CA. Enrichment of Heterozygous Germline RECQL4 Loss-of-Function Variants in Pediatric Osteosarcoma. Cold Spring Harb Mol Case Stud 2019 Oct 11.

* Equal contribution

Collaborations:

Magnarelli A, Liu Q, Wang F, Peng XP, Wright J, Oak N, Natale V, Rothblum-Oviatt C, Lefton-Greif MA, McGrath-Morrow S, Crawford TO, Ehrhardt MJ, Lederman HM, Sharma R. Prevalence and outcomes of cancer and treatment-associated toxicities for patients with ataxia telangiectasia. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2024 Nov 8. 

Soomann M, Bily V, Elgizouli M, Kraemer D, Akgül G, von Bernuth H, Bloomfield M, Brodszki N, Candotti F, Förster-Waldl E, Freiberger T, Giżewska M, Klocperk A, Kölsch U, Nichols KE, Krüger R, Oak N, Pac M, Prader S, Schmiegelow K, Šedivá A, Sogkas G, Stittrich A, Stoltze UK, Theodoropoulou K, Wadt K, Wong M, Zeyda M, Pachlopnik Schmid J, Trück J. Variants in IGLL1 cause a broad phenotype from agammaglobulinemia to transient hypogammaglobulinemia. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2024 Nov;154(5):1313-1324.e7. 

Zerella JR, Homan CC, Arts P, Lin X, Spinelli SJ, Venugopal P, Babic M, Brautigan PJ, Truong L, Arriola-Martinez L, Moore S, Hollins R, Parker WT, Nguyen H, Kassahn KS, Branford S, Feurstein S, Larcher L, Sicre de Fontbrune F, Demirdas S, de Munnik S, Antoine-Poirel H, Brichard B, Mansour S, Gordon K, Wlodarski MW, Koppayi A, Dobbins S, Mutsaers PGNJ, Nichols KE, Oak N, DeMille D, Mao R, Crawford A, McCarrier J, Basel D, Flores-Daboub J, Drazer MW, Phillips K, Poplawski NK, Birdsey GM, Pirri D, Ostergaard P, Simons A, Godley LA, Ross DM, Hiwase DK, Soulier J, Brown AL, Carmichael CL, Scott HS, Hahn CN. Germ line ERG haploinsufficiency defines a new syndrome with cytopenia and hematological malignancy predisposition. Blood 2024 Oct 24;144(17):1765-1780. 

Murphy AJ, Cheng C, Williams J, Shaw TI, Pinto EM, Dieseldorff-Jones K, Brzezinski J, Renfro LA, Tornwall B, Huff V, Hong AL, Mullen EA, Crompton B, Dome JS, Fernandez CV, Geller JI, Ehrlich PF, Mulder H, Oak N, Maciezsek J, Jablonowski CM, Fleming AM, Pichavaram P, Morton CL, Easton J, Nichols KE, Clay MR, Santiago T, Zhang J, Yang J, Zambetti GP, Wang Z, Davidoff AM, Chen X. Genetic and epigenetic features of bilateral Wilms tumor predisposition in patients from the Children's Oncology Group AREN18B5-Q. Nat Commun 2023 Dec 18;14(1):8006.

Isidro-Hernández M, Casado-García A, Oak N, Alemán-Arteaga S, Ruiz-Corzo B, Martínez-Cano J, Mayado A, Sánchez EG, Blanco O, Gaspar ML, Orfao A, Alonso-López D, De Las Rivas J, Riesco S, Prieto-Matos P, González-Murillo Á, Criado FJG, Cenador MBG, Ramírez-Orellana M, de Andrés B, Vicente-Dueñas C, Cobaleda C, Nichols KE, Sánchez-García I. Immune stress suppresses innate immune signaling in preleukemic precursor B-cells to provoke leukemia in predisposed mice. Nat Commun 2023 Aug 24;14(1):5159.

Oak N*, Casado-García A*, Isidro-Hernández M*, Mayado A, Mann-Ran C, Raboso-Gallego J, Alemán-Arteaga S, Buhles A, Sterker D, Sánchez EG, Martínez-Cano J, Blanco O, Orfao A, Alonso-López D, De Las Rivas J, Riesco S, Prieto-Matos P, González-Murillo Á, Garcia Criado FJJ, Garcia Cenador MB, Radimerski T, Ramírez-Orellana M, Cobaleda C, Yang JJ, Vicente-Dueñas C, Weiss A, Nichols KE, Sánchez-García I. Transient inhibition of the JAK/STAT pathway prevents B-ALL development in genetically predisposed mice. Cancer Res 2022 Feb 7:canres.3386.2021.

Last update: December 2024

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