Robert C. Rostomily, MD

John S. “Steve” Dunn, Jr. and Dagmar Dunn Pickens Gipe Chair in Brain Tumor Research, Department of Neurosurgery
Professor of Neurosurgery, Academic Institute
Houston Methodist
Weill Cornell Medical College


Rostomily Lab


Phone:
346.888.1379


rrostomily@houstonmethodist.org
Biography

Dr. Rostomily has a long-standing commitment to brain cancer research. He graduated from Yale University in 1980 where his interest in biological sciences was sparked. To consider the options of a PhD versus medical school spent 3 years working in medical research labs before matriculating at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 1983 where he was supported by a United States Air Force Health Professions Scholarship. He then took a position as a neurosurgery resident at the University of Washington (UW) where to pursue his dual passions of neurosurgery and cancer biology. He naturally gravitated towards the study of human gliomas and during and immediately after residency training his research was supported by an NIH post-doctoral fellowship and the NYAM Elsberg Prize in Neurosurgery research. His studies during this time focused on unraveling the role of mis-expressed normal neural developmental control genes in human brain cancers.

After completing his active duty military commitment at Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio TX he took a faculty position in 1999 at the University of Washington Neurosurgery Department after a fellowship at George Washington University in Skull Base Surgery. In his 17 years at the UW he rose to the rank of full professor and served as the co-director of skull base surgery, gamma knife radiosurgery and held multiple positions in the UW Cancer Center, consortium with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and UW Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine. He garnered multiple NIH research grants as a PI including an R03, R21 and 3 R01s as well as multiple intramural and foundation grants. He was also a co-Investigator on an NIH R03, R21 and program project grant.

To further his clinical pursuits in radiosurgery of brain cancers and pursue additional research interests he took position at the Houston Methodist Hospital (HMH) and Research Institute (HMRI) in November 2016. Since then he established his lab with two key personnel from UW and also recruited an additional two post-doctoral fellows and support research assistant and lab manager to continue his vision. He successfully put in place a department wide neural tissue biorepository to support tumor and all other neural research at HMH. He also initiated a clinical trial for PET imaging of brain metastasis.

Description of Research

TWIST1-Identifying potential ways to treat human adult gliomas by inhibiting glioma cancer stem cells (GSCs). GSCS are the most potent and treatment resistant cell type in gliomas and account for the inevitable recurrence of these tumors after treatment. His lab has identified a key regulatory protein called TWIST1 that can be inhibited to nearly completely stop growth of experimental tumors. Their research now is focused on finding ways to attack TWIST1 function that can be used to treat brain cancer patients. This is an extremely powerful target since it drives processes that are central to glioma treatment resistance and progression.

Oncoslice- Developing tools to predict patient specific responses to therapy. In collaboration with bioengineers at the UW, their lab is testing the drug responses of patient specific tumor tissues cultured on a drug delivery device. The device is capable of simultaneously or sequentially delivering multiple drugs alone or in combinations to define the best approach an individual tumor. The development of this platform could transform the implementation of precision, or personalized, cancer medicine by providing a way to directly test and predict patient specific responses to drugs and thereby guide more effective therapies.

Areas Of Expertise

Brain metastasis Cancer stem cells Glioblastoma Glioma Optogenetics Immune Suppression tumor microenvironment glioma stem cells epithelial mesenchymal transition cancer electrophysiology
Education & Training

Residency, University of Washington
Clinical Fellowship, George Washington University
MD, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
BS, Yale University
Publications

Electrokinetic convection-enhanced delivery for infusion into the brain from a hydrogel reservoir
Cruz-Garza, JG, Bhenderu, LS, Taghlabi, KM, Frazee, KP, Guerrero, JR, Hogan, MK, Humes, F, Rostomily, RC, Horner, PJ & Faraji, AH 2024, , Communications Biology, vol. 7, no. 1, 869. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-06404-1

Analysis of gliomas DNA methylation: Assessment of pre-analytical variables
Bomsztyk, K, Mar, D, Denisenko, O, Powell, S, Vishnoi, M, Delegard, J, Patel, A, Ellenbogen, RG, Ramakrishna, R & Rostomily, R 2024, , bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.03.26.586350

A prognostic matrix code defines functional glioblastoma phenotypes and niches
Vishnoi, M, Dereli, Z, Yin, Z, Kong, EK, Kinali, M, Thapa, K, Babur, O, Yun, K, Abdelfattah, N, Li, X, Bozorgui, B, Rostomily, RC & Korkut, A 2023, , bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.06.06.543903

Magnetic Resonance-Guided Stereotaxy for Infusions to the Pig Brain
Cruz-Garza, JG, Taghlabi, KM, Bhenderu, LS, Gupta, S, Pandey, A, Frazier, AM, Brisbay, S, Patterson, JD, Salegio, EA, Kantorak, CJ, Karmonik, C, Horner, PJ, Rostomily, RC & Faraji, AH 2023, , Journal of Visualized Experiments, vol. 2023, no. 193, e64079. https://doi.org/10.3791/64079

Leptomeningeal metastasis from neuroendocrine carcinoma of the cervix: illustrative case
Patterson, JD, Farach, AM, Singh, M, Britz, GW & Rostomily, RC 2023, , Journal of Neurosurgery: Case Lessons, vol. 5, no. 5, CASE22457. https://doi.org/10.3171/CASE22457

Melanoma metastasis to the femoral nerve: a novel case of melanoma masquerading as mononeuropathy. Illustrative case
Guerrero, JR, Taghlabi, KM, Meyer, SA, Bhenderu, LS, Sadrameli, SS, Shkedy, CI, Faraji, AH & Rostomily, RC 2022, , Journal of Neurosurgery: Case Lessons, vol. 4, no. 22, CASE22414. https://doi.org/10.3171/CASE22414

Combinatorial effect of plk1 inhibition with temozolomide and radiation in glioblastoma
Pandey, A, Tripathi, SC, Mai, J, Hanash, SM, Shen, H, Mitra, S & Rostomily, RC 2021, , Cancers, vol. 13, no. 20, 5114. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13205114

Staged stereotactic radiosurgery decreases symptomatic radionecrosis in large brain metastasis
Chevli, N, Wang, HC, Dubey, P, Haque, W, Farach, AM, Pino, R, Rostomily, RC, Butler, EB & Teh, BS 2021, , Anticancer Research, vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 1445-1449. https://doi.org/10.21873/ANTICANRES.14902

Staged stereotactic radiosurgery decreases symptomatic radionecrosis in large brain metastasis
Chevli, N, Wang, HC, Dubey, P, Haque, W, Farach, AM, Pino, R, Rostomily, RC, Butler, EB & Teh, BS 2021, , Anticancer Research, vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 1445-1449. https://doi.org/10.21873/anticanres.14902

Multiplexed drug testing of tumor slices using a microfluidic platform
Horowitz, LF, Rodriguez, AD, Dereli-Korkut, Z, Lin, R, Castro, K, Mikheev, AM, Monnat, RJ, Folch, A & Rostomily, RC 2020, , npj Precision Oncology, vol. 4, no. 1, 12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41698-020-0117-y

Intratumoral injection of hydrogel-embedded nanoparticles enhances retention in glioblastoma
Brachi, G, Ruiz-Ramírez, J, Dogra, P, Wang, Z, Cristini, V, Ciardelli, G, Rostomily, RC, Ferrari, M, Mikheev, AM, Blanco, E & Mattu, C 2020, , Nanoscale. https://doi.org/10.1039/d0nr05053a

Anatomy of 18F-GE180, a failed radioligand for the TSPO protein
Zanotti-Fregonara, P, Pascual, B, Rostomily, RC, Rizzo, G, Veronese, M, Masdeu, JC & Turkheimer, F 2020, , European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, vol. 47, no. 10, pp. 2233-2236. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-020-04732-y

Emerging treatment strategies for breast cancer brain metastasis: from translational therapeutics to real-world experience
Ren, D, Cheng, H, Wang, X, Vishnoi, M, Teh, BS, Rostomily, R, Chang, JC, Wong, ST & Zhao, H 2020, , Therapeutic Advances in Medical Oncology, vol. 12. https://doi.org/10.1177/1758835920936151

Emerging treatment strategies for breast cancer brain metastasis: from translational therapeutics to real-world experience
Vishnoi, M, Rostomily, RC & Wong, ST 2020, , Therapeutic Advances in Medical Oncology, vol. 12, pp. 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1177/1758835920936151

A microfluidic platform for functional testing of cancer drugs on intact tumor slices
Rodriguez, AD, Horowitz, LF, Castro, K, Kenerson, H, Bhattacharjee, N, Gandhe, G, Raman, A, Monnat, RJ, Yeung, R, Rostomily, RC & Folch, A 2020, , Lab on a Chip, vol. 20, no. 9, pp. 1658-1675. https://doi.org/10.1039/c9lc00811j

Patterns of management and outcomes of unifocal versus multifocal glioblastoma
Haque, W, Thong, Y, Verma, V, Rostomily, R, Butler, EB & Teh, BS 2020, , Journal of Clinical Neuroscience, vol. 74, pp. 155-159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocn.2020.01.086

Personalized drug testing of tumor samples using a microfluidic platform
Rodríguez, AD, Horowitz, L, Rumaner, M, Gadi, VK, Monnat, R, Rostomily, RC & Folch, A 2020, . in 21st International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences, MicroTAS 2017. 21st International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences, MicroTAS 2017, Chemical and Biological Microsystems Society, pp. 235-236, 21st International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences, MicroTAS 2017, Savannah, United States, 10/22/17.

Phosphoproteomic and Kinomic Signature of Clinically Aggressive Grade I (1.5) Meningiomas Reveals RB1 Signaling as a Novel Mediator and Biomarker
Parada, CA, Osbun, JW, Busald, T, Karasozen, Y, Kaur, S, Shi, M, Barber, J, Adidharma, W, Cimino, PJ, Pan, C, Gonzalez-Cuyar, LF, Rostomily, R, Born, DE, Zhang, J & Ferreira, M 2020, , Clinical Cancer Research, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 193-205. https://doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-18-0641

Intratumoral injection of hydrogel-embedded nanoparticles enhances retention in glioblastoma
Brachi, G, Ruiz Ramírez, J, Dogra, P, Wang, Z, Cristini, V, Ciardelli, G, Rostomily, RC, Ferrari, M, Mikheev, AM, Blanco, E & Mattu, C 2020, , Nanoscale, vol. 12, no. 46, pp. 23838-23850. https://doi.org/10.1039/d0nr05053a, https://doi.org/10.1039/d0nr05053a

Basic Biology of Brain Metastasis
Vishnoi, M & Rostomily, RC 2020, . in R Ramakrishna, R Magge, A Baaj & J Kinsley (eds), Central Nervous System Metastases: Diagnosis and Treatment. 1 edn, vol. 1, Springer International Publishing, Switzerland, pp. 19-35. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42958-4_2