David Degraff, PhD - Penn State Cancer Institute
Researcher Profile

David Degraff, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Division of Experimental Pathology
Associate Professor, Department of Urology
Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Assistant Professor, Department of Urology
Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery
Division of Experimental Pathology
Associate Professor, Department of Urology
Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Assistant Professor, Department of Urology
Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery
Scientific Program:Next-Generation Therapies
Research Interests
- Urinary Bladder Neoplasms
- Neoplasms
- Carcinoma
- Prostate
- Prostatic Neoplasms
- Urinary Bladder
- Proteins
- Transcription Factors
- Gene Expression
- Androgens
- Neoplasm Metastasis
- Phenotype
Clinical Trials
Creation of a Clinical and Pathologic Tissue Microarray Registry for Radical Cystectomy Specimens
Recent Publications
2023
Joshi, M, Tuanquin, L, Zhu, J, Walter, V, Schell, T, Kaag, M, Kilari, D, Liao, J, Holder, SL, Emamekhoo, H, Sankin, A, Merrill, S, Zheng, H, Warrick, J, Hauke, R, Gartrel, B, Stein, M, Drabick, J, Degraff, DJ & Zakharia, Y 2023, 'Concurrent durvalumab and radiation therapy (DUART) followed by adjuvant durvalumab in patients with localized urothelial cancer of bladder: Results from phase II study, BTCRC-GU15-023', Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, vol. 11, no. 2, e006551. https://doi.org/10.1136/jitc-2022-006551
MacDonald, SM, Decter, RM, DeGraff, DJ, Raman, JD & Warrick, JI 2023, 'Histologic Analysis of Buccal Graft Quality Stratified by Tobacco Use in Patients Undergoing Substitution Urethroplasty', Urology, vol. 172, pp. 203-209. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.urology.2022.08.068
2022
Warrick, JI, Knowles, MA, Hurst, CD, Shuman, L, Raman, JD, Walter, V, Putt, J, Dyrskjøt, L, Groeneveld, C, Castro, MAA, Robertson, AG & DeGraff, DJ 2022, 'A transcriptional network of cell cycle dysregulation in noninvasive papillary urothelial carcinoma', Scientific reports, vol. 12, no. 1, 16538. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-20927-9
Geng, Z, Wang, Q, Miao, W, Wolf, T, Chavez, J, Giddings, E, Hobbs, R, DeGraff, DJ, Wang, Y, Stafford, J & Gao, Z 2023, 'AUTS2 Controls Neuronal Lineage Choice Through a Novel PRC1-Independent Complex and BMP Inhibition', Stem Cell Reviews and Reports, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 531-549. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12015-022-10459-0
Warrick, JI, Hu, W, Yamashita, H, Walter, V, Shuman, L, Craig, JM, Gellert, LL, Castro, MAA, Robertson, AG, Kuo, F, Ostrovnaya, I, Sarungbam, J, Chen, YB, Gopalan, A, Sirintrapun, SJ, Fine, SW, Tickoo, SK, Kim, K, Thomas, J, Karan, N, Gao, SP, Clinton, TN, Lenis, AT, Chan, TA, Chen, Z, Rao, M, Hollman, TJ, Li, Y, Socci, ND, Chavan, S, Viale, A, Mohibullah, N, Bochner, BH, Pietzak, EJ, Teo, MY, Iyer, G, Rosenberg, JE, Bajorin, DF, Kaag, M, Merrill, SB, Joshi, M, Adam, R, Taylor, JA, Clark, PE, Raman, JD, Reuter, VE, Chen, Y, Funt, SA, Solit, DB, DeGraff, DJ & Al-Ahmadie, HA 2022, 'Author Correction: FOXA1 repression drives lineage plasticity and immune heterogeneity in bladder cancers with squamous differentiation (Nature Communications, (2022), 13, 1, (6575), 10.1038/s41467-022-34251-3)', Nature communications, vol. 13, no. 1, 7920. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35644-0
Warrick, JI, Hu, W, Yamashita, H, Walter, V, Shuman, L, Craig, JM, Gellert, LL, Castro, MAA, Robertson, AG, Kuo, F, Ostrovnaya, I, Sarungbam, J, Chen, YB, Gopalan, A, Sirintrapun, SJ, Fine, SW, Tickoo, SK, Kim, K, Thomas, J, Karan, N, Gao, SP, Clinton, TN, Lenis, AT, Chan, TA, Chen, Z, Rao, M, Hollman, TJ, Li, Y, Socci, ND, Chavan, S, Viale, A, Mohibullah, N, Bochner, BH, Pietzak, EJ, Teo, MY, Iyer, G, Rosenberg, JE, Bajorin, DF, Kaag, M, Merrill, SB, Joshi, M, Adam, R, Taylor, JA, Clark, PE, Raman, JD, Reuter, VE, Chen, Y, Funt, SA, Solit, DB, DeGraff, DJ & Al-Ahmadie, HA 2022, 'FOXA1 repression drives lineage plasticity and immune heterogeneity in bladder cancers with squamous differentiation', Nature communications, vol. 13, no. 1, 6575. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34251-3
2021
Lindskrog, SV, Prip, F, Lamy, P, Taber, A, Groeneveld, CS, Birkenkamp-Demtröder, K, Jensen, JB, Strandgaard, T, Nordentoft, I, Christensen, E, Sokac, M, Birkbak, NJ, Maretty, L, Hermann, GG, Petersen, AC, Weyerer, V, Grimm, MO, Horstmann, M, Sjödahl, G, Höglund, M, Steiniche, T, Mogensen, K, de Reyniès, A, Nawroth, R, Jordan, B, Lin, X, Dragicevic, D, Ward, DG, Goel, A, Hurst, CD, Raman, JD, Warrick, JI, Segersten, U, Sikic, D, van Kessel, KEM, Maurer, T, Meeks, JJ, DeGraff, DJ, Bryan, RT, Knowles, MA, Simic, T, Hartmann, A, Zwarthoff, EC, Malmström, PU, Malats, N, Real, FX & Dyrskjøt, L 2021, 'An integrated multi-omics analysis identifies prognostic molecular subtypes of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer', Nature communications, vol. 12, no. 1, 2301. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22465-w
Joshi, M, Holder, SL, Zhu, J, Zheng, H, Komanduri, S, Warrick, J, Yasin, H, Gajre, R, Jia, B, Drabick, JJ, DeGraff, DJ & Zakharia, Y 2022, 'Avelumab in Combination with Eribulin Mesylate in Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma: BTCRC GU-051, a Phase 1b Study', European Urology Focus, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 483-490. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euf.2021.03.005
Xia, Y, Liu, Y, Yang, C, Simeone, DM, Sun, TT, DeGraff, DJ, Tang, MS, Zhang, Y & Wu, XR 2021, 'Dominant role of CDKN2B/p15INK4B of 9p21.3 tumor suppressor hub in inhibition of cell-cycle and glycolysis', Nature communications, vol. 12, no. 1, 2047. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22327-5
Torab, P, Yan, Y, Ahmed, M, Yamashita, H, Warrick, JI, Raman, JD, Degraff, DJ & Wong, PK 2021, 'Intratumoral heterogeneity promotes collective cancer invasion through notch1 variation', Cells, vol. 10, no. 11, 3084. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells10113084
Zaorsky, NG, Wang, X, Garrett, SM, Lehrer, EJ, Lin, C, DeGraff, DJ, Spratt, DE, Trifiletti, DM, Kishan, AU, Showalter, TN, Park, HS, Yang, JT, Chinchilli, VM & Wang, M 2022, 'Pan-cancer analysis of prognostic metastatic phenotypes', International Journal of Cancer, vol. 150, no. 1, pp. 132-141. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.33744
Iyyanki, T, Zhang, B, Wang, Q, Hou, Y, Jin, Q, Xu, J, Yang, H, Liu, T, Wang, X, Song, F, Luan, Y, Yamashita, H, Chien, R, Lyu, H, Zhang, L, Wang, L, Warrick, J, Raman, JD, Meeks, JJ, DeGraff, DJ & Yue, F 2021, 'Subtype-associated epigenomic landscape and 3D genome structure in bladder cancer', Genome biology, vol. 22, no. 1, 105. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-021-02325-y
Patel, GK, Dutta, S, Syed, MM, Ramachandran, S, Sharma, M, Rajamanickam, V, Ganapathy, V, Degraff, DJ, Pruitt, K, Tripathi, M & Nandana, S 2021, 'TBX2 drives neuroendocrine prostate cancer through exosome-mediated repression of miR-200c-3p', Cancers, vol. 13, no. 19, 5020. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13195020
2020
Li, H, Zhang, Q, Shuman, L, Kaag, M, Raman, JD, Merrill, S, DeGraff, DJ, Warrick, JI & Chen, G 2020, 'Evaluation of PD-L1 and other immune markers in bladder urothelial carcinoma stratified by histologic variants and molecular subtypes', Scientific reports, vol. 10, no. 1, 1439. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-58351-6
Connelly, ZM, Jin, R, Zhang, J, Yang, S, Cheng, S, Shi, M, Cates, JMM, Shi, R, DeGraff, DJ, Nelson, PS, Liu, Y, Morrissey, C, Corey, E & Yu, X 2020, 'FOXA2 promotes prostate cancer growth in the bone', American Journal of Translational Research, vol. 12, no. 9, pp. 5619-5629.
Meeks, JJ, Al-Ahmadie, H, Faltas, BM, Taylor, JA, Flaig, TW, DeGraff, DJ, Christensen, E, Woolbright, BL, McConkey, DJ & Dyrskjøt, L 2020, 'Genomic heterogeneity in bladder cancer: challenges and possible solutions to improve outcomes', Nature Reviews Urology, vol. 17, no. 5, pp. 259-270. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41585-020-0304-1
Russo, M, Newell, JM, Budurlean, L, Houser, KR, Sheldon, K, Kesterson, J, Phaeton, R, Hossler, C, Rosenberg, J, DeGraff, D, Shuman, L, Broach, JR & Warrick, JI 2020, 'Mutational profile of endometrial hyperplasia and risk of progression to endometrioid adenocarcinoma', Cancer, vol. 126, no. 12, pp. 2775-2783. https://doi.org/10.1002/cncr.32822
Torab, P, Yan, Y, Yamashita, H, Warrick, JI, Raman, JD, Degraff, DJ & Wong, PK 2020, 'Three-Dimensional Microtumors for Probing Heterogeneity of Invasive Bladder Cancer', Analytical Chemistry, vol. 92, no. 13, pp. 8768-8775. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.0c00057
2019
Buckwalter, JM, Chan, W, Shuman, L, Wildermuth, T, Ellis-Mohl, J, Walter, V, Warrick, JI, Wu, XR, Kaag, M, Raman, JD & Degraff, DJ 2019, 'Characterization of histone deacetylase expression within in vitro and in vivo bladder cancer model systems', International journal of molecular sciences, vol. 20, no. 10, 2599. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20102599
Osei-Amponsa, V, Buckwalter, JM, Shuman, L, Zheng, Z, Yamashita, H, Walter, V, Wildermuth, T, Ellis-Mohl, J, Liu, C, Warrick, JI, Shantz, LM, Feehan, RP, Al-Ahmadie, H, Mendelsohn, C, Raman, JD, Kaestner, KH, Wu, XR & DeGraff, DJ 2020, 'Hypermethylation of FOXA1 and allelic loss of PTEN drive squamous differentiation and promote heterogeneity in bladder cancer', Oncogene, vol. 39, no. 6, pp. 1302-1317. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41388-019-1063-4
Yee, CH, Zheng, Z, Shuman, L, Yamashita, H, Warrick, J, Wu, XR, Raman, J & Degraff, D 2019, 'Maintenance of the bladder cancer precursor urothelial hyperplasia requires FOXA1 and persistent expression of oncogenic HRAS', Scientific reports, vol. 9, no. 1, 270. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-36720-6
Zaleski, M, Gogoj, A, Walter, V, Raman, JD, Kaag, M, Merrill, SB, Drabick, J, Joshi, M, Holder, S, DeGraff, DJ & Warrick, JI 2019, 'Mitotic activity in noninvasive papillary urothelial carcinoma: its value in predicting tumor recurrence and comparison with the contemporary 2-tier grading system', Human Pathology, vol. 84, pp. 275-282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.humpath.2018.10.008
Seyer, AK, Lehman, HL & Degraff, DJ 2019, 'Modeling Tumor Heterogeneity in Bladder Cancer: The Current State of the Field and Future Needs', Bladder Cancer, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 251-261. https://doi.org/10.3233/BLC-199009
Yamashita, H, Kawasawa, YI, Shuman, L, Zheng, Z, Tran, T, Walter, V, Warrick, JI, Chen, G, Al-Ahmadie, H, Kaag, M, Wong, PK, Raman, JD & DeGraff, DJ 2019, 'Repression of transcription factor AP-2 alpha by PPARγ reveals a novel transcriptional circuit in basal-squamous bladder cancer', Oncogenesis, vol. 8, no. 12, 69. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41389-019-0178-3
Buj, R, Chen, CW, Dahl, ES, Leon, KE, Kuskovsky, R, Maglakelidze, N, Navaratnarajah, M, Zhang, G, Doan, MT, Jiang, H, Zaleski, M, Kutzler, L, Lacko, H, Lu, Y, Mills, GB, Gowda, R, Robertson, GP, Warrick, JI, Herlyn, M, Imamura, Y, Kimball, SR, DeGraff, DJ, Snyder, NW & Aird, KM 2019, 'Suppression of p16 Induces mTORC1-Mediated Nucleotide Metabolic Reprogramming', Cell Reports, vol. 28, no. 8, pp. 1971-1980.e8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2019.07.084