Vonn Walter, PhD - Penn State Cancer Institute
Researcher Profile
Vonn Walter, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences
Division of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics
Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Penn State Center for Research on Tobacco and Health
Division of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics
Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Penn State Center for Research on Tobacco and Health
Scientific Program:Mechanisms of Carcinogenesis
Research Interests
Dr. Vonn Walter's primary research field is cancer genomics, particularly gene expression profiling, DNA copy number analysis and integrated analysis of multiple genomic data types. He is interested in all aspects of RNA sequencing data analysis, including pre-processing, normalization, differential expression analysis, unsupervised clustering, development of gene expression classifiers, pathway analysis, and network analysis. His PhD thesis led to the development of the DiNAMIC algorithm for assessing the statistical significance of recurrent genomic aberrations, such as regions of the genome where DNA copy number gains or losses are observed across multiple subjects. He also created the mVisAGe R package for computing and visualizing bivariate correlations that can be used to perform exploratory analyses for identifying regions of the genome where underling genomic aberrations affect the expression of regional genes.
Dr. Walter enjoys team science, and plays a variety of roles in ongoing collaborations with researchers at Penn State College of Medicine and elsewhere. He is a member of the Biostatistics/Bioinformatics Shared Resource of Penn State Cancer Institute.
- Neoplasms
- Therapeutics
- Mutation
- Survival
- DNA
- Urinary Bladder Neoplasms
- Genes
- Squamous Cell Carcinoma
- Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
- Gene Expression
- Lung Neoplasms
- Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck
Recent Publications
2024
Baggett, KH, Manghi, T, Walter, V, Thomas, NJ, Freeman, MA & Krawiec, C 2024, 'Acute kidney injury in hospitalized children with proteinuria: A multicenter retrospective analysis', PloS one, vol. 19, no. 3 March, e0298463. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0298463
2023
Zubrzycka, I, Bogale, K, Stuart, A, Cesaire, M, Walter, V, Dalessio, S, Tinsley, A, Williams, E, Clarke, K & Coates, MD 2023, 'Abdominal pain is associated with an increased risk of future healthcare resource utilization in inflammatory bowel disease', International Journal of Colorectal Disease, vol. 38, no. 1, 213. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00384-023-04510-w
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
Singh, V, Walter, V, Elcheva, I, Imamura Kawasawa, Y & Spiegelman, VS 2023, 'Global role of IGF2BP1 in controlling the expression of Wnt/β-catenin-regulated genes in colorectal cancer cells', Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, vol. 11, 1236356. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2023.1236356
Brendle, SA, Li, JJ, Walter, V, Schell, T, Kozak, M, Balogh, KK, Lu, S, Christensen, ND, Zhu, Y, El-Bayoumy, K & Hu, J 2023, 'Immune Responses in Oral Papillomavirus Clearance in the MmuPV1 Mouse Model', Pathogens, vol. 12, no. 12, 1452. https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens12121452
Coates, MD, Dalessio, S, Walter, V, Stuart, A, Tinsley, A, Williams, ED & Clarke, K 2023, 'Lifestyle Factors Associated with Abdominal Pain in Quiescent Inflammatory Bowel Disease', Digestive Diseases and Sciences, vol. 68, no. 11, pp. 4156-4165. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10620-023-08075-0
Coates, MD, Dalessio, S, Stuart, A, Walter, V, Tinsley, A, Clarke, K & Williams, ED 2023, 'Lifestyle Factors and Silent Inflammatory Bowel Disease', Inflammatory Intestinal Diseases, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 153-160. https://doi.org/10.1159/000534413
Dum, R, Walter, V, Thomas, NJ & Krawiec, C 2023, 'Odds of Cardiometabolic Diseases and Medications in Children With Cerebral Palsy', Journal of Child Neurology, vol. 38, no. 3-4, pp. 239-246. https://doi.org/10.1177/08830738231167534
Emrich, SM, Yoast, RE, Zhang, X, Fike, AJ, Wang, YH, Bricker, KN, Tao, AY, Xin, P, Walter, V, Johnson, MT, Pathak, T, Straub, AC, Feske, S, Rahman, ZSM & Trebak, M 2023, 'Orai3 and orai1 mediate crac channel function and metabolic reprogramming in b cells', eLife, vol. 12, e84708. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.84708
Bogale, K, Zubrzycka, I, Stuart, A, Cesaire, M, Walter, V, Tinsley, A, Williams, E, Clarke, K & Coates, MD 2023, 'Polysubstance use in inflammatory bowel disease is associated with increased risk of emergency department visits: a longitudinal study', Annals of Gastroenterology, vol. 36, no. 6, pp. 630-636. https://doi.org/10.20524/aog.2023.0835
Sinha, I, Fogle, RL, Gulfidan, G, Stanley, AE, Walter, V, Hollenbeak, CS, Arga, KY & Sinha, R 2023, 'Potential Early Markers for Breast Cancer: A Proteomic Approach Comparing Saliva and Serum Samples in a Pilot Study', International journal of molecular sciences, vol. 24, no. 4, 4164. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24044164
Pandya Shesh, B, Walter, V, Palsa, K, Slagle-Webb, B, Neely, E, Schell, T & Connor, JR 2023, 'Sexually dimorphic effect of H-ferritin genetic manipulation on survival and tumor microenvironment in a mouse model of glioblastoma', Journal of neuro-oncology, vol. 164, no. 3, pp. 569-586. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-023-04415-2
Shuman, L, Pham, J, Wildermuth, T, Wu, XR, Walter, V, Warrick, JI & DeGraff, DJ 2023, 'Urothelium-Specific Expression of Mutationally Activated Pik3ca Initiates Early Lesions of Noninvasive Bladder Cancer', American Journal of Pathology, vol. 193, no. 12, pp. 2133-2143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajpath.2023.07.001
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
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
Hoskins, M, Sefick, S, Zurca, AD, Walter, V, Thomas, NJ & Krawiec, C 2022, 'Current utilization of interosseous access in pediatrics: a population-based analysis using an EHR database, TriNetX', International Journal of Emergency Medicine, vol. 15, no. 1, 65. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12245-022-00467-9
Hu, J, Brendle, SA, Li, JJ, Walter, V, Cladel, NM, Cooper, T, Shearer, DA, Balogh, KK & Christensen, ND 2022, 'Depo Medroxyprogesterone (DMPA) Promotes Papillomavirus Infections but Does Not Accelerate Disease Progression in the Anogenital Tract of a Mouse Model', Viruses, vol. 14, no. 5, 980. https://doi.org/10.3390/v14050980
Walter, V, Choi, HY, Zhao, X, Gao, Y, Holt, J & Hayes, DN 2022, 'DiNAMIC.Duo: detecting somatic DNA copy number differences without a normal reference', Bioinformatics, vol. 38, no. 18, pp. 4415-4417. https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btac542
Krawiec, C, Williams, D, Walter, V & Thomas, NJ 2022, 'Evaluation of reported medical services provided to pediatric viral bronchiolitis diagnoses during the COVID-19 pandemic', Respiratory Medicine and Research, vol. 81, 100909. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resmer.2022.100909
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
Roberts, CM, Williams, D, Ceneviva, GD, Walter, V, Thomas, NJ & Krawiec, C 2022, 'Frequency and Results of Pregnancy Screening in Critically Ill Adolescents in Multiple Health Care Organizations', Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 71, no. 5, pp. 552-558. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2022.05.008
Cadet, K, Ceneviva, GD, Walter, V, Thomas, NJ & Krawiec, C 2023, 'Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Diagnostic Frequency of Febrile Seizures: An Electronic Health Record Database Observational Study', The Neurohospitalist, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 46-52. https://doi.org/10.1177/19418744221123208
Brendle, SA, Li, J, Cladel, NM, Balogh, KK, Booth, J, Shearer, DA, Walter, V, Lu, S, Christensen, ND, Covington, D, DeBroff, J, Milici, J, Zhu, Y, Viscidi, R & Hu, J 2022, 'Passive Immunization with a Single Monoclonal Neutralizing Antibody Protects against Cutaneous and Mucosal Mouse Papillomavirus Infections', Journal of virology, vol. 96, no. 16. https://doi.org/10.1128/jvi.00703-22
Johnson, MT, Xin, P, Cory Benson, J, Pathak, T, Walter, V, Emrich, SM, Yoast, RE, Zhang, X, Cao, G, Panettieri, RA & Trebak, M 2022, 'STIM1 is a core trigger of airway smooth muscle remodeling and hyperresponsiveness in asthma', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 119, no. 1, e2114557118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2114557118
Choe, AI, Woodard, S, Thompson, BM, Walter, V, Fotos, JS & Kasales, CJ 2022, 'Spaced Education: Randomized Trial Comparing Learning Efficiency of the Adaptive Versus Nonadaptive Spaced Education Systems Among Radiology Residents', Journal of the American College of Radiology, vol. 19, no. 6, pp. 706-710. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacr.2022.03.010
Coates, MD, Dalessio, S, Walter, V, Stuart, A, Bernasko, N, Tinsley, A, Razeghi, S, Williams, ED, Clarke, K & Vrana, K 2022, 'Symptoms and Extraintestinal Manifestations in Active Cannabis Users with Inflammatory Bowel Disease', Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 445-450. https://doi.org/10.1089/can.2020.0155
Bogale, K, Maheshwari, P, Kang, M, Gorrepati, VS, Dalessio, S, Walter, V, Stuart, A, Koltun, W, Bernasko, N, Tinsley, A, Williams, ED, Clarke, K & Coates, MD 2022, 'Symptoms associated with healthcare resource utilization in the setting of inflammatory bowel disease', Scientific reports, vol. 12, no. 1, 10577. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-14838-y
Johnson, MT, Benson, JC, Pathak, T, Xin, P, McKernan, AS, Emrich, SM, Yoast, RE, Walter, V, Straub, AC & Trebak, M 2022, 'The airway smooth muscle sodium/calcium exchanger NCLX is critical for airway remodeling and hyperresponsiveness in asthma', Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 298, no. 8, 102259. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbc.2022.102259
2021
Stoltzfus, KC, Shen, B, Tchelebi, L, Trifiletti, DM, Gusani, NJ, Walter, V, Wang, M & Zaorsky, NG 2021, 'Authors’ Reply: To the Letter to the Editor by Kessel et al', JNCCN Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, vol. 19, no. 7, pp. XLIII-XLIV. https://doi.org/10.6004/jnccn.2021.7068
for the Efraim investigators and the Nine-I study group 2021, 'Bacteremia in critically ill immunocompromised patients with acute hypoxic respiratory failure: A post-hoc analysis of a prospective multicenter multinational cohort', Journal of Critical Care, vol. 64, pp. 114-119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrc.2021.03.014
Sinha, I, Modesto, J, Krebs, NM, Stanley, AE, Walter, VA, Richie, JP, Muscat, JE & Sinha, R 2021, 'Changes in salivary proteome before and after cigarette smoking in smokers compared to sham smoking in nonsmokers: A pilot study', Tobacco Induced Diseases, vol. 19, 138336. https://doi.org/10.18332/TID/138336
Damrauer, JS, Smith, MA, Walter, V, Thennavan, A, Mose, LE, Selitsky, SR & Hoadley, KA 2021, 'Genomic characterization of rare molecular subclasses of hepatocellular carcinoma', Communications Biology, vol. 4, no. 1, 1150. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02674-1
Schlueter, D, Kovaleski, C, Walter, V, Thomas, NJ & Krawiec, C 2021, 'Impact of body mass index and initial respiratory support on pediatric subjects in acute respiratory failure', Respiratory care, vol. 66, no. 9, pp. 1425-1432. https://doi.org/10.4187/respcare.08735
Stoltzfus, KC, Shen, B, Tchelebi, L, Trifiletti, DM, Gusani, NJ, Walter, V, Wang, M & Zaorsky, NG 2021, 'Impact of facility surgical volume on survival in patients with cancer', JNCCN Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 495-503. https://doi.org/10.6004/jnccn.2020.7644
Tchelebi, LT, Shen, B, Wang, M, Gusani, NJ, Walter, V, Abrams, R, Verma, V & Zaorsky, NG 2021, 'Impact of radiation therapy facility volume on survival in patients with cancer', Cancer, vol. 127, no. 21, pp. 4081-4090. https://doi.org/10.1002/cncr.33777
Holt, J, Walter, V, Yin, X, Marron, D, Wilkerson, MD, Choi, HY, Zhao, X, Jo, H, Hayes, DN & Ko, YH 2021, 'Integrative analysis of miRNAs identifies clinically relevant epithelial and stromal subtypes of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma', Clinical Cancer Research, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 831-842. https://doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-20-0557
Bogale, K, Vrana, K, Konsavage, WR, Walter, V, Stuart, A, Dalessio, S, Koltun, W, Bernasko, N, Tinsley, A, Williams, E, Clarke, K & Coates, MD 2021, 'Polysubstance use in inflammatory bowel disease', Journal of Digestive Diseases, vol. 22, no. 12, pp. 706-713. https://doi.org/10.1111/1751-2980.13064
Choe, AI, Ismail, R, Mack, J, Walter, V, Yang, AL & Dodge, DG 2022, 'Review of Variables Associated With Positive Surgical Margins Using Scout Reflector Localizations for Breast Conservation Therapy', Clinical Breast Cancer, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. e232-e238. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clbc.2021.07.003
Lehrer, EJ, Stoltzfus, KC, Jones, BM, Gusani, NJ, Walter, V, Wang, M, Trifiletti, DM, Siva, S, Louie, AV & Zaorsky, NG 2021, 'Trends in Diagnosis and Treatment of Metastatic Cancer in the United States', American Journal of Clinical Oncology: Cancer Clinical Trials, vol. 44, no. 11, pp. 572-579. https://doi.org/10.1097/COC.0000000000000866
2020
Coates, MD, Johri, A, Gorrepati, VS, Maheshwari, P, Dalessio, S, Walter, V, Stuart, A, Koltun, W, Bernasko, N, Tinsley, A, Williams, ED & Clarke, K 2021, 'Abdominal pain in quiescent inflammatory bowel disease', International Journal of Colorectal Disease, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 93-102. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00384-020-03727-3
El-Bayoumy, K, Christensen, ND, Hu, J, Viscidi, R, Stairs, DB, Walter, V, Chen, KM, Sun, YW, Muscat, JE & Richie, JP 2020, 'An integrated approach for preventing oral cavity and oropharyngeal cancers: Two etiologies with distinct and shared mechanisms of carcinogenesis', Cancer Prevention Research, vol. 13, no. 8, pp. 649-660. https://doi.org/10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-20-0096
Pathak, T, Gueguinou, M, Walter, V, Delierneux, C, Johnson, MT, Zhang, X, Xin, P, Yoast, RE, Emrich, SM, Yochum, GS, Sekler, I, Koltun, WA, Gill, DL, Hempel, N & Trebak, M 2020, 'Dichotomous role of the human mitochondrial na+ /ca2+ /li+ exchanger nclx in colorectal cancer growth and metastasis', eLife, vol. 9, e59686, pp. 1-41. https://doi.org/10.7554/ELIFE.59686
Coates, MD, Soriano, C, Dalessio, S, Stuart, A, Walter, V, Koltun, W, Bernasko, N, Tinsley, A, Clarke, K & Williams, ED 2020, 'Gastrointestinal hypoalgesia in inflammatory bowel disease', Annals of Gastroenterology, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 45-52. https://doi.org/10.20524/aog.2019.0442
Pancholy, N, Walter, V, Drabick, J, Fox, EJ, Zaorsky, N & Vasekar, M 2020, 'Growth factor and its role in the treatment of patients with soft tissue extremity sarcoma receiving chemotherapy managed at an academic center: A retrospective study', Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, vol. 38, no. 15_suppl, e23573.
LaBarge, B, Walter, V, Bann, DV & Goldenberg, D 2021, 'In-depth analysis of thyroid cancer mortality', Head and Neck, vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 977-983. https://doi.org/10.1002/hed.26577
Hartman, HE, Sun, Y, Devasia, TP, Chase, EC, Jairath, NK, Dess, RT, Jackson, WC, Morris, E, Li, P, Hochstedler, KA, Abbott, MR, Kidwell, KM, Walter, V, Wang, M, Wang, X, Zaorsky, NG, Schipper, MJ & Spratt, DE 2020, 'Integrated Survival Estimates for Cancer Treatment Delay among Adults with Cancer during the COVID-19 Pandemic', JAMA Oncology, vol. 6, no. 12, pp. 1881-1889. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaoncol.2020.5403
Song, S, Nguyen, V, Schrank, T, Mulvaney, K, Walter, V, Wei, D, Orvis, T, Desai, N, Zhang, J, Hayes, DN, Zheng, Y, Major, MB & Weissman, BE 2020, 'Loss of SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling alters NRF2 signaling in non-small cell lung carcinoma', Molecular Cancer Research, vol. 18, no. 12, pp. 1777-1788. https://doi.org/10.1158/1541-7786.MCR-20-0082
Christensen, ND, Chen, KM, Hu, J, Stairs, DB, Sun, YW, Aliaga, C, Balogh, KK, Atkins, H, Shearer, D, Li, J, Brendle, SA, Gowda, K, Amin, S, Walter, V, Viscidi, R & El-Bayoumy, K 2021, 'The environmental pollutant and tobacco smoke constituent dibenzo[def,p]chrysene is a co-factor for malignant progression of mouse oral papillomavirus infections', Chemico-Biological Interactions, vol. 333, 109321. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbi.2020.109321
Yoast, RE, Emrich, SM, Zhang, X, Xin, P, Johnson, MT, Fike, AJ, Walter, V, Hempel, N, Yule, DI, Sneyd, J, Gill, DL & Trebak, M 2020, 'The native ORAI channel trio underlies the diversity of Ca2+ signaling events', Nature communications, vol. 11, no. 1, 2444. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16232-6