Hospital Research Teams

The Daniel Higginson Lab

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Research

Pictured: Daniel Higginson
Daniel S. Higginson, MD
Radiation Oncologist

The Higginson lab focuses on alternative DNA double strand break repair pathways that become particularly important in tumors deficient in homologous recombination (e.g. BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutant tumors) and in tumors relatively deficient in non-homologous end-joining (e.g. HPV-associated tumors). These alternative pathways include alternative end-joining and single strand annealing. We employ advanced genome editing approaches to measure the full spectrum of repair events at a double strand break to quantify the use of both standard and alternative repair pathways. This approach allows for study of pathway tradeoffs that occur in the context of cancer-specific genetic alterations or when DNA damage response inhibitors (DDRi) are used. We seek to understand these pathways better in order to improve the therapeutic response to radiation and other DNA-damaging agents by finding rational combinations of DDRi to use in combination with radiation and matched to tumor-specific repair deficiencies.

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Daniel Higginson Lab

Featured News

Finding
The human papillomavirus (HPV)
Cancers Caused by HPV Respond Better to Treatment — a New Study Helps Explain Why
According to Memorial Sloan Kettering scientists, it has to do with what the virus does to a cell’s DNA repair machinery.
Clinical Update
HPV and liquid biopsy
MSK Investigators Create a Highly Accurate Liquid Biopsy for Identifying Early-Stage HPV-Associated Oral and Anal Cancers
At MSK we have developed a highly accurate, low-cost assay, for identifying early-stage oral and anal cancers associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) using liquid biopsy.

Publications Highlights

Moore G, Majumdar R, Powell SN, Khan AJ, Weinhold N, Yin S, Higginson DS. Templated insertions are associated specifically with BRCA2 deficiency and overall survival in advanced ovarian cancer. Mol Cancer Res. 2022 Jul 6;20(7):1061-1070.

Moore G, Powell SN, Higginson DS, Khan AJ. Examining the prevalence of homologous recombination repair defects in ER+ breast cancers. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2022 Apr;192(3):649-653.

Hussain SS, Lundine D, Leeman JE, Higginson DS. Genomic signatures in HPV-associated tumors. Viruses. 2021 Oct 5;13(10):1998.

Hussain SS, Majumdar R, Moore GM, Narang H, Buechelmaier ES, Bazil MJ, Ravindran PT, Leeman JE, Li Y, Jalan M, Anderson KS, Farina A, Soni R, Mohibullah N, Hamzic E, Rong-Mullins X, Sifuentes C, Damerla RR, Viale A, Powell SN, Higginson DS. Measuring nonhomologous end-joining, homologous recombination and alternative end-joining simultaneously at an endogenous locus in any transfectable human cell. Nucleic Acids Res. 2021 Jul 21;49(13):e74.

Jonathan E Leeman, Yi Li, Andrew Bell, Suleman S Hussain, Rahul Majumdar, Xiaoqing Rong-Mullins, Pedro Blecua, Rama Damerla, Himanshi Narang, Pavithran T Ravindran, Nancy Y Lee, Nadeem Riaz, Simon N Powell, Daniel S Higginson. Human papillomavirus 16 promotes microhomology-mediated end-joining. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2019 Oct 22; 116(43) 21573-21579.

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People

Pictured: Daniel Higginson

Daniel S. Higginson, MD

Radiation Oncologist

  • Physician-scientist Daniel Higginson studies a double-strand break repair pathway known as microhomology-mediated end joining, with the overall goal of improving the understanding of radiation treatment and providing insight into therapies for cancers deficient in homologous recombination.
  • MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
646-888-3567
Office Phone
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Members

Rama Damerla, PhD
Rama Damerla

Research Associate

Suleman Hussain
Suleman Hussain

Research Fellow

Yi Li, Visiting Investigator
Yi Li

Visiting Investigator

Devon Lundine
Devon Lundine

Research Fellow

Himanshi Mishra
Himanshi Mishra

Research Fellow

Grace Moore
Grace Moore

Bioinformatician

Monica Pandey
Monica Pandey

Research Associate

Pavithran Ravindran
Pavithran Ravindran

Undergraduate Researcher

Roger Shen
Roger Shen

Research Fellow

Lab Affiliations

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Disclosures

Doctors and faculty members often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community.

MSK requires doctors and faculty members to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public.

Daniel S. Higginson discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

  • AstraZeneca
    Professional Services and Activities (Uncompensated)
  • SQZ Biotechnologies Company
    Professional Services and Activities (Uncompensated)

The information published here is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.

This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2022 through disclosure submission in spring 2023). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.

Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at [email protected].


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