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Bisrat G Debeb, DVM, PhD

Present Title & Affiliation

Primary Appointment

Assistant Professor, Department of Breast Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX

Education & Training

Degree-Granting Education

2008 Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, PHD, Stem Cell Biology
2005 Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, AL, MSc, Epidemiology
1999 Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, DVM, High Honors, Veterinary Medicine

Postgraduate Training

1/2008-5/2011 Postdoctoral Fellow, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, Wendy A. Woodward, MD, PhD

Experience/Service

Academic Appointments

Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology - Research, Division of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 6/2011-1/2017
Lecturer, Veterinary Medicine, Veterinary Microbiology and Public Health, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 8/2001-12/2002
Assistant Lecturer, Veterinary Medicine, Veterinary Microbiology and Public Health, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 7/1999-7/2001

Institutional Committee Activities

Member, Faculty Representative of Postdoctoral Advisory Committee, 2014-present
Member, Global Academic Programs-Africa Steering Committee, 10/2011-present

Honors and Awards

2016 Partnerships to Advance Cancer Health Equity Travel Award
2016 Pillar of Support Award, Forum of First Ladies Against Breast and Cervical Cancer, Ethiopia
2015 1st Place Poster Prize Award, NCI CRCHD
2015 AACR Minority Scholar in Cancer Research Award, AACR Special Conference on Tumor Metastasis
2015 AACR Minority Scholar in Cancer Research Award, 2015 AACR Annual Meeting
2014 Junior Investigator Grant Award, IBC Network Foundation
2014 Young Investigator Award, 4th Annual Brain Metastasis Conference, Marseille, France
2013 Carl Storm Underrepresented Minority Fellowship
2011 AACR Minority Scholar in Cancer Research Award, AACR
2010-2014 Susan G. Komen Postdoctoral Fellowship Award, Susan G. Komen Foundation
2007 1st Place Oral Presentation Award, GSA Research Symposium, Texas A&M University, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
2007 Travel Award, 47th Annual American Society of Cell Biology Meeting, Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine, Graduate Student Association
2003 Graduate Fellowship Award, USAID/Tuskegee University
1999 Award of Recognition for Academic Excellence, University of Tennessee, College of Veterinary Medicine
1999 Gold Medal Award Winner for overall academic performance (Outstanding Student of the Year), Addis Ababa University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
1999 Gold Medalist, DVM Class of 1999, Addis Ababa University
1994-1999 Dean's List and Academic Excellence Award, Addis Ababa University

Professional Memberships

American Association for Cancer Research
Member, 1/2008-present
Radiation Research Society
Member, 4/2008-present

Selected Publications

Peer-Reviewed Original Research Articles
1. Wolfe AR, Trenton NJ, Debeb BG, Larson R, Ruffell B, Chu K, Hittelman W, Diehl M, Reuben JM, Ueno NT, Woodward WA. Mesenchymal stem cells and macrophages interact through IL-6 to promote inflammatory breast cancer in pre-clinical models. Oncotarget 7(50):82482-82492, 12/2016. PMID: 27756885.
2. Smith DL, Debeb BG, Thames HD, Woodward WA. Computational modeling of micrometastatic breast cancer radiation dose-response. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 96(1):179-87, 9/1/2016. e-Pub 4/19/2016. PMID: 27511855.
3. Debeb BG, Lacerda L, Anfossi S, Diagaradjane P, Chu K, Bambhroliya A, Huo L, Wei C, Larson RA, Wolfe AR, Xu W, Smith DL, Li L, Ivan C, Allen PK, Wu W, Calin GA, Krishnamurthy S, Zhang XH, Buchholz TA, Ueno NT, Reuben JM, Woodward WA. miR-141-mediated regulation of brain metastasis from breast cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst 108(8), 8/2016. e-Pub 4/13/2016. PMCID: PMC5017951.
4. Wolfe AR, Bambhroliya A, Reddy JP, Debeb BG, Huo L, Larson R, Li L, Ueno NT, Woodward WA. MiR-33a Decreases High-Density Lipoprotein-Induced Radiation Sensitivity in Breast Cancer. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 95(2):791-9, 6/1/2016. e-Pub 1/22/2016. PMCID: PMC4851902.
5. Caceres S, Peña L, Lacerda L, Illera MJ, de Andres PJ, Larson RA, Gao H, Debeb BG, Woodward WA, Reuben JM, Illera JC. Canine cell line, IPC-366, as a good model for the study of inflammatory breast cancer. Vet Comp Oncol. e-Pub 5/5/2016. PMID: 27146723.
6. Debeb BG, Lacerda L, Larson R, Wolfe AR, Krishnamurthy S, Reuben JM, Ueno NT, Gilcrease M, Woodward WA. Histone deacetylase inhibitor-induced cancer stem cells exhibit high pentose phosphate pathway metabolism. Oncotarget 7(19):28329-39, 5/10/2016. e-Pub 4/7/2016. PMID: 27078845.
7. Huo L, Wang Y, Gong Y, Krishnamurthy S, Wang J, Diao L, Liu CG, Liu X, Lin F, Symmans WF, Wei W, Zhang X, Sun L, Alvarez RH, Ueno NT, Fouad TM, Harano K, Debeb BG, Wu Y, Reuben J, Cristofanilli M, Zuo Z. MicroRNA expression profiling identifies decreased expression of miR-205 in inflammatory breast cancer. Mod Pathol 29(4):330-46, 4/2016. e-Pub 2/26/2016. PMID: 26916073.
8. Wolfe AR, Debeb BG, Lacerda L, Larson R, Bambhroliya A, Huang X, Bertucci F, Finetti P, Birnbaum D, Van Laere S, Diagaradjan P, Ruffell B, Trenton NJ, Chu K, Hittelman W, Diehl M, Levental I, Ueno NT, Woodward WA. Simvastatin prevents triple-negative breast cancer metastasis in pre-clinical models through regulation of FOXO3a. Breast Cancer Res Treat 154(3):495-508, 12/2015. e-Pub 11/21/2015. PMID: 26590814.
9. Reddy JP, Dawood S, Mitchell M, Debeb BG, Bloom E, Gonzalez-Angulo AM, Sulman EP, Buchholz TA, Woodward WA. Antiepileptic drug use improves overall survival in breast cancer patients with brain metastases in the setting of whole brain radiotherapy. Radiother Oncol 117(2):308-14, 11/2015. e-Pub 10/16/2015. PMID: 26482599.
10. Wolfe AR, Atkinson RL, Reddy JP, Debeb BG, Larson R, Li L, Masuda H, Brewer T, Atkinson BJ, Brewster A, Ueno NT, Woodward WA. High-density and very-low-density lipoprotein have opposing roles in regulating tumor-initiating cells and sensitivity to radiation in inflammatory breast cancer. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 91(5):1072-80, 4/1/2015. PMCID: PMC4801170.
11. Debeb BG, Smith DL, Li L, Larson R, Xu W, Woodward WA. Differential effect of phosphorylation-defective survivin on radiation response in estrogen receptor-positive and -negative breast cancer. PLoS One 10(3):e0120719, 2015. e-Pub 3/12/2015. PMCID: PMC4357387.
12. Cohen EN, Gao H, Anfossi S, Mego M, Reddy NG, Debeb B, Giordano A, Tin S, Wu Q, Garza RJ, Cristofanilli M, Mani SA, Croix DA, Ueno NT, Woodward WA, Luthra R, Krishnamurthy S, Reuben JM. Inflammation Mediated Metastasis: Immune Induced Epithelial-To-Mesenchymal Transition in Inflammatory Breast Cancer Cells. PLoS One 10(7):e0132710, 2015. e-Pub 7/24/2015. PMCID: PMC4514595.
13. Lacerda L, Debeb BG, Smith D, Larson R, Solley T, Xu W, Krishnamurthy S, Gong Y, Levy LB, Buchholz T, Ueno NT, Klopp A, Woodward WA. Mesenchymal stem cells mediate the clinical phenotype of inflammatory breast cancer in a preclinical model. Breast Cancer Res 17:42, 2015. e-Pub 3/20/2015. PMCID: PMC4389342.
14. Zhang P, Wei Y, Wang L, Debeb BG, Yuan Y, Zhang J, Yuan J, Wang M, Chen D, Sun Y, Woodward WA, Liu Y, Dean DC, Liang H, Hu Y, Ang KK, Hung MC, Chen J, Ma L. ATM-mediated stabilization of ZEB1 promotes DNA damage response and radioresistance through CHK1. Nat Cell Biol 16(9):864-75, 9/2014. e-Pub 8/3/2014. PMCID: PMC4150825.
15. Debeb BG, Gong Y, Atkinson RL, Sneige N, Huo L, Gonzalez-Angulo A, Hung MC, Valero V, Ueno NT, Woodward WA. EZH2 expression correlates with locoregional recurrence after radiation in inflammatory breast cancer. J Exp Clin Cancer Res 33(1). e-Pub 7/23/2014. PMID: 25051981.
16. Lacerda L, Reddy JP, Liu D, Larson R, Li L, Masuda H, Brewer T, Debeb BG, Xu W, Hortobágyi GN, Buchholz TA, Ueno NT, Woodward WA. Simvastatin radiosensitizes differentiated and stem-like breast cancer cell lines and is associated with improved local control in inflammatory breast cancer patients treated with postmastectomy radiation. Stem Cells Transl Med 3(7):849-56, 7/2014. e-Pub 5/15/2014. PMCID: PMC4073823.
17. Anfossi S, Giordano A, Gao H, Cohen EN, Tin S, Wu Q, Garza RJ, Debeb BG, Alvarez RH, Valero V, Hortobagyi GN, Calin GA, Ueno NT, Woodward WA, Reuben JM. High Serum miR-19a Levels Are Associated with Inflammatory Breast Cancer and Are Predictive of Favorable Clinical Outcome in Patients with Metastatic HER2(+) Inflammatory Breast Cancer. PLoS One 9(1):e83113, 2014. e-Pub 1/8/2014. PMCID: PMC3885405.
18. Zhang P, Wang L, Rodriguez-Aguayo C, Yuan Y, Debeb BG, Chen D, Sun Y, You MJ, Liu Y, Dean DC, Woodward WA, Liang H, Yang X, Lopez-Berestein G, Sood AK, Hu Y, Ang KK, Chen J, Ma L. miR-205 acts as a tumour radiosensitizer by targeting ZEB1 and Ubc13. Nat Commun 5:5671, 2014. e-Pub 12/5/2014. PMID: 25476932.
19. Duong MT, Akli S, Macalou S, Biernacka A, Debeb BG, Yi M, Hunt KK, Keyomarsi K. Hbo1 Is a Cyclin E/CDK2 Substrate That Enriches Breast Cancer Stem-like Cells. Cancer Res 73(17):5556-68, 9/1/2013. e-Pub 8/16/2013. PMCID: PMC3773499.
20. Xu W, Lacerda L, Debeb BG, Atkinson RL, Solley TN, Li L, Orton D, McMurray JS, Hang BI, Lee E, Klopp AH, Ueno NT, Reuben JM, Krishnamurthy S, Woodward WA. The antihelmintic drug pyrvinium pamoate targets aggressive breast cancer. PLoS One 27(8):e71508, 2013. e-Pub 8/27/2013. PMCID: PMC3754994.
21. Debeb BG, Lacerda L, Xu W, Larson R, Solley T, Atkinson R, Sulman EP, Ueno NT, Krishnamurthy S, Reuben JM, Buchholz TA, Woodward WA. Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors Stimulate Dedifferentiation of Human Breast Cancer Cells through WNT/β-catenin Signaling. Stem Cells 30(11):2366-77, 11/2012. e-Pub 9/7/2012. PMID: 22961641.
22. Debeb BG, Cohen EN, Boley K, Freiter EM, Li L, Robertson FM, Reuben JM, Cristofanilli M, Buchholz TA, Woodward WA. Pre-clinical studies of notch signaling inhibitor RO4929097 in inflammatory breast cancer cells. Breast Cancer Res Treat 134(2):495-510, 7/2012. e-Pub 5/1/2012. PMID: 22547109.
23. Klopp AH, Zhang Y, Solley T, Amaya-Manzanares F, Marini F, Andreeff M, Debeb B, Woodward W, Schmandt R, Broaddus R, Lu K, Kolonin MG. Omental adipose tissue-derived stromal cells promote vascularization and growth of endometrial tumors. Clin Cancer Res 18(3):771-82, 2/1/2012. e-Pub 12/13/2011. PMCID: PMC3481843.
24. Woodward WA, Gao H, cohen EN, Li L, Xu W, Debeb BG, Jimenez CA, Krishnamurthy S, Tucker SL, Hortobagyi G, Cristofanilli M, Buchholz T, Reuben J. Percentage of CD45-CD326_CD44_CD24-/lo cells in pleural effusion fluid of patients with metastatic breast cancer predicts for overall survival. Interventional Oncology 1(1):4-10, 1/2011.
25. Xu W, Debeb BG, Lacerda L, Li J, Woodward WA. Tetrandrine, a compound common in Chinese traditional medicine, preferentially kills breast cancer tumor initiating cells (TICs) in vitro. Cancers (Basel) 3(2):2274-2285, 2011. e-Pub 5/4/2011. PMCID: PMC3757417.
26. Robertson FM, Ogasawara MA, Ye Z, Chu K, Pickei R, Debeb BG, Woodward WA, Hittelman WN, Cristofanilli M, Barsky SH. Imaging and analysis of 3D tumor spheroids enriched for a cancer stem cell phenotype. J Biomol Screen 15(7):820-9, 8/2010. e-Pub 7/16/2010. PMID: 20639504.
27. Woodward WA, Debeb BG, Xu W, Buchholz TA. Overcoming radiation resistance in inflammatory breast cancer. Cancer 116(11 Suppl):2840-5, 6/1/2010. PMID: 20503417.
28. Debeb BG, Xu W, Mok H, Li L, Robertson F, Ueno NT, Reuben J, Lucci A, Cristofanilli M, Woodward WA. Differential radiosensitizing effect of valproic acid in differentiation versus self-renewal promoting culture conditions. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 76(3):889-95, 3/1/2010. PMCID: PMC2892870.
29. Debeb BG, Zhang X, Krishnamurthy S, Gao H, Cohen E, Li L, Rodriguez AA, Landis MD, Lucci A, Ueno NT, Robertson F, Xu W, Lacerda L, Buchholz TA, Cristofanilli M, Reuben JM, Lewis MT, Woodward WA. Characterizing cancer cells with cancer stem cell-like features in 293T human embryonic kidney cells. Mol Cancer 9:180, 2010. e-Pub 7/8/2010. PMCID: PMC2915978.
30. Klopp AH, Lacerda L, Gupta A, Debeb BG, Solley T, Li L, Spaeth E, Xu W, Zhang X, Lewis MT, Reuben JM, Krishnamurthy S, Ferrari M, Gaspar R, Buchholz TA, Cristofanilli M, Marini F, Andreeff M, Woodward WA. Mesenchymal stem cells promote mammosphere formation and decrease E-cadherin in normal and malignant breast cells. PLoS One 5(8):e12180, 2010. e-Pub 8/16/2010. PMCID: PMC2922340.
31. Galat V, Binas B, Iannaccone S, Postovit LM, Debeb BG, Iannaccone P. Developmental potential of rat extraembryonic stem cells. Stem Cells Dev 18(9):1309-18, 11/2009. PMID: 19480599.
32. Debeb GB, Binas B. A new enhancer in the flanking region of the gene Pou5f1. Journal of Natural Science and Technology 13:1-6, 5/2009.
33. Epple-Farmer J, Debeb BG, Smithies O, Binas B. Gender-dependent survival of allogeneic trophoblast stem cells in liver. Cell Transplant 18(7):769-76, 2009. e-Pub 4/29/2009. PMCID: PMC3464099.
34. Debeb BG, Galat V, Epple-Farmer J, Iannaccone S, Woodward WA, Bader M, Iannaccone P, Binas B. Isolation of Oct4-expressing extraembryonic endoderm precursor cell lines. PLoS One 4(9):e7216, 2009. e-Pub 9/28/2009. PMCID: PMC2747266.
35. Debeb B Godefay, Molla B. Bacteriological quality of cow's raw milk from four dairy farms and a milk collection center in and around Addis Ababa. Berl Munch Tierartz Wschr 113:276-278, 6/2000.

Invited Articles
1. Xu W, Debeb BG, Lacerda L, Woodward WA. Potential targets for improving radiosensitivity of breast tumor-initiating cells. Anticancer Agents Med Chem 10(2):152-6, 2/2010. PMID: 20184537.
2. Debeb BG, Xu W, Woodward WA. Radiation resistance of breast cancer stem cells: understanding the clinical framework. J Mammary Gland Biol Neoplasia 14(1):11-7, 3/2009. e-Pub 2/28/2009. PMID: 19252973.
Other Articles
1. Bisrat BG. Komen Funding Launches One Investigator’s Career as He Works to Prevent Breast Cancer Metastasis to the Brain. Susan G. Komen Blog, 3/2015.
2. Debeb BG, Woodward WA. Commentary on ALDH1 expression is enriched in breast cancers arisingin young women but does not predict outcome. Breast Diseases: A Year Book Quarterly 25(1):47-48, 2014.

Last updated: 2/16/2017