Joseph D. Butner, Ph.D.
Department of Radiation Oncology, Division of Radiation Oncology
About Dr. Joseph D. Butner
Dr. Butner is an Assistant Professor working in the fields of computational biology, deep machine learning, and physical oncology with a focus on personalized prediction of disease outcomes with and without clinical intervention. Over the last seven years, he has worked closely alongside highly respected teams of research scientists and physicians to apply many of the most modern techniques in the fields of physical oncology and mathematical modeling of biological systems to gain understanding of the mechanistic underpinnings of disease development and treatment, and to develop clinically translatable tools to address current clinical needs. He recently applied mechanistic modeling descriptions of key biophysical factors and processes in checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy intervention to large patient-derived clinical datasets, and discovered mathematically-derived biomarkers that are predictive of patient response to therapy and that provide quantitative assessment of efficacy of individual drug-disease treatments, resulting in a series of high-impact publications that have been favorably received by the scientific community.
He is now leveraging the knowledge gained in these projects with deep machine learning and artificial intelligence methods to more completely capture the complexity of the immune-tumor interaction, with the goal of finding ways to engineer optimal, unique treatment protocols for each patient. These predictive mathematical relationships between measurably biological quantities and patient outcome can be used to identify the specific, mechanistic causes underlying immunotherapy treatment outcomes on a per-patient basis at early times under the current immunotherapy intervention paradigm, with the significant goal of allowing clinicians to customize individual treatment protocols and ancillary treatment strategies to bring patients into a biological state where immunotherapy has the highest likelihood of being successful. Ongoing research in the Butner laboratory includes mathematical modeling studies to better understand the effects of high- and low-dose radiotherapy on immune priming and stromal alterations in patients receiving checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapies, and studies on how deep-learning platforms may be leveraged to predict per-patient treatment failure and survival.
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, Division of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Dual/Joint/Adjunct Appointment
Adjunct Professor, Houston Methodist Academic Institute, Houston, TX
Adjunct Professor of Informatics, Division of Master in Clinical Translation Management Program, The Cameron School of Business, University of St. Thomas, Houston, TX
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2017 | University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA, PHD, Biomedical Engineering |
| 2016 | University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA, MS, Biomedical Engineering |
| 2012 | University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA, MS, Mechanical Engineering |
| 2008 | University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA, BS, Mechanical Engineering |
Postgraduate Training
| 2017-2018 | Postdoctoral Associate, Physical Oncology and Biomedical Research, University of Texas Health, Houston, TX |
Honors & Awards
| 2023 | President's Award for Excellence in Peer-Reviewed Publication, Houston Methodist Research Institute |
| 2021 | President's Award for Excellence in Peer-Reviewed Publication, Houston Methodist Research Institute |
| 2021 | Wolfram Innovators Award |
| 2020 | Feature Article in IEEE TBME. May |
| 2017 | PhD awarded "with distinction", University of New Mexico |
| 2013 | New Mexico Technical Institute Silver Scholarship |
| 2013 | New Mexico Lottery Scholarship |
| 2002 | National Merit Semifinalist |
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Dogra P, Shinglot V, Ruiz-Ramírez J, Cave J, Butner JD, Schiavone C, Duda DG, Kaseb AO, Chung C, Koay EJ, Cristini V, Ozpolat B, Calin GA, Wang Z. Translational modeling-based evidence for enhanced efficacy of standard-of-care drugs in combination with anti-microRNA-155 in non-small-cell lung cancer. medRxiv, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 38559070.
- Butner JD, Dogra P, Chung C, Koay EJ, Welsh JW, Hong DS, Cristini V, Wang Z. Hybridizing mechanistic mathematical modeling with deep learning methods to predict individual cancer patient survival after immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. npj Syst Biol Appl 10(88), 2024. e-Pub 2024.
- Cave J, Shinglot V, Butner JD, Cristini V, Ozpolat B, Calin GA, Dogra P, Wang Z. Mechanistic modeling of anti-microRNA-155 therapy combinations in lung cancer. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc 2023:1-4, 2023. PMID: 38083518.
- Syed M, Cagely M, Dogra P, Hollmer L, Butner JD, Cristini V, Koay EJ. Immune-checkpoint inhibitor therapy response evaluation using oncophysics-based mathematical models. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Nanomed Nanobiotechnol 15(2):e1855, 2023. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 36148978.
- Butner JD, Dogra P, Chung C, Pasqualini R, Arap W, Lowengrub J, Cristini V, Wang Z. Mathematical modeling of cancer immunotherapy for personalized clinical translation. Nat Comput Sci 2(12):785-796, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 38126024.
- Butner JD, Farhat M, Cristini V, Chung C, Wang Z. Protocol for mathematical prediction of patient response and survival to immune checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy. STAR Protoc 3(4):101886, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 36595890.
- Sun K, Xu Y, Zhang L, Niravath P, Darcourt J, Patel T, Teh BS, Farach AM, Guerrero C, Mathur S, Sultenfuss MA, Gupta N, Schwartz MR, Haley SL, Nair S, Li X, Nguyen TTA, Butner JD, Ensor J, Mejia JA, Mei Z, Butler EB, Chen SH, Bernicker EH, Chang JC. A Phase 2 Trial of Enhancing Immune Checkpoint Blockade by Stereotactic Radiation and In Situ Virus Gene Therapy in Metastatic Triple-Negative Breast Cancer. Clin Cancer Res 28(20):4392-4401, 2022. PMID: 35877117.
- Wang CX, Elganainy D, Zaid MM, Butner JD, Agrawal A, Nizzero S, Minsky BD, Holliday EB, Taniguchi CM, Smith GL, Koong AC, Herman JM, Das P, Maitra A, Wang H, Wolff RA, Katz MHG, Crane CH, Cristini V, Koay EJ. Mass Transport Model of Radiation Response: Calibration and Application to Chemoradiation for Pancreatic Cancer. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 114(1):163-172, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35643254.
- Butner JD, Dogra P, Chung C, Ruiz-Ramírez J, Nizzero S, Plodinec M, Li X, Pan PY, Chen SH, Cristini V, Ozpolat B, Calin GA, Wang Z. Dedifferentiation-mediated stem cell niche maintenance in early-stage ductal carcinoma in situ progression: insights from a multiscale modeling study. Cell Death Dis 13(5):485, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35597788.
- Dogra P, Ramírez JR, Butner JD, Peláez MJ, Chung C, Hooda-Nehra A, Pasqualini R, Arap W, Cristini V, Calin GA, Ozpolat B, Wang Z. Translational Modeling Identifies Synergy between Nanoparticle-Delivered miRNA-22 and Standard-of-Care Drugs in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer. Pharm Res 39(3):511-528, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35294699.
- Dogra P, Ramirez JR, Butner JD, Pelaez MJ, Cristini V, Wang Z. A Multiscale Model to Identify Limiting Factors in Nanoparticle-Based miRNA Delivery for Tumor Inhibition. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc 2021:4230-4233, 2021. PMID: 34892157.
- Butner JD, Martin GV, Wang Z, Corradetti B, Ferrari M, Esnaola N, Chung C, Hong DS, Welsh JW, Hasegawa N, Mittendorf EA, Curley SA, Chen SH, Pan PY, Libutti SK, Ganesan S, Sidman RL, Pasqualini R, Arap W, Koay EJ, Cristini V. Early prediction of clinical response to checkpoint inhibitor therapy in human solid tumors through mathematical modeling. Elife 10, 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 34749885.
- Butner JD, Wang Z, Elganainy D, Al Feghali KA, Plodinec M, Calin GA, Dogra P, Nizzero S, Ruiz-Ramírez J, Martin GV, Tawbi HA, Chung C, Koay EJ, Welsh JW, Hong DS, Cristini V. A mathematical model for the quantification of a patient's sensitivity to checkpoint inhibitors and long-term tumour burden. Nat Biomed Eng 5(4):297-308, 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 33398132.
- Dogra P, Ruiz-Ramírez J, Sinha K, Butner JD, Peláez MJ, Rawat M, Yellepeddi VK, Pasqualini R, Arap W, Sostman HD, Cristini V, Wang Z. Innate Immunity Plays a Key Role in Controlling Viral Load in COVID-19: Mechanistic Insights from a Whole-Body Infection Dynamics Model. ACS Pharmacol Transl Sci 4(1):248-265, 2021. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 33615177.
- Anaya DA, Dogra P, Wang Z, Haider M, Ehab J, Jeong DK, Ghayouri M, Lauwers GY, Thomas K, Kim R, Butner JD, Nizzero S, Ramírez JR, Plodinec M, Sidman RL, Cavenee WK, Pasqualini R, Arap W, Fleming JB, Cristini V. A Mathematical Model to Estimate Chemotherapy Concentration at the Tumor-Site and Predict Therapy Response in Colorectal Cancer Patients with Liver Metastases. Cancers (Basel) 13(3), 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 33503971.
- Dogra P, Butner JD, Nizzero S, Ruiz Ramírez J, Noureddine A, Peláez MJ, Elganainy D, Yang Z, Le AD, Goel S, Leong HS, Koay EJ, Brinker CJ, Cristini V, Wang Z. Image-guided mathematical modeling for pharmacological evaluation of nanomaterials and monoclonal antibodies. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Nanomed Nanobiotechnol 12(5):e1628, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32314552.
- Dogra P, Butner JD, Ramirez JR, Cristini V, Wang Z. Investigating the Effect of Aging on the Pharmacokinetics and Tumor Delivery of Nanomaterials using Mathematical Modeling. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc 2020:2447-2450, 2020. PMID: 33018501.
- Butner JD, Fuentes D, Ozpolat B, Calin GA, Zhou X, Lowengrub J, Cristini V, Wang Z. A Multiscale Agent-Based Model of Ductal Carcinoma In Situ. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 67(5):1450-1461, 2020. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31603768.
- Butner JD, Elganainy D, Wang CX, Wang Z, Chen SH, Esnaola NF, Pasqualini R, Arap W, Hong DS, Welsh J, Koay EJ, Cristini V. Mathematical prediction of clinical outcomes in advanced cancer patients treated with checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy. Sci Adv 6(18):eaay6298, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32426472.
- Dogra P, Butner JD, Ruiz Ramírez J, Chuang YL, Noureddine A, Jeffrey Brinker C, Cristini V, Wang Z. A mathematical model to predict nanomedicine pharmacokinetics and tumor delivery. Comput Struct Biotechnol J 18:518-531, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32206211.
- Dogra P, Chuang YL, Butner JD, Cristini V, Wang Z. Development of a Physiologically-Based Mathematical Model for Quantifying Nanoparticle Distribution in Tumors. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc 2019:2852-2855, 2019. PMID: 31946487.
- Dogra P, Butner JD, Chuang YL, Caserta S, Goel S, Brinker CJ, Cristini V, Wang Z. Mathematical modeling in cancer nanomedicine: a review. Biomed Microdevices 21(2):40, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 30949850.
Patient Reviews
CV information above last modified August 22, 2024