Cutaneous Oncology Research Fellow

Sophia Z. Shalhout

Published

July 11, 2019

Abstract
Dr. Shalhout was a post-doctoral research fellow and data scientist with our lab. Her research focused on deep phenotyping skin cancer patients to identify predictive and prognostic factors for skin cancer outcomes.

Education

B.S in Chemistry and Biological Sciences

  • Wayne State University
  • 2005 - 2009

PhD in Chemistry

  • Wayne State University
  • 2009 - 2015

Post-Doctoral Fellowship

  • Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School
  • 2015-2019

Certificate in Applied Biostatistics

  • Harvard Catalyst | The Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center, Harvard Medical School
  • 2019-2020

Biography

Sophia Shalhout PhD joined the Miller Lab as the Cutaneous Oncology Research Fellow in 2019. She obtained her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Wayne State University where she studied the role of activation-induced deaminase (AID) in promoting lymphoma, and developed tools to study and quantify the type of DNA damage caused by aberrant AID activity. The exploitation of AID-induced DNA damage led to the development of small molecule chemical probes to specifically target lymphoma cells.

She then did a postdoctoral fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital in the Camargo lab, where she worked to develop novel small molecule modulators of the Hippo Pathway for applications in both regenerative medicine and chemotherapy.

While a postdoctoral fellow in our lab, Dr. Shalhout used her skills in Biology and Data Science to perform deep phenotyping of non-melanoma skin cancers.

Following her work in The Miller Lab, she joined the faculty of Mass Eye and Ear, where she is a Principal Investigator at the Mike Toth Head and Neck Cancer Research Center, an Assistant Scientist at Mass Eye and Ear, and Faculty Member at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgical Oncology. Her lab is using clinical data science, artificial intelligence, and bioinformatics tools, she aims to inform precision oncology and improve personalized medicine or the management of patients with locally advanced/metastatic cutaneous malignancies.

Peer-reviewed manuscripts from her research in The Miller Lab include:

Publications

  1. Shalhout, Sophia Z., Myrna R. Nahas, Reed E. Drews, and David M. Miller. 2020. “Generalized Acquired Cutis Laxa Associated with Monoclonal Gammopathy of Dermatological Significance.” Case Reports in Dermatological Medicine 2020 (February): 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/7480607.
  2. Saqlain, Farees, Sophia Z. Shalhout, Kevin S. Emerick, Tomas G. Neilan, Tatyana Sharova, and David Michael Miller. 2020. “Metastatic Merkel Cell Carcinoma Masquerading as Multiple Immune-Related Adverse Events.” Edited by Jacek Cezary Szepietowski. Case Reports in Dermatological Medicine 2020 (September): 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/8890845.
  3. Shalhout, Sophia Z., Kevin S. Emerick, Peter M. Sadow, Jenny J. Linnoila, and David M. Miller. 2020. “Regionally Metastatic Merkel Cell Carcinoma Associated with Paraneoplastic Anti-N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor Encephalitis.” Case Reports in Oncological Medicine 2020 (September): 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/1257587.
  4. Miller, David M, and Sophia Z Shalhout. 2021. “GENETEXa GENomics Report TEXt Mining R Package and Shiny Application Designed to Capture Real-World Clinico-Genomic Data.” JAMIA Open 4 (3). https://doi.org/10.1093/jamiaopen/ooab082.
  5. Saqlain, Farees, Sophia Z. Shalhout, Keith T. Flaherty, Kevin S. Emerick, and David M. Miller. 2021. “REDCap-Based Operational Tool to Guide Care Coordination in a Multidisciplinary Cutaneous Oncology Clinic.” JCO Oncology Practice 17 (9): 527–33. https://doi.org/10.1200/op.20.00673.
  6. Saqlain, Farees, Sophia Z Shalhout, Kayla Wright, and David M Miller. 2021. “Evaluation of Clinical Characteristics and Pre-Biopsy Impressions of Primary Merkel Cell Carcinoma of the Skin.” Dermatology Online Journal 27 (10). https://doi.org/10.5070/d3271055614.
  7. Shalhout, Sophia Z., Romi Bloom, Lynn Drake, and David M. Miller. 2021. “Evaluation of the Fragility of Pivotal Trials Used to Support US Food and Drug Administration Approval for Plaque Psoriasis.” Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology 84 (2): 354–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2020.04.057.
  8. Saqlain, Farees, Sophia Z Shalhout, Kayla Wright, and David Michael Miller. 2021. “Microsatellitosis in Merkel Cell Carcinoma: A Staging Quandary.” Dermatology Online Journal 27 (3). https://doi.org/10.5070/d3273052782.
  9. Shalhout, Sophia Z., Kevin S. Emerick, Howard L. Kaufman, and David M. Miller. 2021. “Immunotherapy for Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer.” Current Oncology Reports 23 (11). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11912-021-01120-z.
  10. Shalhout, Sophia Z., Howard L. Kaufman, Ryan J. Sullivan, Donald Lawrence, and David M. Miller. 2021. “Immune Checkpoint Inhibition in Marjolin Ulcer: A Case Series.”Journal of Immunotherapy 44 (6): 234–38. https://doi.org/10.1097/cji.0000000000000376.
  11. Shalhout, Sophia Z., Jong Chul Park, Kevin S. Emerick, Ryan J. Sullivan, Howard L. Kaufman, and David M. Miller. 2021. “Real-World Assessment of Response to Anti-Programmed Cell Death 1 Therapy in Advanced Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma.” Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology 85 (4): 1038–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2021.01.048.
  12. Shalhout, Sophia Z, Kevin Emerick, Howard L Kaufman, and David M Miller. 2021. “Clinical Utility of Cell-Free DNA Liquid Biopsies in Merkel Cell Carcinoma.”Dermatology Online Journal 27 (10). https://doi.org/10.5070/d3271055629.
  13. Wu, Michael P., Katherine L. Reinshagen, Mary B. Cunnane, Sophia Z. Shalhout, Howard L. Kaufman, David Miller, and Kevin S. Emerick. 2021. “Clinical Perineural Invasion and Immunotherapy for Head and Neck Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma.” The Laryngoscope 132 (6): 1213–18. https://doi.org/10.1002/lary.29953.
  14. Shalhout, Sophia Z, Farees Saqlain, Kayla Wright, Oladayo Akinyemi, and David M Miller. 2022. “Generalizable EHR-R-REDCap Pipeline for a National Multi-Institutional Rare Tumor Patient Registry.” JAMIA Open 5 (1). https://doi.org/10.1093/jamiaopen/ooab118.
  15. Saqlain, Farees, Sophia Z. Shalhout, Kevin S. Emerick, Howard L. Kaufman, Yen-Lin E. Chen, James C. Cusack, Kayla Wright, and David Michael Miller. 2022. “Diagnostic Yield of Staging Brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging Is Low in Merkel Cell Carcinoma: A Single-Institution Cohort Study.” Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology 87 (2): 434–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2021.08.060.
  16. Miller, David M, Sophia Z Shalhout, Denise Casey, Lola Fashoyin-Aje, Steven Lemery, Marc R Theoret, and Richard Pazdur. 2022. “Impact of an Evolving Regulatory Landscape on Skin Cancer Drug Development in the u.s.” Dermatology Online Journal 28 (2). https://doi.org/10.5070/d328257391.
  17. Miller, David M, and Sophia Z Shalhout. 2022. “BodyMapR: An R Package and Shiny Application Designed to Generate Anatomical Visualizations of Cancer Lesions.” JAMIA Open 5 (1). https://doi.org/10.1093/jamiaopen/ooac013.
  18. Shalhout, Sophia Z., Howard L. Kaufman, Kevin S. Emerick, and David M. Miller. 2022. “Immunotherapy for Nonmelanoma Skin Cancer: Facts and Hopes.” Clinical Cancer Research 28 (11): 2211–20. https://doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.ccr-21-2971.
  19. Shalhout, Sophia Z., Kevin S. Emerick, Howard L. Kaufman, Ann W. Silk, Manisha Thakuria, and David M. Miller. 2022. “A Retrospective Study of Ipilimumab Plus Nivolumab in Anti-PD-L1/PD-1 Refractory Merkel Cell Carcinoma.” Journal of Immunotherapy 45 (7): 299–302. https://doi.org/10.1097/cji.0000000000000432.
  20. Miller, David M, and Sophia Z Shalhout. 2023. “StoryboardR: An R Package and Shiny Application Designed to Visualize Real-World Data from Clinical Patient Registries.” JAMIA Open 6 (1). https://doi.org/10.1093/jamiaopen/ooac109.
  21. Shalhout, Sophia Z., David M. Miller, Kevin S. Emerick, and Howard L. Kaufman. 2023. “Therapy with Oncolytic Viruses: Progress and Challenges.” Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology, January. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41571-022-00719-w.
  22. David M. Miller, Vishal A. Patel, Justine V. Cohen, Khalid Garmen, and Sophia Z. Shalhout. 2022. “Neoadjuvant ICI for Resectable CSCC.” Journal of Cutaneous Oncology 1 (1). https://journalofcutaneousoncology.io/perspectives/neoadjuvant_ici_for_resectable_cscc.
  23. Sophia Z. Shalhout, Justine V. Cohen, Khalid Garmen, Emily Y Kim, Sonia Cohen, and David M. Miller. 2022. “Ipi/Nivo for Advanced MCC.” Journal of Cutaneous Oncology 1 (1). https://journalofcutaneousoncology.io/perspectives/ipi_nivo_for_advanced_mcc.
  24. David M. Miller, Howard L. Kaufman, Kevin S. Emerick, Justine V. Cohen, Emily Y Kim, and Sophia Z. Shalhout. 2022. “Neoadjuvant Nivo/Rela for Resectable Melanoma.” Journal of Cutaneous Oncology 1 (1). https://journalofcutaneousoncology.io/perspectives/neoadjuvant_nivo_rela_for_resectable_melanoma.
  25. Emily Y Kim, Sophia Z. Shalhout, Howard L. Kaufman, Kevin S. Emerick, Vishal A. Patel, Khalid Garmen, Isaac Brownell, and David M. Miller. 2023. “Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocyte Therapy for Advanced Melanoma: Ready for Prime Time?” Journal of Cutaneous Oncology 1 (1). https://journalofcutaneousoncology.io/perspectives/til_therapy_for_advanced_melanoma.