James Hicks, PhD

University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California

Titles and Affiliations

Professor of Research in Biological Sciences
Deputy Director, Convergent Science Institute in Cancer,
USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California

Research area

Applying blood biopsy technology to find predictive markers that indicate how cancer will react to treatment and to understand cancer progression.

Impact

Liquid biopsy, a blood test that detects cancer cells and other tumor-associated factors, is a promising, less-invasive alternative to tumor biopsy. In addition to more readily providing information about a patients' cancer, its minimally invasive nature means several samples can be taken over time. This could allow for clinicians to have real-time data on a tumor’s response to therapy, informing treatment decisions and potentially revolutionizing the way cancer is managed. Liquid biopsies are not currently available for widespread clinical applications, but Drs. Hicks, Kuhn, and their teams are pushing this new technology to expand the scope of what information can be derived from patient blood and exploring its potential in early detection as well as predicting cancer progression and recurrence.

Progress Thus Far

Using a combination of data science, biotechnology, and mathematical tools, the teams explore an array of circulating cells thought to influence cancer evolution and metastatic progression – not just tumor cells, but immune cells and other tumor-responsive cells not previously studied by liquid biopsy. Through this work, Drs. Hicks, Kuhn, and their teams dramatically improved the methodology for liquid biopsies, leading to the creation of an ‘Atlas’ of the 16-plus distinct cell types that uniquely populate the blood of people with breast cancer and are not found in healthy individuals. Insights from the Atlas led to the development of a new clinical assay, DefineMBC, which provides comprehensive profiling of metastatic breast cancer from a liquid biopsy when a tissue biopsy is not feasible.

What’s next

The teams will share the tools they used to generate the Atlas with ongoing clinical trials, so that they can test their tools’ ability to identify clinically predictive biomarkers. They are also working to further analyze the cells captured in their Atlas—applying AI and machine learning—to leverage as much information as possible from each patient sample with the goal of generating new insights and new tools for predicting tumor progression and therapeutic response.

Biography

Dr. Hicks is a molecular geneticist using genomics to study the initiation and progression of cancer in human patients with the goal of developing clinical assays for improving the treatment of the disease. His current studies expand on his previous work on the development of single cell genomic analysis in two important areas: first, to define the degree and mechanisms of cancer heterogeneity and response to therapy in breast and other solid tumors; and second, to apply single cell sequencing technology to fluid biopsies, procedures that can identify cancer cells in blood, bone marrow or even urine. These minimally invasive procedures provide the means to monitor cancer treatment sequentially during treatment is underway, to understand what changes take place in response to treatment and to alter treatment when necessary, a crucial component of the next generation of precision oncology.

Dr. Hicks has recently joined the newly formed Institute for Convergent Science at the University of Southern California in 2015 and will split his appointment between USC and Cold Spring Harbor for the next academic year. His career has been split between academics and the biotechnology industry, co-founding several successful companies, and co-authoring over 100 research publications and 8 patent applications.

Dr. Hicks serves on the Board of Directors of one public company (NASDAQ: BBSI) and is a Co-founder and Director of two privately held companies. He is also a scientific advisor to several early stage biotechnology companies.