University of California San Francisco

Gillian L Hirst, PhD

Gillian Hirst
Gillian
Hirst
PhD

Associate Professor of Surgery
Division of Surgical Oncology
UCSF Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center
Administrative Director
T32 Training Grant in Surgical Oncology

Address

550 16th Street, #6211
San Francisco, CA 94158
United States

Email: [email protected]

ORCID: 0000-0002-4502-0035

Biography

Gillian Hirst received her Ph.D. at the University of Edinburgh in the ICRF’s (now CRUK) Molecular Oncology Unit, where she focused on the analysis and development of estrogen-regulated biomarkers for use in ovarian and breast cancers treated with anti-estrogenic therapies. As a postdoctoral fellow at CRUK Beatson Laboratories, University of Glasgow, she studied the molecular mechanisms of cisplatin resistance in ovarian cancer, with emphasis on the mismatch repair pathway. Building upon this work she studied the genetic susceptibility to DNA damaging agents in Allan Balmain’s group here at UCSF. She has over ten years’ experience working as a scientific program manager for multi-consortia projects and oversees biomarker development for the I-SPY2 TRIAL for early high-risk breast cancer, as well as multiple research initiatives within the Breast Care Center and the NIH Molecular Characterization of Screen-detected Lesions Consortium.

Dr. Hirst’s areas of research interest span the continuum of disease risk in the analysis and development of biomarkers which will lead to better patient stratification and refined treatment interventions.

 

Education

Institution Degree Dept or School End Date
University of Californa Teach for UCSF Certificate in Education Leadership 2021
University of Edinburgh PhD Molecular Oncology
University of Newcastle Upon Tyne BSc (Hons) Physiological Sciences

Awards & Honors

Award Conferred By Date
CRC Post-Doctoral Fellowship Beatson Institute, University of Glasgow 1993/1999

Grants and Funding

  • The I SPY 2.2 TRIAL: Evolving to Imaging and Molecular Biomarker Response Directed Adaptive Sequential Treatment to Optimize Breast Cancer Outcomes | NIH | 2017-09-08 - 2028-06-30 | Role: Co-Investigator
  • Surgical Oncology Training Grant | NIH | 2020-07-15 - 2025-06-30 | Role: Administrative Director
  • Elucidating the molecular and contextual basis for IDLE ultralow risk lesions and the tumor immune microenvironment of high risk in situ and invasive breast cancers | NIH | 2015-09-16 - 2021-08-31 | Role: Co-Investigator
  • Modeling the Impact of Targeted Therapy Based on Breast Cancer Subtypes | NIH | 2014-09-18 - 2020-08-31 | Role: Co-Investigator
  • Science Leadership and Integration | NIH | 2009-09-01 - 2015-08-31 | Role: Co-Investigator
  • A Systems Genetics Analysis of Cancer Risk, Progression and Therapeutic Response | NIH | 1999-09-30 - 2015-03-31 | Role: Co-Investigator
  • Program Project Grant | NIH | 2003-09-26 - 2010-08-31 | Role: Co-Investigator

Research Narrative

Dr Hirst has over 15 years of research experience and managing scientific research programs. Her research interest particularly focuses on the molecular genetics of carcinogenesis, particularly as it relates to breast and ovarian cancer and understanding how we can better utilize biomarkers for risk stratification and treatment refinement. As Scientific Program Manager in the I-SPY2 TRIAL she oversees biomarker development and works with investigators from both academia and pharma to analyze data, tumor and liquid biopsy specimen using expression arrays, next-gen sequencing, multiplex-IHC and phospho-protein arrays.

As an investigator on a U01 which is part of the NIH Molecular Characterization of Screen-Detected Lesions (MCL) consortium, her research is focused on building tissue, pathology and imaging resources to assist in the better molecular definition of DCIS and defining who will recur with aggressive invasive cancer or not. The hope is to be able to stratify patients for either less treatment intervention or more at the earliest stages of disease, and to find potentially common drivers of aggressive disease across multiple disease types, as well as markers of indolent disease by looking at both tumor and stromal microenvironment biology.

Research Interests

Breast Cancer

Biomarkers

Carcinogenesis

Tumor Biology

Genetic Risk

Drug Resistance

Precision Medicine

Publications

MOST RECENT PUBLICATIONS FROM A TOTAL OF 10
  1. Peripheral blood transcriptional profiling predicts tumor subtype and neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy outcomes in human breast cancer.
    Sun X, Ocampo AA, Hanna A, Taylor BC, Marshall JL, Steele JA, Axelrod ML, Wescott EC, Opalenik SR, DeMichele A, Esserman LJ, Liu MC, Nanda R, Wolf DM, Brown Swigart L, Hirst GL, van 't Veer LJ, Xu Y, Balko JM| | PubMed
  2. Identification of Early Symptoms Associated with Subsequent Immune-related Adverse Events in the I-SPY clinical trial.
    Basu A, Umashankar S, Melisko M, Roy R, Yau C, Pusztai L, Chien AJ, Liu M, Han H, Soliman H, Isaacs C, Shatsky R, Stringer-Reasor E, Robinson P, Yeung K, Kalinsky K, Thomas A, Philip E, Musthafa M, Hirst G, Asare A, DeMichele A, Van't Veer L, Yee D, Hylton N, Olshen A, Perlmutter J, Cohen RN, Quandt Z, Esserman L, Hershman D, Rugo H, Nanda R| | PubMed
  3. Systematic annotation of orphan RNAs reveals blood-accessible molecular barcodes of cancer identity and cancer-emergent oncogenic drivers.
    Wang J, Suh JM, Woo BJ, Navickas A, Garcia K, Yin K, Fish L, Cavazos T, Hänisch B, Markett D, Hirst GL, Brown-Swigart L, Esserman LJ, van 't Veer LJ, Goodarzi H| | PubMed
  4. Circulating tumor DNA refines risk stratification of neoadjuvant therapy-resistant breast tumors.
    Magbanua MJM, Manon NA, Wolf DM, Rivero-Hinojosa S, Ahmed Z, Sayaman RW, Tin A, Renner D, Kalashnikova E, Brown-Swigart L, Hirst GL, Yau C, Li W, Isaacs C, Shatsky RA, Clark AS, Zimmer A, Delson AL, Rodriguez A, Liu MC, Pohlmann PR, Esserman LJ, Rugo HS, DeMichele A, van 't Veer L| | PubMed
  5. Immune and Growth Factor Signaling Pathways Are Associated with Pathologic Complete Response to an Anti-Type I Insulin-like Growth Factor Receptor Regimen in Patients with Breast Cancer.
    Petricoin EF, Wolf DM, Yau C, Wulfkuhle JD, Van't Veer L, Gallagher RI, Esserman LJ, Hirst GL, Brown-Swigart L, Yee D, I-SPY2 Trial Consortium| | PubMed
  6. Integration of Gene Expression and Digital Histology to Predict Treatment-Specific Responses in Breast Cancer.
    Howard FM, Dolezal J, Hieromnimon H, Venters S, Kochanny S, Li A, Borowsky A, Symmans WF, Wolf D, Brown-Swigart L, Sun A, Basu A, Hirst G, Nguyen LC, Asare A, Kanaparthi S, Khramtsova G, Blenman K, Shan NL, Fan C, Tolaney SM, Somlo G, Hudis CA, Sikov W, McCart L, Watson M, Carey L, Stover DG, Veer LV, Esserman LJ, Perou CM, Pusztai L, Olopade OI, Huo D, Nanda R, Pearson AT| | PubMed
  7. Detection of serum HER2 in patients treated with neratinib or trastuzumab: analysis of the I-SPY Trial.
    Hensley M, Lengfeld J, Stoesz S, Edwards M, Pass F, Hirst GL, Brown-Swigart L, van 't Veer L, Esserman LJ, Beckwith H, Yee D| | PubMed
  8. Insights from a multi-institutional registry show duration of endocrine treatment for DCIS impacts second events.
    O'Keefe TJ, Yau C, Iaconetti E, Jeong E, Brabham C, Kim P, McGuire J, Griffin A, Wallace AM, Esserman LJ, Harismendy O, Hirst GL| | PubMed
  9. Combined prognostic impact of initial clinical stage and residual cancer burden after neoadjuvant systemic therapy in triple-negative and HER2-positive breast cancer: an analysis of the I-SPY2 randomized clinical trial.
    Leon-Ferre RA, Dimitroff K, Yau C, Giridhar KV, Mukhtar R, Hirst G, Hylton N, Perlmutter J, DeMichele A, Yee D, van 't Veer L, Rugo H, Symmans WF, Goetz MP, Esserman L, Boughey JC| | PubMed
  10. Immune Subtyping Identifies Patients With Hormone Receptor-Positive Early-Stage Breast Cancer Who Respond to Neoadjuvant Immunotherapy (IO): Results From Five IO Arms of the I-SPY2 Trial.
    Wolf DM, Yau C, Campbell M, Glas A, Barcaru A, Mittempergher L, Kuilman M, Brown-Swigart L, Hirst G, Basu A, Magbanua M, Sayaman R, Huppert L, Delson A, I-SPY2 Investigators, Symmans WF, Borowsky A, Pohlmann P, Rugo H, Clark A, Yee D, DeMichele A, Perlmutter J, Petricoin EF, Chien J, Stringer-Reasor E, Shatsky R, Liu M, Han H, Soliman H, Isaacs C, Nanda R, Hylton N, Pusztai L, Esserman L, van 't Veer L| | PubMed