Andrew Nixon, PhD, MBA (Associate Professor of Medicine) is Director of the Phase I Biomarker Laboratory, which brings together clinical, translational and basic research to pursue the development of novel biomarkers defining mechanisms of sensitivity, resistance, and toxicity to given therapeutic drug classes, particularly anti-angiogenic agents. Additionally, the laboratory has been appointed as a Molecular Reference Laboratory for the Alliance oncology cooperative group, a national clinical trial research group sponsored by the National Cancer Institute. The laboratory has quality control procedures in place to address many of the issues involved in clinical trial research including determination of sample quantity, sample integrity, and sample heterogeneity. We have spent considerable time developing robust assays that utilize limited amounts of specimen while providing high quality data. Multiplex ELISA and gene expression arrays are used to analyze serially collected blood and paraffin samples archived from cancer patient clinical trials. This work has the potential to improve the efficacy and toxicity of current therapies and to guide the development of the next generation of anti-angiogenesis therapies for cancer and other diseases.

Selected Grants and Awards
Preclinical and Human Correlative Studies of a Novel Bruton Tyronsine Kinase Inhibitor in Pancreatic Cancer
Dovitinib in Treating Patients with Recurrent or Progressive Glioblastoma
The role of Claudin-2 in metastatic colorectal cancer
Immune signatures in metastatic colorectal cancer
RAP-041 mediated modulation of intratumoral immune cell subpopulations in vivo and effect of combination treatment with anti-PD1 monoclonal antibody
Anti-endoglin mediated modulation of intratumoral Immune Cell Subpopulationg in vivo and effoect of combination treatment with anti-PD1 monoclonal antibodies
CTOT - Cell Free DNA
Predictive value of the IL6 pathway to direct anti-angiogenic therapy in advanced ovarian cancer
Blood-based Biomarker Profiling for TEW-7197
Blood-based Angiome Profiling to Direct Bevacizumab Therapy in Ovarian Cancer
Janssen Research AGreement
The prevalence of MET gene amplification in metastatic colorectal cancer
Serum Biomarkers in Lymphoma
(PQA5) 'Dose and Mechanisms of Exercise in Breast Cancer Prevention'
Anti-VEGF in Tumors & Wounds: Efficacy vs Toxicity
New Clinical Biomarker for Cancer--Wound Angiogenesis
Regulation Of Cyclic Gmp Phosphodiesterase By Gz