Vittorio Cristini

Vittorio Cristini, Ph.D.

Citation metrics (h-index > 60; i10-index > 125)^[1]: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uwl5tw0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

ISI Highly-Cited Researcher in the Mathematics category 2014 (Thomson Reuters). http://highlycited.com

Stanford—Scopus Top 2% Scholars List 2023. https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/btchxktzyw/6

Top Italian Scientists List. https://topitalianscientists.org/TIS_HTML/Top_Italian_Scientists_Mathematics.htm

Websites (in progress): https://www.houstonmethodist.org/faculty/1mmune1o-cristini/ https://www.houstonmethodist.org/math-in-medicine/

PRESENT TITLES

Professor of Computational Biology and Mathematics in Medicine, 2022-present

Department of Medicine, The Houston Methodist Research Institute

Professor and Chairman, Mathematics in Medicine Program, 2018-present

The Houston Methodist Research Institute

Professor, Population Health Sciences, 2021-present

Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University

Professor, Physiology, Biophysics and Systems Biology, 2021-present

Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University, 2017-present

Adjunct Professor, Department of Imaging Physics

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Business Address: Houston Methodist Research Institute, R8-123, 6670 Bertner Avenue, Houston Texas- 77030, Email: vcristini@houstonmethodist.org, Phone- 505-934-1813

SHORT BIOGRAPHY AND PERSONAL STATEMENT

Since July 2018, I have been with the Houston Methodist Research Institute (HMRI) as Professor and Chairman of the Mathematics in Medicine Program, while my academic appointments are as Professor of Physiology, Biophysics and Systems Biology at Cornell University Medical School and Professor of Computational Biology and Mathematics in Medicine at the Department of Medicine of Houston Methodist. I am also member of the graduate program and of the promotion and tenure committee at both institutions. Finally, I am currently an Adjunct Professor of Imaging Physics at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. In the past decades, by focusing on clinical translation of mathematical and biophysical models, I have established multiple local, national, and international collaborations, in order to combine forces and work towards multi-faceted and multi-disciplinary studies. More recently, my team has established several collaborations with research scientists and clinicians at the HMRI in different fields of interest, including immunoncology (Dr. Shu-hsia Chen), and clinical translational cancer research (Drs. Jenny Chang, Esnaola Kai and Bernicker, Houston Methodist Cancer Center). These collaborative efforts have resulted in the development of several successful grant applications. Over the years, I’ve also served as consultant or independent contractor for a number of pharma and biomedical device companies and as CFO for a neuroimaging society.^[2]

Scientific recognition

The collaborations and scientific output throughout the years have brought me international recognition as a “thought leader” of research excellence and leadership in the fields of mathematical and computational biology, applied and computational mathematics, physical oncology, complex fluids and microfluidics, and multidisciplinary (bio)materials science. In 2014, I was honored to be recognized ISI Highly-Cited Researcher in Mathematics, and had the privilege to be named one of the World’s “most influential scientific minds,” shared with less than 100 mathematicians worldwide. In my 27 years in research, I have also had the privilege to serve as editor for several scientific journals, including Cancer Research, NeuroImage, Frontiers, and PLOS Computational Biology, I have published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, and two book monographs with Cambridge University Press in 2010 and with CRC Press in 2017. I have served as consultant and board member for a number of private companies3, and on several faculty committees at various academic institutions.

My work has been recognized through various awards, nationally and internationally. I was the first recipient of the “Andreas Acrivos Dissertation Award in Fluid Dynamics” by the American Physical Society in 2000 for my PhD thesis in Chemical Engineering at Yale University. My 2005 paper in the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology was in the top 0.1% of citations in the field of Mathematics and has been designated as a “New Hot Paper in the field of Mathematics” by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Web of Knowledge; two articles have been featured in the Cancer Research Highlights of the American Association for Cancer Research. My research has been highly recognized internationally and by the media and several science museums in the US, and has been supported by the Cullen Trust for Health Care, Artidis corporation, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and the States of California, Texas, and New Mexico, among others.

Funding and strategic development

Over the past 20 years, I have continually served in PI roles on several NSF, NIH, and DoD grants focused on the development of predictive multi-scale, patient-specific computational models of tumor growth and mechanistic mathematical models of tumor response to chemo/immunotherapy, targeted therapy, and nano-therapeutics, most notably as part of multi-institutional grants including two NSF and joint NSF/NIGMS grants (funded in September 2017 and 2013, respectively), two R01s beginning in April and July 2018, two U01 NCI grants on pancreatic and gynecological cancers (funded in August 2015 and July 2017, respectively), two NCI Physical Sciences in Oncology Centers (PS-OC), one NCI Center for Excellence in Cancer Nanotechnology (CCNE), of which I also served as the overall PI in 2015-2016, one NCI Integrative Cancer Biology Program (ICBP) center grant, and one NIGMS P50 grant in systems biology, several additional R01s and one SPORE grant. At UCI, UNM, UTHealth, and HMRI I have developed and taught novel courses in Computational and Precision Biomedicine, and have mentored and trained graduate students, postdocs, and junior faculty, including mentees in the NIGMS Spatio-Temporal Modeling Center (STMC UNM) and the NIGMS-IRACDA Academic Science Education and Research Training (ASERT) program, Weil-Cornell Graduate School, and Rice University Applied Physics. I have also established important collaborations with industrial partners as well, including ARTIDIS (a company based in Basel, Switzerland), and AstraZeneca. One of the major goals behind this type of strategic network of preclinical and clinical collaborations with mathematical, physical scientists, and engineers is to develop new intellectual property (IP) centered around mathematical interpretation of clinically relevant data methods to predict and optimize therapy outcome.

Modeling-supported clinical translation

I pioneered the field of “Physical Oncology”, which aims at using mathematical modeling, physical theories, and engineering approaches to describe and quantify biological mechanisms that play important roles in the growth of cancer and in response to therapies. With a solid background and experience in Applied Mathematics and Chemical Engineering, and specifically in the development of theories and numerical methods in Complex Fluids and Materials, I am dedicated to applying and adapting engineering and physical sciences approaches to the modeling of complex normal and pathologic biological tissue. One important approach I have been leading is focused on investigating the effects of diffusion, perfusion, and transport phenomena on cancer growth and dissemination rate, and on the development of resistance to drug or other systemic therapies. All the models and approaches developed within this framework integrate input from patient and experimental data (ACS Nano 2013, PLOS Computational Biology 2013, 2016, PLOS One 2013, 2016, Scientific Reports 2018, Nature Communications 2018, JCI Insight 2019). These efforts have been supported by the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Physical Science in Oncology (PS-OC) and the Center for Excellence in Cancer Nanotechnology funding mechanisms (three U54s funded) and regular R01-type funding from the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health. In line with this type of work, I have also made important discoveries on the role of physical transport in drug resistance in patients (JCI 2014, PNAS 2013, 2016, Clin Cancer Res 2018, Science Advances 2020, Nature BME 2021, ELife 2022). Currently, a first-of-kind effort is underway at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, the Baylor College of Medicine, and the Houston Methodist Cancer Center, towards the development of prospective clinical trials (and retrospective clinical studies) based on my mathematical models of physical transport in tumors to elucidate the role of physics in overall resistance to cancer chemotherapy and immunotherapy drugs.

My translational modeling effort is part of an ongoing collaboration with biologists, oncologists, and nanotechnologists at MD Anderson Cancer Center (Drs. Anirban Maitra, Gabriel Lopez-Berestein, Anil Sood, David Hong, Jen Wargo, George Calin, Bulent Ozpolat, Eugene Koay, Subrata Sen, James Welsh, Mary Edgerton, John Hazle, Ahmed Kaseb, and Christopher Crane among the others), Moffitt Cancer Center (Drs. Jason Fleming, Daniel Anaya), Baylor College of Medicine (Drs. Alastair Thompson, Michael Lewis, and Jeff Rosen), UNM (Drs. Jeffrey Brinker, Elaine Bearer, Cheryl Willman), Rutgers University (Drs. Wadih Arap, Renata Pasqualini, Daniela Staquicini), Stanford University School of Medicine (Dr. Sam Gambhir), USC School of Medicine (Dr. David Agus), and Houston Methodist (Drs. Haifa Shen, Shu-hsia Chen, Alessandro Grattoni, and others). To properly account for the purely biological phenomena affecting this tissue physics, we developed data-driven cell signaling and molecular interaction models, including under the umbrella of the NCI ICBP program (one additional U54 funded) in collaboration with the Baylor College of Medicine and also in collaboration with UNM (Cancer Res 2009a,b, Physical Biology 2012, PLOS Comput Biol 2016).

Education and outreach

As a scientific leader, I also contributed to developing outreach and education initiatives to promote novel approaches and results coming from the field of physical oncology. In particular, with the support of the NCI, we have developed a series of educational workshops (most notably: The Ohio State University workshop on “The role of biomedical informatics in overcoming current barriers in cancer research” 2008; and the National Cancer Institute meeting: “Integrating and Leveraging the Physical Sciences to Open a New Frontier in Oncology” 2008). These efforts led to the creation of the PS-OC program by the NCI. An introduction to this new field was developed in my book monograph on multiscale mathematical modeling of tumor growth, Cambridge University Press (2010). A second monograph, titled “An Introduction to Physical Oncology”, was published by CRC Press in 2017, where new mathematical models of physical transport processes (including our recent modeling work) that use patient tissue and imaging data to predict the efficacy of 6mmune/chemotherapy and radiation therapy are introduced and discussed.

In my career, I have also had the pleasure to serve as mentor to ca. 100 trainees, including graduate students, postdocs and junior faculty, and many of them have gone on to successful research and academic careers (e.g., Dr. Paul Macklin, Indiana University; Dr. Steven Wise, The University of Tennessee; Dr. Hermann Frieboes, University of Louisville; Dr. Jennifer Pascal, University of Connecticut, Drs. Wang, Dogra, Nizzero and Butner, HMRI). My current research group is highly interdisciplinary, and includes undergraduate students, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, research associates, and junior faculty in the field of biophysics, applied physics, engineering, statistics, mathematical modeling, imaging, and immunology.

Citizenship

United States of America, Italy

Undergraduate Education

1989 – 1994 University of Rome – La Sapienza, Laurea Degree, Summa cum Laude, Nuclear Engineering

Graduate Education

1995 – 1996 Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, M.S., Chemical Engineering

1996 – 1998 Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, M.Phil., Chemical Engineering

1998 – 2000 Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, Thesis: “Drop dynamics in viscous flow”

Postgraduate Training

2000 – 2002 University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Postdoctoral Associate, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

2001 – 2002 University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Postdoctoral Associate, Institute for Mathematics and its Applications

Academic and Administrative Appointments

2022-present Houston Methodist Department of Medicine, Professor of Computational Biology and Mathematics in Medicine

2021-present Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University, Professor of Population Health Sciences

2020-present Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University, Professor, Graduate School of Medical Sciences

2018-present The Houston Methodist Research Institute (HMRI), Professor & Director, Mathematics in Medicine Program

2017-2018 The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston McGovern Medical School, Co-director of the Nanochemistry and 3D-printing Service Center Institute for Molecular Medicine; Co-director of the Proteomics Service Center, Institute for Molecular Medicine

2017-present The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Adjunct Professor, Department of Imaging Physics

2016–2018 The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston McGovern Medical School, Professor with tenure and Director, Center for Precision Biomedicine, The Brown Institute of Molecular Medicine

2015–2016 The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston McGovern Medical School, Visiting Professor and Chairman, Department of Nanomedicine and Biomedical Engineering; Professor, Center for Proteomics and Systems Biology, The Brown Institute of Molecular Medicine

2015-2018 Department of Nanomedicine, Full Affiliate Member, HMRI

2014 – 2015 King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Distinguished Adjunct Professor, Department of Mathematics

2012 – 2018 The Methodist Hospital Research Institute, Senior Scientist Fellow

2010 – 2015 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Professor, Department of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering; Professor, Center for Biomedical Engineering, The Victor and Ruby Hansen Surface Professor in the Molecular Modeling of Cancer, UNM Cancer Center; Director of Computational Biology, Department of Pathology; Professor with Tenure, Department of Pathology

2009 – 2010 University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Texas, Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering; Director, Center for Computational Biomedicine, School of Biomedical Informatics; Professor with Tenure, School of Biomedical Informatics

2009 – 2010 University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, Associate Professor, Department of Systems Biology, Division of Cancer Medicine

2009 – 2010 University of Texas at Austin, Texas, Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering

2009 – present University of Dundee, Scotland, UK, Honorary Professor, Department of Mathematics

2009 – 2010 Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance, Scotland, UK, Professor

2009 Auvergne University, Clermont-Ferrand, France, Chair of Excellence in Neurosurgery

2007 – 2009 University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, Associate Professor, Department of Systems Biology, Division of Cancer Medicine

2007 – 2009 University of Texas at Austin, Texas, Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering

2006 – 2009 University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Texas, Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Associate Professor, School of Biomedical Informatics

2006 – 2007 University of California, Irvine, California, Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics

2005 University of Naples, Italy, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering

2002 – 2006 University of California, Irvine, California, Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering; Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics

2002 University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Mentor Faculty, NIH-National Institute of Dental Craniofacial Res., T32 Training Grant; Visiting Assistant Professor, School of Mathematics

Positions at National/International Professional Organizations

2018 – present Consulting History Information available upon request

2016 – 2017 Society for Brain Mapping & Therapeutics (SBMT), Science Committee Member

2006 – 2007 International Brain Mapping and Intra-operative Surgical Planning Foundation, Chief Financial Officer

2005 – 2007 Centre for Molecular (Bio) Medicine, Trieste, Italy, Scientific Advisory Board Member

2004 – 2006 Orqis Medical/Edwards Lifesciences, Consultant

2004 – 2007 International Brain Mapping and Intra-operative Surgical Planning Society, Board of Directors

2004 – 2007 American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Fluids Programming Committee Member

HONORS AND AWARDS

EnMed Capstone Innovator Award, Texas A&M U & Houston Methodist, 2023/9. (Award recipient: Gayatri Prakash, Mentor: Zhihui Wang)

Wolfram Innovators Award (an International award by Wolfram Technology); for using Mathematica for mathematical modeling to predict cancer patient response to immune checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy on a per-patient basis, using only current standard-of-care clinical measures, and at times earlier after start of treatment than current response assessment standards are able to provide, 2021/10. (with Joseph D. Butner and Zhihui Wang)

Career Cornerstone Award, 2021/4, Houston Methodist. (with Zhihui Wang)

President’s Award for Excellence in Peer-Reviewed Publication for “A mathematical model for the quantification of a patient’s sensitivity to checkpoint inhibitors and long-term tumour burden,” in Nature Biomedical Engineering, 2021/1, Houston Methodist (with Joseph D. Butner and Zhihui Wang)

The Cockrell Foundation Professorship Award to support mathematical modeling efforts in infectious diseases research at HMRI. 2021-2024. (with Prashant Dogra)

News press featuring paper Dogra et al., ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science 2021, DOI: 10.1021/acsptsci.0c00183: New York Times Medical Sciences, News Medical

News press featuring paper Butner et al., Sci Adv 2020, PMC7190324: AAAS EurekAlert!, Medical Xpress, Science Magazine, 7th floor, News Medical, New Break, Bright Surf, Advanced Science News, MJH Life Science, X-MOL, News Break

Featured article: “A Multiscale Agent-Based Model of Ductal Carcinoma in Situ,” by Butner et al., IEEE TBME 2020 May.

Excellence in Mentoring Award 2019. Methodist Association for Postdoctoral and Trainee Affairs. (Postdoc: Sara Nizzero)

Award for Excellence in Peer-Reviewed Publication for “Establishing the Effects of Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticle Properties on in vivo Disposition Using Imaging-Based Pharmacokinetics,” in Nature Communications 2018, Houston Methodist

Government of Mexico CONACYT Fellowship, 2018-Present (Student: Maria Jose Pelaez Soni, Rice University)

Ph.D. Thesis “with distinction” (Student: J. Butner, Center for Biomedical Engineering, UNM), July 2017. · Invited feature in Global Health & Pharma 2016, www.ghp-magazine.com

Invited contributions to Open Access Government, 2015-2021

Endowed Chair – Rochelle and Max Levit Chair in the Neurosciences, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston McGovern Medical School. 2016-2018

UT STAR award – The University of Texas System – Science and Technology Acquisition and Retention (STARS). 2015 “Mathematical modeling integrated with experiments and clinical trials to understand tumor heterogeneity, drug delivery and treatment outcome” ($1,000,000)

V Cristini, EJ Koay, Z Wang. Taking cancer out of the equation. International Innovation 2015 (September) 191: 38-40.

Named as one of the “World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds” in 2014 by Thomson Reuters. http://highlycited.com

Named in 2014 by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), Thomson Reuters, as one of 99 Highly-Cited Researchers in Mathematics worldwide. http://highlycited.com

Endowed Professorship – The Victor and Ruby Hansen Surface Professor of Molecular Modeling of Cancer, University of New Mexico Cancer Center, 2010-2015.

Recent Articles and News Reports, featuring Dr. Cristini’s latest research have appeared in 2013-2015, including in: The Business Journals; ABC News and local TV and radio shows; several daily newspapers; The Morning Brew; AdvanceWeb; Newswise; The Stanford Biomedical Computation Review (see below for detailed media coverage links)

The New Mexico Cancer Nanoscience and Microsystems Training Center (CNTC) Graduate Fellowship, 2013-2014 (Student: Romica Kerketta, UNM)

2013-2014 School of Engineering Award – the Charlotte and William Kraft Graduate Fellowship (Student: Terisse Brocato, UNM)

The New Mexico Cancer Nanoscience and Microsystems Training Center (CNTC) Graduate Fellowship, 2014-2016 (Student: Terisse Brocato, UNM)

The New Mexico Center for the Spatiotemporal Modeling of Cell Signaling (STMC) Graduate Student Fellowship, 2014-2016. (Student: Prashant Dogra, Biomedical Sciences, University of New Mexico)

NIGMS-IRACDA Academic Science Education and Research Training (ASERT) K12GM088021 postdoctoral fellowship (Jennifer Pascal)

PS-OC Newsletter 2014, “Physical Transport Properties Could Predict Outcomes for Patients with Cancer”

Young Oncologist Essay Award, American Radium Society’s 95th Annual Meeting, April 27 – May 1, 2013, Scottsdale, Arizona (E Koay)

Front cover of Physical Biology, October 2012

Articles by van de Ven et al, AIP Advances 2012, and by Chauviere et al., AIP Advances 2012, selected for inclusion in the Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science & Technology, April 2012

Chair of Excellence in Neurosurgery, Auvergne University, Clermont-Ferrand, France, 2009

Highly Accessed BioMed Central Paper (Sanga, S. et al., BMC Medical Genomics 2009, 2:59)

SULSA Professor 2009-2010 (Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance)

Front cover of Nonlinearity 2010

Honorary Professor of Mathematics, University of Dundee, Scotland UK, 2009-present

Founding Member of International Academy of Nanomedicine (IANM), 2009-present

Active Member (by invitation) of American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), 2009-present

Cancer Research Highlights, May 15 2009: “Multi-parameter Computational Modeling of Tumor Invasion.” (Cancer Research 2009 69: 4493-4501)

Interview on National Public Radio, May 25 2009, “Math Could Help Solve Cancer Tumor Mysteries,” by Jack Williams.

Special Feature of article: “Prediction of drug response in breast cancer using integrative experimental/computational modeling,” by Frieboes et al., Cancer Research 2009, at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting, Denver, CO 2009.

Special Feature of article: “Multi-parameter Computational Modeling of Tumor Invasion,” by Bearer et al., Cancer Research 2009, at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting, Denver, CO 2009.

Special feature of Dr. Cristini’s project “Virtual Cancer” at the event “Gratias Dono” – Gifts that change life, organized by the University of Texas Health Science Center to honor medical philanthropy. Houston Country Club, February 4 2009.

2008 STEP-UP Clinical and Research Internship Award for Research Excellence—MD Anderson Cancer Center (Undergraduate student: Deepa Raghunathan)

Featured in Forbes magazine – “Can Mathematics Cure Cancer?” 27 October, 2008

Video exhibit of Cristini’s cancer simulations in the Boston Museum of Science, 2008

Front cover of Journal of Mathematical Biology 2008

Featured in the Cancer Bulletin of the National Cancer Institute (“The mathematics of cancer”, Cancer Bulletin July 10, 2007 – Vol. 4 / Number 21)

Fellow, American Academy of Nanomedicine, 2006-present

Front cover of Bulletin of Mathematical Biology 2006-2009

Cancer Research Highlights, Feb 1 2006: “Simulation model predicts tumor invasion in marginal environmental conditions.” (Cancer Res 2006; 66(3):1597-604)

UNCF-MERCK Graduate Science Research Dissertation Fellowship, 2006-2008 (Student: N DeMagalhaes).

NIH Graduate Fellowship, 2006-2008 (Student: N DeMagalhaes)

Biomedical Engineer of the year, The Henry Samueli School of Engineering, University of California at Irvine, 2006 (Student: K. Velasco)

New Hot Paper in the field of Mathematics, Jul 2006, Thomson-Scientific Essential Science Indicators (Bull Math Biol. 2005; 67(2):211-59)

B. S. Honors Thesis, U. of Minnesota 2004 (Student: A. Anderson)

· Physical Sciences Faculty Endowed Award, U.C. Irvine, 2003-4 (Student: X. Zheng,)

Research Scholarship, Minnesota Supercomputing Institute, Univ of Minnesota, 2001

Andreas Acrivos Dissertation Award in Fluid Dynamics, American Physical Society—Division of Fluid Dynamics 2000, “For important theoretical and numerical contributions to the description and understanding of drop dynamics and breakup in laminar and turbulent flows”