Department of Pathology
Brigham and Women's Hospital
A teaching Affliate of Harvard Medical School
 

Name and Present Position:

KEITH Lloyd LIGON, Staff Pathologist

Address:

Brigham and Women's Hospital, Department of Pathology, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA

Medical School (including school, date and degree awarded):

1997 The University of Texas-Houston Medical School, Houston, TX
  Graduate Medical Education (including dates and institution of internships, residencies, fellowships, etc.):

1989-1997 Medical Student (combined M.D./Ph.D. program), University of Texas-Houston Medical School
1992-1996 Graduate Student (combined M.D./Ph.D. program), University of Texas- Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences/ M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, in the laboratory of Dr. Eric N. Olson, Ph.D., Chairman, Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, U.T. M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
1997-1999 Resident, Anatomic Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA
1999-2001 Clinical Fellow, Neuropathology, Joint Program in Neuropathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital/ Children's Hospital, Boston, MA
2001-2002 Research Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. David H. Rowitch, M.D., Ph.D.,
Dept. of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA
2002-2006 Instructor in Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

Certification:

1998 American Board of Medical Examiners
2000 Commonwealth of Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine
2001 American Board of Pathology (Combined Anatomic Pathology/ Neuropathology)

Current Academic Appointment(s):

Assistant Professor of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

Current Medical Staff Appointments:

Associate Neuropathologist, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA
Consultant Neuropathologist, Children's Hospital, Boston, MA
Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School

Other Experience and Professional Memberships:

2000-present American Association of Neuropathologists
2007-present American Association of Cancer Research

Honors:

1985-1989 National Merit Scholar, Rice University, Houston, Texas
1986 Sir Alexander Fleming Scholar, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
1989-1992 Academic Scholar, University of Texas-Houston Medical School, Houston, TX
2006 Moore Award, Distinguished Lecture in Neuropathology, San Francisco, CA
2007 Memorial Peter A. Steck Award, Houston, TX

Selected Bibliography:

  • Aka K, Bruner JM, Bondy ML, Ligon K, Nishi T, del Giglio A, Moser RP, Levin VA, Saya H. Detection of p53 alterations in human astrocytomas using frozen tissue sections for the polymerase chain reaction. J Neurooncol 1993;16, 125-31.
  • Miano J, Cserjesi P, Ligon KL, Periasamy M, Olson EN. Smooth muscle myosin heavy chain exclusively marks the smooth muscle lineage during mouse embryogenesis. Circ Res 1994;75 803-12.
  • Burgess R, Cserjesi P, Ligon KL, Olson EN. Paraxis: A basic helix-loop-helix protein expressed in paraxial mesoderm and developing somites. Dev Biol 1995;168, 296-306.
  • Cserjesi P, Brown D, Ligon KL, Lyons GE, Copeland NG, Gilbert DJ, Jenkins NA, Olson EN. Scleraxis: a basic helix-loop-helix protein that prefigures skeletal formation during mouse embryogenesis. Development 1995;121, 1099-110.
  • Black BL, Ligon KL, Zhang Y, Olson EN. Cooperative transcriptional activation by the neurogenic basic helix- loop-helix protein MASH1 and members of the myocyte enhancer factor-2 (MEF2) family. J Biol Chem 1996;271(43): 26659-63.
  • Bachoo RM, Maher EA, Ligon KL, Sharpless NE, Chan SS, You MJ, Tang Y, DeFrances J, Stover E, Weissleder R, Rowitch DH, Louis DN, DePinho RA. Epidermal growth factor receptor and Ink4a/Arf: convergent mechanisms governing terminal differentiation and transformation along the neural stem cell to astrocyte axis. Cancer Cell 2002;1, 269-77.
  • Picker JD, Puga AC, Levy HL, Marsden D, Shih VE, Degirolami U, Ligon KL, Cederbaum SD, Kern RM, Cox GF. Arginase deficiency with lethal neonatal expression: evidence for the glutamine hypothesis of cerebral edema. J Pediatr 2003;142(3):349-52.
  • Ligon KL, Echelard Y, Assimacopoulos S, Danielian PS, Kaing S, Grove EA, McMahon AP, Rowitch DH. Loss of Emx2 function leads to ectopic expression of Wnt1 in the developing telencephalon and cortical dysplasia. Development 2003;130: 2275-2287.
  • Ligon KL, Alberta JA, Kho AT, Weiss J, Kwaan MR, Nutt CL, Louis DN, Stiles CD, Rowitch DH. The oligodendroglial lineage marker OLIG2 is universally expressed in diffuse gliomas. J Neuropath Exp Neurol 2004 May;63(5):499-509.
  • Bachoo RM*, Kim RS*, Ligon KL*, Maher EA, Brennan C, Billings N, Chan S, Li C, Rowitch DH, Wong WH, DePinho RA. Molecular diversity of astrocytes with implications for neurological disorders. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004 Jun 1;101(22):8384-9.
  • Gaviani P, Schwartz RB, Hedley-Whyte E, Ligon, K.L., Robicsek A, Schaefer P, Henson JW. Diffusion weighted imaging of fungal cerebral infection in immunocompromised patients. Am J Neuroradiol 2005 May;26(5):1115-21.
  • Dong S, Nutt CL, Betensky RA, Stemmer-Rachamimov AO, Denko N, Ligon KL, Rowitch DH, and Louis DN Histology-based expression profiling yields novel prognostic markers in human glioblastoma J Neuropath Exp Neurol 2005 Nov;64(11):948-55.
  • Sun T, Hafler BP, Kaing S, Kitada M, Ligon KL, Widlund HR, Yuk DI, Stiles CD, Rowitch DH Evidence for motoneuron lineage-specific regulation of Olig2 in the vertebrate neural tube. Dev Biol 2006 Apr 292:152.
  • Ligon KL, Kesari S, Kitada M, Sun T, Arnett H, Alberta J, Anderson DJ, Stiles CD, Rowitch DH, Development of NG2 neural progenitor cells requires Olig gene function, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2006 May 16;103(20):7853-8.
  • Santagata S, Hornick, J, Ligon KL, Comparative analysis of stem cell transcription factors in CNS germ cell tumors reveals diagnostic utility of NANOG, Am J Surg Pathol 2006 Dec;30(12):1613-8.
  • Krishnamurthy J, Ramsey MR, Ligon KL, Torrice C, Koh A, Bonner-Weir S, Sharpless NE, p16INK4a induces an age-dependent decline in islet regenerative potential, Nature 2006 Sep 28;443(7110):453-7.
  • Mao, J, Ligon KL, Rakhlin EY, Thayer SP, Bronson RT, Rowitch DH, McMahon AP A novel somatic mouse model to survey tumorigenic potential applied to the Hedgehog pathway, Cancer Res 2006 Oct 66(20):10171.
  • Rousseau A, Nutt CL, Betensky RA, Iafrate AJ, Han M, Ligon KL, Rowitch DH, Louis DN Expression of oligodendroglial and astrocytic lineage markers in diffuse gliomas: utility of ApoE, YKL-40, ASCL1, and NKX2-2 J Neuropath Exp Neurol 2006 Dec;65(12):1149-56.
  • Maher EA, Brennan C, Wen PY, Durso L, Ligon KL, Richardson A, Khatry D, Feng B, Sinha R, Louis DN, Quackenbush J, Black PM, Chin L, DePinho RA Marked genomic differences characterize primary and secondary glioblastoma subtypes and identify two distinct molecular and clinical secondary glioblastoma entities, Cancer Res 2006 Dec 1;66(23):11502-13.
  • Byers RJ, Di Vizio D, O'Connell F, Tholouli E, Levenson RM, Gossard K, Twomey D, Yang Y, Ostrom L, Benedettini E, Rose J, Ligon KL, Finn SP, Golub TR, Loda M Semiautomated multiplexed quantum dot-based in situ hybridization and spectral deconvolution J Mol Diagn 2007 Feb;9(1):20-9.
  • Ligon KL*, Huillard E*, Mehta S*, Kesari S, Liu H, Alberta JA, Bachoo RM, Kane M, Louis DN, DePinho RA, Anderson DJ, Stiles CD, Rowitch DH Olig2-regulated lineage-restricted pathway controls replication competence in neural stem cells and malignant glioma. Neuron 2007 Feb 15;53(4):503-17.
  • Leach NT, Sun Y, Michaud S, Zheng Y, Ligon KL, Ligon AH, Korf BR, Lu W, Harris, DJ, Gusella JF, Maas RL, Quade BJ, Cole AJ, Kelz MB, Morton CC: Disruption of diacylglycerol kinase delta (DKGD) associated with seizures in humans and mice. Am J Hum Genet 2007;(80)792-799
  • Ramsey MR, Krishnamurthy J, Pei XH, Torrice C, Lin W, Carrasco DR, Ligon KL, Xiong Y, Sharpless NE. Expression of p16Ink4a compensates for p18Ink4c loss in cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6-dependent tumors and tissues. Cancer Res. 2007 May 15;67(10):4732-41.
  • Santagata S, Ligon KL, Hornick JL. Embryonic stem cell transcription factor signatures in the diagnosis of primary and metastatic germ cell tumors. Am J Surg Pathol. 2007 Jun;31(6):836-45.
  • Monje ML, Vogel H, Masek M, Ligon KL, Fisher PG, Palmer TD. Impaired human hippocampal neurogenesis after treatment for central nervous system malignancies. Ann Neurol. 2007 Nov;62(5):515-20
  • Stommel JM, Kimmelman AC, Ying H, Nabioullin R, Ponugoti AH, Wiedemeyer R, Stegh AH, Bradner JE, Ligon KL, Brennan C, Chin L, DePinho RA. Co-activation of receptor tyrosine kinases affects response to targeted therapies. Science 2007 Oct 12;318(5848):287-90
  • Furnari FB, Fenton T, Bachoo RM, Mukasa A, Stommel J, Stegh A, Hahn WC, Ligon KL, Louis DN, Brennan C, Chin L, Depinho RA, Cavenee WK. Malignant astrocytic glioma: genetics, biology and paths to treatment. Genes and Development 2007 Nov 1;21(21):2683-710

Book Chapters:

  • Monuki, E.S, Ligon, K.L., Cerebral Heterotopia, Pathology and Genetics: Pediatric Neuropathology, ISN Neuropathology Press, 2004 (in press).
    * Denotes co-authorship/equal contribution by authors.

Ongoing Research Support:

4 K08 NS047213-01 Ligon, K.L. (PI) 7/04- present
NIH Research Career Award
Olig gene function in CNS development and tumorigenesis
Role: Principal Investigator