Aram Modrek

At the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Keck Medicine of USC, Dr. Aram Modrek, MD, PhD, cares for patients with a wide range of brain tumors. He is dedicated to providing highly personalized treatment, taking time to understand each patient’s individual goals and circumstances. His collaborative approach emphasizes trust, compassion, and tailoring therapies to achieve the best outcomes possible. As part of the multidisciplinary team at the USC Brain Tumor Center, Dr. Modrek offers advanced treatment options and ongoing support for patients and their families.In addition to his clinical role, Dr. Modrek leads a research laboratory within the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. The lab is part of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Epigenetic Regulation in Cancer Program, and the USC Brain Tumor Center. The research mission is to understand how DNA damage reshapes the genome and how these alterations drive changes in gene regulation and treatment resistance in brain tumors. By uncovering how cancer adapts to therapy, the team aims to identify new strategies to disrupt these processes and make treatments more effective.As a physician-scientist, Dr. Modrek combines his clinical expertise with laboratory research to bring forward innovations that can directly benefit patients. He has authored multiple peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on brain tumor research and is frequently invited to present his work nationally and internationally. Dr. Modrek is also active in professional societies, including the Society for Neuro-Oncology, the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Society for Radiation Oncology, the American Brain Tumor Association, and the Radiological Society of North America.Born and raised in Los Angeles as the proud son of immigrants from Armenia and Iran, Dr. Modrek brings both personal and professional passion to his work. Outside of medicine and research, he enjoys cycling, swimming, and spending time outdoors with his family.

• Single-Cell Multiomic Profiling Uncovers Radiation Dosage-Sensitive, Cluster-Specific Regulatory Dynamics in Glioblastoma. bioRxiv. 2025 Dec 03.. View in PubMed
• Persistent chromatin alterations and gene expression reprogramming follow widespread DNA damage in glioblastoma. bioRxiv. 2025 Jun 24.. View in PubMed
• mtgRNA-db: An annotated database of multi-target CRISPR-Cas9 guide-RNAs in the human genome. bioRxiv. 2025 May 10.. View in PubMed
• Deconvolution of the tumor-educated platelet transcriptome reveals activated platelet and inflammatory cell transcript signatures. JCI Insight. 2024 Aug 27; 9(19).. View in PubMed
• Pulmonary Toxic Effects After Myeloablative Conditioning With Total Body Irradiation Delivered via Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy With Fludarabine. Pract Radiat Oncol. 2022 Nov-Dec; 12(6):e476-e480.. View in PubMed
• Lineage-coupled clonal capture identifies clonal evolution mechanisms and vulnerabilities of BRAFV600E inhibition resistance in melanoma. Cell Discov. 2022 Oct 06; 8(1):102.. View in PubMed
• PDPN marks a subset of aggressive and radiation-resistant glioblastoma cells. Front Oncol. 2022; 12:941657.. View in PubMed
• Insight into the public’s interest in tumour treating fields. Br J Cancer. 2021 09; 125(6):901-903.. View in PubMed
• Breaking Tradition to Bridge Bench and Bedside: Accelerating the MD-PhD-Residency Pathway. Acad Med. 2021 04 01; 96(4):518-521.. View in PubMed
• Design and implementation of a clinical decision support tool for primary palliative Care for Emergency Medicine (PRIM-ER). BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2020 Jan 28; 20(1):13.. View in PubMed
• Mutant Isocitrate Dehydrogenase Inhibitors as Targeted Cancer Therapeutics. Front Oncol. 2019; 9:417.. View in PubMed
• Multiple modes of PRC2 inhibition elicit global chromatin alterations in H3K27M pediatric glioma. Sci Adv. 2018 10; 4(10):eaau5935.. View in PubMed
• Modeling Glioma with Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Neural Lineages. Methods Mol Biol. 2018; 1741:227-237.. View in PubMed
• Low-Grade Astrocytoma Mutations in IDH1, P53, and ATRX Cooperate to Block Differentiation of Human Neural Stem Cells via Repression of SOX2. Cell Rep. 2017 Oct 31; 21(5):1267-1280.. View in PubMed
• Notch signaling regulates metabolic heterogeneity in glioblastoma stem cells. Oncotarget. 2017 Sep 12; 8(39):64932-64953.. View in PubMed
• Modeling HSV-1 Latency in Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Neurons. Pathogens. 2017 Jun 08; 6(2).. View in PubMed
• GPR133 (ADGRD1), an adhesion G-protein-coupled receptor, is necessary for glioblastoma growth. Oncogenesis. 2016 Oct 24; 5(10):e263.. View in PubMed
• Preplanning prediction of the left anterior descending artery maximum dose based on patient, dosimetric, and treatment planning parameters. Adv Radiat Oncol. 2016 Oct-Dec; 1(4):373-381.. View in PubMed
• Traumatic brain injury and subsequent glioblastoma development: Review of the literature and case reports. Surg Neurol Int. 2016; 7:78.. View in PubMed
• Adult Primary Spinal Epidural Extraosseous Ewing’s Sarcoma: A Case Report and Review of the Literature. Case Rep Neurol Med. 2016; 2016:1217428.. View in PubMed
• Radiation therapy improves survival in rectal small cell cancer – Analysis of Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) data. Radiat Oncol. 2015 Apr 24; 10:101.. View in PubMed
• Helicase SUV3, polynucleotide phosphorylase, and mitochondrial polyadenylation polymerase form a transient complex to modulate mitochondrial mRNA polyadenylated tail lengths in response to energetic changes. J Biol Chem. 2014 Jun 13; 289(24):16727-35.. View in PubMed
• Glioblastoma stem cells: Molecular characteristics and therapeutic implications. World J Stem Cells. 2014 Apr 26; 6(2):230-8.. View in PubMed
• Brain stem cells as the cell of origin in glioma. World J Stem Cells. 2014 Jan 26; 6(1):43-52.. View in PubMed
• Selective lentiviral gene delivery to CD133-expressing human glioblastoma stem cells. PLoS One. 2014; 9(12):e116114.. View in PubMed
• Targeting tumor suppressor networks for cancer therapeutics. Curr Drug Targets. 2014 Jan; 15(1):2-16.. View in PubMed
• Uncoupling the roles of the SUV3 helicase in maintenance of mitochondrial genome stability and RNA degradation. J Biol Chem. 2011 Nov 04; 286(44):38783-38794.. View in PubMed

• Lenz, Heinz-Josef
• Matsuo, Koji