Lukas Chavez, Ph.D.

Lukas Chavez, PhD, is Associate Professor at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute and at the University of California San Diego. His research focuses on childhood cancers with a particular emphasis on profiling pediatric brain tumors. Prior to joining UCSD, Dr. Chavez headed a research group in the Division of Pediatric Neuro Oncology at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany. During this time, he was instrumental in developing novel precision diagnostic approaches for molecular classification of brain tumors using machine learning methods. By analyzing patient tumor tissues and patient derived model systems, his laboratory seeks to identify molecular mechanisms that contribute to tumor development and maintenance. As Director of the Pediatric Neuro Oncology Molecular Tumor Board at Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego, he and his team routinely perform molecular and functional analyses on surgical biopsies to provide precision medicine diagnoses.