Alphonse E. Sirica, Ph.D., M.S., AGAF, FAASLD
Cellular & Molecular Pathogenesis
Professor Emeritus of Pathology and Distinguished Career Professor
Department: Pathology
Email: asirica@vcu.org
Alphonse E. Sirica, PhD, MS, received his PhD degree in Biomedical Science from the University of Connecticut Health Center and his MS degree in Biological Sciences (Cell Biology) from Fordham University. After completing his postdoctoral training in experimental oncology (liver carcinogenesis) with Dr. Henry C. Pitot at the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he remained as faculty at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine from 1979 to 1984.
In June 1984, Dr. Sirica joined the VCU Department of Pathology faculty to develop a program in Experimental Pathology, and in 1990 he was promoted to the rank of full professor with tenure. From 1993 to 1999, he held the appointment of Chair of the Division of Experimental Pathology in the Department of Pathology. In 1999, he founded the Department's Division of Cellular and Molecular Pathogenesis and continued to serve as Division Chair for another fifteen years, stepping down from this position in July 2014 to devote full time to his NIH funded research program. He was also co-appointed in 2001-2020 as Professor of Internal Medicine at VCU, and from 1989-2020 remained a Member of the Massey Cancer Center of Virginia Commonwealth University. In 2019, he was appointed to a Distinguished Career Professorship at Virginia Commonwealth University. Following his retirement from the tenured faculty of the VCU Department of Pathology, his appointment as Professor Emeritus of Pathology was approved by the University, effective March 1, 2020.
Dr. Sirica is an internationally recognized biomedical researcher and scholar in the areas of liver carcinogenesis, cholangiocyte biology and pathobiology, and cholangiocarcinoma. As principal investigator since 1981, Dr. Sirica stayed continuously funded by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health for more than thirty-years, with his last awarded five-year competing NIH R01 grant extending this sustained funding to May 2019. He is the Editor/Author of 5 books and organizer of multiple national conferences on hepatobiliary cancers.
Article 12-9-20: Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma: Morpho-molecular pathology, tumor reactive microenvironment, and malignant progression
Research Interests: Chemical Carcinogenesis, Experimental Liver Cancer, Tumor Pathobiology, Biliary Epithelial Cell Biology and Pathobiology
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Dr. Alphonse Sirica abbreviated CV
Education
1965 B.A. St. Michael's College, Winooski Park, Vermont.
1968 M.S. (Biology) Fordham University, Bronx, NY
1977 Ph.D. (Biomedical Sciences), University of Connecticut Health Center
1976-1979 Postdoctoral Training (Oncology), McArdle Laboratory Cancer Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
Selected Awards & Honors
2019 Appointed to Distinguished Career Professorship at VCU
2019, 2023 Recognized by Expertscape as an Expertscape World Expert in Cholangiocarcinoma (Top 0.1%, 1999; Top 0.085%, 2023)
2017 Awarded the designation of Fellow of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (FAASLD)
2009 Awarded the designation of Fellow of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGAF)
2007 Recipient of VCU School of Medicine Recognition Award for Research and Scholarship
Recent Grants and Funding (former)
NCI/NIH 1R13 CA284494-01: (Sirica, A.E., PI) 2023-2024, “The Cholangiocarcinoma Conference: Molecular Drivers, Microenvironment, and Precision Medicine” (2023FASEB Scientific Research Conference).
Editorial Boards (current)
Annals of Clinical and Laboratory Science
Experimental and Molecular Pathology
2023-2024 Guest Associate Editor: Special Thematic Review Issue of the American Journal of Pathology on Cholangiocarcinoma
Professional Service (outside)
Member, FASEB Science Research Conference Advisory Committee, Term 2023-2026. American Society for Investigative Pathology representative
Professional Service (outside)
Organized Conferences National (recent)
Primary Organizer and Chair (Co-organizers, Mario Strazzabosco, M.D., Ph.D., Yale
School of Medicine and Sumera I. Ilyas, M.B.B.S, Mayo College of Medicine and
Clinic), FASEB Science Research Conference, “The Cholangiocarcinoma
Conference: Molecular Drivers, Microenvironment, and Precision Medicine” Palm Springs, CA, 2023.
Organizer and Chair, FASEB Catalyst Conference titled “Cholangiocarcinoma: Molecular Drivers, Microenvironment, and Precision Medicine” held as a virtual conference, 2021.
Primary Organizer (Co-Organizers, Gregory J. Gores, M.D., Mayo College of
Medicine and Clinic and Lopa Mishra, M.D., Feinstein Institutes for Medical
Research), Keystone e-Symposium on “Hepatobiliary Cancers: Pathobiology and Translational Advances”. Held as a virtual conference, 2021.
Organized Conferences National (Pending)
Primary Organizer (Co-Organizers, Tim F. Greten, M.D., NCI/NIH.,
Yujin Hoshida, M.D., Ph.D., University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Silvia Affὸ, Ph.D., IDIBAPS, Spain), FASEB Scientific Conference “Biocomplexity and Molecular Medicine in Liver Cancer”, being held in Washington, D.C., December 7-10, 2026.
Recent Invited Presentations
Presented at the FASEB Scientific Research Conference The Cholangiocarcinoma Conference: Molecular Drivers, Microenvironment, and Precision Medicine held August 13-17, 2023, in Palm Springs, California. Title of Presentation: Experimental paradigms predictive of iCCA progression: A TGF-β-periostin-mesothelin connection.
Speaker, Keystone eSymposium on Hepatobiliary Cancers: Pathobiology and Translational Advances Held as Virtual Conference March 2021. Title of Presentation: The desmoplastic reaction and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma: CAFs, select molecular drivers, and prognostic implications.
TGF-β, periostin, and mesothelin in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma: pathological insights and translational implications Presented to the University of Pittsburgh Department of Pathology, Pittsburgh, PA, October 2019.
Modeling the desmoplastic stroma of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma for therapeutic targeting Presented at Hepatobiliary Cancers: Pathobiology and Translational Advances, Glen Allen, VA December 2017.
Role of cancer-associated myofibroblasts with portal fibroblast biomarkers and TGF-β in the pathogenesis of desmoplastic intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma Presented to the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine of Tulane University Health Science Center March 2016, New Orleans, LA.
Origin and diversity of fibroblastic cells from intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma Presented at Experimental Biology 2015 in Boston, MA,
March 2015. Given as an oral talk in the session entitled “Cellular and Molecular Basis of Liver Tumors” on March 28, 2015, and as a Poster Discussion Presentation in the session entitled “Club Hepatomania (Liver Pathobiology).
Cancer-associated fibroblasts in cholangiocarcinoma progression Presented at the 2014 FASEB Summer Research Conference on Liver Biology: Fundamental Mechanisms & Translational Applications, Keystone, CO, July 2014.
Liver biliary cancer progression: The role of myofibroblastic cells in the tumor microenvironment Presented as the Keynote Address at the Medical University of South Carolina Hollings Cancer Center 2013 Spring Research Symposium “Models of Human Cancer for Translational Research”, March 2013 Charleston, South Carolina.
Tumor microenvironment and hepatic biliary cancer progression: New opportunities for therapy John F. Sander and Nancy K. Dunkel Memorial Lectureship in Physiology. Presented to the Department of Physiology of Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, November 2012.
Presenter of The Dr. and Mrs. Michael A. Gerber Memorial Lecture given at the 23rd Annual Health Sciences Research Days and the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Tulane University, April 2012. Lecture
Title: Modeling cholangiocarcinoma progression: Do cancer-associated myofibroblasts matter?
Selected Publications
Peer Review Papers
Affό, S., Sererols-Viñas, L., Garcia-Vicién, Cadamuro, M., Chakraborty, S., and Sirica, A.E. Cancer-associated fibroblasts in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma: Insights into origins, heterogeneity, lymphangiogenesis, and peritoneal metastasis. Am. J. Pathol., The Cholangiocarcinoma Theme Issue, 195: 378-396, 2025.
Sirica, A.E. and Fisher, P.B., Editors, Hepatobiliary Cancers: Translational Advances and Precision Medicine, Advances in Cancer Research, 2022, Vol 156, pp. 1-449. Elsevier/Academic Press (An imprint of Elsevier)
Sirica, A.E., Strazzabosco, M. and Cadamuro, M. Chapter 8-Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma: morpho-molecular pathology, tumor reactive microenvironment, and malignant progression. In: “Mechanisms and Therapy of Liver Cancer” (Fisher, P.B. and Sarkar, D., eds.), Advances in Cancer Research, 149: 321-387, 2021.
Brindley PJ, Bachini M, Ilyas SI, Khan SA, Loukas A, Sirica AE, Teh BT, Wongkham S, Gores GJ. Cholangiocarcinoma. Nat Rev Dis Primers. 2021 Sep 9;7(1):65, 2021.
Sirica, A.E., Gores, G.J., Groopman, J.D., Selaru, F.M., Strazzabosco, M., Wang, X.W., Zhu, A.X.: Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma: Continuing Challenges and Translational Advances. Hepatology 69: 1803-1815, 2019.
Manzanares, M.Á., Campbell, D.J.W., Maldonado, G.T. and Sirica, A.E. Overexpression of periostin and distinct mesothelin forms predict malignant progression in a rat cholangiocarcinoma model. Hepatology Communications 2: 155-172. 2017.
Manzanares, M.Á., Usui, A., Campbell, D.J., Dumur, C.I., Maldonado, G.T., Fausther, M., Dranoff, J.A. and Sirica, A.E. Transforming growth factors α and β are essential for modeling cholangiocarcinoma desmoplasia and progression in a 3- dimensional organotypic culture model. Am J. Pathol. 187: 1068-1092, 2017.
Sirica, A.E. and Gores, G.J. Desmoplastic tumor stroma and cholangiocarcinoma: clinical implications and therapeutic targeting. Hepatology, 59: 2397-2402, 2014.
Campbell, D.J.W., Dumur, C.I., Lamour, N.F., DeWitt, J.L., and Sirica, A.E. Novel organotypic culture model of cholangiocarcinoma progression. Hepatology Research, 42: 1119-1130, 2012.
Sirica, A.E.: 2012. The role of cancer-associated myofibroblasts in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology, 9: 44-54.
Sirica, A.E., Zhang, Z., Lai, G.-L., Asano, T., Shen, X.-N., Ward, D.J., Mahatme, A., and DeWitt, J.L. A novel “patient-like” model of cholangiocarcinoma progression based on bile duct inoculation of tumorigenic rat cholangiocyte cell lines. Hepatology, 47:1178-1190, 2008. (Profiled on April 2008 journal cover).
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