Weei-Yuarn Huang

Dr. Huang obtained his medical degree in Taipei, Taiwan, and subsequently completed his graduate studies at the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the University of Toronto. Following residency training and fellowship at Harvard’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, he took on his first academic appointment at Dalhousie University in 2005.

In 2020, he was recruited to Sunnybrook Health Science Center and assumed his current position as the Medical Director of Molecular Diagnostics in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Molecular Diagnostics.

Research summary

Dr. Huang's main research interest is developing molecular assays using advanced molecular techniques, such as next-generation sequencing, epigenetic SNP arrays, and Nanopore long reads sequencing.

He has applied these tools to study the genomic and epigenomic features of gastrointestinal neuroendocrine neoplasms, appendiceal tumors, and pancreatic cancers.

Selected publications

DeCoste R, Amemiya Y, Nersesian S, Westhaver L, Lee SN, Carter MD, Sapp HL, Stueck AE, Arnason T, Boudreau J, Seth A, Huang WY. PAXgene Fixation for Pancreatic Cancer: Implications for Molecular and Surgical Pathology. J Clin Med. 2022 Jul 21;11(14):4241. doi: 10.3390/jcm11144241. PMID: 35888003; PMCID: PMC9319620.

Stockley TL, Lo B, Box A, Corredor AG, DeCoteau J, Desmeules P, Feilotter H, Grafodatskaya D, Greer W, Hawkins C, Huang WY, Izevbaye I, Lépine G, Martins Filho SN, Papadakis AI, Park PC, Riviere JB, Sheffield BS, Spatz A, Spriggs E, Tran-Thanh D, Yip S, Zhang T, Torlakovic E, Tsao MS. CANTRK: A Canadian Ring Study to Optimize Detection of NTRK Gene Fusions by Next-Generation RNA Sequencing. J Mol Diagn. 2022 Dec 28:S1525-1578(22)00365-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jmoldx.2022.12.004. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36586421.

Bormann Chung C, Lee J, Barritault M, Bringuier PP, Xu Z, Huang WY, Beharry A, Castillo J, Christiansen J, Lin JC, Sheffield BS. Evaluating Targeted Next-Generation Sequencing Assays and Reference Materials for NTRK Fusion Detection. J Mol Diagn. 2022 Jan;24(1):18-32. doi: 10.1016/j.jmoldx.2021.09.008. Epub 2021 Oct 15. PMID: 34656759.

Rasmussen SA, Arnason T, Huang WY. Deep learning for computer-assisted diagnosis of hereditary diffuse gastric cancer. J Pathol Transl Med. 2021 Mar;55(2):118-124. doi: 10.4132/jptm.2020.12.22. Epub 2021 Jan 22. PMID: 33472333; PMCID: PMC7987520.

Cheung CC, Smith AC, Albadine R, Bigras G, Bojarski A, Couture C, Cutz JC, Huang WY, Ionescu D, Itani D, Izevbaye I, Karsan A, Kelly MM, Knoll J, Kwan K, Nasr MR, Qing G, Rashid-Kolvear F, Sekhon HS, Spatz A, Stockley T, Tran-Thanh D, Tucker T, Waghray R, Wang H, Xu Z, Yatabe Y, Torlakovic EE, Tsao MS. Canadian ROS proto-oncogene 1 study (CROS) for multi-institutional implementation of ROS1 testing in non-small cell lung cancer. Lung Cancer. 2021 Oct;160:127-135. doi: 10.1016/j.lungcan.2021.08.003. Epub 2021 Aug 10. PMID: 34509095.

DeCoste R, McDonell LM, Uzans D, Molinari M, Huang WY. Comparing Pathology Report Quality Indicators in 2 Distinct Whipple Resection Specimen Protocols. Pancreas. 2020 Jul;49(6):788-792. doi: 10.1097/MPA.0000000000001574. PMID: 32541634.

Sinha N, Gaston D, Manders D, Goudie M, Matsuoka M, Xie T, Huang WY. Characterization of genome-wide copy number aberrations in colonic mixed adenoneuroendocrine carcinoma and neuroendocrine carcinoma reveals recurrent amplification of PTGER4 and MYC genes. Hum Pathol. 2018 Mar;73:16-25. doi: 10.1016/j.humpath.2017.08.036. Epub 2017 Sep 9. PMID: 28899736.

Appointments

Medical Director, Molecular Diagnostics, Sunnybrook Health Science Center