Research

I am an evolutionary biologist with extensive expertise in molecular evolution and phylogenetics, ecology and biogeography in the context of species and cancer. In my doctoral research, I investigated genetic and spatial patterns of insect-pollinators in the Mediterranean ecosystems. I studied the evolutionary relationships of hoverfly species, discovered new species, and explored mechanisms of speciation through timetrees based on the Aegean paleogeography.

Drawing from this strong and interdisciplinary background, I have initiated cross-cutting investigations that are bringing molecular evolution and organismal biogeography to understanding and explaining genomic diversity and migration of cancer cells in tumors. In that pursuit, I introduced the “Tumor Island Biogeography” field proposing that tumors are evolutionary islands. This is a unique, fresh conceptual framework that can leverage the extensive spatial and longitudinal variation patterns observed in the genomes, transcriptomes and proteomes of cancer cells. I also co-developed PathFinder, a computational Bayesian method that uses the clone phylogeny, their genetic differentiation, and anatomical locations to infer cancer’s migration history in a patient (available at https://github.com/SayakaMiura/PathFinder).

During my postdoctoral fellowship at NYU, I used computational frameworks for single cell data analysis (RNA-Seq, CITE-Seq, TCR/BCR-Seq, ATAC-Seq) in the context of investigating leukemia transcriptomics and epigenetics.

Research fields

• Cancer Evolution and Metastasis
• Tumor Island Biogeography
• Epigenetics and transcriptomics
• Molecular Evolution and Phylogenetics

My Google scholar profile

https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=WHYQrCYAAAAJ

Publications

• Chroni, A. (^), Miura, S. (^), Hamilton, L., Vu, T., Gaffney, S., Aly, V., Karim, S., Sanderford, M., Townsend, J., Kumar, S. (2022) Clone phylogenetics reveals metastatic tumor migrations, maps, and models. Cancers, 14(17), 4326. (^ equal contribution) https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers14174326
• Chroni, A.(#), and Kumar, S.(#) (2021) Tumors are evolutionary island-like ecosystems. Genome Biology and Evolution, evab276. (# corresponding author) https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evab276
• Chroni, A., Miura, S., Oladeinde, O., Aly, V., Kumar, S. (2021) Migrations of cancer cells through the lens of phylogenetic biogeography. Scientific Reports, 11, 17184. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96215-9
• Kumar, S.(^), Chroni, A.(^), Tamura, K., Sanderford, M., Oladeinde, O., Aly, V., Vu, T., Miura, S. (2020) PathFinder: Bayesian inference of clone migration histories in cancer. Bioinformatics, 36(2), i675–i683. (^ equal contribution) https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btaa795
• Chroni, A.(#), Vu, T., Miura, S., Kumar, S. (2019) Delineation of tumor migration paths by using a Bayesian biogeographic approach. Cancers, 11(12), 1880. (# corresponding author) https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers11121880
• Chroni, A.(#), Stefanovic, M., Djan, M., Vujic, A., Šašic Zoric, L., Kosiš Tubic, N., Petanidou, T. (2019) Connecting the dots: Bridging genetic to spatial differentiation of the genus Eumerus (Diptera: Syrphidae) in the Mediterranean Basin and the Balkans. Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research, 57(4), 822-839. (# corresponding author) https://doi.org/10.1111/jzs.12300
• Chroni, A.(#), Grkovic, A., Acanski, J., Vujic, A., Radenkovic, S., Petanidou, T. (2018) Disentangling a cryptic species complex and defining new species within the Eumerus minotaurus group (Diptera: Syrphidae), based on integrative taxonomy and Aegean palaeogeography. Contributions to Zoology, 87(4), 197–225. (# corresponding author) https://doi.org/10.1163/18759866-08704001
• Chroni, A. (2018) Spatial patterns of genetic diversity of the genus Eumerus (Diptera: Syrphidae) in the Balkans. Doctoral Dissertation (in English), University of the Aegean, Mytilene (pp. 269).
• Grkovic, A., Vujic, A., Chroni, A., van Steenis, J., Djan, M., Radenkovic, S. (2017) Taxonomy and systematics of three species of the genus Eumerus Meigen, 1822 (Diptera: Syrphidae) new in southeastern Europe. Zoologischer Anzeiger, 270, 176–192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcz.2017.10.007
• Chroni, A.(#), Djan, M., Vidakovic, D.O., Petanidou, T., Vujic, A. (2017) Molecular species delimitation in the genus Eumerus (Diptera: Syrphidae). Bulletin of Entomological Research, 107(1), 126–138. (# corresponding author) http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0007485316000729
• Lázaro, A., Chroni, A., T. Tscheulin, J. Devalez, C. Matsoukas, and T. Petanidou. (2016) Electromagnetic radiation of mobile telecommunication antennas affects the abundance and composition of wild pollinators. Journal of Insect Conservation: 1-10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10841-016-9868-8
• Grkovic A., Vujic, A., Radenkovic, S., Chroni, A., Petanidou, T. (2015) Diversity of the genus Eumerus Meigen (Diptera, Syrphidae) on the eastern Mediterranean islands with description of three new species. Annales de la Société Entomologique de France (N.S.), 51(4), 361–373. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00379271.2016.1144483

Conference and Symposium Talks

• McQuaid S.W., Kaufman R., Corbett R.J., Vaksman Z., Bornhorst M., Desai H., Hausler R., Naqvi A., Chroni A., Brown M.A., Phul S., Guo Y.S., Zhu Y., Heath A.P., Mason J.L., Regeneron Genetics Center, Penn Medicine BioBank, Maxwell K.N., Storm P.B., Resnick A.C., Waanders A.J., Cole K.A., Rokita J.L., MacFarland S., Diskin S.J. (2023). Germline pathogenic variants in 838 pediatric CNS tumor patients (poster). Society for Neuro-Oncology Pediatric Conference, Washington, DC, US, June 22-24. https://virtual.oxfordabstracts.com/#/event/3441/submission/265/poster
• Naqvi A.S., Seghal P., Corbett R.J., Arif S., Chroni A., Lahiri A., Geng Z., Ennis B.M., Rathi K.S., Conkrite K.L., Hollawell M.L., Hayer K.E., Zhang B., Miller D.B., Kraya A.A., Foster J.B., Madsen P.J., Gaonkar K.S., Jin R., Sonawane P., Diskin S.J., Koptyra M., Storm P.B., Tikhonenko A.T., Resnick A.C., Rokita J.L.. (2023). Aberrant splicing of CLK1 in pediatric high-grade gliomas disrupts key oncogenic transcriptional programs. Society for Neuro-Oncology Pediatric Conference, Washington, DC, US, June 22-24. https://virtual.oxfordabstracts.com/#/event/3441/submission/223
• Awadalla, M., Chroni, A., Suvarna, M., Kumar, S. (2021) Finding the evolutionary roots of cancer cell migrations (poster). SPROUT, 19 August, Temple University, Philadelphia, US.
• Chroni, A., Hamilton, L., Vu, T., Townsend, J., Kumar, S. (2021) Finding the evolutionary roots of cancer cells migrations (talk). SMBE 2021 (virtual), 4-8 July.
• Chroni, A. (2021) What lessons can we learn from organismal evolution and biogeography in cancer? (talk). First Annual Temple Postdoc Symposium (virtual), Temple University, Philadelphia, US.
• Chroni, A., Miura, S., Kumar, S. (2020) Tumor biogeography: tracing migration paths of cancer cells (poster). SMBE2020, Québec City, Canada. Selected (conference canceled due to COVID-19 crisis).
• Chroni, A., Miura, S., Kumar, S. (2019) Delineation of tumor migration paths by using a Bayesian biogeographic approach (Invited speaker). CST Research Mixer, Temple University, Philadelphia, US.
• Chroni, A., Miura, S., Kumar, S. (2019) Can we infer tumor migration routes by using biogeographic methods? (poster). EPiC conference, Philadelphia, US.
• Chroni, A., Stefanovic, M., Djan, M., Vujic, A., Šašic Zoric, L., Kosiš Tubic, N., Petanidou, T. (2019) A methodological framework for inferring spatial genetic patterns: the case of the genus Eumerus (Diptera: Syrphidae) in the Mediterranean. (talk). 10th International Symposium on Syrphidae (ISS10), Lesvos, Greece.
• Chroni, A., Miura, S., Kumar, S. (2019) Inferring tumor migration routes by using biogeographic methods (talk). Evolution 2019, Providence, Rhode Island, US. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRhQa3QjWO8&ab_channel=Evolution2019Videos
• Chroni, A., Miura, S., Kumar, S. (2019) Can we infer tumor migration routes by using biogeographic methods? (poster). SMBE Satellite Meeting on The Molecular Biology and Evolution of Cancer, 04/12-13/2019, Yale University, New Haven, CT.
• Chroni, A., Djan, M., Obreht Vidakovic, D., Vujic, A., Petanidou, T., Šašic Zoric, L., Velickovic, N., Kosiš Tubic, N., Tataris, G., Radenkovic, S. (2017) A DNA barcode library of the Mediterranean species of Eumerus (Diptera: Syrphidae) (poster). Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Syrphidae, 28/08 – 01/09/2017, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil, p. 26–27.
• Lazaro, A., Tscheulin, T., Chroni, A., Devalez, J., Matsoukas, C., Petanidou, T. (2015) Effect of mobile telecommunication antennas on the abundance of wild pollinators (poster). Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology, CEST2015, 3-5 September, Rhodes, C64/1386, pp. 59.
• Chroni, A., Djan, M., Obreht, D., Tscheulin, T., Petanidou, T., Vujic, A. (2014) Molecular Systematics of the genus Eumerus (Diptera: Syrphidae) in the Aegean Archipelagos (poster). Proceedings of the 7th Congress of the Hellenic Ecological Society, 9-12 October, Mytilene, p. 276.
• Chroni, A., Djan, M., Obreht, D., Petanidou, T., Vujic, A. (2014) The validity of COI gene in species identification: The case of the genus Eumerus (Diptera: Syrphidae) in Southeastern Europe (poster). Proceedings of the Seventh International Symposium on Molecular Insect Science, 13-16 July, Amsterdam, P3.08.
• Stefanaki, A., Chanlidou, E., Karousou, R., Kokkini, S., Chroni, A., Nakas, G., Devalez, J., Vavitsas, G., de Courcy Williams, M., Taylor, M., Mertzanidou, D., Tscheulin, T., Petanidou, T. (2013) Contribution to the botanical research in the Aegean in the frame of the research program: The Pollinators of the Aegean, Biodiversity and Threats (poster). Proceedings of the 13th Congress of the Hellenic Botanical Society, 3-6 October, Thessaloniki, p. 144.
• Chroni, A., Tscheulin, T., Matsoukas, Ch., Petanidou, T. (2012) Impact of electromagnetic radiation of mobile telecommunication antennas on biodiversity: the case of wild bees (poster). 6th Congress of the Hellenic Ecological Society, 4-7 October, Athens, p. 278.