Lab Members
George Adrian Calin, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor
E-mail: gcalin@mdanderson.org
George Adrian Calin received both his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at Carol Davila University of Medicine in Bucharest, Romania.
After working in cytogenetics as an undergraduate student with Dr. Dragos Stefanescu in Bucharest, Calin completed cancer genomics training in Dr. Massimo Negrini’s laboratory at the University of Ferrara, Italy, and in 2000, he became a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Carlo Croce’s laboratory at Kimmel Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In June 2007, Calin joined M. D. Anderson as an associate professor in the Department of Experimental Therapeutics. He explores new RNA therapeutic options for cancer patients and studies the roles of microRNAs and other non-coding RNAs in cancer initiation and progression, as well as the mechanisms of cancer predisposition.
Elisa Barbarotto, Ph.D.
Research Intern
E-mail: ebarbaro@mdanderson.org
Dr. Elisa Barbarotto graduated with a degree in chemistry and pharmaceutical technologies in 2002 and completed her Ph.D. in biomedical sciences, endocrinology and neurophysiology in 2006 – both from the Univerisity of Ferrara, Italy. At that time, she worked in Dr. Paola Secchiero’s laboratory and her work focused on the induction of apoptosis in B-CLL by using new therapeutic agents such as members of the TNF superfamily (TRAIL) and non-genotoxic compounds (Nutlin-3).
From January 2006 to September 2007, Elisa had the opportunity to work in Dr. Carlo Croce’s Lab at Ohio State University to complete a collaboration project, which she began in Italy with Dr. Secchiero, on the role of p53 induction in CLL and the analysis of therapeutic consequences of p53 inductor therapy in a B-CLL mouse model.
During this period, although still working with protein coding genes, Elisa was introduced to the thriving research of microRNAs and other ncRNAs and was recruited by her present mentor and PI, Dr. George A. Calin
Elisa Barbarotto joined M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in April 2008 as a research intern in Dr. Calin’s laboratory.
Milena S. Nicoloso, M.D.
Research Investigator
E-mail: mnicolos@mdanderson.org
Dr. Milena Nicoloso graduated with a degree in medicine from the University of Udine, Italy, in 2002, where she also completed her clinical oncology fellowship in 2006.
During her fellowship, she preferred “playing” in the lab and naturally opted for a career in basic science. At the time she worked in Dr. Gustavo Baldassarre’s laboratory studying the role of cell cycle regulatory proteins in metastasis.
From January 2006 to June 2007, Milena had the opportunity to work in Dr. Carlo Croce’s laboratory at Ohio State University to complete a collaboration project, started in Italy with Dr. Baldassarre, on the role of LZTS1 in mitosis.
During this year and a half, although still working with protein coding genes, Milena became interested in the research of microRNAs and other ncRNAs and was recruited by her present mentor and PI, Dr. George A. Calin.
Milena Nicoloso joined M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in June 2007 as a senior research assistant in Dr. Calin’s laboratory.
Simona Rossi
Data Analyst
E-mail: srossi@mdanderson.org
Simona Rossi graduated with a degree in electrical engineering with a specialization in artificial intelligence and data mining from the University of Ferrara, Italy, in 2004.
Her initial training began with a thesis on data mining, which is the process of sorting through large amounts of data and selecting the relevant information. Working in Dr. Stefano Volinia’s laboratory, Simona gained valuable knowledge of microarray data analysis, data elaboration and evaluation, as she studied large datasets and managed and developed algorithms to extract knowledge from large amounts of data.
Simona Rossi is a data analyst in Dr. George Calin’s laboratory. She began as a research intern when she joined M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in January 2008.
Masayoshi Shimitsu
Research Investigator
E-mail: mshimizu@mdanderson.org
Masayoshi Shimizu is a research investigator with 15 years of experience in molecular biology.
He has worked with Dr. George A. Calin for the last eight years – initially in genomics and then, beginning in 2002, in the field of microRNAs and cancer. He was involved in major non-coding RNA projects, including the genome-wide profiling of microRNAs, the discovery of miRNA germline mutations and the involvement of ultraconserved genes in cancer.
Masa followed Dr. Calin to M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in June 2007 and he performs the high throughput, non-coding RNA profiling by microarray and several genomics techniques related to non-coding RNAs.
Riccardo Spizzo, M.D.
Research Investigator
E-mail: rspizzo@mdanderson.org
Dr. Riccardo Spizzo joined M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in June 2007 as a senior research assistant in Dr. George A. Calin’s laboratory in the Department of Experimental Therapeutics.
Prior to joining M. D. Anderson, Riccardo worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Carlo Croce at Ohio State University from January 2006 to June 2007.
In the last two years, Riccardo has researched the role of microRNAs and other non-coding RNAs in tumor development and focused his studies on tumor suppressor microRNAs involved in breast cancer.
Riccardo graduated from the Univerisity of Udine, Italy, where he also completed a fellowship in clinical oncology.
Sang Kil Lee, M.D., Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor, Yonsei University, Korea
E-mail: slee9@mdanderson.org
Raul Teruel
Graduate Student
E-mail: rteruel@mdanderson.org
Former Members
Bharti Jasra (India) – Observer; September 2007
Sumayiah Rehman – Ph.D. student; January to March, 2008
Cortez Angelica (Brazil) – Ph.D. student; June to August, 2008
Dimitri Federica (Italy) – graduate student; June to August, 2008
Guerrero Manrique – Ph.D. student; June to August, 2008
Julia Fogarty – high school student; June and July, 2008
David Rushworth – Ph.D. student; July to August, 2008