Current Trainees

Dr. Anugwom earned her Ph.D. in Radiation Biology at TU Darmstadt (Germany) under the mentorship of Markus Lobrich. Her Ph.D. project focused on Resection-dependent canonical non-homologous end-joining induction of genetic rearrangements. Dr. Anugwom recently accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at MD Anderson in the laboratory of Dr. Junjie Chen and relocated to the United States.

Dr. Anugwom's Research Interests:
In my research project I investigate unknown aspects of the DNA damage response network to learn how this network can be manipulated to enhance targeted cancer treatment.

Current Funding Source:
Dr. Anugwom is funded by the MD Anderson Odyssey Fellowship (9/1/18 - Present), where she is an Odyssey Fellow. She was previously funded by the CPRIT TRIUMPH Postdoctoral Fellowship Award (CPRIT RP170067) from 4/1/18 - 8/31/18 and continues to receive training from the CPRIT TRIUMPH Program.

Dr. Yu earned her Bachelor’s degree in Pharmaceutical Engineering and her M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Southeast University in Nanjing, China. During this time, her research focused on drug formulation, pharmaceutical analysis, and polymer synthesis and characterization. Her Master’s thesis was titled “Synthesis of PEG-PLA diblock copolymer and preparation of PEG-PLA microparticle.” She received her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in 2018, where she researched polymeric drugs and nanoparticle use in anti-cancer and inflammatory bowel disease therapies and gene delivery. Dr. Yu joined MD Anderson Cancer Center as a TRIUMPH Postdoctoral Fellow in November 2018.

Dr. Yu's Research Interests:
My research project focuses on identification of inhibitors of Median-Chain Acyl-CoA Dehydrogenase (MCAD) for glioblastoma and study of potential combinatorial strategy using specific MCAD inhibitor.

Current Funding Source:
Dr. Yu is currently funded by the CPRIT TRIUMPH Postdoctoral Fellowship Award (CPRIT RP170067).

Dr. Lu received his BS in Biotechnology from the College of Life Science at Beijing Normal University and his PhD in Developmental Biology from that Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China. His PhD work was completed under the mentorship of Dr. Hongmei Wang. Dr. Lu joined MD Anderson in 2018 as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Experimental Radiation Oncology and under the mentorship of Dr. Pawel K. Mazur. He joined the TRIUMPH program in late 2018.

Dr. Lu's Research Interests:
My research project focuses on generating next-generation chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell immunotherapy for pancreatic cancer, proposing the strategy of "armoring" CAR-T cells with genetic modifications to establish a long-lasting response against the tumor.

Current Funding Source:
Dr. Lu is currently funded by the CPRIT TRIUMPH Postdoctoral Fellowship Award (CPRIT RP170067). 

Dr. Fix received her dual BS in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. As an undergraduate research assistant, Dr. Fix's research focused on characterization of safety profiles of novel semi-fluorinated polymers via zebrafish embryo toxicity testing under the mentorship of Dr. Sandro Mecozzi. She also engaged in research with Drs. Jonathan Makielski and Ravi Balijepalli to explore molecular mechanisms by which ischemic preconditioning offers cardio-protection against subsequent ischemic damage. She earned her PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she completed her thesis titled "Applying a molecular pharmaceutics framework to the study of ultrasound contrast agents" under the mentorship of Dr. Paul Dayton. Dr. Fix joined the TRIUMPH program as a Postdoctoral Fellow in 2019.

Dr. Fix's Research Interests:
The goal of my reserach is to increase the efficacy of adoptive cell therapy in melanoma by genetically engineering T cells to thrive within the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment.

Current Funding Source:
Dr. Fix is currently funded by the CPRIT TRIUMPH Postdoctoral Fellowship Award (RP170067).

Dr. Bildik received her B.S. in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Istanbul University in Turkey. She earned her M.S. in Reproductive Biology from Koc University, where she trained in a translational research laboratory and focused on fertility preservation strategies against ovarian damage induced by chemotherapy and radiation in young female cancer survivors. She received her Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Medicine from Koc University and completed her thesis, titled "DNA damage-induced and TAp63-mediated oocyte apoptosis is not associated with c-Abl activation in human ovary." Dr. Bildik joined MD Anderson Cancer Center as a TRIUMPH Postdoctoral Fellow in 2019.

Dr. Bildik's Research:
My research project focuses on better understanding the role of DIRAS3-mediated autophagy and the effect of DIRAS3 peptides on autophagy inhibition in kRAS-driven cancers. The ultimate goal is to understand autophagy-mediated drug resistance and seek more effective therapeutic interventions.

Current Funding Source:
Dr. Bildik is funded by the CPRIT TRIUMPH Postdoctoral Fellowship Award (RP170067).

Dr. Ayoub earned his B.S. in Biology from Long Island University (Brooklyn, NY). He later earned an M.S. and a Ph.D. (2019) - both in Pharmacology,  from the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York. His thesis work, supervised by Dr. Archibald Perkins, was titled "The role of EVI1 in hematopoietic stem cell differentiation and leukemia." In 2018, he was awarded a Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (NRSA) F31 fellowship from the NIH/NHLBI for his work on EVI1 in hematopoiesis. Dr. Ayoub joined the TRIUMPH Program in Fall 2019. 

Dr. Ayoub's Research:

Current Funding Source:
Dr. Ayoub is funded by the CPRIT TRIUMPH Postdoctoral Fellowship Award (RP170067).

Dr. Mastoraki earned her B.S. and M.S. in Chemistry from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA). Her master's research focused on the study and clinical evaluation of SOX17 and BRMS1 promoters methylation in breast cancer patients using methylation-sensitive high-resolution melting analysis. She received her Ph.D. in 2018 from the University of Athens in Greece, where her Ph.D. thesis work sought to develop and clinically evaluate blood-based biomarkers in liquid biopsy samples of cancer patients. Dr. Mastoraki joined MD Anderson and the CPRIT TRIUMPH Program in 2019.

Dr. Mastoraki's Research:
NBC has the worst outcome compared to other breast cancer subtypes because of lack of targeted therapy. 70% of all TNBCs overexpress low molecular weight cyclin E (LMW-E) isoforms and these patients have a poor prognosis, whereas high tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) levels predict better overall survival in TNBC. Especially in the TNBC group, TILs are more abundant in LMWE positive patients than in LMW-E negative patients and among the high TIL group (>10%), patients who have LMW-E negative tumors, have higher probability of pCR than patients with LMW-E positive tumors. This makes us interrogate what is the role of LMW-E in TIL infiltration that turns them from good to bad predictors. I hypothesize that LMW-E induces immune and inflammatory responses that alter tumor microenvironment (TME) in the mammary gland, thus promoting tumor initiation and growth. To address this question and open novel therapeutic avenues for TNBC, I will use our inducible LMW-E transgenic mouse model, which is a valuable TNBC proxy. Our main goals are to assess the effects of mammary epithelial expression of LMW-E in regulating of different TIL subpopulations and inflammatory responses prior and during tumorigenesis, and to clinically translate our results using human TNBC tumors. Lastly, I will use this model to identify effective treatments combining targets of LMW-E mediated pathways and distinct immunotherapies.

Current Funding Source: 
Dr. Mastoraki is funded by the CPRIT TRIUMPH Postdoctoral Fellowship Award (RP170067).

The current CPRIT TRIUMPH Application closes on March 31, 2020. Apply today.