ITERT Program
What is ITERT?
ITERT is a unique departmental E&T program offered to trainees in the Department of Translational Molecular Pathology, at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Who does ITERT serve?
• Graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, research investigators, college‐ and high‐school
students, staff and junior faculty at TMP
• Visiting medical students/fellows at TMP (international)
• Undergraduate summer students at TMP (from across the United States)
• Trainees from across MD Anderson and the Texas Medical Center
(ITERT events ‐ advertised on the MD Anderson institutional calendar, GSBS Essential, TMC LEAD)
Vision and Service Goals:
Our vision is to ensure that our trainees and staff are best prepared to lead successful professional careers in academia and other related fields in translational cancer science. We aim to achieve this by trainee‐centered programming that includes leadership development, and evolves with continual improvement through assessment and feedback. Our programing is a three‐pronged approach uniquely geared to meet the diverse training needs of our students, fellows, and staff:
1) Research education
2) Career development
3) Supportive learning community
This three‐pronged training focus allows candidates an in‐depth research experience in translational cancer research, as well as tailored professional development opportunities, in an environment designed to foster a sense of community and make learning fun. At ITERT, we also promote the academic talents and leadership capabilities of junior faculty and staff. ITERT provides the foundational framework of education‐ and career‐support for extramural training grants at TMP, such as the NIH T32. We embrace and celebrate diversity, and foster a mentored team‐approach to pathful research in the pursuit of cancer cures.
The ITERT Model of E&T: ITERT is rooted in providing impactful mentorship, and a sense of community to our students, fellows and staff. The program currently supports ~60 trainees (at various career stages) and aims to offer a strong platform for advanced scientific training required for careers in translational cancer science. At the heart of education and training at ITERT is the passionate commitment and service of all TMP faculty, actively supported by the administrative staff.
Education and Training at ITERT
Dr. Rama Soundararajan, ITERT Director
ITERT Career Path Seminar Series
ITERT Annual Science Fair (Outreach)
ITERT Work-Life Harmony Series
ITERT Undergraduate Summer Research Program Awardees
ITERT Celebrating International Diversity
TMP Trainees Networking with Distinguished Speaker (Dr. McAllister)
ITERT Contacts:
Rama Soundararajan, Ph.D.
Director
rsoundararajan@mdanderson.org
Humberto Shaw
Program Coordinator
hshaw@mdanderson.org
Jeannette McGee
Education Program Coordinator
jmcgee@mdanderson.org
Events
Career Path Seminar Series
Invited talks by distinguished scientists and industrial leaders to inform trainees about alternate career paths in biomedical science.
Schedule: Monthly on rotating Thursdays
Time: 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Location: LSP9.4101-4104
Organizers: Dr. Rama Soundararajan and Dr. Krishna P. Bhat
Contact: 713-745-8220
Community Events and Outreach
Annual Science Fair, Trainee Socials, Celebrating Diversity in Biomedical Research Workforce, Women in Biomedical Research, Coffee Sessions
Schedule: TBD
Time: TBD
Location: Life Science Plaza (LSP)
Organizers: ITERT Trainees, Jeannette McGee & Humberto Shaw
Contact: 713-834-6076
Departmental Seminar Series
Monthly research-in-progress talks by trainees – this forum provides trainees an opportunity to present their ongoing work at length, to improve presentation skills, and to receive real-time feedback from faculty and peers.
Schedule: 4th Thursday of each month
Time: 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Location: LSP9.4101-4104 (Temporary Scheduled via WebEx)
Organizers: Dr. Petra Den Hollander & Dr. Sendurai Mani
Contact Person: 713-563-7092
Distinguished Speaker Seminar Series
Monthly seminars delivered by invited speakers who are leading authorities in Translational Science.
Schedule: 2nd Thursday of each month
Time: 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Location: LSP9.4101-4104 (Temporary scheduled via WebEx)
Organizers: Dr. Subrata Sen, Dr. Krishna Bhat, Dr. Larry Kwong and Dr. Kanishka Sircar
Contact Person: 713-834-6059
Distinguished Speaker Seminars - Trainee Networking Sessions
Offers trainees a structured interactive environment to learn about invited speakers at TMP, their career tracks, scientific endeavors, and strategies for successfully navigating the academic track.
Schedule: 2nd Thursday of each month
Time: 12:30-1:30 p.m.
Location: LSP9.1007 (Temporary scheduled via WebEx)
Organizers: Dr. Robiya Joseph
Contact Person: 713-834-6059
Journal Club
A biweekly, year-round training platform designed to aid fellows and students keep up with current literature, promote appraisal skills, promote participation/researchanalysis/ review skills, and offer trainees an in-depth exposure to study designs and model systems used in translational research. This forum includes career counseling sessions (drafting IDPs and personalized career plans).
Schedule: Biweekly, year-roud
Time: 12:30-2 p.m.
Location: LSP9.1007 (Temporary scheduled via WebEx)
Organizers: Dr. Rama Soundararajan
Contact: 713-745-8220
Leadership Development Course
A formal leadership training course – “ITERT-Emerging Leaders Academy” based on the acclaimed “Kouzes and Posner” leadership model. This is conducted in collaboration with the Leadership Institute at MD Anderson.
Schedule: Monthly on a Wednesday, enrollment rotates every six months
Time: 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
Location: LSP9.4101 - 4104 (Temporary Scheduled via WebEx)
Organizers: Dr. Robert Tillman, Dr. Courtney Holladay, Dr. Darrell Simmons, Dr. Andy Schumacher, Dr. Stephanie Zajac, Dr. Alana Motzi, Dr. Ignacio Wistuba, Dr. Humam Kadara and Dr. Rama Soundararajan
Contact: 713-745-8220
Time: 11:30 a.m.
Location: Meet at the Life Science Plaza (LSP) shuttle station
Organizers: Dr. Mei Chee Tai, Dr. Celia Barreto & Mrs. Jeannette McGee
Contact: 713-834-6076
A formal leadership training course – “ITERT-Emerging Leaders Academy” based on the acclaimed “Kouzes and Posner” leadership model.
Remote Learning Services
ITERT Remote Learning Services is an online learning platform launched with the goal of providing supportive educational resources and continued career‐skills training for our students and fellows, during COVID19 and beyond. These include Grant Writing workshops, Buddy Mentoring, Career Enhancement Resources‐Strategies for successfully navigating science and academia, “Programming for data analyses” training course, “Fundamental histology for basic scientists” training course, and video lectures of ITERT Technical Workshop Series (the goal of this series is to educate research‐ and clinicaltrainees on emerging translational paradigms in cancer, beginning with risk assessment, early detection, surveillance and prevention of cancer, and ending with late‐stage disease, metastasis and survivorship).
Leads: Dr. Luisa Maren Soto, Dr. Gabriela Raso, Dr. Kathuri Kannan, Dr. Krishna Bhat, Dr. Humam Kadara, Dr. Vashisht Yennu Nanda, Dr. Rama Soundararajan & Jeannette McGee
Contact: 713-834-6076
is an online learning platform launched with the goal of providing supportive educational resources and continued career-skills training for our students and fellows, during COVID19 and beyond. These include Grant Writing Workshops, Buddy Mentoring, Career Enhancement Resources-Strategies for successfully navigating science and academia, “Programming for data analyses” training course, “Fundamental histology for basic scientists” training course, and video lectures of ITERT Technical Workshop Series (the goal of this series is to educate research- and clinical-trainees on emerging translational paradigms in cancer, beginning with risk assessment, early detection, surveillance and prevention of cancer, and ending with late-stage disease, metastasis and survivorship).
is an online learning platform launched with the goal of providing supportive educational resources and continued career-skills training for our students and fellows, during COVID19 and beyond. These include Grant Writing Workshops, Buddy Mentoring, Career Enhancement Resources-Strategies for successfully navigating science and academia, “Programming for data analyses” training course, “Fundamental histology for basic scientists” training course, and video lectures of ITERT Technical Workshop Series (the goal of this series is to educate research- and clinical-trainees on emerging translational paradigms in cancer, beginning with risk assessment, early detection, surveillance and prevention of cancer, and ending with late-stage disease, metastasis and survivorship).
Leads: Dr. Luisa Maren Soto, Dr. Gabriela Raso, Dr. Kasthuri Kannan, Dr. Krishna Bhat, Dr. Humam Kadara, Dr. Vashisht Yennu Nanda, Dr. Rama Soundararajan
Technical Workshops
Undergraduate Summer Research Program
ITERT hosts a competitive hands-on summer learning experience for highly motivated undergraduates aspiring for a career in translational science.
For more information see ITERT Undergraduate Summer Research Training.
ITERT Summer Program Contacts:
Dr. Petra Den Hollander
Instructor, Translational Molecular Pathology
PDHollander@mdanderson.org
Dr. Khalida Wani
Laboratory Manager, Translational Molecular Pathology
KWani@mdanderson.org
A formal leadership training course – “ITERT-Emerging Leaders Academy” based on the acclaimed “Kouzes and Posner” leadership model.
ITERT Career Library
Career development resources for students and postdoctoral fellows.
Location: LSP9.3007
Organizers: Dr. Rama Soundararajan & Dr. Ignacio Wistuba
Contact: 713-745-8220
Work-Life Harmony Series
Practicing health and fitness while at work (monthly education/exercise sessions in collaboration with the Fitness Center at MD Anderson) - Desk exercises to improve posture, education on nutrition and physical activity. In addition, TMP faculty offer informal guidance and suggestions on how to manage a successful and fruitful life, both in and out of the lab.
Schedule: Monthly on rotating Thursdays
Time: 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Location: LSP9.4101-4104 (Temporary scheduled via WebEx)
Organizers: Dr. Carmelia Barreto & Dr. Sonal Gupta
Contact: 713-834-6044
ITERT Stars
Ignacio Wistuba, M.D., is the chair of the Translational Molecular Pathology department and professor in the Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology department. He came to MD Anderson in 2003 and developed a translational research program in lung cancer that has expanded into the current TMP programmatic effort.
Gabriele Romano, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow in the Translational Molecular Pathology Department. Gabriele's research is focused on the study of molecular mechanisms involved in cancer drug resistance and identification of effective counter-therapies.
Bert Shaw
ITERT Resident Photographer - Creating educational training memories at ITERT.
ITERT Members
Sridevi Addanki, Postdoc, 2018-Present | ResearchGate
Alessandra Audia, Postdoc, 2015-Present | LinkedIn | ResearchGate
Neus Bota, Postdoc, 2015-Present | LinkedIn
Hitoshi Dejima, Postdoc, 2018-2019
Abhijeet Deshmukh, Postdoc, 2018-Present | LinkedIn | ResearchGate
Rachel L. Dittmar, Grad student, 2015-Present | LinkedIn | ResearchGate
Daniela Duenas, Postdoc, 2019
Pravesh Gupta, Postdoc, 2019 | LinkedIn | ResearchGate
Antoneicka L. Harris, Postdoc, 2018-Present | LinkedIn
Daisy Izaguirre, Postdoc, 2017-2019 | LinkedIn
Nick Allen Kuburich, Postdoc, 2018-Present | LinkedIn | ResearchGate
Debora Alejandra Ledesma, Postdoc, 2018-Present | LinkedIn
Mehvish Naseer, Grad student, 2019
Joanne Speer, Senior Research Histology Tech, 2015-Present
Iris Stuiver, Grad student, 2019 | LinkedIn
Alex Trevarton, Postdoc, 2017-Present