CPRIT Graduate Scholars

Shao-Hsi (Paul) Hung obtained his B.S. in Animal Sciences from National Taiwan University (NTU) in 2017. Throughout his undergraduate studies, he served as a research assistant at Academia Sinica where he was mentored Dr. Han-Chung Wu. His involvement encompassed multiple projects, including the investigation of EpCAM signaling's impact on the progression of colon cancer, as well as the utilization of phage-display techniques to identify therapeutic monoclonal antibodies targeting EpCAM. Paul joined the MD Anderson UTHealth GSBS Ph.D. program in Fall 2019 and initiated his thesis research, guided by the mentorship of Dr. Cassian Yee.   

Paul’s Research Interests:
My research focuses on a) identifying immunogenic peptide epitopes and generates corresponding antigen-specific cytotoxic T cells against various cancer types; b) dissecting tumor-intrinsic immune resistance regulators by utilizing in vivo CRIPSR-KO screen.  

Cheryl Jiang holds a B.A. in Natural Sciences from University of Cambridge, where she undertook transformative research to discover mutations in immunity-related proteins in cancer and their subsequent functional impacts. This passion for unraveling the mysteries of the immune system led her to MD Anderson. As a Ph.D. candidate in the lab of Dr. Katy Rezvani, Cheryl has been at the forefront of pioneering research that seeks to establish oncolytic virus immunotherapy as a viable treatment for challenging malignancies like glioblastoma and pancreatic cancer.Cheryl's academic journey is marked by numerous accolades, such as the Cambridge Trust Scholarship and The Antje Wuelfrath Gee Jr. Family Legacy Award. In her journey, Cheryl has also grown as a leader, serving as the Senior Vice President of the Consulting Club at the Texas Medical Center. Under her leadership, the club underwent significant transformations, including revamping its membership structure and establishing valuable partnerships. After graduating, Cheryl aspires to be a management consultant at McKinsey, where she will have the opportunity to help pharmaceutical companies to drive a positive social impact.

Cheryl's Research Interests:
Cheryl's research is driven by a passion for harnessing the potential of the immune system to combat cancer. She is keenly interested in using oncolytic viruses to stimulate NK cells for the treatment of solid tumors.

Laura earned her B.S. in Biology from Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) in Lima, Peru. In UPCH, she started her research career in Dr. José Luis Aguilar’s laboratory investigating the effect of different natural products on the immune system. Here, Laura performed a thesis project where she investigated the effects of Cat’s claw (Uncaria tomentosa), a Peruvian plant, on tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes of mice with melanoma. In 2017, Laura performed a 6-month research internship in the Melanoma Medical Oncology Department in Dr. Willem Overwijk’s laboratory. In the Overwijk Lab, Laura participated in a project that aimed to elucidate how a novel bio-engineered immunotherapeutic affected the immune compartment of tumor-bearing mice. She immediately transitioned into her graduate studies after this experience.                                                                 

Laura’s Research Interests:                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
My research seeks to delineate the role for Leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) in intestinal immunity and inflammation. Other research interests revolve around a) myeloid subsets and their differentiation and function in the gut; b) the relationship between the immune system and the gut microbiome, and c) the role of the immune system in cancer. 

Spencer earned his B.A. with highest honors in Chemical Biology from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee in 2019. As an undergraduate, Spencer studied the P53 family of proteins in the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in the laboratory of Dr. Jennifer Pietenpol. His work focused on the impact of mutant P53 on genomic instability, aneuploidy, and exosomal biology, for which he completed an undergraduate honors thesis with highest honors. Since matriculating into the GSBS in Fall 2019, Spencer has earned multiple research awards including the Dean’s Excellence Scholarship (2019-2021), the Andrew Sowell-Wade Huggins Scholarship in Cancer Research (2022), and the TL1 translational research fellowship (2021-2023).

Spencer’s Research Interests:
In the Curran lab, Spencer studies synergy between cGAS-STING pathway activation and therapeutic phagocytosis enhancement to reverse glioblastoma tumor-immune privilege and prime adaptive anti-glioma CD8 T cell responses.

Hunter earned his B.S. in Physics, Mathematical Sciences, and Astronomy/Astrophysics from Florida Institute of technology graduating summa cum laude. While in undergraduate, his research involved understanding increases of natural background radiation due to weather patterns. Afterwards, Hunter earned his M.S. in Physics from the University of Pittsburgh where he studied neurodegenerative diseases and tumors using chemical exchange MRI in a preclinical setting. This research provided Hunter with a MRI pulse sequence patent. Taking a break from higher education, Hunter then worked for MD Anderson Cancer Center in Outreach Physics for the Imaging and Radiation Oncology Core for five years participating in several research projects concerning quality assurance in radiation therapy. Returning to the academic world, Hunter is currently working on his PhD in Medical Physics under the direction of Dr. Stephen Kry. Hunter’s current research is driven by using machine learning to understand quality assurance in radiation therapy and its connection to patient outcomes. While in graduate school, Hunter has been the recipient of the American Legion Auxiliary Fellowship in Cancer Research and has won first place in the Oral Presentation Skills Competition (Pre-candidacy & MS category) and the Elevator Speech Competition (Post-Candidacy) at graduate school’s graduate student research day.

Hunter’s Research Interest:
My research interests are the development of a new radiation therapy quality assurance procedure using machine learning to predict patient outcomes before treatment.

Swati earned her Integrated Master's (BS-MS) in Life Science from National Institute of Technology Rourkela (NITR), India in May 2019. She was awarded the 2016 Indian Academy of Sciences Summer Scholarship to study the role of PKD2 in polycystic kidney diseases and 2017 AcSIR- Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Summer Scholarship to study novel mutations in POLG causing mitochondrial DNA depletion leading to encephalopathy, seizures and stroke-like episodes. In the year 2018, she was competitively selected by the Government of India’s Department of Biotechnology, the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum, and WINStep Forward to the Khorana Scholar Exchange Program and worked at Baylor College of Medicine where she was involved in conducting pre-clinical studies utilizing separase inhibitor-Sepin-1 in Ewing Sarcoma and Neuroblastoma PDX murine models. Her master's thesis project was focused on studying the role of PIWI-interacting RNAs in fibrosarcoma and she was awarded gold medal for Best Thesis Project.  She matriculated into the GSBS in Fall 2019. She has a primary affiliation with the Cancer Biology Program and secondary affiliation with Therapeutics and Pharmacology Program. Since joining the Calin Lab in January 2020, Swati has earned Student InterCouncil (SIC) Positive Impact Scholarship (2021) and Steve Lasher and Janiece Longoria Research Award (2022). 

Swati's Research Interests:
In Dr. Calin’s lab, Swati plans to investigate the role of non-coding RNAs mapped from ultraconserved regions in the Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia and Richter transformation

Menna received her B.Sc. in pharmaceutical sciences from Cairo University in 2013. She worked professionally as a pharmacist until she received the competitive Fulbright scholarship for a Master’s degree and joined the Biomedical Sciences MS program in MD Anderson UTHealth GSBS in 2017. At GSBS she joined Dr Giulio Draetta’s lab and studied the role of cell surface protein CD109 which the lab has identified for the first time as a vulnerability in pancreatic cancer through loss of function genetic screens. Menna showed that CD109 is exclusively expressed in pancreatic cancer rather than healthy pancreatic tissue and that it demonstrates pro-oncogenic behavior and tumor initiation potential in vitro and in vivo. Her thesis results revealed an association between CD109 expression and YAP/TAZ signaling through RPPA and RNA Sequencing data, which provides insights into a relatively unknown protein with a therapeutic potential. Menna received her MS degree in 2019 and started her PhD program in the same year at GSBS. She has a primary affiliation with the Cancer Biology Program and secondary affiliation with the Genetics and Epigenetics Program. Menna joined Dr Anirban Maitra’s lab in January 2022. 

Menna’s Research Interests:
In Dr Maitra’s lab, Menna is investigating the role of the epigenetic chromatin modifier KDM4C in pancreatic cancer maintenance and progression.

Oscar earned his B.S. degree in Biochemistry from The University of Texas at Austin. During his time at UT, he participated in several research projects. After receiving the Beckman Scholar Award, he joined the lab of Dr. George Georgiou where he conducted his undergraduate thesis work on engineering glutaminase in order to treat glutamine auxotrophic cancers. In 2016, Oscar matriculated into the dual MD/PhD degree program at The University of Texas Medical Scientist Training Program at Houston. After completing his first three years of medical school, Oscar began his graduate training by joining the Cancer Biology Program and the lab of Dr. Scott Kopetz. After completing his MD/PhD training Oscar plans on continuing his education in order to become a physician-scientist specializing in medical oncology. 

Oscar's Research Interests:
Oscar’s research focuses on understanding the mechanisms causing the limited response of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who are treated with MAPK-pathway inhibitors.

Haoyi earned her Biochemistry (BS Honors) and French minor from The University of Texas at Austin in 2020. In UT Austin, Haoyi started her research career by joining the Virtual Drug Screening stream of the Freshman Research Initiative program. In the program, she learned basic experimental design, in vitro molecular biology techniques, and in silico drug screening using GOLD/ICM. Haoyi then mentored new students in the program before starting her position as an undergraduate research assistant at Dr. Yan Zhang’s lab. In the lab, Haoyi worked on elucidating the binding mechanisms of a covalent inhibitor of a CTD phosphatase as a potential glioblastoma treatment. In the summer of 2019, Haoyi worked in Dr. David Tweardy’s laboratory as part of the CPRIT-CURE Summer Undergraduate Program. In Dr. Tweardy’s lab, Haoyi helped determine the binding-specificity of a STAT3 inhibitor. This summer experience helped Haoyi identify her interest in cancer research. Haoyi immediately transitioned into PhD studies after her undergraduate education. Haoyi is now a part of the Immunology Program at the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. 

Haoyi’s Research Interests:
In the Gibbons Lab, Haoyi works on identifying novel mechanisms of immunotherapy resistance in non-small cell lung cancer for therapeutic targeting.   

Shao-Ping (Emily) Yang received her master’s degree in Biotechnology and bachelor's degree in Life Science, both from National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan. During her master’s degree, she focused on developing Zika virus vaccine expressed by adenoviral vector and her findings have been published in peer-reviewed journal and patented in the US. After her graduation, she served as a Research Assistant in the National Taiwan University Hospital and Academia Sinica, studying translational research in oncology, immunology, and vaccinology. Currently, Emily is pursuing her PhD degree in Immunology Program & Cancer Biology Program at GSBS and joined Dr. Dihua Yu’s laboratory in 2021.

Shao-Ping's Research Interests:
She is interested in reprograming the unique brain immune microenvironment to enhance the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy. Her research focuses on targeting immune evasion via epigenetics drug in combination with immunotherapy to impede brain metastasis.  

Er-Yen (Nick) received his B.S. in Life Science from National Taiwan University. He later furthered his education with a Master’s degree in Anatomy and Cell Biology at National Taiwan University. Under the mentorship of Dr. I-Rue Lai, a physician scientist specializing in gastrointestinal oncology, Nick’s thesis project examined the roles of gastric cancer-derived exosomes in establishing a pre-metastatic niche in the peripheral lymph node. After graduation, Nick worked as a research assistant specializing in imaging analysis in Dr. Feng-Chiao Tsai’s lab. Under the supervision of Dr. Guilio Draetta and Dr. Andrea Viale, Nick’s work has been awarded the Rosalie B. Hite Fellowship (2021) as well as the Andrew Sowell-Wade Huggins Scholarships in Cancer Research (2019). 

Er-Yen's Research Interests:                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
My research focuses on spatial heterogeneity of pancreatic cancer and characterizing interaction between subclones and their surrounding microenvironment as an approach of identifying potential therapeutic target.

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