Faculty

Junjie Chen, Ph.D. (Chair)

Research Interests:

• Molecular mechanisms of DNA damage response and repair pathways in genome maintenance and tumor suppression
• Proteomic analysis of oncogenic and tumor suppressive pathways
• Investigation of gene-gene and gene-drug interactions involved in cancer development and therapy

Chen Laboratory

Boyi Gan, Ph.D.

Research Interests: Our lab studies the roles of nutrient sensing and energy metabolism in cancer. Our current efforts aim to study

• The role of energy sensor AMPK and FoxO as well as their associated long non-coding RNAs (IncRNAs) in energy sensing and tumor metabolism
• The crosstalk between cancer metabolism andepigenetics
• The role of glutamate/cystine antiporter SLC7A11in the regulation of nutrient dependency and ferroptosis, a metabolic stress-induced non-apoptotic cell death
  

Gan Laboratory

Khandan Keyomarsi, Ph.D.

Research Interests:

• The role of cyclin E in breast and salivary tumorigenesis
• Generating transgenic mice to determine the requirement of LMW cyclin E for tumor maintenance and recurrence
• Identifying potential LMW-E/CDK2 substrates on a proteome-wide scale that could serve as targets for treatment of triple negative breast cancer
• Identifying the salivary gland-specific cyclin E-associated kinase that drives cyclin E-induced salivary gland cancer

Keyomarsi & Hunt Laboratory

Lei Li, Ph.D.

Research Interests:

• Molecular mechanisms of DNA damage repair and cell cycle checkpoint mechanisms
• How DNA damage is sensed and transduced into checkpoint signals
• Interaction of chromatin remodeling mechanisms with DNA repair and damage checkpoint pathways
• Repair of DNA interstrand cross-links, as many chemotherapy agents are bifunctional DNA cross-linkers
• Molecular mechanisms of Fanconi anemia

Li Ma, Ph.D.

Research Interests:

• Establishing new paradigms for RNA functions and mechanisms (non-coding RNAs, RNA epigenetics, and RNA-binding proteins) in tumor progression and metastasis
• Screening for deubiquitinating enzymes that promote tumorigenesis , metastasis, amd therapy resistance 
• Investigating novel regulators and regulations of tumor radioresistance and drug resistance
• Studying the role of specific developmental regulators in cancer, metabolism, and regeneration by using genetically engineered mouse models generated in our lab

                                            Ma Laboratory

Pawel Mazur, Ph.D.

Research Interests:

• Pancreatic and Lung Cancer - the leading causes of cancer death
• Adoptive immunotherapy - CAR-T cell-based therapy development
• Biochemistry - novel and "orphan" enzymes substrates discovery
• Genetics - CRISPR/Cas9 animal models for cancer pharmacogenomic

Mazur Laboratory

Marvin L. Meistrich, Ph.D.

Research Interests:

• The effects of radiation and chemotherapy on male germ cells
• Fertility preservation for boys and young men undergoing cancer therapy

Jae-il Park, Ph.D.

Research Interests:

• Studying Wnt pathways in cancer cells, embryonic stem cells, frog embryogenesis, mouse intestine and skin
• Regulation of telomerase in regeneration and disease

Helen Piwnica-Worms, Ph.D.

Research Interests:

• Identifying and targeting drivers of breast cancer metastasis
• Identifying and targeting vulnerabilities in treatment-refractory primary TNBC
• Defining features that enable indolent breast cancer to advance to aggressive disease
• Elucidating how fasting and different diets protect small intestinal stem cells from lethal doses of chemotherapy and radiation therapy

H Piwnica-Worms Laboratory

Elizabeth L. Travis, Ph.D.

Research Interests:

• Normal tissue complications of cancer treatments
• The genetic basis of radiation induced pulmonary fibrosis
• Mechanisms of radiation-induced alveolitis
• Protection and mitigation of radiation injury in normal tissues

Di Zhao, Ph.D.

Research Insterests:

• Understand how oncogenic signaling pathways and tumor microenvironment regulate cancer development and metastasis
• Search for biomarkers and context-specific therapeutic targets for personalized cancer medicine
  

Albert C. Koong, M.D., Ph.D., FACR, FASTRO (Division Head, Radiation Oncology Department Chair)

Sang H. Cho, Ph.D.

Lauren E. Colbert, M.D., MSCR

Research Interests:

• Computational approaches to biomarker discovery and validation
• Microbiome and immune interplay in radiation response and toxicity
• Investigation of longitudinal changes in tumor and tumor microenvironment during radiation
   

Steven J. Frank, M.D.

David R. Grosshans, M.D., Ph.D.

Ann H. Klopp, M.D., Ph.D.

Steven H. Lin, M.D., Ph.D.

Gabriel O. Sawakuchi, Ph.D.

Sawakuchi & Shaitelman Laboratory

Simona F. Shaitelman, M.D., EdM

Sawakuchi & Shaitelman Laboratory

Cullen M. Taniguchi, M.D., Ph.D.

Research Interests:

• Molecular analysis of hypoxia and how it alters the response of normal tissues and the tumor microenvironment to chemotherapy and radiation
• The role of mitochondrial dynamics in pancreatic cancer growth and metastasis
  
• Translation of radioprotection by EGLN inhibition to improve clinical outcomes in gastrointestinal cancer and unresectable pancreatic cancer
• Investigation of the direct and indirect effects of the microbiome on treatment response in anal cancer

Taniguchi Laboratory

James W. Welsh, M.D.

Welsh Laboratory

Wendy A. Woodward, M.D., Ph.D.

• Translational epidemiology in inflammatory breast cancer
• Cholesterol and radiation resistance in breast cancer
• Radiation resistance mechanisms

Woodward Laboratory

Maria Angelica Cortez, MSc, Ph.D.

Welsh Laboratory

Gloria V. Echeverria, Ph.D.

Piwnica-Worms (Helen) Laboratory

Qianghua Hu, Ph.D.

Li (Lei) Laboratory

Dadi Jiang, Ph.D.

Koong Laboratory

Nan Li, Ph.D.

Lin (Steven) Laboratory

Amrish Sharma, Ph.D.

Lin (Steven) Laboratory

Gunapala Shetty, Ph.D.

Meistrich Laboratory

Xianzhou Song, Ph.D.

Koong Laboratory

Li Wang, Ph.D.

Frank (Steven) Laboratory

Ting Xu, Ph.D.

Lin (Steven) Laboratory

Die Zhang, Ph.D.

Grosshans Laboratory