News
Experimental Therapeutics Highlights
October 2024
Experimental Therapeutics Highlights
September 2024
Please welcome Fernanda Grande Kugeratski, Ph.D., Instructor
Welcome our newest faculty member, Dr. Fernanda Grande Kugeratski, to the Experimental Therapeutics team! She is an internal hire and is joining us as an instructor in Professor Sara Zanivan’s lab.
Originally from Brazil, she completed her undergraduate degree in biology and her Ph.D. in cancer sciences. Fernanda has a track record in cancer biology, immunology, exosome research and proteomics. Throughout her scientific career, Fernanda has made significant discoveries in tumor microenvironment (TME) and exosome biology, with first-author publications in prestigious journals such as Science Signaling and Nature Cell Biology, alongside several team science contributions.
During her postdoctoral training, Fernanda has been awarded with two distinguished fellowships: one from the Odyssey Program at MD Anderson and another from the American Association for Immunologists.
Congratulations Xi Chen, Ph.D., on being selected as a recipient of the Faculty Scholar Award for fiscal year 2025!
The Faculty Scholar Program was established to recognize eligible assistant and associate professors who exhibit outstanding abilities and excellence in research, education, patient care or prevention. The awards are made possible by the E.N. Cobb Faculty Scholar Endowment and the Dallas/Fort Worth Living Legend Faculty Scholar Award Endowment.
Dr. Xi Chen, associate professor, has made landmark contributions to the emerging field of cancer stress biology and established the first molecular connection between the endoplasmic reticulum stress response and oncogenesis in triple-negative breast cancer, as well as furthering understanding of other cellular mechanisms. His work has resulted in many first-in-human trials and serves as an example for mechanism-oriented science driving clinical innovations.
Dr. Chen and more than 100 faculty were honored at the annual MD Anderson Celebration of Faculty Excellence on August 8. More information and photos can be seen here.
Experimental Therapeutics Highlights
August 2024
Please welcome DaRonia Taylor, Grant Program Manager
"I’m so excited to join the Experimental Therapeutics team as a Grant Program Manager! I’ve had the honor of working at MD Anderson for 17 years with 14 of those years in grant administration. I’ve had the opportunity to work with a variety of funding agencies including NIH, DoD, CPRIT and several foundations. I look forward to working in Experimental Therapeutics to assist with Dr. Bast’s research program."
Experimental Therapeutics Highlights
July 2024
Please welcome Jennifer Bales, Grant Program Manager
Prior to joining Experimental Therapeutics, Jennifer was a Program Manager – Research at UTHealth Houston. She brings eight years of experience in research administration, specializing in post-award financial management. She holds a master’s in business administration from The University of Texas at Dallas and a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry from Baylor University. We are excited to have her onboard and look forward to working with her.
Experimental Therapeutics Highlights
June 2024
Congratulations to the Recipients of the 2024 ET Travel Awards!
Drs. Ana Alvarez de Cienfuegos Suarez and Gamze Bildik Elcik received $1,000 for the Barnhart Barnhardt Award in Targeted Therapies Award (Instructors). Drs. Hao Nie and Natalia Timofeeva received $500 for the Clyde H. Wright Memorial Fund (Postdoctoral Fellows).
Experimental Therapeutics Highlights
May 2024
Experimental Therapeutics Luncheon - May 22
Dr. Gabriel Lopez Receives 2023 DoCM Entrepreneurship Award at Safety Culture Survey Celebration Lunch with Dr. Flowers
Experimental Therapeutics Highlights
March 2024
2024 Benvenuto Memorial Lecture
featuring Dr. Craig M. Crews
March 13, 2023
Welcome Xi Chen, Ph.D., Associate Professor, our newest faculty member!
Xi Chen, Ph.D., joins the Department of Experimental Therapeutics as an associate professor and the James P. Allison Institute as an associate member. Before joining MD Anderson, he was associate professor and Cullen Duncan McAshan Endowed Chair in Cancer Research at Baylor College of Medicine. Funded by multiple NIH, DOD, CPRIT and private foundation grants, the Chen Laboratory studies how cancer and its immune microenvironment sense and respond to stresses and therapeutic insults to evade immune surveillance and develop drug resistance. They identified the ancient endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress sensor IRE1a as a critical mediator of therapy resistance and immunosuppression in solid tumors, which led to the first-in-human clinical trial of IRE1a RNase inhibitor. They discovered proteostasis network reprogramming as a previously unknown process that mediates therapy resistance to targeted therapies. Their efforts on investigating stress responses in immunity and microenvironment defined ER-associated degradation (ERAD) as a protein quality checkpoint that controls hematopoiesis and T cell development. The long-term goals of the Chen Lab are to elucidate the significance and mechanisms of stress responses in therapy resistance and anti-tumor immunity and to develop mechanism-based novel therapies to transform cancer to a manageable chronic disease.
Experimental Therapeutics Highlights
January 2024
Please welcome Katherine Robinson, Sr. Administrative Assistant
Please join us in welcoming Katherine Robinson to our team! Katherine is a new senior administrative assistant for Experimental Therapeutics. She is an external hire who comes to us from the field of oil and gas. She has extensive experience as an office manager and an executive assistant, with over a decade of experience in administrative support that includes both private sector and university settings. We are excited to have her join the team and look forward to working with her.
New Experimental Therapeutics Department Administrator: Bao Huong Hoang
We are pleased to announce that Bao Huong Hoang has joined Experimental Therapeutics as department administrator effective January 16, 2024. Bao started at MD Anderson in 2011 as a data coordinator in the Development Office and advanced through research administration roles including grant program coordinator (General Oncology), grants administrator (Sponsored Programs), program director (Imaging Physics), manager, clinical protocol research (Leukemia) and administrative director, protocol research (Leukemia).
Since November 2017, as the administrator for the Section of Molecular Hematology and Therapy in the Department of Leukemia, Bao managed the operations, finances, activities and resources for a research program comprised of 22 clinical and research faculty, 12 trainees, 33 research classified staff, four administrative team members and five finance and grants support members. Her role included managing funding of over $17.8 million consisting of 11 peer-reviewed grants and 33 additional fully funded research projects from NIH, CPRIT, FDA, DoD, foundations and industry collaborations. Grants and contracts currently under development or review that she followed up on totaled over $29.3 million. Her scope also included financial management, resource and space planning for the NCI Cancer Center Support Grant-funded Flow Cytometry and Cellular Imaging Facility, Leukemia Sample Bank, and individual PI labs.
Before joining Leukemia, she was program director in the Department of Imaging Physics, where she oversaw research administration for the department of over 100 employees, consisting of approximately 40 clinical and research faculty, 25 trainees, 30 technical and clinical staff, and 10 admin/finance support members. She helped set up and manage the newly awarded $2.5 million NCI T32 fellowship program, a collaboration between MD Anderson and Rice University. She oversaw finances for the CCSG-funded Small Animal Imaging Facility at MD Anderson that had a capital base of over $15 million in small animal imaging equipment and an annual operating budget of almost $1 million.
Previously, Bao was an outreach coordinator for a national breast cancer nonprofit and was an active member of the American Cancer Society’s Asian Cancer Council. She helped draft and submit Hope Clinic’s Health Resources and Services Administration New Access Point grant application, which awarded $2 million and granted the community clinic Federally Qualified Health Center status. Bao has served as vice president and board member of the Vietnamese Culture and Science Organization. She holds a master’s in business administration and bachelor of science degree in psychology from the University of Houston.
A special thanks to Aaron Walton for his service while he transitioned to his new role as Division Administrator for Pediatrics.
Experimental Therapeutics Highlights
December 2023
Welcome to our newest faculty member Simon Eschweiler, Ph.D., Assistant Professor!
Immunotherapies have become crucial treatment options for a variety of cancer types. However, fewer than 30% of people respond to a given therapy. Hence, as low efficacy and widespread immune-related toxicity severely limit both treatment efficacy and combination therapy options, there is urgent need to develop novel immunotherapy targets with an improved efficacy and safety profile.
As a CPRIT scholar and R37 MERIT grant recipient, the overarching objective of the Eschweiler research lab is the identification of novel drivers and inhibitors of immunotherapy treatment efficacy. Its goal is to both develop and evaluate immunotherapies that selectively target these opposing cell populations and to rationally combine these therapies with existing treatment modalities to maximize efficacy while minimizing adverse effects. This is the focal point of his research program, aimed at devising and testing novel immunotherapeutic strategies through mechanism-guided approaches. The lab thus strives to translate promising preclinical findings into meaningful therapies and further test their validity in early clinical trials by closely working with established collaborators and by building new clinical connections.