Lab Members

Dr. Tina Cascone is an associate professor with tenure, physician-scientist, multidisciplinary section chief and the director of translational research in the Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology department at UT MD Anderson in Houston, Texas. She received her medical degree (summa cum laude) and doctorate from the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli in Naples, Italy. Dr. Cascone completed her postdoctoral studies at UT MD Anderson, and then enrolled in the internal medicine physician-scientist program at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. She returned to UT MD Anderson to complete her fellowship training in medical oncology. Dr. Cascone is a graduate of the UT MD Anderson Cancer Medicine Advanced Scholar and Physician-Scientist Training Programs. 

Dr. Cascone’s research efforts have shaped our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the improved efficacy of combined neoadjuvant immunotherapies for early-stage, resectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Dr. Cascone leads a basic laboratory and a translational research program that study patient-derived samples and human-relevant mouse models to uncover cellular and molecular mechanisms that mediate resistance of NSCLC to immunotherapy. She serves as lead investigator on several clinical trials evaluating novel immune-based therapies for resectable NSCLC. Dr. Cascone incorporates longitudinal, multi-sample collections into clinical trials to increase our knowledge of disease mechanisms, facilitate discovery and enable clinical intervention. This approach has allowed her to push the boundaries of the current standard of care for operable NSCLC and open new areas of investigation. She has received several awards for exceptional clinical care and research excellence, including the Clifton D. Howe Award for Clinical Excellence, the Waun Ki Hong Award for Achievement in Basic Science, the ASCO Young Investigator and Career Development Awards and the ASCI Young Investigator Award. Her research program is supported by funding from The University of Texas Rising STARs Award, the NIH/NCI with multiple R01 Awards (PI, MPI), the Mark Foundation Endeavor Award and the Sabin Family Foundation Award. 

Dr. Cascone has served in several leadership roles and has made significant contributions to her field through her extramural service as committee member, track co-chair, session chair, grant reviewer, invited speaker and organizer of workshops and educational programs for global organizations, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Association for Cancer Research, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, the Cancer Research Institute, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer and the European Society of Medical Oncology. She has published widely in leading journals, including Journal of Clinical Investigation, Cell Metabolism, Nature Communications, Nature Cancer, Cancer Discovery, Nature Medicine and The New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Cascone serves as At-Large Director of the Board of Directors for the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, and is an Associate Editor for the Clinical Cancer Immunotherapy section of the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer.

Michelle Earnest
Senior Administrative Assistant
MDEarnest@MDAnderson.org

Emilly Schlee Villodre, Ph.D.
Research Laboratory Coordinator
ESSchlee@MDAnderson.org

Emilly Villodre received her bachelor’s degree in biological sciences at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS, Brazil) in 2010, and her master’s degree (2012) and her Ph.D. degree (2016) in cell and molecular biology at the UFRGS. She joined the Cascone Lab in March 2026. Prior to joining the Cascone Lab, Dr. Villodre joined the Debeb Laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow in 2017 and as an instructor in 2023.

Cheuk Hong Leung, M.S.
Research Biostatistician

Cheuk Hong Leung obtained his M.S. in biostatistics from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center before joining the Biostatistics department at UT MD Anderson in 2016. He has experience in analyzing prospective studies and designing clinical trials. In the Cascone Lab, he performs statistical analysis of the data from clinical trials, translational correlates and preclinical studies in collaboration with other members of Biostatistics.

Xin Sun, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
XSun8@MDAnderson.org

Xin Sun received her Ph.D. in bioengineering from Northeastern University, where she investigated how to engineer the immune adaptor STING towards cancer immunotherapy. In the Cascone Lab, her work aims specifically to discover and target the mechanisms of tumor response and resistance to novel immune-based therapies in resectable and spontaneously metastatic lung cancer.

Alessandra Vaccaro, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
AVaccaro@MDAnderson.org

Alessandra Vaccaro, Ph.D., obtained her doctoral degree from Uppsala University in Sweden. Her Ph.D. research focused on the discovery, characterization and therapeutic induction of tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) in glioblastoma (GBM), involving the de-novo production of TLS-inducing immunotherapies for GBM. Dr. Vaccaro joined UT MD Anderson as a postdoctoral fellow under the supervision of Dr. Tina Cascone. Dr. Vaccaro’s research in the Cascone Lab focuses on unravelling and understanding B cell responses and TLS biology in the context of lung cancer immunotherapy, utilizing a multifaceted approach involving the integration of data from clinical trials with functional observations from longitudinal pre-clinical studies.

Michael Wang
Postbaccalaureate Research Trainee 
MWang14@MDAnderson.org

Michael Wang received his bachelor’s degree from Rice University and is a current postbaccalaureate research trainee in the Cascone Lab. He is interested in how novel targeted and immune-based therapies can be used to treat resectable NSCLC and how they impact the tumor microenvironment. In the lab, Michael contributes to novel studies investigating the immune landscape of NSCLC.