Lab Members
Yonathan Lissanu, M.D., Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Assistant Professor Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Department of Genomic Medicine
M.D.: Gondar College of Medical Sciences in Ethiopia (University of Gondar)
M.S.: International Molecular Cell Biology Program (MCB) of the University of Heidelberg/German Cancer Research Center/EMBL in Germany; mentors Heike Peterziel and Klaus Unsicker
Ph.D. (summa cum laude): Johan Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt, Germany; mentor Ivan Dikic
Postdoctoral Fellowship: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School and MD Anderson Cancer Center; mentors Lynda Chin and Andy Futreal
Primary Long Term Interests: Discovery of therapeutically relevant vulnerabilities of genetically defined subtypes of cancer; discovery of cancer therapeutics
Nicholas Blazanin, Ph.D.
Research Scientist
Nicholas Blazanin obtained his Ph.D. in molecular toxicology from The Pennsylvania State University
His current research interests involve characterizing effective and durable cancer therapies using chemical probes called proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs) targeting the glucocorticoid receptor and implementing drug based CRISPR screens to identify novel gene targets that can be harnessed therapeutically.
Sasi Kotagiri, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Sasi Kumar earned his master of science in genetics from Osmania University, India. He received his Ph.D. from Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology and he completed his thesis entitled “Studies on regulation of C3G and its role in signaling to actin cytoskeleton dependent cellular functions.”
The ultimate goal is to understand the molecular mechanisms that cause cancer and seek more effective therapeutic interventions.
Yanyan Han, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Han earned her master’s degree from DaLian Medical University, China. She also finished her master’s course and obtained her Ph.D. in oncology and pathology from Okayama University, Japan.
Her current project is to understand the impact of Smarca2 deletion on tumor development in Smarca4-mutant KPS GEM model of lung cancer.
Xiaobing Liang, M.D.
Sr. Research Assistant
Dr. Liang earned his M.D. at Tongji Medical University in Wuhan, China. He received his master's in immunology from Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology in Beijing, China. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at UT Health San Antonio and WVU Cancer Institute.
His current research interests include characterizing novel chemical probes called proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs).
Mohamod Qudratullah, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Qudratullah earned his master of science in biotechnology from Madurai Kamaraj University, India. He completed his Ph.D. from National Institute of Immunology, India, in the area of genome annotation.
His ultimate goal in research is to find therapeutics in SMARCA4 mutant tumors.
Yawen Wang, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Wang earned her master's degree from the East China Normal University, Shanghai, China. She finished her Ph.D. project related to autoimmune diseases at Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France.
She joined Dr. Yonathan Lissanu Deribe lab in September 2021 for her postdoctoral research. During her postdoc research, she will explore the impact of SMARCA4 on antigen presentation, inflammatory, inflammasome and interferon signaling pathways to develop the novel immune therapy in lung cancer and study the function of SMARCA2 in cancer development in vivo.
Dr. Lissanu's lab group