Bast Lab Members

Robert C. Bast, M.D.
Vice President, Translational Research
rbast@mdanderson.org

Dr. Bast is Vice President for Translational Research at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center where he holds the Harry Carothers Wiess Distinguished University Chair for Cancer Research. His office facilitates translation of new strategies, drugs and devices from the laboratory to the clinic, as well as the movement of human material and data from the clinic to laboratory. He received his education at Wesleyan University, Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins Hospital, the National Cancer Institute, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Before joining the MD Anderson faculty in 1994 he served on the faculties of Harvard Medical School and Duke University Medical Center where he was Director of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center.

In addition to leading the Office of Translational Research, Dr. Bast cares for patients with gynecologic and breast cancer and has been named to Best Doctors in America and America’s Top Physicians. In medical science, Dr. Bast is best known for discovering the CA125 biomarker for ovarian cancer that has contributed to the care of hundreds of thousands of women with ovarian cancer world-wide and promises to provide a critical component of the first effective strategy for early detection of ovarian cancer. His laboratory is attempting to develop a better screening strategy for ovarian cancer, more effective treatment with paclitaxel using targeted therapy and methods to eliminate dormant autophagic cancer cells. Dr. Bast has authored or co-authored more than 690 articles, editorials and chapters and edited the textbook Cancer Medicine. He has been recognized as a Highly Cited Investigator (top 0.5%) by the Institute for Scientific Information with an H Score of 104. Dr. Bast has mentored more than 85 postdoctoral fellows, visiting investigators, graduate and medical students, and coordinates the Physician-Scientist and Clinician-Investigator Programs at MD Anderson. 

At a national level, Dr. Bast was a member and chair of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee of the Food and Drug Administration. He has served on three study sections of the National Cancer Institute, as well as scientific advisory committees of 12 NCI-designated US Cancer Centers, the Cancer Center Karolinska, the Deutsche Krebshilfe and the Berlin Institute of Health. He has served as a chair of the tumor markers expert panel of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the scientific advisory boards of the V Foundation and Ovarian Cancer Action in the United Kingdom. Dr. Bast also serves on scientific advisory committees for the TJ Martell Foundation and the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund Alliance. 

Zhen Lu, M.D.
Associate Professor
Experimental Therapeutics
zlu@mdanderson.org

Dr. Lu is an associate professor in the Department of Experimental Therapeutics at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and an Associate Member of the MD Anderson-UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS). Dr. Lu earned her Master’s and MD degree from China, where she was involved with all aspects of teaching. She moved to the United States and obtained her second Master's degree in Biology from The University of Memphis. After moving to Houston in 2002, she has been an active member in Dr. Bast’s group where her research aims to elucidate the function of ARHI (DIRAS3) and develop novel therapeutic approaches for ovarian cancer. In collaboration with Dr. Bast, Dr. Lu provides guidance to all trainees in the research group.

Dr. Lu’s research has focused on ovarian cancer tumorigenesis and function of tumor suppressors. Our group has identified ARHI (DIRAS3), an imprinted tumor suppressor gene that is downregulated in 60% of ovarian cancers. Re-expression of ARHI blocks cell growth, inhibits motility, induces autophagy and establishes tumor dormancy. By re-expressing ARHI from a doxycycline-inducible promoter in ovarian cancer xenografts, Dr. Lu developed the first inducible model for tumor dormancy in ovarian cancer, permitting evaluation of novel anti-autophagic therapy to eliminate dormant ovarian cancer cells. In addition to studying tumor dormancy, Dr. Lu has also identified key regulators of paclitaxel resistance, and novel biomarkers for the early detection of ovarian cancer. Over the last 17 years, Dr. Lu has served as Co-Investigator and Co-principal Investigator on numerous NIH-funded grants and has published more than 40 peer-reviewed articles. 

Gamze Bildik Elcik, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
GBildik@mdanderson.org

Dr. Bildik received her B.S. in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Istanbul University, Turkey. She earned her M.S. in Reproductive Biology from Koc University where she was trained in a translational research laboratory and focused on fertility preservation strategies against ovarian damage induced by chemotherapy and radiation in young female cancer survivors. She received her Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Medicine from Koc University and she completed her thesis entitled “DNA damage-induced and TAp63-mediated oocyte apoptosis is not associated with c-Abl activation in human ovary.” Dr. Bildik joined MD Anderson Cancer Center as a TRIUMPH Postdoctoral Fellow in 2019. Her research project focuses on better understanding the role of DIRAS3-mediated autophagy and the effect of DIRAS3 peptides on autophagy inhibition in KRAS-driven cancers. The ultimate goal is to understand autophagy-mediated drug resistance and seek more effective therapeutic interventions.

Dengxuan Fan, M.D.
Graduate Student-non-UTHSC
DFan1@mdanderson.org

Chae Young Han, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
CHan4@mdanderson.org

Chae Young received her Ph.D. from the University of Ottawa, Canada in 2019. In the Bast Lab her project focuses on testing and developing more sensitive early detection biomarkers of ovarian cancer using autologous antibodies and patients’ serum with Luminex system.

Xiaowen Liang, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
XLiang3@mdanderson.org

Xiaowen’s research focuses on protein-biomolecule interactions, and kinetics and thermodynamics of binding.

Weiqun (Maggie) Mao, B.S.
Senior Research Assistant
wmao@mdanderson.org

Maggie is a senior research assistant in Dr. Bast’s Lab, studying autophagy and dormancy of ovarian cancer.

Lan Pang, B.S.
Senior Research Assistant
LPang@mdanderson.org

Lan is a senior research assistant, graduated from College of Animal Science at Southwest University in China, working on “Early detection of ovarian cancer using magnetic relaxometry and detection of imaging of nanoparticles in vivo.”

Philip Rask, B.S.
Research Assistant I
PJRask@mdanderson.org

A native Houstonian, Philip earned his BS in biology from the University of Houston - Clear Lake. As a research assistant in the Bast Lab, Philip works primarily on in vivo studies, as well as projects studying the role of autophagy in dormant ovarian cancer.

Janice Santiago, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral  Fellow
JMSantiago@mdanderson.org

Janice completed her M.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Puerto Rico-Medical Sciences Campus. In 2015, she received her Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from The University of Texas MD Anderson / UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Janice’s dissertation work focused on the contribution of autophagy to chemoresistance in osteosarcoma. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Bast. Her studies are focused on determining the role of DIRAS3, an important regulator of autophagy and tumor dormancy in ovarian cancer. She has also found that olaparib, an FDA-approved PARP inhibitor, induces autophagy that enhances drug resistance in ovarian cancer cells. Having elucidated the mechanism by which olaparib induces autophagy, she is currently combining olaparib with FDA approved drugs that are selectively toxic for autophagic cancer cells, producing additive and synergistic antitumor activity.
 

Hailing Yang, Ph.D.
Coordinator, Research Laboratory
HYang3@mdanderson.org

Hailing Yang is the Laboratory Coordinator. She obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Texas MD Anderson / UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Her project focuses on the treatment of ovarian cancer using kinase inhibitors.