Watowich Lab Members
Principal Investigator - Dr. Watowich
Current Lab Members
Yusra Medik
Postdoctoral Fellow
YMedik@mdanderson.org
My research interest is in cancer immunotherapy and mechanisms of
immune-related adverse events (irAEs) to checkpoint blockade therapy.
Currently, I am studying the role of the innate immune
system-microbiome axis in the anti-tumor response and enterocolitis
associated with checkpoint blockade. Elucidating the underlying
pathophysiology of irAE is important to overcome current limitations
of onco-immunology.
Bhakti Patel
Postdoctoral Fellow
BPatel6@mdanderson.org
My research interests lie in understanding the anti-inflammatory role of STAT3 in bone marrow derived macrophages (BMDM) and hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) function. I am further interested in determining transcriptional targets of STAT3 in HSCs and myeloid cells, to elucidate the mechanism by which STAT3 protects HSCs and BMDMs from inflammation-induced DNA damage.
XianXiu Wan
Postdoctoral fellow
XWan2@mdanderson.org
My research interests are tumor biology and hematopoiesis. Currently, I am generating CXCL2 knockout PyMT cell lines by CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing. Our aim is to understand the role of CXCL2 in regulating growth of primary PyMT tumors and its function in breast cancer metastasis to lung by delivery of CXCL2 knockout PyMT cells to mouse. I am also investigating the role and the molecular pathways for the cytokine-activated transcription factor Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 3 (STAT3) in maintaining lineage-balanced hematopoiesis.
Yifan Zhou
Postdoctoral Fellow
YZhou14@mdanderson.org
- To study the role of DC-intrinsic STAT signaling in inflammation and tumor development.
- To access the therapeutic role of DC-based vaccination in cancer.
- To determine the role of DC in immune-related adverse events of cancer immunotherapies.
Rachel Babcock
Ph.D. Student
RDziuk@mdanderson.org
My research interests are in innate immunity, dendritic cell biology and molecular biology. With my project, I use both in vitro and in vivo models to study the role and regulation of lineage-specific transcription factors in DC immune function.
Taylor Chrisikos
Ph.D. Student
TTChrisikos@mdanderson.org
My interests lie in both dendritic cell biology and tumor immunology. Currently, I have two main projects, 1) elucidating how myeloid cells promote pulmonary metastasis in breast cancer, and 2) uncovering novel aspects of how tumor infiltrating dendritic cells respond to the tumor microenvironment.
Laura Kahn Serrudo
Ph.D. student
LMKahn@mdanderson.org
Colitis is a major immune related adverse event (irAE) that occurs upon checkpoint blockade immunotherapy. I am interested in elucidating the role of plasmacytoid dendritic cells and IL-6 family cytokines in checkpoint blockade-associated colitis.
Watowich Lab Alumni
Kathryn Newton
Research Assistant
My role was to aid in the studies of immune toxicity events during immunotherapy. The goal of this research project was to understand the roles of dendritic cells and STAT signaling in regards to the immune-related adverse effects of cancer immunotherapies.
Haiyan Li, PhD
Assistant Professor
I studied the molecular cues and extrinsic signals involved in the development and functional diversification of innate immune cells and their hematopoietic progenitors, with a major focus on dendritic cells (DCs). My research sought to understand the essential roles of cytokines and their responsive transcription factors, STATs, in modulating DC subset specification and functional polarization during inflammation and tumor immunity. My long-term goal was to dissect the regulatory networks involved in shaping the differentiation and function of immune cells, with primary interest in studying the crosstalk between myeloid cells and disease-specific microenvironmental factors.
Dr. Li is currently a Research Scientist at Pharmacyclics in Sunnyvale, CA.
Emma Lederer
CPRIT CURE Summer Undergraduate Student (Summer 2019)
My work focused on understanding the function and regulation of rare immune plasmacytoid dendritic cells. I tested whether the treatment of these cells with a novel compound stimulated them to activate other immune cells in the fight against cancer.
Emma is currently finishing her undergraduate studies at Carleton College.
Oleksandr (Sasha) Kyrysyuk
CPRIT CURE Summer Undergraduate Research Student (Summer 2018, Winter 2018)
I characterized the expression of immune factors in a CD103+ Dendritic Cell (DC)-Based Vaccine, which may control its efficacy in a tumor microenvironment. I further studyied the potential of the DC-based vaccine to activate other immune lineages for an anti-tumor response.
Sasha is currently finishing his undergraduate studies at Carleton College.