Members

Huiwang Ai, PhD
Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, Chemistry, and Biomedical Engineering
Protein engineering to image specific bioactivities in cells and in vivo

Huan Bao, PhD
Associate Professor, Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics
Cancer vaccines, immunotherapy, structural biology, cancer exosomes

John Bushweller, PhD
Program Co-Lead
Professor, Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics
Chemical and structural biology focused on transcription factor drivers in cancer

Sameer Bajikar, PhD
Assistant Professor, Cell Biology
TGFb growth factor GDF11 and its role as a tumor suppressor in triple-negative breast cancers, loss of one copy of Gdf11 leads to tumor formation in mice, study mechanisms by which a 50 percent decrease in a growth factor leads to tumorigenesis

David Cafiso, PhD
Professor, Chemistry
Reversible protein and membrane interactions controlling cell-signaling and membrane trafficking, molecular mechanisms of membrane transport

Steven Caliari, PhD
Associate Professor, Biomedical  and Chemical Engineering
Design of 3D biomaterials as cellular microenvironments for applications in cancer, fibrosis, and tissue regeneration

James Casanova, PhD
Professor, Cell Biology
Molecular regulation of cell motility and metastasis

Charles Chalfant, PhD
Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Hematology and oncology, cell biology, lipid signaling, cancer cell signaling and RNA biology

Linda Columbus, PhD
Associate Professor, Chemistry
Biophysical methods to investigate the function, structure and dynamics of membrane proteins involved in pathogen-host interactions; use of molecular understanding of Opa-mediated liposome: cellular interactions to design functionalized targeted liposomes for drug delivery and cell manipulation

Ana Karina de Oliveira, PhD
Assistant Professor, Pathology
Molecular mechanisms involved in immune evasion, cancer development (breast precancer lesion) and progression using in vitro and in vivo models; finding new molecular targets for breast cancer therapeutic prevention.

Sepideh Dolatshahi, PhD
Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Systems immunology, systems biology of immune regulation and immunotherapies, regulation and regulatory roles of glycosylation in cancer

Andrew Dudley, PhD
Professor, Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology
Tumor microenvironment and mechanisms of tumor neovascularization

Seham Ebrahim, PhD
Assistant Professor, Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics
Elucidating the mechanochemical signaling pathways that regulate of specialized epithelial cell function and dysfunction in homeostasis and disease

Edward Egelman, PhD
Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Structural biology of macromolecular complexes using cryo-EM

Sarah Ewald, PhD
Associate Professor, Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology
Innate immune regulation of cancer progression and cancer cachexia

Mohammad Fallahi-Sichani, PhD
Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Systems biology approaches to understand the mechanisms of cancer drug response and resistance

David Feith, PhD
Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Cell signaling and survival pathways, genetic alterations, and development of experimental therapeutics; large granular lymphocyte (LGL) leukemia; acute myeloid leukemia (AML); role of polyamines in normal and neoplastic growth in the skin, upper aerodige

Jay Fox, PhD
Professor, Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology
Microenvironment of dense breasts and role of exosomes in host stem cell modulation

Todd Fox, PhD
Associate Professor, Pharmacology
Sphingolipids in ocular disease and cancer

Zheng Fu, PhD
Associate Professor, Pharmacology
Role of primary cilia as a novel mechanism regulating cancer drug resistance and sensitivity

Daniel Gioeli, PhD
Program Co-Lead
Associate Professor, Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology
Mechanistic understanding of the cell signaling network that contribute to cancer progression and resistance to therapy

Adam Goldfarb, MD, PhD
Professor, Pathology
Erythroid and megakaryocytic differentiation to identify new approaches toward treatment of anemias and thrombocytopenias in cancer patients and to shed light on the pathogenesis of megakaryocytic leukemias

Barry Gumbiner, PhD
Professor, Cell Biology
Cadherins and cell junctions, endothelial permeability, invasion and metastasis

David Green, PhD
Associate Professor, Materials Science, Chemical and Mechanical Engineering
Synthesis of well-defined nanoparticles, their dispersion into polymer solutions and melts, and their use for detection and therapeutics

Thurl Harris, PhD
Associate Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Signaling and enzymes in lipid metabolism

Michael Hilinski, PhD
Assistant Professor, Chemistry
Synthetic organic and medicinal chemistry focused on potential anticancer small molecules

Karen Hirschi, PhD
Professor, Cell Biology
Understanding cellular and molecular mechanisms leading to blood vessel formation

Donald Hunt, PhD
Professor, Chemistry
Class I MHC phosphopeptides for immunotherapy of multiple cancers and the viruses that cause them

Brant Isakson, PhD
Professor, Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics
Focused in the vasculature with the discovery of new proteins that may be related to development of cancer

Kevin Janes, PhD
Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Cancer systems biology approaches to solid tumors

Ahmad Jomaa, PhD
Assistant Professor, Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics 
Localization of nascent proteins to sub-cellular compartments

David Kashatus, PhD
Associate Professor, Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology
The regulation of mitochondrial dynamics by oncogenic signaling pathways and the role of mitochondrial dynamics in tumorigenesis

Melissa Kendall, PhD
Associate Professor, Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology
Bacterial cell signaling, host-pathogen interactions, intestinal pathogens

Anne Kenworthy, PhD
Professor, Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics
Architecture and function of biological membranes

Glynis Kolling, PhD
Associate Research Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Intestinal microbiome as it relates to nutrition and infection, colorectal cancer, using biological approaches to test/validate metabolic models of specific organ systems (e.g., renal, hepatic, cardiac)

James Landers, PhD
Professor, Chemistry
Bioanalytical chemistry on microchips

Matthew Lazzara, PhD
Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Cancer cell signaling, systems biology approaches for the rational design of combination therapy for cancer

Lu Le, MD, PhD
Professor & Chair, Dermatology
RAS, MAPK, NF1, tumor suppressor, tumor cell of origin, tumor microenvironment

Ilya Levental, PhD
Associate Professor, Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics
Composition, biophysics and physiology of cellular membranes

Xin Li, PhD
Professor, Plastic Surgery
Host-microbiome interactions regulate immune responses to enhance immunotherapy, the alteration of metabolism and metabolite mediated signaling during the progression of tumors, post-translational modification of proteins and enzymes in mitochondria regulates tumor micro-environment

Kevin Lynch, PhD
Professor, Pharmacology
Discovering inhibitors of sphingosine 1-phosphate synthesis and transport

Timothy Martin, PhD
Assistant Professor, Pharmacology
Cancer biology, tumor immunology, cancer genetics

Wladek Minor, PhD
Professor, Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics
Structural biology focused on structure-function relation and data mining

Golam Mohi, PhD
Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Molecular mechanisms and therapeutic development in myeloid neoplasms

Christopher Moskaluk, MD, PhD
Professor, Pathology
Genomic, transcriptomic and proteomic analysis of primary cancer specimens for biomarker discovery, and validation of tissue-based biomarkers by in situ analytic techniques and tissue microarray construction of population cohorts

Kristen Naegle, PhD
Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Computational systems biology approaches to understand the role of tyrosine phosphorylation in proteins and protein networks

Jason Papin, PhD
Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Metabolic networks in cancer

Kwon-Sik Park, PhD
Associate Professor, Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology
Functional genetics focused lung cancer

Lucy Pemberton, PhD
Associate Professor, Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology
Nuclear transport in chromatin assembly and transcriptional regulation

Shayn Peirce-Cottler, PhD
Professor & Chair, Biomedical Engineering
Angiogenesis, computational modeling, hypoxia, microcirculation, inflammation, fibrosis.

William Petri, MD, PhD
Professor, Infectious Diseases and International Health
Role of shigellosis in promotion of colorectal cancer (CRC), spatial proteomics on colon biopsies, E2F family of transcription factors.

Ling Qi, PhD
Professor and Chair, Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics
ER biology, cell biology, physiology

Marcos Pires, PhD
Associate Professor, Chemistry
Chemical biology and immunology focused on targeting tumors via infectious agents

Rebecca Pompano, PhD
Assistant Professor, Chemistry
Bioanalytical chemistry and microfluidics to reveal dynamics in the lymph node

Lecia Robinson, MS, PhD
Assistant Professor, Biology
Tuskegee University
Triple-negative breast cancer, roles of reactive oxygen species (ROS), mitochondrial uncoupling proteins

Gustavo Rohde, PhD
Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Objective and quantitative modeling of data from imaging and other types of sensors

Melanie Rutkowski, PhD
Associate Professor, Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology
Tumor microenvironment, molecular and cellular mediators of tumor metastasis, tumor growth, and response to therapy

Ira Schulman, PhD
Associate Professor, Pharmacology
Transcriptional regulation of lipid metabolism focusing on the control of inflammation and cell proliferation

Gloria Sheynkman, PhD
Assistant Professor, Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics
Proteoform systems biology: proteogenomic approaches to uncover the role of proteomic variation in driving cancer

Harald Sontheimer, PhD
Professor of Neuroscience and Department Chair
Communication between tumor cells and the neuronal brain microenvironment in glioma progression

Elias Spiliotis, PhD
Professor, Cell Biology
Cancer cell division, genomic instability, cancer cell migration and invasion, invadopodia, tumor microenvironment

Cliff Stains, PhD
Associate Professor, Chemistry
Chemical approaches for interrogating cellular processes

Shengyi Sun, PhD
Associate Professor, Pharmacology
Protein homeostasis and quality control, endoplasmic reticulum biology, liver physiology, lipid and iron metabolism

Lakeshia Taite, PhD
Assistant Professor, Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics
Tissue engineering of the tumor microenvironment drug delivery in glioblastoma

Lukas Tamm, PhD
Professor, Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics
Structural biophysics of membranes proteins involved in cell signaling

Jetze Tepe, PhD
Professor, Chemistry
Drug discovery, multiple myeloma, intrinsically disordered proteins, small molecule therapeutics

Scott Vande Pol, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Pathology
Physical structure and biological functions of papillomavirus E6 oncoproteins

Ruth Washington, PhD
Professor, Biology
LeMoyne-Owen College
Tumor cell interactions with the microvasculature, tumor microenvironment, mechanisms of tumor neovascularization

David Wotton, PhD
Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Regulation of gene expression, development and tumor progression by TGF beta signaling

Joshua Wythe, PhD
Associate Professor, Cell Biology
Glioblastoma, angiogenesis, blood brain barrier/CNS vasculature

Jinghang Xie, PhD
Assistant Professor, Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics
Molecular imaging and cancer immunology

Juan Sebastian Yakisich, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor and Chair, Pharmacy Sciences
Hampton University
Translational oncology, the cancer stem cell model, the interconversion model of tumor biology, chemotherapy, the cell cycle, the DNA replication field

Jie Yang, PhD
Assistant Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Structural Biology, cryo-EM, protein-ligand complex, mitochondrial stress, endoplasmic reticulum stress, cellular stress response

Jochen Zimmer, PhD
Professor, Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics
Structural and molecular biology of complex carbohydrate biosyntheses

Eli Zunder, PhD
Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Mechanisms that control stem cell fate

Tarek Abbas, MPH, PhD
Associate Professor, Radiation Oncology
The ubiquitin system and human cancer; the regulated process of protein ubiquitination and proteolysis of DNA sensing and repair molecules

Roger Abounader, MD, PhD
Professor, Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology
Roles and targeting of c-Met in brain tumors; c-Met/PTEN interactions in gliomas; PTEN/mutant-p53 interactions in gliomas; microRNAs in brain tumors

Stefan Bekiranov, PhD
Associate Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Developing algorithms for analysis of sequence data to extract insight into chromatin and epigenetic regulation; applying quantum computers to bioinformatic analysis

Anja K. Bielinsky, PhD
Professor and Chair, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
DNA replication-coupled repair, genome integrity networks, DNA damage-tolerance pathways

Matthew Devall, PhD
Assistant Professor Family Medicine
Colorectal cancer risk

Lu Gan, PhD
Associate Professor, Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics
Cryo-electron tomography, structure of chromosomes, comparative analysis of cancer and non-cancer cells of similar lineages, structural changes to the genome

Mariano A. Garcia-Blanco, MD, PhD
Professor and Chair, Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology
RNA-protein interactions in antiviral immunity and autoimmune diseases

Francine Garrett-Bakelman, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Epigenetic changes underlying acute myeloid leukemia

Marie-Louise Hammarskjöld, MD, PhD
Professor, Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology
Regulation by RNA and Retrovirology and export of RNAs in HIV-infected cells; relevance to HIV-associated neoplasms

Eric A. Hendrickson, PhD
Professor, Hematology and Oncology
DNA recombination, DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair, telomeres and gene targeting

Sheng’en Hu, PhD
Research Assistant Professor, Genome Sciences
Computational biology, bioinformatics, cancer immune therapy, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, cancer epigenetics, method development, single-cell genomics, transcriptional regulation, chromatin accessibility

Hao Jiang, PhD
Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Changes to splicing and biomolecular condensates that underlie cancer

Alaattin Kaya, PhD
Associate Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Characterizing key genes involved in cancer development, roles in immortalization, DNA synthesis, clonal dynamics, evasion of apoptosis and autophagy, invasion and metastasis, and angiogenesis; genetic and epigenetic mechanisms regulating gene expression of in normal and cancer cells; mechanisms by which genetic, epigenetic, and immunological processes related to cancer-cell death; innovative therapeutic strategies for human cancers

Muge Kuyumcu-Martinez, PhD
Professor, Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics
RNA regulatory networks and RNA binding proteins during cardiovascular development and in cardiovascular disease

James Larner, MD
Professor, Radiation Oncology
Molecular basis of resistance to radiation; development of techniques for target-tissue sensitization to ionizing radiation; development of therapeutic focused ultrasound

Hui Li, PhD
Program Co-Lead
Professor, Pathology
Trans-splicing as a novel regulatory mechanism in cancer

Wenpeng Liu, PhD
Assistant Professor, Radiation Oncology
DNA replication-coupled damage repair pathways related to tumorigenesis and cancer treatment

Clint Miller, PhD
Associate Professor, Genome Sciences
Cardiovascular complications of chemotherapeutics, chemotherapy-induced cardiomyopathy and radiation-induced vasculitis, single-cell and spatial genomics analysis of solid tissues, genomic and epigenomic analysis of large population cohorts

Marty Mayo, PhD
Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
NFkB involvement in the suppression of apoptosis in non-small-cell lung cancer and in the epithelial-mesenchymal transition

Bryce Paschal, PhD
Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Androgen signaling and ADP-ribosylation in prostate cancer

Aakrosh Ratan, PhD
Associate Professor, Genome Sciences
Genomics, molecular evolution, algorithm design and analysis

Stefanie Redemann, PhD
Assistant Professor, Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics
Mechanisms of chromosome segregation during mitosis and meiosis

David Rekosh, PhD
Professor, Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology
RNA-based regulatory mechanisms

Heman Shakeri, PhD
Assistant Professor, Data Sciences
Machine learning in cancer research in snapshot single cell data, dynamical systems in live cell data, functional data analysis

Nathan Sheffield, PhD
Associate Professor, Genome Sciences
Computational methods to identify drivers of AML

Jeffrey Smith, PhD
Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Role of the NADH-dependent deacetylase, sirtuin, in modulating gene expression in aging and carcinogenesis

P. Todd Stukenberg, PhD
Program Co-Lead
Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Role of Aurora kinases in mitosis and how their disfunction drives aneuploidy in tumorigenesis

Jianguo Tao, PhD
Professor, Pathology
Identifying major molecular determinants for drug response and resistance, as well as novel targets for overcoming or preventing drug resistance evolution in mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) and double hit lymphoma (DHL)

Bon Trinh, PhD
Assistant Professor, Pathology
Understanding protein and RNA regulations of gene expression via chromatin structure in myeloid cell development and diseases

Shangming Tang, PhD
Assistant Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Single cell genomics in cancer genome rearrangement, nuclear structure and genomic instability, transcriptional stress (R-loop) and genomic instability

Yuh-Hwa Wang, PhD
Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Roles of fragile site breakage in generating translocations in tumors

Tyler Weaver, PhD
Assistant Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Mechanisms of DNA repair in chromatin, DNA repair-deficient cancers

Kexin Xu, PhD
Professor, Genome Sciences
Mechanisms by which epigenetics contributes to cancer development and progression, identification of novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers as well as anticancer drug targets

Chongzhi Zang, PhD
Associate Professor, Genome Sciences
Development of bioinformatic algorithms to apply the vast amounts of publicly available RNA sequencing data to cancer problems

Aidong Zhang, PhD
Professor, Computer Science
Developing machine learning and data science approaches to modeling and analysis of structured and unstructured data with bioinformatics and health informatics applications

Tian Zhang, PhD
Assistant Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Mass spectrometry-based method development and application in cancer biology

Tianpeng Zhang, PhD
Assistant Professor, Radiation Oncology
Genome integrity, telomeres, DNA replication, DNA repair

Hui Zong, PhD
Professor, Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology
MADM, a mouse genetic mosaic model, to study how tumor cells originate and compete

Antonio Abbate, MD, PhD
Professor, Cardiology
Cardio-immunology and cardio-oncology: heart inflammation (pericarditis and myocarditis) and complications due to cancer treatment

Kristin Anderson, PhD
Assistant Professor, Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology
Cancer immunotherapy, engineered T-cell therapy

Emily Ayers, MD, MSCE
Assistant Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, circulating tumor DNA, real-world evidence

Melike Mut Askun, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Neurosurgery
Brain tumors

Stefanie Bailey, PhD
Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
Immunotherapy, CAR T cells, hematologic malignancies, solid tumors, pediatric cancer

Karen Ballen, MD
Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Clinical trials of stem cell transplant

Todd Bauer, MD
Professor, Surgery
Targeted therapies for pancreatic cancer

Stuart Berr, PhD
Professor, Radiology and Medical Imaging and Biomedical Engineering
Medical and molecular imaging, cardiovascular engineering

David Brenin, MD
Professor, Surgery
Focused ultrasound therapy trials in breast cancer

Ross C. Buerlein, MD
Assistant Professor, Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Cholangiocarcinoma, pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer

Kimberly Bullock, PhD
Associate Professor, Surgery
Clinical trial development, immunotherapy

Timothy Bullock, PhD
Professor, Pathology
Increasing the presence and function of T cells in the tumor microenvironment; impact of CD70-CD27 co-stimulation on T-cell function; function of CD4 T cells in enhancing CD8 T-cell recruitment to tumors

Chuanxi Cai, PhD
Associate Professor, Surgery
Delineate the connections between heart disease and cancer via targeting circulating factors

Leigh A. Cantrell, MD, MSPH
Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology
High-risk uterine and cervical cancers, robotic surgery, gynecologic cancer surgery

Ludimila Cavalcante, MD
Associate Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Sarcoma, melanoma, developmental therapeutics

Danielle Cook, PhD
Research Assistant Professor, Hematology & Oncology
TCR discovery, antigen identification, next-gen T-cell editing

Jeffrey Craig, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Pathology
Lymphoid cancer biology, lymphoma diagnostics

Stephen Culp, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Urology
Molecular characterization of renal cell carcinoma, resistance to targeted therapy in kidney cancer, development of xenograft models in kidney and bladder cancer

Lynn Dengel, MD
Assistant Professor, Surgery
Focused ultrasound and immunotherapy of melanoma

Michael Devitt, MD
Assistant Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Clinical trials in urogenital cancers

Patrick Dillon, MD
Associate Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Immunotherapy of breast cancer, breast cancer clinical trials

Robert Dreicer, MD
Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Clinical trials of genitourinary malignancies, including immunotherapy, chemotherapy, targeted therapies, and combination therapies

Linda Duska, MD
Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology
Clinical trials in ovarian cancer

Firas El Chaer, MD
Assistant Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Clinical trials in leukemias

W. Jeffery Elias, MD
Professor, Neurosurgery
Stereotactical neurosurgery

Michael Engel, MD, PhD
Professor, Pediatrics
Developing new therapies for pediatric leukemias

Victor Engelhard, PhD
Professor, Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology
T lymphocyte-based immunity to antigens expressed on melanoma and other tumors; identification of phosphopeptides; elucidation of factors responsible for T cell homing to cancers

Elizabeth Gaughan, MD
Associate Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Clinical trials of immunotherapy for melanoma and for head and neck cancers

Paola Gehrig, MD
Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology
Clinical trials of novel therapeutics for endometrial cancer

Ryan Gentzler, MD, MS
Associate Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Clinical trials of immunotherapy and combination therapies for lung cancer

Kirsten Greene, MD
Professor and Chair, Urology
Developing and testing novel imaging technologies in prostate cancer

Richard Hall, MD
Associate Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Clinical trials of lung cancer

Jiang He, PhD
Associate Professor, Radiology and Medical Imaging
Imaging of molecular signatures

Marilyn Huang, MD, MS
Professor and Director, Division of Gynecologic Oncology
Novel therapeutics and innovative drug combinations with immunotherapy across gynecologic cancers

Anuradha Illendula, PhD
Assistant Research Professor, Hematology and Oncology
T-cell lymphoma; PTCL and CTCL AML, prostate cancer, child sarcoma, hepatocellular carcinoma

Einsley-Marie Janowski, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Radiation Oncology
Breast cancer, focused on investigating relevant biomarkers to evaluate treatment response and to predict for treatment-related toxicity

Kallesh Danappa Jayappa, DVM, PhD, DABT
Assistant Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Cancer drug resistance mechanisms, tumor microenvironment, development of novel nanotherapeutics against leukemia/lymphoma, comparative medicine research targeting cancer biology and therapeutics development

Marshall Kadin, MD
Professor, Pathology
Pathogenesis and diagnosis; immunology; immunohistochemistry; cytokines; lymphoma, leukemia, lymphoproliferative disorders

Kimberly Kelly, PhD
Program Co-Lead
Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Targeted agents for cell-surface plectin for imaging and cancer therapy

Michael Keng, MD
Associate Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Clinical trials of hematologic malignancies

Alexander Klibanov, PhD
Associate Professor, Cardiovascular Medicine
Molecular imaging (primarily using ultrasound) with the intent of translation of targeted micro-bubbles for specific delineation of tumor-specific endothelial biomarkers (e.g. VEGFR2, alphVbeta3, neuropilin, VCAM-1) and drug delivery using ultrasound-triggered drug release (e.g., doxorubicin) in the tumor vasculature

Kelsey Kubelick, PhD
Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Image-guided adoptive T-cell therapies, monitoring the tumor microenvironment, ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging, theranostic imaging strategies, cell tracking, nanotechnology, cell nanoengineering, drug delivery

Bijoy Kundu, PhD
Associate Professor, Radiology and Medical Imaging and Biomedical Engineering
Parametric PET analytics and multimodal deep learning

Paul Kunk, MD
Associate Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Clinical trials in gastrointestinal cancers

Charles Landen, MD
Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology
Basic discovery in cancer resistance to chemotherapy

Tri Le, MD
Associate Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Clinical trials for gastrointestinal cancers

Daniel W. Lee, MD
Associate Professor, Pediatrics
Clinical trials of CAR T cells

Thomas P. Loughran, MD
Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Large granular lymphocyte leukemia: oncogenic mechanisms, and clinical trials for therapy. Combination therapy for hematologic malignancies

Lawrence G. Lum, MD, DSC
Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Adoptive cell therapy of cancers with bispecific antibody armed T cells (BATs)

Jianjie Ma, PhD
Professor, Surgery
Exercise physiology and immune regulation, therapeutic development to treat lung cancer

Enrica Marchi, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Mechanism and clinical trials in T-cell lymphomas

Linda Martin, MD, MPH
Professor, Surgery
Clinical trials for lung cancer

Jamie Mata, PhD
Professor, Radiology and Medical Imaging
Early detection and characterization of lung cancer using hyperpolarized gas MRI; non-invasive surgical treatment of lung cancer using magnetic resonance guided focused ultrasound

Ileana Mauldin, PhD
Assistant Professor, Surgery
Immune microenvironment of cancers, and impact of immune therapy

Allison May, MD
Assistant Professor, Urology
Kidney cancer, prostate cancer, tumor microenvironment, Cancer immunotherapies

Matthew McCord, MD
Assistant Professor, Pathology
Neuro Oncology, brain tumor pathophysiology, brain tumor therapy resistance

Christopher McLaughlin, MD
Assistant Professor, Radiation Oncology
Leveraging adaptive radiotherapy to reduce toxicity from treatment and to improve patient outcomes, particularly in the setting of head and neck cancer; the comparative costs of various interventions for cancer utilizing activity-based costing analyses; medical education

Trish Millard, MD
Assistant Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Clinical trials of breast cancer

G. Wilson Miller, PhD
Associate Professor, Radiology and Medical Imaging
Development of new pulse-sequence techniques, contrast mechanisms, and hardware for magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in cancer

Shayan Moosa, MD
Assistant Professor, Neurosurgery
Neurosurgical oncology

Ifeyinwa Obiorah, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Pathology
Lymphomas

Owen O’Connor, MD, PhD
Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Mechanism and clinical trials in T-cell lymphomas

Craig Portell, MD
Associate Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Clinical trials of combination immunotherapy and targeted therapy for hematologic malignancies

Richard J. Price, PhD
Program Co-Lead
Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Focused ultrasound and drug delivery

Benjamin Purow, MD
Program Co-Lead
Professor, Neurology
Molecular basis of notch signaling; potential therapeutic targets for malignant gliomas

Daniel Reed, MD
Assistant Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Clinical trials in leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes

Matthew Reilley, MD
Associate Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Clinical trials in GI cancers

Kara Romano, MD
Assistant Professor, Radiation Oncology
Radiation oncology clinical trials

Muneeb Rehman, MD
Assistant Professor, Medicine
Care and research of gastrointestinal cancers

Samantha Ruff, MD
Assistant Professor, Surgery
Metastatic colorectal cancer, tumor immune microenvironment, drug development, clinical trials

David Schiff, MD
Professor, Neurology
Clinical trials in brain tumors

Evan Scott, PhD
Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Drug and gene delivery, immunotherapy, nanotherapy/nanoparticles/nanocarriers, myeloid cells, cancer vaccination, enhancing solid tumor therapeutic uptake and selectivity, focused ultrasound-based delivery

Krithika Shanmugasundaram, MD
Assistant Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, stem cell transplant, lymphoma

Natasha Diba Sheybani, PhD 
Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Targeted drug and gene delivery, cancer immunotherapy, biomedical and molecular imaging, biomedical data sciences, precision medicine

Shayna Showalter, MD
Associate Professor, Surgery
Precision Breast – Intraoperative Radiation Therapy (PB-IORT) Clinical Trials

Jeffrey Siebers, PhD
Professor, Radiation Oncology
Clinical effects of delineation and geometric uncertainties in conformal radiation therapy

William Paul Skelton, MD
Assistant Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Clinical trials and research in genitourinary malignancies

Craig Slingluff, MD
Professor, Surgery
Cancer vaccines and combination immunotherapy for melanoma, with evaluation of the cellular immune response and the tumor microenvironment

Jie Sun, PhD
Professor, Infectious Diseases and International Health
Developing novel ideas and methods for the induction of strong respiratory antiviral and anti-tumor immunity, and to target host immune regulatory networks for the control of acute and/or chronic disease

Nathan Swami, PhD
Professor, Electrical and Chemical Engineering
Signal and image processing

Archana Thakur, PhD
Associate Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Enhance the efficacy of cell-based therapies, translational research, designing a multi-antigen targeting strategy for adoptive immunotherapy to maximize clinical and immune responses, minimize adverse events, natural and engineered T cells

Allan Tsung, MD
Professor and Chair, Surgery
Clinical and translational research of innate immunity in injury-induced inflammation and tumorigenesis of primary and metastatic liver cancer

Justin Taylor, PhD
Associate Professor, Infectious Diseases and International Health
B-cell immunology, B-cell responses during Merkel cell carcinoma

Indumathy Varadarajan, MD
Assistant Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Bone marrow transplant and cellular immunotherapy

Arthi Venkat, MD
Assistant Professor, Opthalmology
Anti-neoplastic uveitis

Paul Viscuse, MD
Assistant Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Clinical and translational research in prostate cancer

John Wagner, MD
Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Stem cell transplantation GVHD graft content, plasma cell disorders

Krishni Wijesooriya, PhD
Associate Professor, Radiation Oncology
Radiation therapy contribution to the generation of anti-tumor T cells and the negative effects of radiation therapy on circulating immune cells

Luke Wilkins, MD
Associate Professor, Radiology and Medical Imaging
Development of novel cancer therapeutics

Michael Williams, MD
Professor, Hematology and Oncology
Clinical and translational research of novel therapeutics and prognostic biomarkers in hematologic malignancies, with a focus in non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Russell Witt, MD, MAS
Assistant Professor, Surgery
Management of cutaneous malignancies and soft tissue sarcoma

Qiwei Wang, PhD
Assistant Professor, Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology
Immuno-oncology, cancer biology, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, lung cancer

Steven Zeichner, MD, PhD
Professor, Pediatrics and Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology
Pathogenesis of infectious diseases and the development of new therapies and vaccines for infectious diseases and cancers

Hongji Zhang, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Surgery
Tumor immune microenvironment, Kupffer cells, pre-operative exercise therapy, NASH-HCC

Roger Anderson, PhD
Professor, Public Health Sciences
Health services research and cancer health disparities in low-income and rural populations

Siddhartha Angadi, PhD
Assistant Professor, Kinesiology
Mitigation strategies for chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity in patients

Laura Barnes, PhD
Associate Professor, Systems and Information
Health information technology, with a focus on creating new tools that aid in patient disease management and education, as well as healthcare delivery

Jeffrey Blume, PhD
Professor, Data Science
Cancer diagnosis and prediction research

Michael Catalino, MD, MSc
Assistant Professor, Neurosurgery
Pituitary tumors, craniopharyngioma epidemiology, and public health

Phil Chow, PhD
Associate Professor, Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences
Use of mobile health technology interventions to address health behaviors, mental distress, anxiety, and mood

Wendy Cohn, MEd, PhD
Professor, Public Health Sciences
Evaluation research, cancer risk assessment, control, and survivorship

Katharine Daniel, PhD
Assistant Professor, Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences
How anxiety shapes behavior (e.g., someone who excessively seeks reassurance from medical professionals or demands high-frequency scans, someone who avoids recommended cancer screenings, someone who uses substances to mask their anxiety); identify how emotion-regulation skills can be personalized to 1) reduce anxiety and 2) disrupt the relationship between anxiety and unhelpful behaviors; develop and test the efficacy of digital mental health interventions

Pamela B DeGuzman, PhD, MBA, RN, CNL
Associate Professor, Nursing
Nursing interventions to relieve cancer-related distress in rural survivors; implementation research

Tracy M. Downs, MD, FACS
Professor, Urologic Oncology
Health disparities in bladder and prostate cancer with a focus on intravesical therapy treatment

Katarine Egressy, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
Lung cancer screening, cancer survivorship, healthcare delivery

Trevin Glasgow, PhD
Assistant Professor, Public Health Sciences
Lifestyle behaviors related to cancer risk; cancer beliefs; cancer prevention

Thomas Hartvigsen, PhD, MS
Assistant Professor, Data Science
Machine learning and natural language processing in healthcare settings, deep learning-based computational pathology models with demographic groups related to IDH1 mutations in gliomas, medical language models

Traci Hedrick, MD
Professor, Surgery
Improving clinical outcomes in the immediate postoperative period, surgical infections, prevention of surgical site infections and surgical education

Scott Hollenbeck, MD, FACS
Professor and Chair, Plastic Surgery, Maxillofacial and Oral Health
Social aspects of obesity and cancer; disparities in breast reconstruction

Nao Hagiwara, PhD
Professor, Public Health Sciences
Racial cancer health and healthcare disparities; Provider implicit and explicit bias; patient-provider communication; discrimination as a chronic stressor

Christine Ibilibor, MD
Assistant Professor, Urology
Development of preoperative interventions in urologic oncology, particularly in populations prone to postoperative complications; Health disparities in prostate cancer clinical trial representation

Lee Johnson, PhD, RN
Assistant Professor, Nursing
Palliative and end-of-life care outcomes in individuals with advanced lung cancer; stigma associated with the diagnosis

Randy Jones, PhD, RN, FAAN
Professor, Acute and Specialty Care
Health disparities and decision making in chronic illness and prostate cancer

Debamita Kundu, PhD
Assistant Professor, Public Health Sciences
Cancer risk estimation due to environmental exposure, study design, and analysis in cancer clinical trials, complex modeling of correlated cancer outcomes, longitudinal and survival analysis, high-dimensional data

Becca Krukowski, PhD
Professor, Public Health Sciences
Use of technology to increase access to evidence-based behavioral interventions for adults to reduce cancer risk with a focus on weight management, self-monitoring behaviors, health equity, and increasing access to rural communities

Tracey Krupski, MD, MPH
Associate Professor, Urology
Development and deployment of tele-cystoscopy for bladder cancer surveillance in underserved areas

Virginia LeBaron, PhD, APRN, ACNP-BC, FAANP
Associate Professor, Nursing
Palliative care for advanced cancers, including reducing disparities in access to pain relief and support for oncology nurses

Li Li, MD, PhD
Program Co-Lead
Professor and Chair, Family Medicine
Molecular and genetic epidemiology and disease prevention, integrating genome and behavior cancer etiology, particularly with colon cancer

Melissa Little, PhD
Associate Professor, Public Health Sciences
Design, evaluation, and dissemination of health promotion and disease prevention programs, particularly in military populations

Jennifer Lobo, PhD
Associate Professor, Public Health Sciences
Decision analysis, Markov decision processes, Markov models, Monte Carlo simulation models, discrete event simulation

Jessica Malpass, PhD, RN
Associate Professor, Acute and Specialty Care
Hematology-oncology and other life-limiting and life-threatening conditions for pediatric, adolescent, and young adult health

Emma Mitchell, PhD, MSN, RN
Associate Professor, Nursing
Feasibility and acceptability of at-home, self-screening HPV tests as a route to increasing detection of cervical cancer in underserved, rural areas

Kathleen Porter, PhD
Associate Professor, Public Health Sciences
Dissemination and implementation of evidence-based programs and behavior change techniques in community settings

Asal Pilehvari, PhD
Assistant Professor, Public Health Sciences
Cancer disparities, health policy, cancer health services research, economics of cancer care

Kari Ring, MD, MS
Associate Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology
Hereditary cancer syndromes

Lee Ritterband, PhD
Professor, Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences
Mobile and electronic health interventions to deliver treatments and assessments for behavioral health issues, including cancer and insomnia

Jie Shen, PhD
Assistant Professor, Public Health Sciences
Molecular cancer epidemiology, cancer racial disparities, cancer biomarkers

Kelly Shaffer, PhD
Program Co-Lead
Associate Professor, Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences
Developing and disseminating accessible interventions to improve patient and caregiver mental and physical health and well-being

Paula Sherwood, RN, PhD, CNRN, FAAN
Professor, Nursing
Neuro-oncology, family caregivers

Timothy Showalter, MD
Associate Professor, Radiation Oncology
Comparative effectiveness in cervical cancer; novel technology for brachytherapy, intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT); comparative effectiveness in cervical cancer

Thomas Shin, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Surgery
Metabolic syndrome and carcinogenesis, breast cancer, Bariatric surgery effect modulation on cancer risk

Gerald Talcott, PhD
Professor, Public Health Sciences
Development and delivery of interventions for the management of health risk behaviors, particularly tobacco use, in military populations

Marquita Taylor, PhD, MPH, MBA
Assistant Professor, Public Health Sciences
Cancer epidemiology, health equity and health justice, CBPR, digital health literacy and healthcare informatics, and the intersection of community-level health intervention and community engagement

Tania Thomas, MD, MPH
Associate Professor, Infectious Diseases and International Health
Access to anal cancer screening

Rupa Valdez, PhD
Assistant Professor, Public Health Sciences
Impact of environment, community, and information technology on patient experiences in underserved populations

Catherine Varney, DO
Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Obesity medicine and cancer risk research with a focus on weight management programs

Kara Wiseman, PhD
Assistant Professor, Public Health Sciences
Leveraging technology to create scalable behavior change interventions for cancer prevention and control

Yaohua Yang, PhD
Assistant Professor, Genome Sciences
Use of microbiome and host multi-omics data to identify microbial features, genetic variants, genes, and molecular biomarkers, including DNA methylation marks, proteins, and metabolites, for risk and prognosis of cancers

Wen You, PhD
Professor, Public Health Sciences
Applied health economist with expertise in the areas of health economics, behavioral and information economics, treatment effect analysis, economic evaluation, and microeconometrics

Hong Zhu, PhD
Professor, Public Health Sciences
Comparative effectiveness research and observational studies using large healthcare databases, pragmatic clinical trials, analysis of complex survival data, cancer control, risk prediction, health outcomes research

Hua Zhao, PhD
Professor, Public Health Sciences
Cancer epidemiology; molecular epidemiology; health disparity

Jamie Zoellner, PhD, RD
Program Co-Lead
Professor, Public Health Sciences
Community-based participatory research in underserved areas on health literacy and lifestyle risk factors relevant to obesity and cancer