Award & Fellowship Recipients
Cancer Center Trainee Fellowship Awards
2023
Karl Kowalewski (PhD Candidate), Department of Chemical Engineering, under the mentorship of Dr. Matthew Lazzara: “Hypoxic Cancer-associated Fibroblasts Promote Epithelial-mesenchymal Transition in Pancreas Cancer.”
Mehraju Lone (Postdoctoral Fellow), Department of Pediatrics, under the mentorship of Dr. Michael Engel: “Targeting LSD1-ChAHP Complex in Acute Myeloid Leukemia.”
Katerina Morgaenko (PhD Candidate), Department of Biomedical Engineering, under the mentorship of Dr. Rebecca Pompano: “The Impact of Tumor-draining Lymph Node Remodeling on Tumor Cell Invasiveness.”
Cam Nguyen (PhD Candidate), Department of Physics, under the mentorship of Dr. Krishni Wijesooriya: “Developing Comprehensive Models to Predict Radiation-Induced Immune Suppression Following Lung Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy.”
Lydia Petricca (PhD Candidate), Department of Pathology, under the mentorship of Drs. Timothy Bullock and Richard Price: “Understanding Mechanistically how the Combinatorial Therapy of Thermal Ablative Focused Ultrasound & the Chemotherapy Gemcitabine Work to Constrain Triple Negative Breast Cancer.”
Christopher Prevost (PhD Candidate), Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, under the mentorship of Dr. David Kashatus: “Investigating the Impact of NRF2 on Lipid Droplet Accumulation and the Pathophysiological Role of NRF2-Induced Lipid Droplets in Pancreatic Cancer.”
Roza Przanowska (Postdoctoral Fellow), Department of Biomedical Engineering, under the mentorship of Dr. Kevin Janes: “Functional Characterization of Recurrent Heterogeneously Expressed ncRNAs in ER+ Breast Cancer.”
Salma Sharmin (PhD Candidate), Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology, under the mentorship of Dr. David Kashatus: “Investigating the Role of Drp1 in RAS Targeted Therapy Resistance.”
Aleksandra Ulman (Postdoctoral Fellow), Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, under the mentorship of Dr. Hao Jiang: “Targeting cMYC Condensates Driving Cancer.”
Niket Yadav (MDPhD Candidate), Department of Neurology, under the mentorship of Dr. Benjamin Purow: “Synergistic Anti-tumor Activity of Simvastatin+irinotecan against Glioblastoma and its Underlying Mechanisms.”
2022
Rob Barnes (PhD Candidate), Department of Biomedical Engineering, under the mentorship of Dr. Sepideh Dolatshahi: “Utilizing Polarization and Glycosylation to Augment Tumor-associated Macrophage Immunotherapy Response.”
Anna Bartosik (PhD Candidate), Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, under the mentorship of Dr. Yuh-Hwa Wang: “Targeting G-quadruplex Structures as a Novel and Highly Promising Therapeutic Strategy.”
Justin Grams, PhD (Postdoctoral Fellow), Department of Chemistry, under the mentorship of Dr. Ku-Lung Hsu: “Targeting Oncogenic Proteoforms using Tyrosine-Reactive Chemistry.”
Mitchell McGinty (PhD Candidate), Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology, under the mentorship of Dr. Melanie Rutkowski: “Investigating the Effect of TLR5 Signaling on Dendritic Cell Function and Response to PD-L1 Blockade for Ovarian Cancer.”
Katerina Morgaenko (PhD Candidate), Department of Biomedical Engineering, under the mentorship of Drs. Rebecca Pompano and Melanie Rutkowski: “Ex vivo Model of Lymph Node Metastasis in Breast Cancer.”
Xian Zhou, PhD (Postdoctoral Fellow), Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology, under the mentorship of Dr. Hui Zong: “Immune Surveillance in Breast Cancer Premalignancy.”
2021
Anna Baglione (PhD Candidate), Systems Engineering, under the mentorship of Dr. Laura Barnes: “Modeling Side Effects and Adherence Patterns in Lung Cancer Patients.”
Michelle Barbeau (PhD Candidate), Department of Chemical Engineering, under the mentorship of Dr. Matt Lazzara: “Signaling Heterogeneity of the Epithelial-mesenchymal Transition in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma.”
Michael Chi (PhD Candidate), Department of Radiation Oncology, under the mentorship of Dr. Tarek Abbas: “Functional Dissection of the Role of 53BP1 and Shieldin Complex in the Repair of DSBs.”
Ashish Kabra (Postdoctoral Fellow), Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics, under the mentorship of Dr. John Bushweller: “Targeting the KIX Domain of EP300: A Novel Approach to Therapy for SCLC.”
Benjamin Morris (PhD Candidate), Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, under the mentorship of Dr. Marty Mayo: “Towards Personalized Medicine: Identifying and Targeting Aggressive MYBL2 High Disease.”
Lindsey Power (PhD Candidate), Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, under the mentorship of Dr. Jeff Smith: “Genome-wide Detection of DNA Double-strand Break Sites Associated with Aging and Cancer.”
Armita Salahi (PhD Candidate), Electrical Engineering, under the mentorship of Dr. Nathan Swami: “Machine Learning-based Drug Sensitivity Classification of Pancreatic Tumor Models.”
Dane Sessions (PhD Candidate), Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology, under the mentorship of Dr. David Kashatus: “The Balance of Mitochondrial Fusion and Fission in Oncogenic KRas Lung Adenocarcinoma.”
Salma Sharmin (PhD Candidate), Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology, under the mentorship of Dr. David Kashatus: “Investigating the Role of DRP1-mediated Mitochondrial Fission in MEK Inhibitor Resistance in Pancreatic Cancer.”
Cancer Center Trainee Travel Awards
2023
Adelaide Fierti (PhD Candidate), Department of Pathology. Poster presentation at the Gordon Research Conference in Smithfield, Rhode Island. “Targeting AVIL in Glioblastoma.”
Maria Geba (Resident Fellow), Infectious Diseases and International Health. Poster presentation at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Seattle, WA: “Patient perspectives on anal cancer screening in people with HIV.”
Joey Kelly (PhD Candidate), Department of Chemistry. Poster presentation at the American Peptide Symposium in Scottsdale, AZ. “Post-Translational Modification Impact on MHC Peptide Binding and TCR Engagement.”
Sung Hyun Lee (PhD Candidate), Department of Chemical Engineering. Poster presentation at the FASEB Protein Phosphorylation Confrence in Steamboat Springs, CO. “Spatiotemporal Models of EGFR signaling Predict the Consequences of Stochiometric Pathway Bottlenecks and Receptor Endocytosis on ERK Activity.”
Cam Nguyen (PhD Candidate), Department of Physics. Poster presentation at the American Association of Physicist in Medicine (AAPM) Annual Meeting in Houston, TX. “Quantify the Improvements due to the Addition of Lymphatic Flow to the Blood Circulation Model in Predicting Radiation Induced Immune Suppression Following Lung SBRT.”
Karl Ocius (PhD Candidate), Department of Chemistry. Poster presentation at the American Peptide Symposium in Scottsdale, AZ. “Non-invasive Analysis of Peptidoglycan Biopolymers from Living Animals.”
Hashir Rashad (Postdoctoral Fellow), Department of Radiation Oncology. Poster presentation at the American Association of Physicist in Medicine (AAPM) Annual Meeting in Houston, TX. “Quantitative Assessment of Dosimetric Effect of using Alternative Spinal Cord Delineation in Treatment Planning as Functions of Delineations, Setup Uncertainties and Planning Techniques using an Alternative Truth Assessment Method.”
Sarah Wang (PhD Candidate), Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology. Poster presentation at the Lorne Cancer Conference in Lorne, Australia: “Mechanisms of perivascular melanoma dispersal and survival in the brain.”
Shi Xinrui (PhD Candidate), Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics. Platform presentation at the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) Annual Clinical Genetics Meeting in Salt Lake City, UT: “The Landscape of Chimeric RNAs in Placental Health and Diseases: Implications for Cancer Biology.”