Current and Former Trainees

Predoctoral Trainees

Kelly Heard

Investigating NOTCH1 regulation of tumor growth and immunogenicity in small cell lung cancer

Mentors: David McPherson & Shrivani Srivistava

Sarah Huang

Decoding Recurrence in HNSCC: Computational and Spatial Dissection of Intercellular Communication at Single-Cell Resolution

Mentors: Manu Setty & Martin Prlic

Saumya Jani

Deciphering the TCR-ome to advance cancer immunotheraphy

Mentors: Paul Nghiiem & Phil Bradley

Irina Kopyeva

On Demand Modulation of Extracellular Matrix Mechanics for Studying Mechanobiological and Chemoresistance Mechanisms in Primary and Metastatic Colorectal Cancer

Mentors: Cole DeForest & William Grady

Jobelle Peralta

Demystifying Transcription Factor Networks in Adoptive T cell Therapy

Mentors: Scott Furlan & Steven Henikoff

Juliana Young

Determination of the role and activity of the Aire transcription factor in central immune tolerance

Mentors: Barry Stoddard & Roland Strong

Postdoctoral Trainees

Matthew Chan

Mechanistic Consequences of Ribosome Stalling by Nascent Peptides

Mentors: Rasi Subramaniam & Melody Campbell

Lindsey Moore

Elucidating the mechanism behind how KSHV induces apoptosis during latent infection

Mentors: Michael Lagunoff & Suzanne Hoppins

Tran Nguyen

Multiplexed cancer drug testing of micro-dissected tumors with intact tumor microenvironment using an integrated electrochemical aptasensors multi-well platform

Mentors: Albert Folch & Taran Gujral

Maria Purice

Molecular mechanisms of glial immune responses to neurodegeneration in the young and aged CNS

Mentors: Aakanksha Singhvi & Manu Setty

Former Trainees

Predoctoral Trainees

Thomas Bello / Mentors: Taran Gujral & Pete Nelson / Developing kinase-targeted therapies for late-stage prostate cancer via combined computational modeling and preclinical screening

Lauren Brumage / Mentors: David MacPherson & Patrick Paddison / Elucidating genetic drivers of chemoresistance in small cell lung cancer

Alejandra Cabrera / Mentors: Young Kwon & Barry Gumbiner / The molecular regulation of E-cadherin dynamics during cell dissemination

Ian Cardle / Mentors: Suzie Pun & Michael Jensen / Aptamer intermediates for guiding CAR T-cells to more regulatable and effective treatment of solid tumors

Alexandre Germanos / Mentors: Andrew Hsieh & Manu Setty / Investigating the molecular mechanisms and cellular consequences of mRNA-specific translation in AR-low prostate cancer

Eli Grunblatt / Mentors: David MacPherson & Patrick Paddison / Interrogating KDM5C as a Tumor Suppressor in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

Miranda Lahman / Mentors: Aude Chapuis & Rolan Strong / Impact of protein processing on leukemia epitope repertoires

Jihoon Lee / Mentors: Masaoki Kawasumi & Robert Eisenman / Myc-associated super-enhancers as epigenetics targets in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma

Audrey Olshefsky / Mentors: Neil King & Suzie Pun / Synthetic nucleocapsids as a platform for breast tumor-infltrating leukocyte target discovery and therapeutic development

Thomas Pulliam / Mentors: Paul Nghiem, Raphael Gottardo & David Koelle / Characterization of tumor-specific T cells during PD-1 blockade in Merkel cell carcinoma

Charles Roco / Mentors: Georg Seelig & Aude Chapuis / Characteristic determination of parent T cells engendering persistent anti-tumor effects in adoptive T cell therapy through joint single cell RNA/V(D)J sequencing

Alexander Salter / Mentors: Stan Riddell & Amanda Paulovich / Dissecting chimeric antigen receptor signaling in human T cells

Heshani Thirimanne (Nayanga) / Mentors: Bruce Clurman & Steven Henikoff / Global transcriptional control and tumor suppression by the Fbw7 ubiquitin ligase

Postdoctoral Trainees

Nishida Aoki (Nao) / Mentors: Taran Gujral & Peggy Porter / Targeting tumor-associated macrophages for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer

Aleena Arakaki / Mentors: Taran Gujral & Eric Holland / Identifying molecular regulators and therapeutics for YAP-fusion driven brain cancers

Han Arbach / Mentors: Emily Hatch & Daphne Avgousti / Investigating nuclear envelope vulnerabilities using viral systems

Avraham Bayer / Mentors: Adam Geballe & Harmit Malik / Evolution of MxB restriction of human herpesviruses

Jorge Galeano-Nino / Mentors: Susan Bullman & Christopher Johnston / Assessing the role of Fusobacterium nucleatum in shaping the immune landscape and metastatic potential of colorectal cancer

Erin Greenwood / Mentors: Kevin Cheung & Christopher Li / Does plasma fibronectin instigate cluster-based metastatis? An interdisciplinary study

Namita Hattangady / Mentors: William Grady & Geoffrey Hill / Role of immune microenvironment in colorectal cancer initiation and progression

Sujata Jana / Mentors: Andrew Hsieh & Adam Geballe / Dissecting the interface between chromatin remodeling and mRNA translation in bladder cancer

Dayoung Kim / Mentors: Jonathan Cooper & James Olson / Elucidating the role of collective cell invasion in pediatric brain tumors

Brad Krajina / Mentors: Kevin Cheung & David MacPherson / Illuminating intercellular signalling in cancer

Michelle Messmer / Mentors: Andrew Oberst & Michael Gerner / Visualizing the immune response to cell death in normal tissue and in cancer

Matt Miller / Mentors: Sue Biggins & Charles Asbury / Regulation of Kinetochore-Microtubule Interactions

Rashmi Mishra / Mentors: Andrew Hsieh & Slobodan Beronja / Deciphering the role of mRNA translation in development and oncogenic cell fate choices

Megan Molina / Mentors: Andrew Oberst & David Rawlings / Trojan Horse "Regulatory T-cells to reprogram the tumor microenvironment

Michalina Montano / Mentors: Rachel Bender Ignacio / Defining the burden of undiagnosed and untreated HIV in cancer patients in 3 countries

Lisa Poole / Mentors: Sita Kugel & Steven Henikoff / Exploring the role of SIRT6 in pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor progression

Trisha Sippel / Mentors: Anthony Rongvaux & Raphael Gottardo / Targeting tumor-specific macrophages in metastatic melanoma