Mentor: Ali Jabbari, MD, PhD

Comprehensive Exam: 

Integrating a single-cell, multi-modal sequencing approach and machine learning to uncover signatures of disease initiation and progression in cutaneous T cell lymphoma (CTCL)

My Research:

My research hopes to better understand the pathogenesis and progression of a rare type of lymphoma that occurs in the skin, Cutaneous T Cell Lymphoma (CTCL). I use single-cell sequencing technologies and a bioinformatics approach to explore the gene expression profiles of patient-derived samples, integrating transcriptomics, T cell receptor sequencing, and protein expression into a unified dataset. With this, I develop and test machine learning and deep learning models to investigate both molecular underpinnings of this disease as well as some of the most pressing clinical issues such as timely diagnosis and risk-stratification of patients. 

Publications:

1. Rustum YM, Reis R, Rustum TM. Druggable Biomarkers Altered in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma: Strategy for the Development of Mechanism-Based Combination Therapy. Int J Mol Sci. 2023;24(2).
2. Lusche DF, Wessels DJ, Reis RJ, Forrest CC, Thumann AR, Soll DR. New monoclonal antibodies that recognize an unglycosylated, conserved, extracellular region of CD44 in vitro and in vivo, and can block tumorigenesis. PloS one. 2021;16(4):e0250175.
3. Lefebvre MN, Borcherding N, Reis RJ, Mou E, Liu V, Jabbari A. Molecular techniques drive cutting edge advancements in management of cutaneous T cell lymphoma. Frontiers in immunology. 2023;14:1228563.

4. Rustum YM, Reis R, Rustum TM. Druggable Biomarkers Altered in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma: Strategy for the Development of Mechanism-Based Combination Therapy. Int J Mol Sci. 2023;24(2).

    

Award:

Best Poster Winner, 2024 Holden Cancer Center Annual Retreat. "Non-negative matrix factorization: A batch-agonistic method of deciphering single-cell RNA sequencing data in cutaneous T cell lymphoma"

Presentations:

2021 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.  Zakharia Y, Reis R, Garje R, Swami U, Born JM, et al. "Phase I with expansion clinical trial of seleno-l-methionine (SLM) in combination with axitinib in patients with relapsed clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC): Bench to bedside" (poster).

2024 Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center Annual Retreat.  "Non-negative matrix factorization: A batch-agonistic method of deciphering single-cell RNA sequencing data in cutaneous T cell lymphoma." (poster)

2023 Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center Annual Retreat. "A meta-analysis of cutaneous T cell lymphoma (CTCL) single cell RNA sequencing reveals distinct markers of disease" (poster).