Current Students
Anothony Avellino
Xingshan Jiang, Yiqin Xiong, Jianyu Yu, Anthony Avellino, Shanshan Liu, et al. Expression profiles of FABP4 and FABP5 in breast cancer: clinical implications and perspectives. Discover Oncology 16.1 (2025): 357.
Matthew Yorek, Xingshan Jiang, Shanshan Liu, Jiaqing Hao, Jianyu Yu, Anthony Avellino, et al. FABP4-mediated lipid accumulation and lipolysis in tumor-associated macrophages promote breast cancer metastasi. Elife 13 (2024): RP101221.s
Jianyu Yu, Jiaqing Hao, Matthew S Yorek, Xiaochun Han, Anthony Avellino, Xingshan Jiang, Shanshan Liu, Jinyu Wang, Bing Li. Determination of the FABP5 expression profile in skin lesions of an IMQ-induced psoriasis mouse model using flow cytometry. STAR protocols 5.2 (2024): 103018
Katie Colling
Colling KE, Symons EL, Buroni L, Sumanasiri HK, Andrew-Udoh J, Witt E, et al. Multiplexed Live-Cell Imaging for Drug Responses in Patient-Derived Organoid Models of Cancer. J Vis Exp. 2024; 203. DOI: 10.3791/66072
Hardik Kalra
Zhang Z, Kalra H, Delzell MC, et al. CORP: Sources and degrees of variability in whole animal intermittent hypoxia experiments. J Appl Physiol (1985). May 1 2023;134(5):1207-1215. doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00643.2022. PMC10151045
Alexis Ramos
Coleman MF, Cotul EK, Pfeil AJ, Devericks EN, Safdar MH, Monteiro M, et al. Hypoxia-mediated repression of pyruvate carboxylase drives immunosuppression. Breast Cancer Res. Jun 7 2024;26(1):96. doi:10.1186/s13058-024-01854-1.PMC10074083
Bi J, Witt E, Voltarelli VA, Feig VR, Venkatachalam V, Boyce H, et al. Low-Cost, High-Pressure-Synthesized Oxygen-Entrapping Materials to Improve Treatment of Solid Tumors. Adv Sci (Weinh). Apr 2023;10(10):e2205995. doi:10.1002/advs.202205995. PMC10074083
Ryan Reis
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).
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.
Sei Sho
Stekas B, Yeo S, Troitskaia A, Honda M, Sho S, Spies M, et al. Switch-like control of helicase processivity by single-stranded DNA binding protein. eLife. 2021;10. PMC7997660
Peters-Hall JR, Min J, Tedone E, Sho S, Siteni S, Mender I, et al. Proliferation of adult human bronchial epithelial cells without a telomere maintenance mechanism for over 200 population doublings. Faseb j. 2020;34(1):386-98. PMC6956733
Ellen Voigt
Voigt E, Quelle DE. FOXM1, MEK, and CDK4/6: New Targets for Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumor Therapy. Int J Mol Sci. 2023;24(17). PMC10487994
Voigt E, Wallenburg M, Wollenzien H, Thompson E, Kumar K, et al. Sox2 Is an Oncogenic Driver of Small-Cell Lung Cancer and Promotes the Classic Neuroendocrine Subtype. Mol Cancer Res. 2021 Dec;19(12):2015-2025. PMCID: PMC8642303
Akshaya Warrier
Kohlmeyer JL, Lingo JJ, Kaemmer CA, Scherer A, Warrier A, Voigt E, et al. CDK4/6-MEK Inhibition in MPNSTs Causes Plasma Cell Infiltration, Sensitization to PD-L1 Blockade, and Tumor Regression. Clin Cancer Res. 2023;29(17):3484-97. PMC10528807
Brockman QR, Scherer A, McGivney GR, Gutierrez WR, Rytlewski J, Sheehan A, Warrier A, et al. Discrepancies in indel software resolution with somatic CRISPR/Cas9 tumorigenesis models. Sci Rep 2023;13(1):14798.
Selected Publications from Alumni
Divya Bhat
Bhat DS, Malacaria E, Biagi LD, Razzaghi M, Honda M, Hobbs KF, et al. Therapeutic disruption of RAD52-ssDNA complexation via novel drug-like inhibitors. NAR Cancer. 2023;5(2):zcad018. PMC10150327
Bhat DS, Spies MA, Spies M. A moving target for drug discovery: Structure activity relationship and many genome (de)stabilizing functions of the RAD52 protein. DNA Repair (Amst). 2022;120:103421. PMC9888176
Nick Borcherding
Borcherding N, Vishwakarma A, Voigt AP, Bellizzi A, Kaplan J, Nepple K, et al. Mapping the immune environment in clear cell renal carcinoma by single-cell genomics. Communications biology. 2021;4(1):122. PMC7840906
Borcherding N, Kolb R, Gullicksrud J, Vikas P, Zhu Y, Zhang W. Keeping Tumors in Check: A Mechanistic Review of Clinical Response and Resistance to Immune Checkpoint Blockade in Cancer. Journal of molecular biology. 2018;430(14):2014-29. PMC6071324
Emma Croushore
Croushore EE, Koppenhafer SL, Goss KL, Geary EL, Gordon DJ. Activator Protein-1 (AP-1) Signaling Inhibits the Growth of Ewing Sarcoma Cells in Response to DNA Replication Stress. Cancer Res Commun. 2023;3(8):1580-93. PMC10434289
Koppenhafer SL, Goss KL, Voigt E, Croushore E, Terry WW, Ostergaard J, et al. Inhibitor of DNA binding 2 (ID2) regulates the expression of developmental genes and tumorigenesis in ewing sarcoma. Oncogene. 2022;41(20):2873-84. PMC9107507
Keith Garcia
Garcia K, Gingras AC, Harvey KF, Tanas MR. TAZ/YAP fusion proteins: mechanistic insights and therapeutic opportunities. Trends Cancer. 2022;8(12):1033-45. PMC9671862
Merritt N, Garcia K, Rajendran D, Lin ZY, Zhang X, Mitchell KA, et al. TAZ-CAMTA1 and YAP-TFE3 alter the TAZ/YAP transcriptome by recruiting the ATAC histone acetyltransferase complex. eLife. 2021;10. PMC8143797
Wade Gutierrez
Gutierrez WR, Scherer A, Rytlewski JD, Laverty EA, Sheehan AP, McGivney GR, et al. Augmenting chemotherapy with low-dose decitabine through an immune-independent mechanism. JCI insight. 2022;7(22). PMC9746804
Gutierrez WR, Scherer A, McGivney GR, Brockman QR, Knepper-Adrian V, Laverty EA, et al. Divergent immune landscapes of primary and syngeneic Kras-driven mouse tumor models. Scientific reports. 2021;11(1):1098. PMC7806664
Joshua Lingo
Lingo JJ, Voigt E, Quelle DE. Linking FOXM1 and PD-L1 to CDK4/6-MEK targeted therapy resistance in malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors. Oncotarget. 2024; 15:638-643. PMC11441412
Kohlmeyer JL, Lingo JJ, Kaemmer CA, Scherer A, Warrier A, Voigt E, et al. CDK4/6-MEK Inhibition in MPNSTs Causes Plasma Cell Infiltration, Sensitization to PD-L1 Blockade, and Tumor Regression. Clin Cancer Res. 2023;29(17):3484-97. PMC10528807
Gavin McGivney
McGivney G, Brockman QR, Borcherding N, Scherer A, Rauckhorst AJ, et al. Somatic CRISPR tumorigenesis and multiomic analysis reveal a pentose phosphate pathway disruption vulnerability in MPNSTs. Sci Adv 2025;11(33). PMC12346278
Dodd RD, Scherer A, Huang W, McGivney GR, Gutierrez WR, Laverty EA, et al. Tumor Subtype Determines Therapeutic Response to Chimeric Polypeptide Nanoparticle-based Chemotherapy in Pten-deleted Mouse Models of Sarcoma. Clin Cancer Res 2020;26(18):5036-47. PMC7641033
Devon Moose
Moose DL, Henry MD. Survival of the resilient: Mechano-adaptation of circulating tumor cells to fluid shear stress. Molecular & cellular oncology. 2020;7(4):1766338. PMC7469561
Moose DL, Krog BL, Kim TH, Zhao L, Williams-Perez S, Burke G, et al. Cancer Cells Resist Mechanical Destruction in Circulation via RhoA/Actomyosin-Dependent Mechano-Adaptation. Cell reports. 2020;30(11):3864-74.e6. PMC7219793
Sarina Murray
Qi A, Lamont L, Liu E, Murray SD, Meng X, Yang S. Essential Protein PHB2 and Its Regulatory Mechanisms in Cancer. Cells. 2023;12(8). PMC10137143
Li Y, Zhou W, Meng X, Murray SD, Li L, Fronk A, et al. Utilizing an Endogenous Progesterone Receptor Reporter Gene for Drug Screening and Mechanistic Study in Endometrial Cancer. Cancers. 2022;14(19). PMC9561963
Amanda Pope
Pope A, O’Leary BR, Du J, Buettner GR, Henry M, Cullen JJ. Pharmacologic ascorbate resistant pancreatic cancer demonstrates enhanced metastatic potential. Redox Biol. 2025 Jul:84:103694. PMC12158610
O'Leary BR, Kalen AL, Pope AN, Goswami PC, Cullen JJ. Hydrogen Peroxide Mediates Pharmacological Ascorbate Induced Radio-Sensitization of Pancreatic Cancer Cells by Enhancing G2-accumulation and Reducing Cyclin B1 Protein Levels. Radiat Res. 2023; 200(5):444-455. PMC10699322
Kiarash Salari
Lazaro-Camp VJ, Salari K, Meng X, Yang S. SETDB1 in cancer: overexpression and its therapeutic implications. Am J Cancer Res. 2021;11(5):1803-27. PMC8167684
Johnson E, Salari K, Yang S. SETDB1: A perspective into immune cell function and cancer immunotherapy. Immunology. 2023;169(1):3-12. PMC10121739
Ajaykumar Vishwakarma
Vishwakarma, Ajaykumar and Karp, Jeffrey, eds. Biology and Engineering of Stem Cell Niches. Elsevier Academic Press, 2017.
Vishwakarma A, Bhise NS, Evangelista MB, Rouwkema J, Dokmeci MR, Ghaemmaghami AM, et al. Engineering Immunomodulatory Biomaterials To Tune the Inflammatory Response. Trends in biotechnology. 2016;34(6):470-82.
Zhaoming Wang
Wang Z, Chimenti MS, Strouse C, Weiner GJ. T cells, particularly activated CD4(+) cells, maintain anti-CD20-mediated NK cell viability and antibody dependent cellular cytotoxicity. Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII. 2021;71(2):237-49. PMC8783893
Wang Z, Weiner GJ. Immune checkpoint markers and anti-CD20-mediated NK cell activation. Journal of leukocyte biology. 2021;110(4):723-33. PMC8184884
Amira Zaher
Zaher A, Stephens LM, Miller AM, Hartwig SM, Stolwijk JM, Petronek MS, et al. Pharmacological ascorbate as a novel therapeutic strategy to enhance cancer immunotherapy. Frontiers in immunology. 2022;13:989000. PMC9444023
Mapuskar KA, Steinbach EJ, Zaher A, Riley DP, Beardsley RA, Keene JL, et al. Mitochondrial Superoxide Dismutase in Cisplatin-Induced Kidney Injury. Antioxidants (Basel). 2021;10(9). PMC8469643
Eliot Zhu
Zhu EY, Dupuy AJ. Machine learning approach informs biology of cancer drug response. BMC Bioinformatics. 2022;23(1):184. PMC9112473
Zhu EY, Schillo JL, Murray SD, Riordan JD, Dupuy AJ. Understanding cancer drug resistance with Sleeping Beauty functional genomic screens: Application to MAPK inhibition in cutaneous melanoma. iScience. 2023;26(10):107805. PMC10582486