Cancer Etiology and Cancer Biomarkers

David Ann, Ph.D.
Dr. Ann, Professor at the Department of Diabetes Complications & Metabolism, received his PhD from Purdue University. His laboratory is investigating cancer metabolism to identify novel nutrient-restriction cancer therapy. A major focus of his team is to dissect the molecular mechanism by which tumor cells become auxotrophic for arginine.
 
Charles Brenner, Ph.D.
Dr. Brenner, Professor and Chair of the Department of Diabetes and Cancer Metabolism, received his PhD from Stanford University. His team examines how nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide is disturbed by diseases and conditions including cancer, neuropathy, fatty liver, postpartum and viral infection.
 
Thanh Dellinger, M.D.
Dr. Dellinger, Assistant Professor at the Department of Surgery, received her MD from University of California Irvine School of Medicine.  Dr. Dellinger's research focuses on understanding the molecular pathways leading to ovarian and uterine cancers and the development of therapies to interdict these processes.
 
Ajay Goel Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Department of Translational Genomics and Oncology, received his PhD from Panjab University.  His work focuses on prevention of gastrointestinal cancers using integrative and alternative approaches including botanical products.  
 
Stephen Gruber, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Gruber, Director of the Center for Precision Medicine, received his MD from University of Pennsylvania and PhD from Yale University. He studies genetic epidemiology of cancer, with an emphasis on solid tumors, bringing clinical cancer genetics and translational research to cancer prevention.
 
Robert Hickey, Ph.D. 
Dr. Hickey, Associate Professor at the Department of Molecular Medicine, received his PhD from City University of New York.  Dr. Hickey is interested in using mass spectrometry to identify novel cancer related biomarkers and their corresponding mechanistic role in the development and progression of the cancer.
 
Michael Kahn, Ph.D.
Dr. Kahn, Professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular Medicine, received his PhD from Yale University. His research team focuses on dissecting the signaling pathways in somatic and cancer stem cell development. Their second generation of CBP/-catenin antagonist is currently in the clinical trials for various cancers and liver fibrosis. 
 
Mark LaBarge, Ph.D.
Dr. LaBarge, Professor at the Department of Population Sciences, received his PhD from Stanford University. His team specializes in developing human cell systems to dissect the micro-environmental and tissue-level changes in breast that arise with age for understanding why aging is a major risk factor for breast cancer. 
 
Yilun Liu, Ph.D.
Dr. Liu, Professor at the Department of Cancer Genetics & Epigenetics, received her PhD from Yale University. Her team focuses on uncovering the molecular etiologies of developmental abnormalities, premature aging syndromes, malignancies and chemo-resistance by the clinical mutations of the RECQ DNA helicases. 
 
Linda Malkas, Ph.D.
Dr. Malkas, Professor at the Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology, received her PhD from City University of New York. Her laboratory is focusing on developing compounds that target the novel cancer-associated protein proliferation cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) to disrupt DNA replication and the ability for cancer cell growth. 
 
Ravi Salgia, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Salgia, Professor and Chair of the Department of Medical Oncology and Therapeutics Research, Received his MD and PhD from Loyola University School of Medicine.  Dr. Salgia is focused on identifying novel biomarkers for non-small cell lung cancer and developing targeted therapies related to lung cancer.
 
Victoria Seewaldt, M.D.
Dr. Seewaldt, Professor and Chair of the Department of Population Sciences, received her MD from UC Davis. Her research focuses on identifying signaling networks that promote breast cancer initiation with the goal of integrating novel functional imaging strategies with risk-marker to provide early detection of interval cancers. 
 
Binghui Shen, Ph.D.
Dr. Shen, Professor and Chair of the Department of Cancer Genetics and Epigenetics, received his PhD from Kansas State University. His team focuses on understanding the molecular functions of nucleases in DNA replication and repair, as well as identifying histone modifiers and their contribution to cancer. 
 
Yanhong Shi, Ph.D.
Dr. Shi, Professor at the Department of Developmental & Stem Cell Biology, received her PhD from Northwestern University. Her laboratory focuses on characterizing the role of the nuclear receptor TLX signaling in neural stem cell self-renewal and differentiation for developing new treatment against neurological disorders.  
 
Christopher Sistrunk, Ph.D.
Dr. Sistrunk, Assistant Professor at the Department of Population Sciences, received his PhD from North Carolina State University. His team utilizes molecular pathology techniques to elicit specific biochemical profiles that can identify tumorigenesis at early time point than our current standard of care diagnosis tools. 
 
Jeremy Stark, Ph.D.
Dr. Stark, Professor at the Department of Cancer Genetics and Epigenetics, received his PhD from University of Washington. His team seeks to define the factors that limit chromosomal rearrangements during DNA double-stranded break repair to maintain genome stability, and to develop therapeutic targets for tumor radiosensitization.    
 
John Termini, Ph.D.
Dr. Termini, Professor at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Director of Shared Resources, received his PhD from Columbia University. His team utilizes synthetic DNA chemistry and analytical methodologies to define how specific DNA base damage accumulates under physiological conditions to promote mutagenesis and cancer.
 
Edward Wenge Wang, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Wang, Assistant Professor and Medical Oncologist at the Department of Medical Oncology and Therapeutics Research, received his MD, PhD from Harbin Medical University. He leads a laboratory at the Biomedical Research Center, focusing on development of new death receptor agonists and rescue of p53 from negative regulators for cancer treatment.
 
Qiong (Annabel) Wang Ph.D.
Dr. Wang, Assistant Professor at the Department of Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology. Her team focuses on defining the mechanisms of adipose tissue remodeling in mammary glands to prevent metabolic disorders and breast cancer, as well as brown adipocyte heterogeneity in remodeling the energy-burning capacity in brown adipocytes.