Fellowship Awards

Project Title: Genomic Markers for Metastasis and Treatment Resistance in Prostate Cancer

Project Title: Salivary Cell-Free DNA Liquid Biopsy Early Detection of Gastric Cancer

Project Title: A novel method for characterizing soft tissue decomposition in head and neck cancer patients undergoing radiotherap

Project Title: Profiling the m6A epitranscriptomic landscape in IDHMUT and IDHWT patient glioma tumors using third generation Nanopore Sequencing.

Project Title: Preliminary Assessment of a Germline DNA-Based Radiosensitivity Biomarker and its Influence on Toxicity Following Prostate Radiotherapy

Project Title: Tracking and Reactivating Humoral Immunity Through Systems Serology

Project Title: Shortwave Infrared Fluorescent Star Polymers as Water-Soluble Optical Imaging Probes

Project Title: Galectin-1 Modulated Glycolysis Accelerating Liver Cancer Stem Cell Proliferation Plays a Role in Post-ablation Resistance in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Project Title: Viral Mimicry: Investigating the Role of PNPT1 in LKB1 Mutant Lung Cancer

Project Title: Predicting Non-adherence to Lung Cancer Screening: Integrating National Data with Patient Psychological and Social Determinants of Health Factors

Project Title: Isolating T Cell Receptors Targeting Prostatic Acid Phosphatase Using the Nanovial Platform on High-frequency HLA-A Alleles

Project Title: Uncovering Environmental and Genetic Drivers of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer in Black Americans: A Comprehensive Genomic and Evolutionary Analysis

Project Title: Mechanisms to prevent peritoneal cancer cell engraftment

Project Title: Exploring the Impact of PGC-1α-Induced Metabolic Reprogramming on Development and Lineage Determination in Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer

Project Title: Deciphering the functions of MLLT3 isoforms in hematopoietic and leukemia stem cell fate decisions

Project Title: Mapping human fetal hematopoietic niches to understand trisomy 21 pre-natal leukemia predisposition

Project Title: Temporospatial Classification of Brain Metastases and Radiation Necrosis: Leveraging Large Patient Datasets for Comprehensive Predictive Modeling

Project Title: Quantifying the Clinical and Translational Potential of Hidden Cancer Proteome

Mentor: David Nathanson, PhD

Project Title: Investigating Metabolic and Microenvironmental Constraints and Vulnerabilities in Brain Cancers

Mentor: Paul Boutros, PhD, MBA

Project Title: Characterizing the Genomic and Evolutionary Landscape of Oligometastatic Prostate Cancer

Mentor: Mark Girgis, MD

Project Title: Burying their own dead: Defining AXL dependent non-professional efferocytosis in pancreatic cancer

Mentor: Roger Lo, MD,PhD

Project Title: Targeting micronuclei formation to prevent acquired resistance to MAPK inhibitor therapy in melanoma

Mentor: Caius Radu, MD,

Project Title: Enhanced anti-tumor efficacy through TCR-T cell therapy combined with mutant KRAS inhibition in pancreatic cancer

Mentor: Tanya Stoyanova, PhD

Project Title: Development of anti-Trop2 Antibody-based Radiopharmaceuticals for Epithelial Cancers

Mentor: David Nathanson, PhD

Project Title: Drug Resistance Mediated by Extrachromosomal DNA in GBM

Mentor: Amy Rowat, PhD,

Project Title: Defining the role of NUDIX5 in ovarian cancer

Mentor: Alice Soragni, PhD,

Project Title: Development of a 3D Tonsillar Organoid Model of Malignant Transformation Induced by Human Papillomavirus

Mentor: Joseph Crompton, MD, PhD

Project Title: Reversing Exhaustion of Surgically Procured Anti-tumor T Cells

Mentor: Paul Boutros, PhD, MBA

Project Title: Improving tumor evolution studies through the development of a robust subclonal reconstruction algorithm A comprehensive toolkit to standardize subclonal reconstruction analysis for multi-sample data Developing a fast and efficient algorithm for large-scale subclonal reconstruction analysis

Mentor: Thomas Graeber, PhD

Project Title: Proteotoxic stress as a pan-cancer therapeutic vulnerability for cancers harboring extrachromosomal DNA

Mentor: Aparna Bhaduri, PhD

Project Title: Elucidating the role of PTPRZ1 catalytic activity and dimerization in driving Glioblastoma progression

Mentor: Hanna Mikkola, MD, PhD 

Project Title: Uncovering the role of MLLT3 isoforms in human HSC maturation

Mentor: Tanya Stoyanova, PhD 

Project Title: Testing UCHL1 as a Molecular Indicator and Therapeutic Target for Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer

Mentor: Erina Vlashi, PhD 

Project Title: Investigating the role of glucose transporters in radiation resistance of glioblastomas

Mentor: Robert Reiter, MD, MBA 

Project Title: Correlating PSMA expression with molecular profiles in prostate cancer

Mentor: Sandra Orsulic, PhD 

Project Title: Perioperative Nanotherapy for Ovarian Cancer

Mentor: David Wong, DMD, DMSc

Project Title: Ultra-Short Circulating Tumor DNA (usctDNA): A Novel Landscape of ctDNAs for Liquid Biopsy in Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma Patients

Mentor: Willy Hugo, PhD

Project Title: A gene set scoring algorithm for efficient cell type quantification in spatial transcriptomic data

Mentor: Heather Christofk, PhD 

Project Title: Impact of tryptophan metabolism on multiple myeloma

Mentor: Christopher Seet, MD, PhD

Project Title: The role of death signaling in the anti-tumor function of PSC- derived T Cells

Mentor: David Shackelford, PhD,

Project Title: Characterization of mitochondrial dynamics within well- differentiated/ dedifferentiated liposarcoma to understand its role in tumorigenesis

Mentor: Steven D. Mittelman, MD, PhD,

Project Title: Investigating Novel Mechanisms Underlying Crosstalk Between Adipose Tissue and Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Cells

Mentor: Brian Kadera, MD

Project Title: Characterization of mitochondrial dynamics within well- differentiated/ dedifferentiated liposarcoma to understand its role in tumorigenesis

Mentor: Timothy Donahue, MD 

Project Title: Pharmacologic STING Activation and MEK Inhibition as a Treatment Approach for Pancreatic Cancer

Mentor: Thomas Graeber, PhD

Project Title: Targeting Genomic instability in Lethal Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer

Mentor: Caius Radu, MD

Project Title: TLR7 enhances T cell fitness through metabolic rewiring of nucleoside salvage in pancreatic cancer.

Mentor: Aaron Meyer, PhD

Project Title: Systematic study of anti-tumor antibody responses in ovarian cancer through a tailored systems serology and modeling strategy

Mentor: Steven M. Dubinett, MD

Project Title: Investigating the role of Neuropilin-1 signaling in the immune function of CD4 conventional T cells

Mentor: Thomas Graeber, PhD

Project Title: Bioinformatics Analyses to Pre-Clinically Reveal Resistance Mechanisms of Targeted-EGFR Therapy In GBM

Mentor: Roshan Bastani, PhD, Annette E. Maxwell, Dr. PhD
Project Title: Cervical Cancer Disparities in Los Angeles – exploring how social factors are associated with screening.

Mentor: Heather Christofk, PhD
Project Title: Nutrient Regulation of Hepatic Progenitor Cells in Nash -Driven HCC

Mentor: Hanna Mikkola, MD, PhD

Project Title: Dissecting the function of endosomal adapter MYCT1 in human HSC expansion and engraftment

Mentor: Roger Lo, MD, PhD 

Project Title: Blocking Chromothripsis to Overcome Acquired MAPKi Resistance in Melanoma

Mentor: Manish Butte, MD, PhD

Project Title: Immunoengineering an exclusive fuel source to enhance tumor infiltrating lymphocytes

Mentor: Alice Soragni, PhD

Project Title: Biopriniting immunocompetent sarcoma organiods for high-throughput personalized drug screening 

Mentor: Ke Sheng, PhD 

Project Title: Adding new degrees of freedom to radiotherapy treatment using reinforcement learning and deep neural networks

Mentor: Paul Boutros, MBA, PhD 

Project Title: Comprehensive study of gene expression outliers and the regulation mechanism in pan-cancer

Mentor: Yvonne Chen, PhD

Project Title: Tandem Bispecific CAR-Ts Against IL-13Rα2 and TGF- β for Glioblastoma Therapy

Mentor: Paul Boutros, MBA, PhD 

Project Title: The Evolution of Lethal Prostate Cancer

Mentor: Anusha Kalbasi, MD 

Project Title: Intercepting the immune-suppressive myeloid axis in sarcoma with intratumaoral BO - 112 and Radiation 

Mentor: Timothy Donahue, MD

Project Title: Exploring therapeutic targets in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma through STING-dependent IFN signaling

Mentor: Richard Everson, MD

Project Title: Investigating Decitabine’s Immunomodulatory Effects on Immunotherapies for Malignant Meningioma

Mentor: Roger Lo, MD, PhD

Project Title: Landscape of Targeted Therapy Resistance in Melanoma

Mentor: Frank Pajonk, MD, PhD

Project Title: Gender-specific Tumor Necrosis Factor Receptor Signaling Modulates Development and Carcinogenesis in Breast Tissue

Mentor: Thomas Graeber, PhD 

Project Title: Metabolic dependencies of ecDNA and HSR focal amplification modes and resulting oncogene plasticity

Mentor: Jorge Torres, PhD

Project Title: Characterizing novel cell division phosphatase DUSP12 and its misregulation in cancers.

Mentor: Albert Lai, MD, PhD 

Project Title: Targeted DNA Methylation Editing as a Therapeutic Strategy for Gliomas

Mentor: David Wong, DMD, DMSc

Project Title: Characterization of novel ultrashort single-stranded circulating tumor DNA (usssctDNA) for Lung Cancer Liquid Biopsy

Mentor: Holden Wu, PhD

Project Title: Characterization of Prostate Cancer Tissue Heterogeneity Using Voxel-wise Co-Registered Quantitative MRI and Digital Histopathology

Mentor: Maie St.John, MD, PhD

Project Title: Tumor immune microenvironment in HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer  

Mentor: Harley Kornblum MD PhD

Project Title: Characterization and targeting of non-enhancing glioblastoma cells with pH based functional imaging.

Mentor: Jeremie Calais, MD, MSc

Project Title: Evaluation of novel PSMA PET/CT imaging quantitative tool to improve patient selection and therapeutic outcome of PSMA-targeted radioligand therapy

Mentor: David Wong, DMD, DMSc

Project Title: Development of machine learning approach for non-invasive identification of microbial exRNA signatures for early detection of gastric cancer in human saliva

Mentor: Roger Lo, MD, PhD

Project Title: Therapeutic Combinations against Melanoma Brain Metastases 

Mentor: Ting-Ting Wu, PhD

Project Title: Virus-like Vesicles as a Vaccine Platform for Kaposi Sarcoma-associated Herpesvirus

Mentor: Beth Glenn, PhD

Project Title: Repeat Colorectal Cancer Screening in a Federally Qualified Health Center

Mentor: Judith Carroll, PhD

Project Title: Accelerated Aging in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Survivors

Mentor: Roger Lo, MD, PhD 

Project Title: A novel PD-L1/L2 and HLA class I interaction that regulates PD-1 binding and T cell activation