Students and Alumni 2021 - 2024
2024
Andrew Adams, Davidson College
Faculty Mentor: Han Xu, Ph.D.
Lab Mentor: Rongjie Fu, Ph.D.
"Characterization of resistance to MTA-cooperative PRMT5 inhibitors in MTAP-null cancer cells"
Nora Aigberadion, University of Dallas
Faculty Mentor: Mark Bedford, Ph.D.
Lab Mentor: Yalong Wang, Ph.D.
“Arginine Methylation Analysis of ILF2/3”
Rithvi Anakal, University of Texas at Austin
Faculty Mentor: Xiaodong Cheng, Ph.D.
Lab Mentor: Jack (Jujun) Zhou, Ph.D.
“Finding Long Residence Time CTCF Binding Sites in the Human Genome"
Shiva Ayyar, Case Western Reserve University
Faculty Mentor: Blaine Bartholomew, Ph.D.
Lab Mentor: Shagun Shukla, Ph.D.
“Elucidating the mechanism of INO80 mediated histone dimer exchange”
Valerie Barrera Estrada, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Faculty Mentor: Nancy Gordon, Ph.D.
Lab Mentors: Ariana Anjier, Ph.D./Yan Zheng, Ph.D.
“Pramlintide Enhances NK Cell Cytotoxicity Against Osteosarcoma Cells”
Wanyi Guo, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Faculty Mentor: Han Xu, Ph.D.
Lab Mentor: Weijun Liu, Ph.D.
“Predicting Protein-Protein Interaction from Multi-omics Data”
Micah Keown, University of Texas at Dallas
Faculty Mentor: Kevin McBride, Ph.D.
Lab Mentor: Joshua Plummer
“Screening Binding of NSCLC and Liposarcoma Patient-Derived Antibodies to Enhance Immune Checkpoint Blockade Efficacy”
Eric Lian, University of Washington
Faculty Mentor: Guillermina Lozano, Ph.D.
Lab Mentor: Mitheera V
“Mapping Cell-type Specific Signatures of p53 Activity in the Lung”
Abhinaya Muruganandham, Texas A&M University
Faculty Mentor: Swathi Arur, Ph.D.
Lab Mentors: Jacob Ortega/Han Baek
“Spatio-temporal localization of Polo-like Kinases (PLK-1/2) during C. elegans Germline Development”
Kaila Nayvelt, University of Texas at Austin
Faculty Mentor: Taiping Chen, Ph.D.
Lab Mentor: Bigang Liu
“Mouse UHRF1 Function Disrupted by N-terminal Protein Tags”
Selgie Okine, Augustana College
Faculty Mentor: Francesca Cole, Ph.D.
Lab Mentors: Lakshmi Paniker/Melissa Frasca
“The Genetic Regulation Of Strand Exchange in DNA Repair by Homologous Recombination”
Arianna Paredes, Denison University
Faculty Mentor: Charles Ishak, Ph.D.
Lab Mentor: Nicholas Zehrbach, PhD
“Comparing the effect of Trp53 mutations on repetitive element expression in Ovarian High-Grade Serous Carcinoma”
Bianca Perez Ouhirra, Bryn Mawr College
Faculty Mentor: Sadhan Majumder, Ph.D.
Lab Mentors: Asieh Etemad, PhD/Aadhya Tiwari, PhD
“Exploring the Effect of Temozolomide on REST Dependent Glioblastoma Stem Cells”
Maanas Shah, Washington & Jefferson College
Faculty Mentor: Margarida Santos, Ph.D.
Lab Mentor: Josimar Dornelas Moreira, Ph.D.
“Investigating in vitro Myeloid and Lymphoid Leukemia Growth Downstream of Altered SPIN-1 Expression”
Anwita Siddavatam, University of Texas at Austin
Faculty Mentor: Angela Ting, Ph.D.
Lab Mentor: Yi Zhang, Ph.D.
“Assessing the role of alternative 3’UTR in modulating QSOX1 protein expression”
Annamarie Thompson, Mississippi State University
Faculty Mentor: Joya Chandra, Ph.D.
Lab Mentor: Alaina Poche/Deokhwa Nam, Ph.D.
“Differential Responses to Pharmacological Inhibition of Lysing-specific Demethylase 1 in Transformed and Non-transformed Neural Cells”
Michael Yao, University of Florida
Faculty Mentor: Shih-Han (Peggy) Lee, Ph.D.
Lab Mentor: Van Chanh Quy Le
“A Novel p53 Long Non-Coding RNA Affects p53 Function”
2023
Rithvi Anakal, University of Texas-Austin
Faculty Mentor: Xiaodong Cheng, Ph.D.
"Effect of DNA methylatio and T:G mismatches on CTCF binding"
Justin Chen, University of Illinois
Faculty Mentor: Angela Ting, Ph.D.
"Identifying candidate gense for verification of the scPASU pipeline"
Elizabeth Diaz, Colgate University
Faculty Mentor: Mark Bedford, Ph.D.
"Screening of the Tudor domain family identifies SPIN1 and TDRD1 as novel asymmetric dimethylarginine reader proteins"
Jumana Fekhreddine, University of Texas-Austin
Faculty Mentor: Guillermina Lozano, Ph.D.
"Mutant p53 cooperates with NR5A2 to activate specific transcriptomes in mutant p53 driven breast cancer"
Ashley Florance, Louisiana State University
Faculty Mentor: Swathi Arur, Ph.D.
"The role of plk-3 in sperm cell development in Caenorhabditis elegans"
Sadie Gaskins, Harding University
Faculty Mentor: Margarida Almeida Santos, Ph.D.
"Observing the effect of SPIN1 overexpression on c-MYC in ABC-like diffuse large B cell lymphoma"
Dev Gohel, Nova Southwestern University
Faculty Mentor: Joya Chandra, Ph.D.
"Examining glutathione levels and cytotoxicity in cardiomyocytes treated wit the chemical components of cigarettes and anthracyclines"
Thomas Hintelmann, Monmouth University
Faculty Mentor: Blaine Bartholomew
"Role of SWI/SNF in regulating mediator and RNA polymerase II condensates at stage specific super enhancers"
Jessica LoPresti, State University of New York College
Faculty Mentor: Francesca Cole, Ph.D.
"Homolog pairing during meiosis"
Nayna Nambiar, Rice University
Faculty Mentor: C. Marcelo Aldaz, M.D., Ph.D.
"Investigating the effect of WWOX deltion on the canonical NF-kappaB pathway using mouse embryonic fibroblasts"
Mael Ndalamba, Loyola University
Faculty Mentor: Nancy Gordon, Ph.D.
"Regulation of autophagy in osteosarcoma: Implication of BRD4"
Ehiguese Obiomon, Prairie View A&M University
Faculty Mentor: Richard Wood, Ph.D.
"The DNA polymerase theta inhibitor ART558 enhances polymerase slippage"
Sunthoshini Premsankar, University of North Carolina
Faculty Mentor: Han Xu, Ph.D.
"Improving CRISPR base editing efficiency by enrichment of effective HPRT1 editing in cells"
Ariq Rabee, Texas A&M University
Faculty Mentor: Kevin McBride, Ph.D.
"Mammalian surface antigens display to test the efficiency of surface binding recombinant monoclonal antibodies"
Sidharth Raghavan, Johns Hopkins University
Faculty Mentor: EMC Faculty Member
"High-throughput profiling of cancer-driving fusions implicated in pan cancer analysis"
2022
Laasya Achanta, University of Texas-Austin
Faculty Mentor: Xiaodong Cheng, Ph.D.
"Examining p53 binding to the promoter of ZNF365"
Uchechi Asika, University of Pennsylvania
Faculty Mentor: Nancy Gordon
"MS-275 to modulate NK cell response against osteosarcoma: Implication of the chemokines CXCL9/CXCL10
Karissa Beauchemin, Texas A&M University
Faculty Mentor: Blaine Bartholomew
"The function of Arp5 in the histone exchange activity of the INO80 nucleosome remodeling complex"
Daniela Becerril, Wellesley College
Faculty Mentors: Sharon Dent, Ph.D./Evangelia Koutelou, Ph.D.
"USP22 regulates EZH2 expression levels and binds its promoter"
Sydney Christensen, Texas A&M University
Faculty Mentor: Swathi Arur, Ph.D.
"Novel role for phosphorylated nuclear DICER in tumor progression"
Ava Conyer, Howard University
Faculty Mentor: Richard Wood, Ph.D.
"Pol theta protein levels and protein half-life in lung cancer"
Sage Copling, University of North Carolina
Faculty Mentor: Guillermina Lozano, Ph.D.
"In vitro validation of inducible shp53 vector"
Ananya Kodali, University of Texas-Austin
Faculty Mentor: Margarida Santos
"Targeting arginine methylation reader SND1 in acute myeloid leukemia"
Katherine Impelman, Rice University
Faculty Mentor: Joya Chandra, Ph.D.
"Evaluation of a nuclear receptor-binding SET domain 2 inhibitor for the treatment of leukemia and brain tumors"
Edwin Paul, University of Texas-Austin
Faculty Mentor: Taiping Chen, Ph.D.
"Investigating the mechanisms of passive DNA demthylation during early embryogenesis"
Andy Qiao, Duke University
Faculty Mentor: EMC Faculty
"Aberrant protein phase separation in TGIF1-mutant cells"
Farid Shahid, Johns Hopkins University
Faculty Mentor: C. Marcelo Aldaz, M.D., Ph.D.
"Therapeutic potential of PRMT1 as a critical survival dependency target in multiple myeloma"
Amanda Trevino, Texas A&M University
Faculty Mentor: Mark Bedford, Ph.D.
"Probing the interaction of E2F1 and SART3, a novel arginine methyl reader"
Ishar Varma, New York University
Faculty Mentor: Kevin McBride, Ph.D.
"Analyzing the dynamics of MHV68 uracil-DNA glycosylase in vitor and in vivo"
2021
Jason Chen University of Iowa
Faculty Mentor: Guillermina Lozano, Ph.D.
"Understanding p53 dimer-specific transcriptional activities and their physiological consequences
Djelika Dansoko, University of Colorado-Boulder
Faculty Mentor: Mark Bedford, Ph.D.
"Imaging analysis of arginine methylation using dCAS9-suntag system in cancer cells"
Esha Gupta, Trinity University
Faculty Mentor: Xiaodong Cheng, Ph.D.
"Investigating the protective effect of preferential ETS1 binding in select C-to-T hotspot mutations"
Connie Hou, Cornell University
Faculty Mentor: Han Xu, Ph.D.
"Allele-specific editing of the acute myeloid leukemia hotspot mutations, DMNT3a-R882H/R882C"
Vanessa Jones, Southwestern University
Faculty Mentor: EMC Department Faculty
"Genome-wide CRISPR.Cas9 screen for T cell killing-resistant genes in hepatocellular carcinoma"
Caitlin McCabe, Cornell University
Faculty Mentor: Joya Chandra, Ph.D.
"Investigating dual-kinase inhibition of EFFR and PI3K in combination with inhibition of LSD1 to promote anit-tumor efects and overcome therapeutic resistance in glioblastoma"
Saikishore Mettupalli, Rice University
Faculty Mentor: Guillermina Lozano, Ph.D.
"The effect of mutant p53 in cancer-associated fibroblasts on mouse mammary tumor cell migration and invasion"
Avni Patel, The Ohio State University
Faculty Mentor: Margarida Almeida Santos
"The transcriptional role of PHF20 and its paralog PHF20L1 and their implications in cancer"
Jihan Schepmann, Southwestern University
Faculty Mentor: Francesca Cole, Ph.D.
"Age-depdened regulation of DNA repair by homologous recombination"
Ashley Suris, Tarleton State University-Stephenville
Faculty Mentor: Richard Wood, Ph.D.
"Enzyme activities of Pol theta: A cancer therapeutic target"
Jenna Toohey, Westminster College
Faculty Mentor: Blaine Bartholomew, Ph.D.
"Snf2 AT hook: A small, key regulatory domain in the yeast SWI/SNF complex, mediated by metabolic programming"
Megan Varghese, The University of Oklahoma
Faculty Mentor: Manu Sebatian, D.V.M., Ph.D.
"Visualization and optimization of the multiplex immunofluorescence Akoya Bioscience platform by image analysis of breast cancer tissues"
Our Labs
Learn more about our faculty and research taking place in our labs.
Conferences
View conferences available for continuing education credit.