CPRIT Graduate Scholars Program Alumni

Laura earned her B.S. in Biology from Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) in Lima, Peru. In UPCH, she started her research career in Dr. José Luis Aguilar’s laboratory investigating the effect of different natural products on the immune system. Here, Laura performed a thesis project where she investigated the effects of Cat’s claw (Uncaria tomentosa), a Peruvian plant, on tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes of mice with melanoma. In 2017, Laura performed a 6-month research internship in the Melanoma Medical Oncology Department in Dr. Willem Overwijk’s laboratory. In the Overwijk Lab, Laura participated in a project that aimed to elucidate how a novel bio-engineered immunotherapeutic affected the immune compartment of tumor-bearing mice. She immediately transitioned into her graduate studies after this experience.                                                                 

Laura’sResearch Interests:                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
My research seeks to delineate the role for Leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) in intestinal immunity and inflammation. Other research interests revolve around a) myeloid subsets and their differentiation and function in the gut; b) the relationship between the immune system and the gut microbiome, and c) the role of the immune system in cancer. 

Dr. Hunter Mehrens earned his B.S. in Physics, Mathematical Sciences, and Astronomy/Astrophysics from Florida Institute of technology graduating summa cum laude. While in undergraduate, his research involved understanding increases of natural background radiation due to weather patterns. Afterwards, Hunter earned his M.S. in Physics from the University of Pittsburgh where he studied neurodegenerative diseases and tumors using chemical exchange MRI in a preclinical setting. This research provided Hunter with a MRI pulse sequence patent. Taking a break from higher education, Hunter then worked for MD Anderson Cancer Center in Outreach Physics for the Imaging and Radiation Oncology Core for five years participating in several research projects concerning quality assurance in radiation therapy. Returning to the academic world, Hunter is currently working on his PhD in Medical Physics under the direction of Dr. Stephen Kry. Hunter’s current research is driven by using machine learning to understand quality assurance in radiation therapy and its connection to patient outcomes. While in graduate school, Hunter has been the recipient of the American Legion Auxiliary Fellowship in Cancer Research and has won first place in the Oral Presentation Skills Competition (Pre-candidacy & MS category) and the Elevator Speech Competition (Post-Candidacy) at graduate school’s graduate student research day.

Dr. Mehrens graduated in 2024 and currently works as a medical physics resident at MD Anderson.

Oscar earned his B.S. degree in Biochemistry from The University of Texas at Austin. During his time at UT, he participated in several research projects. After receiving the Beckman Scholar Award, he joined the lab of Dr. George Georgiou where he conducted his undergraduate thesis work on engineering glutaminase in order to treat glutamine auxotrophic cancers. In 2016, Oscar matriculated into the dual MD/PhD degree program at The University of Texas Medical Scientist Training Program at Houston. After completing his first three years of medical school, Oscar began his graduate training by joining the Cancer Biology Program and the lab of Dr. Scott Kopetz. After completing his MD/PhD training Oscar plans on continuing his education in order to become a physician-scientist specializing in medical oncology.

Oscar's Research Interests:
Oscar’s research focuses on understanding the mechanisms causing the limited response of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who are treated with MAPK-pathway inhibitors.

Cheryl Jiang holds a B.A. in Natural Sciences from University of Cambridge, where she undertook transformative research to discover mutations in immunity-related proteins in cancer and their subsequent functional impacts. This passion for unraveling the mysteries of the immune system led her to MD Anderson. As a Ph.D. candidate in the lab of Dr. Katy Rezvani, Cheryl has been at the forefront of pioneering research that seeks to establish oncolytic virus immunotherapy as a viable treatment for challenging malignancies like glioblastoma and pancreatic cancer.Cheryl's academic journey is marked by numerous accolades, such as the Cambridge Trust Scholarship and The Antje Wuelfrath Gee Jr. Family Legacy Award. In her journey, Cheryl has also grown as a leader, serving as the Senior Vice President of the Consulting Club at the Texas Medical Center. Under her leadership, the club underwent significant transformations, including revamping its membership structure and establishing valuable partnerships. After graduating, Cheryl aspires to be a management consultant at McKinsey, where she will have the opportunity to help pharmaceutical companies to drive a positive social impact.

Dr. Anandhan received her bachelor’s degree in Microbiology with a dual honors in microbiology and chemistry from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, India in 2012 and my masters in microbiology from M.S. University, Vadodara, India in 2014. She received the gold medal for ranking first in university during both my undergraduate and post graduate studies. From 2014-2016, Swetha worked as a junior research fellow at the Institute of Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine in Bangalore, India under Dr. John Mercer where she studied the effect of point mutations in tropomyosin leading to clinical cardiomyopathy. In 2016, Dr. Anandhan joined the MD Anderson UTHealth GSBS Immunology Ph.D. Program under the mentorship of Dr. Padmanee Sharma. During her Ph.D. training, she received multiple fellowships and awards, including George M. Stancel, Ph.D. Fellowship in the Biomedical Sciences (2018), Schissler Foundation Fellowship (2020), Andrew Sowell-Wade Huggins Scholarship in Cancer Research (2020) and Ergon Foundation Graduate Student Trainee Award (2021-2023). Swetha's graduate work looked at the role of tumor and stromal- immune crosstalk leading to immunosuppression and resistance to checkpoint blockade. Using in vivo murine models, clinical datasets and high-throughput techniques such as single cell RNA sequencing and CyTOF, she identified novel regulators that induce immune suppression in the tumor microenvironment and that can be targeted to improve response to immune checkpoint therapy in non-responsive tumor types such as pancreatic cancer. 

Dr. Anandhan currently works as a Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.

Yasaman received her bachelor’s degree in Physics from Isfahan University of Technology, Iran, and her master’s degree in Physics from the University of Delaware in 2017. She is currently in the medical physics program at GSBS. She joined the Kalluri Lab as a Ph.D. student in 2021 to complete her thesis work. While enrolled at GSBS, Yasaman received Schissler Foundation Fellowship and Dr. John J. Kopchick Fellowship. Her Ph.D. work focused on developing non-invasive methods to diagnose metabolic genomic alterations and exploiting exosomes as oncometabolite biomarkers in brain tumors.

Dr. Barekatain currently works as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University.

Soleil earned her B.S. degree in Radiological Health Engineering from Texas A&M University where she received a minor in Mathematics. As an undergraduate at Texas A&M, she conducted research alongside Dr. Gamal Akabani on the design and fabrication of a novel mouse nebulizer for the imaging of thoracic tumors. In addition to this work, she participated in two internships and researched alongside two academic medical physicists. The first was to research tumor position reproducibility under the guidance of Dr. Julianne Pollard-Larkin in the Department of Radiation Physics at MD Anderson Cancer Center. The second was to design, fabricate, and test an alternative Total Body Irradiation (TBI) compensator using 3D printed materials under the guidance of Dr. Neil Kirby at The University of San Antonio Mays Cancer Center. Since joining the PhD program in Medical Physics at UT MD Anderson GSBS in the fall of 2018, she’s earned multiple research awards including the Charlene Kopchick Fellowship (2021), the Matthew Mireless Scholarship (2020) and Honorable Mention on her application to the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2020). As a first-generation and Mexican-American student, Soleil is passionate about leadership, mentorship, and increasing diversity in STEM. She held multiple leadership roles within the GSBS and the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM). She was the co-founder of the Medical Physics Hispanic Network and served as an ambassador for the GSBS to mentor students from under-represented backgrounds. Soleil also volunteered at the Ronald McDonald family room at the MD Anderson Children’s Cancer Center. She is the first PhD in her family and she plans to mentor first generation students like herself to achieve her lifetime goal of diversifying academia.

Dr. Hernandez currently works as a Medical Physics Resident at the University of Colorado Anschutz.

Dr. LaBella graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. in biology from UMASS Boston in 2016, where he studied limb bud patterning in Ambystoma mexicanum. He went on to complete research at Harvard Medical School where he utilized confocal microscopy and transgenic zebrafish models to understand the signaling pathways that govern liver development and cancer. In 2018, Kyle joined the Cancer Biology PhD program and earned multiple research awards including the TL1 fellowship, the American Legion Auxiliary Fellowship in Cancer Research, and the John J. Kopchick Fellowship. In the DePinho lab, Kyle generated complex mouse models and organoid culture systems to decipher the relationship between chromosomal instability and colon cancer.

Dr. LaBella currently works as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Genentech.

Dr. Li received her B.S. in Biological Sciences from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China and her M.S. in Biology from New York University. Her master's research focused on investigating the role of hypoxia-induced microRNA-451 in glioblastoma. In 2016, she joined GSBS for her Ph.D. In the DePinho lab, Jiexi is using in vivo colorectal cancer models to study the epigenetic factors that govern colorectal cancer liver metastasis in a gender specific manner. 

Dr Li completed her Ph.D. in 2023 and now works as a Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.

Dr. Li earned his BS from Sichuan University in Chengdu, China, where he later served as a research technician for several years before joining MD Anderson Cancer Center. At Sichuan University, Mi studied lung cancer metastasis and developed an in vivo model to study bone metastases of human lung cancer. Next, Mi served as a research intern and research assistant in the neuro-oncology department at MD Anderson, where he studied amino acid metabolism before joining the GSBS for his graduate work. During his graduate studies, Mi researched DNA damage responses induced by overexpression of cyclin E isoforms. In 2023, Mi graduated with his Ph.D.

Dr. Li currently works as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Keyomarsi laboratory at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.

Ethan completed his medical degree in 2013 at the Tongji Hospital, affiliated to Huazhong University of Science and Technology (Wuhan, China), including 3 years of specialty training in Obstetrics and Gynecology. He subsequently moved to the United States and earned his Master of Science Degree in Tumor Biology at Georgetown University in 2015 (Washington D.C.) In 2019, Dr. Li enrolled in the Ph.D. Immunology program at GSBS. After joining Dr. Rezvani’s lab as a Ph.D. student in 2019, his research focused on identifying immune suppressive factors in cancer immunity and developing novel strategies to advance the efficacy of anti-tumor cell therapy. While at GSBS, Ethan received Andrew Sowell-Wade Huggins Scholarship in Cancer Research in 2020, and the Student InterCouncil (SIC) Positive Impact Scholarship in 2021. In 2023, Dr. Li graduated from GSBS with his Ph.D.

Dr. Li currently works as an Instructor in the Rezvani laboratory at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.

Sonia received her Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. After graduating, she worked as a research technician in Dr. Oliver Dorigo’s lab at Stanford University School of Medicine. Since coming to GSBS in Fall 2018, Sonia has joined the Cancer Biology Program and has been working in Dr. John Heymach’s lab in the Department of Thoracic Head & Neck Medical Oncology. Her Ph.D. work sought to elucidate the immunological mechanisms which drive resistance to immunotherapy in the EGFR-mutant NSCLC tumor environment. In 2023, Sonia graduated with her Ph.D. from GSBS.

Sonia is currently working as a Medical Science Liaison at BioNTech SE in Houston, Texas.

Dr. Srinivasamani earned an integrated B.S. and M.S. in Biotechnology from the University of Pune in India. As part of her B.S. studies, she assigned a genetic location to a novel hydrophobin like protein found in yeast with wide-ranging applications in bio-industries. She was awarded the 2013 Indian Academy of Sciences Summer Scholarship to study the virulence factors of  Strep at the National Institute of Immunology (New Delhi, India). In 2015, she was selected for the Khorana Scholarship Program  to study the development of NK cells at the University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee, WI). Her M.S. research focused on chromosome biology at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology, wherein she characterized the mechanism of recruitment of kinases to the kinetochore of mammalian cells during mitotic cell division. She joined the GSBS in 2016, where she has been an active member of the Immunology Program ever since. Her Ph.D. work focused on the distinct role of and translational relevance of PD-L2 in immunobiology of the PD-1 signaling pathway.

Anupallavi completed her Ph.D. in 2023 and currently serves as a Consultant at Boston Consulting Group.

Dr. Bajaj received a dual Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Michigan State University. During this time, Rakhee worked as an undergraduate research assistant to Dr. Zachary Burton on elucidating the mechanism-of-action of some of the most fundamental proteins in Biology, RNA Polymerases. She then worked as a cancer research fellow at the Advanced Center for Treatment, Research, and Education in Cancer (ACTREC) in Mumbai, India. Rakhee graduated with a Master’s in Human Genetics from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in May 2016. Under the mentorship of Dr. Thomas Glover, she engineered a fluorescence-based assay to visually detect copy number variants (CNVs) that got her nominated for the highly prestigious Barbour Scholarship awarded to outstanding young scientists at the university. Rakhee joined the Cancer Biology PhD program at the UT MDA UTHealth GSBS in August 2016 and graduated in May 2022. During her graduate studies, she received several awards for her research, and scientific communication achievements including the T. C. Hsu Scholarship. 

Dr. Bajaj currently works as a Manager of Strategy and Business Development at Sathgen Biotech in Mumbai, India.

Dr. Babcock earned a B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology from Texas Tech University. As an undergraduate, she was part of the Center for the Integration of STEM Education and Research Undergraduate Research group and the Honors Undergraduate Research Scholars group. She performed research in Dr. Jannette Dufour’s laboratory investigating a novel cell-based treatment of type I diabetes, in which she delineated mechanisms of Sertoli cell immune privilege after transplantation. As a summer intern at UT Southwestern, she also studied mechanisms of pre-term pregnancy. These experiences led her to pursue her graduate studies here at MD Anderson. She completed her graduate studies in May 2022. 

Dr. Babcock is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at Texas Tech University Health Science Center.

Dr. Hsieh earned his M.D. degree from Chang Gung University in Taiwan in 2010. He completed his radiation oncology residency training in Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taiwan in 2015 and was actively involved in patient care and oncological research for gastrointestinal and head and neck cancers. He joined MD Anderson as a Visiting Scientist in Dr. Sunil Krishnan’s lab in February 2018 and subsequently enrolled in GSBS Cancer Biology and Immunology Ph.D. programs in Dr. Michael Curran’s lab for translational cancer research training. Rodney was awarded Ralph B. Arlinghaus Ph.D. Scholarship at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2019 and the Best Abstract Award on Gastrointestinal Cancer Section at the 60th Annual Meeting of American Society for Radiation Oncology in 2018. He completed his Ph.D. in May 2022.

Dr. Hsieh currently serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taiwan.

Dr. Khadka received her B.A. in Biology from Wesleyan College in 2016. As an undergraduate she worked with Dr. Holly Boettger Tong to investigate the molecular mechanism underlying uterine leiyomyoma and completed her Honors Thesis on the topic “The effects of ALL-TRANS retinoic acid on collagen accumulation in uterine leiomyomas”. She was selected to participate as a summer scholar at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical in 2015 where she worked in the Cardiovascular and Metabolism DA with Dr. Nigel Casson to identify a novel protein implicated in the therapeutic management of obesity. In the summer of 2015, she was selected to participate in the CPRIT CURE summer program at MD Anderson Cancer Center where she worked in the lab of Dr. Ronald A. DePinho to identify novel therapeutic targets in castration resistant prostate cancer. These two summer research experiences reinforced her passion for biomedical research, and she sought to obtain her graduate training at MD Anderson. At GSBS, she earned multiple fellowships and awards including the Larry Deaven Fellowship in Biomedical Research, (2019-2021) Caroline Ross Endowment Fellowship (2019) and R.W. Butcher Achievement Award (2019).

Dr. Khadka completed her Ph.D in May 2022 and currently works as a Scientific Lead at Loxo Oncology at Lilly in San Francisco, California.

Dr. Shah earned his Bachelor’s in Pharmacy and a Master’s in Pharmacology. As a graduate student, his work focused on developing targeted drug-delivery nanoparticles to enhance drug-delivery efficiency and overcoming cellular resistance by lowering tumor apoptotic threshold. Following graduation, he worked at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Broad Institute delineating mechanisms of resistance to therapies using single-cell approaches. Parin joined GSBS in 2017 and is an active member of the Immunology program. During this time, he has earned Steve Lasher and Janiece Longoria Graduate Student Research Award (2020) and Tata Scholarship (2021).  Dr. Shah graduated in December 2021.

Dr. Shah currently serves as a Manager for the Human Immune Monitoring Core at Columbia University.

Dr. Savage received her B.S. in Biology from Northern Illinois University. During her undergraduate studies, she had the opportunity to participate in the university’s undergraduate research program. During these four years, Hannah investigated glioblastoma tumor autophagy and metabolic pathways in response to various pharmacological stimulation. This experience strongly affirmed her passion for cancer research and brought her to MD Anderson to pursue a graduate degree. Dr. Savage completed her graduate studies in 2022. 

Dr. Savage is currently working as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Lawson laboratory at The University of California-Irvine.

Dr. Thompson earned her B.S. degree in Radiological Health Engineering from Texas A&M University where she also received a minor in Mathematics and certificates in Safety Engineering and Business Management. As an undergraduate student, Emily worked at the Michael DeBakey Institute studying effects of low-dose ionizing radiation on the mesenteric lymphatic system in the labs of Dr. Christopher Quick and Dr. Ranjeet Dongonkar. Since joining the Ph.D. program in Medical Physics at the UT MD Anderson GSBS in 2016, she earned several awards for her research including the Waltrip Imperial Guard Alumnae Scholarship (2016 – 2020), American Legion Auxiliary Fellowship in Cancer Research (2019), Society for Thermal Medicine Scholar-In-Training Award (2019), and the SIR Foundation Allied Scientist Training Grant (2020). Dr. Thompson completed her graduate studies in May 2022.

Dr. Thompson currently serves as a Medical Physics Resident at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Dr. Atkinson earned a dual B.S. in Biology, specializing in Evolution and Ecology and B.A. in Spanish, specializing in Hispanic Studies, from the University of Texas at Austin. As an undergraduate, she participated in the UT Austin Freshman Research Initiative in the Discovering Signals Stream with Drs. Greg Clark and Stan Roux. She continued research in Dr. Juenger's laboratory working with ethanol tolerance research in Drosophila models and with Dr. Juenger looking at the genetic basis and evolutionary significance of water-use traits in the model system Ipomopsis agreggata. Erin worked in a clinical pathology laboratory for two years, then joined GSBS. Here, she has won many awards and is active in student leadership.

Dr. Atkinson currently serves as a Prenatal Genetic Counselor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

Dr. Chrisikos earned his B.S. in Pharmacology and Toxicology from The State University of New York at Buffalo (University of Buffalo), where he examined if ethanol and paraquat have synergistic effect of mouse microglia proliferation and activation with Dr. Rabin. He also worked on determining the effect of humanized anti-Thomsen-Friedenreich-antigen (anti-TF-ag) antibodies on mouse tumor cell proliferation. His Ph.D. research focused on further understanding the mechanism of regulation of innate and adaptive immunity by tumor microenvironments.

In 2021, Dr. Chrisikos started his Postdoctoral Fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. 

Dr. Cogdill received her Bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, where she also lettered as a NCAA varsity athlete in women’s volleyball. Following graduation, Alexandria worked as a cancer research fellow first at the National Institutes of Health (at the National Cancer Institute), then at Harvard Medical School in affiliation with the Massachusetts General Hospital; mentored by Drs. Steven Rosenberg and Jennifer Wargo, respectively. Next, Alexandria worked full time at the University of Pennsylvania in the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies (CCI), directed by Dr. Carl H. June while in graduate school. In May 2016, she graduated summa cum laude from the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania with a Master’s in Bioengineering and Engineering Entrepreneurship. Since joining the Immunology PhD program at the UT MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School in August 2016, Alexandria has received a number awards recognizing her academic, research, and community outreach achievements, including the Student InterCouncil Academic Achievement Award (2020), the Dr. John J. Kopchick Fellowship (2019), the American Legion Auxiliary Fellowship in Cancer Research (2018), the R.W. Butcher Achievement Award (2017), and the Schissler Foundation Fellowship (2016). Recently, Alexandria completed a Fulbright Research Fellowship in Paris, France under the advisement of Prof. Laurence Zitvogel examining domestic and international differences in cancer responsiveness as it relates to the gut microbiome. 

Dr. Cogdill currently works as the Head of Strategic Initiatives, Global Business Development at Daiichi Sankyo Inc in New York.

Dr. Pranavi received an integrated B.S. and M.S. in Biotechnology from the University of Pune in India.  During her B.S. studies, she investigated mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis induced by flavonoids isolated from corn and signal transduction mechanisms by which flavones induce cell death in cancer cell lines. She was a 2011 Summer Research Fellow at the Indian Institute of Technology, where she analyzed the thermodynamics and physical chemistry properties of drug-protein interactions. Her M.S. research focused on the functional diversification of fat bodies in the regulation of metabolic homeostasis in Drosophila melanogaster and resulted in a dissertation titled "Analysis of metabolic pathways in aging." Since joining the Ph.D. program in Cell Biology at the MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School in 2015, Pranavi has been the recipient of several awards, including the Dr. John J. Kopchick Research Award (2018) and the Steve Lasher and Janiece Longoria Graduate Student Research Award in Cancer Biology (2018). 

Dr. Pranavi currently works as a Scientist II, Rare Disease Research at Novo Nordisk.

Dr. Mitra earned his B.S. in Biotechnology and Bioinformatics from Rutgers University, New Brunswick. As an undergraduate, he interned in pharmaceutical/medical device companies in process and validation engineering. Akash has held leadership roles in multiple student organizations at GSBS and the TMC Consulting Club.

Dr. Mitra is currently works as a Senior Manager in Evidence Development at Tempus AI.

Dr. Ramesh earned his Bachelors of Technology in Biotechnology at Sathyabama University (Chennai, India), where he focused his undergraduate research on the characterization of genome-based barcoding of Justicia gendarussa and Justicia tranquebariensis. He moved to the United States and completed a M.S. in Biostatistics with a minor in Epidemiology at The University of Texas at Houston School of Public Health (Houston, TX). Under the mentorship of Dr. Fuli Yu, he focused on the theoretical investigation of the feasibility and accuracy of SNP discovery in extremely low-coverage NGS-based cohort studies. 

Dr. Ramesh currently works as a Senior Scientist at Moderna.

Dr. Sahnoune earned her Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and Master’s degree in Neuroscience from the University of Houston. Her Master’s thesis was completed in collaboration with the Baylor College of Medicine, where she researched the impacts of radiation therapy on the developing brain. Her research experience has also incorporated the use of imaging techniques in the characterization of therapeutic response in several tumor types. In her time at GSBS, Iman served in multiple leadership and outreach roles throughout the GSBS and the Neuroscience Program.

Dr. Sahnoune is currently an Associate Scientific Director at Abbvie.

Dr. Srinivasan earned her B.S. in Psychology and Biology from the University of Toronto, where she focused her research on examining the role of androgen receptors in olfactory and sexual preferences in rats in the lab of Dr. Ashley Monks. She then earned her Master’s in Public Health in Epidemiology from the University of Texas School of Public Health. Here, under the supervision of Dr. Eric Boerwinkle developing genetic risk scores associating chronic diseases to the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. She also worked as a Graduate Research Assistant in MD Anderson’s Department of Behavioral Science with Dr. Karen Basen-Engquist where she helped design and conduct diet and exercise interventions for cancer survivors. Sanjana joined the GSBS in 2016, where she was an active member of the Quantitative Sciences program. 

Dr. Srinivasan is currently a Institute Research Scientist for the TRACTION platform at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Dr. Kang double majored in Biology (B.A.) and Nutritional Sciences (B.S.) at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research involved elucidating temporal, spatial, and qualitative features of individual homologous recombination (HR) pathways that facilitate or hinder that pathway's ability to compensate for the loss of others. Her primary goal was to establish a novel system that could interrogate HR pathways in vivo, in mammals, and at native genomic loci to define the kinetics and molecular features associated with particular HR pathways. She also assessed which HR pathways were utilized in the absence of others to determine potential therapeutic targets. Dr. Kang defended her Ph.D. dissertation, titled "Higher order chromosome organization and recombination dynamics of meiotic prophase I in mouse spermatocytes" in Spring 2019.

Dr. Kang currently serves as a Scientist III at Luminex Corp in Austin, Texas.

Dr. Vincent Bernard earned his B.S. in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and continued on to earn an M.S. in Biotechnology, both from Johns Hopkins University. While in graduate school, he won numerous awards, including The President's Research Scholarship, American Legion Auxiliary Fellowship, and The Sylvan Rodriguez Foundation Scholarship. Dr. Bernard defended his Ph.D. dissertation, titled "Genetic Evolution and Prognostic Determinants of Pancreatic Cancer on Longitudinal Liquid Biopsies" in Summer 2018. 

Dr. Bernard currently works as a Resident at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.

Dr. Jaiswal earned his B.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Amravati University in India. He then moved to the U.S. and earned his Master's degree from Idaho State University. Ashvin earned a number of awards during his time at the MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, including the Andrew Sowell-Wade Huggins Endowed Scholarship, the Steve Lasher and Janiece Longoria Graduate Student Research Award in Cancer Biology, and the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Presidential Travel Award. He defended his Ph.D. thesis, titled "Tumor Immunotherapy: Mechanisms of Acquired Resistance and Characterization of Immune Related Toxicities" in Spring 2018. During his graduate studies, Ashvin identified and characterized the resistance mechanisms tumors use to evade immunotherapeutic responses by establishing a murine model of melanoma designed to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying immunotherapy resistance. Ashvin collaboration with other graduate student in his laboratory to investigate 4-1BB agonist antibodies in the induction of liver toxicity. Together, they found that activation of 4-1BB on liver myeloid cells is essential to initiate hepatitis.  Once activated, these cells produce interleukin-27 that is required for liver toxicity.  CD8 T cells infiltrate the liver in response to this myeloid activation and mediate tissue damage.  Co-administration of CTLA-4 and/or CCR2 blockade may minimize hepatitis, but yield equal or greater antitumor immunity. Of the CPRIT Graduate Scholar Program, Ashvin says: It provided a seminar platform where scholars could present their work and get feedback from professors and other scholars. Many times, scholars would also receive advice about career paths and opportunities. The CPRIT Graduate Scholar Award not only gave me confidence, but also career advice. 

Dr. Jaiswal currently works as a Senior Scientist at Takeda.

Dr. Erin Williams Lopez completed dual majors of a B.A. in Biology and a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of San Diego. During her undergraduate career she did research on the specification of serotonergic neurons in C. elegans in the lab of Curtis Loer, Ph.D. As a graduate student at MD Anderson Cancer Center, Erin was involved in many leadership and outreach activities including coordinating outreach events for the Outreach club. She won several awards, including the Rosalie B. Hite Fellowship, People's Choice at the GSBS Student Research Day Elevator Speech Competition, the John P. McGovern Award for Presentation Skills, the Student InterCouncil Academic Achievement Award, the Sylvan Rodriguez Foundation Scholarship Honoring George M. Stancel, Ph.D., and the American Legion Auxiliary Fellowship. Dr. Williams Lopez defended her Ph.D. dissertation titled, " The Role of Merlin and Apicobasal Polarity in Endometrial Development and Homeostasis" in Spring 2018. 

Dr. Williams Lopez is currently the Director of Strategy and Communication - Solid Tumor Field at Novartis in Houston, Texas.

Dr. Nicolas Veland earned his B.S. in Biology from the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Peru. During his undergraduate years, he engaged in undergraduate research in molecular epidemiology in Leishmaniasis with Dr. Jorge Arevalo and Malaria with Dr. Dionica Gamboa. Nicolas won many awards as a graduate student, including the Andrew-Sowell-Wade Huggins Scholarship in Cancer Research and the Julia Jones Matthews Cancer Research Scholar Award at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Veland defended his Ph.D. dissertation titled, "The Regulation of DNA Methylation in Mammalian Development and Cancer" in Spring 2018. He has authored and co-authored numerous publications, and presented his research at numerous conferences around the world.

Dr. Veland is currently a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the Frances Crick Institute. His current research interests are focused on understanding epigenetic mechanisms during normal mammalian development and in diseases, using stem cells as models. When he's not in lab, Nicolas enjoys hiking with his family and playing soccer.

Dr. Whijae Roh earned his B.S. in Biology from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and dual M.S. degrees in Biomedical Engineering and Biostatistics from the University of Michigan. He worked for a few years as Associate Research Engineer at Bioneer, Inc. in Korea and then as Assistant Research Scientist at the Genomic Medicine Institute at Seoul National University College of Medicine before moving to Houston to pursue his Ph.D. in Cancer Biology. Whijae defended his Ph.D. dissertation, titled "Integrative Cancer Immunogenomic Analysis of Serial Melanoma Biopsies Reveals Correlates of Response and Resistance to Sequential CTLA-4 and PD-1 Blockade Treatment" under the mentorship of Dr. P. Andrew Futreal and co-mentorship of 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awardee, Dr. James P. Allison. He collected pre/on/post-treatment tumor samples and performed whole exome sequencing, mRNA expression profiling, IHC, and TCR-seq from a cohort of melanoma patients treated with sequential CTLA-4 and PD-1 blockade. His research found that mRNA expression signatures from on-treatment tumor biopsy can be useful as a biomarker of response and increased copy number alterations were associated with higher resistance.

Dr. Roh is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Getz laboratory at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. He is particularly interested in understanding the spatial and temporal patterns of tumor progression under various sources of selective pressures, such as therapy and tumor microenvironment, in individual cancer patients towards developing and delivering personalized cancer diagnosis and treatment. In his current role at the Broad Institute, Dr. Roh investigates survival mechanisms of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the bloodstream by high-throughput sequencing of CTCs, CTC lines cultured ex vivo, and CTC-derived mouse models. Dr. Roh looks forward to spending time with his wife and son when he leaves the lab each evening.

Dr. Iman Doostan earned his M.D. from Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in Iran, where he also completed his general physician internship. He served two years as a general practitioner at Omid Cancer Hospital before moving to the United States to complete his Ph.D. in Cancer Biology at the MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. His Ph.D. project focused on low molecular weight forms of cyclin E (LMW-E) and their use to identify hormone-receptor positive tumors that are unresponsive to neoadjuvant aromatase inhibition (AI) therapy. His work showed that the mechanism of resistance is through bypass of the G1 to S phase transition, resulting in the inability of AIs to induce a cytostatic effect. His research showed that LMW-E expression in tumors from patients who received neoadjuvant AI therapy is associated with diminished response and poor recurrence-free interval. Furthermore, xenografts with induced LMW-E expression became unresponsive to letrozole. Lastly, LMW-E expression overcame cell cycle inhibition by AIs in a CDK2/Rb-dependent manner and inhibition of CDK2 by dinaciclib reversed LMW-E-mediated resistance. Collectively, these findings suggest that cell cycle deregulation by LMW-E mediates resistance to AIs and a combination of CDK2 inhibitors and AIs may be an effective treatment in patients with HR-positive tumors that express LMW-E. He defended his Ph.D. dissertation, titled "Cytoplasmic Cyclin E Mediates Resistance in to Aromatase Inhibitors in Breast Cancer" in Fall 2017. 

Iman reflects on the impact the CPRIT Graduate Scholar Program has had in his career "As a physician working in a cancer hospital abroad, I was involved in treating patients with advanced stage of cancer that are often resistant to current treatment regiments. I realized understanding the biology of cancer cells and identifying pathways of resistance are important to develop novel treatments in order to improve survival of these patients. This motivated me to apply for graduate school and enroll in cancer biology program at University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center. Throughout my graduate study, CPRIT funding enabled us to further explore one of the mechanisms of resistance to aromatase inhibitors, the main treatment for post-menopausal hormone receptor positive breast cancer patients."

Dr. Doostan completed his Internal Medicine Resident Physician at New York Medical College in Manhattan, NY and currently works as a Hematology Oncology Fellow at UT San Antonio. His interest in hematology-oncology dates back to his initial years of medical school when he volunteered in translational research projects in oncology. Oncology and cancer care is Dr. Doostan's passion and he enjoys taking care of cancer patients and seeking research opportunities to improve early diagnosis, identification of biomarkers of response, and development of novel treatments. Outside of the hospital and laboratory, he enjoys spending time with his family and playing violin and basketball. 

Dr. Hu defended her PhD thesis, titled "Integrative analysis of omics data in adult glioma and other TCGA cancers to guide precision medicine) in Spring 2017. 

She currently serves as a Senior Research Scientist at The University of Texas MD Anderson Caner Center.

Dr. Huang's Ph.D. work discovered that chromatin assembly of newly synthesized histones via the human histone chaperones ASF1A and CAF-1 plays critical roles in determining DNA damage responses while cells encounter DNA damage. The work, published in Mol. Cell journal, shows the blocking replication-dependent chromatin assembly mediated by ASF1A and CAF-1 causes a reduction of Rad51 loader MMS22L/TONSL binding to ssDNA, leading to impaired homologous recombination. In addition, ASF1A is involved in preventing DNA breaks from extensive resection. He also found that ASF1A phosphorylation enhances its interactions with histones and MMSL22L/TONSL and sebsequently promotes the formation of Rad51-SSDNA nucleofilament. The ChIP analysis of histone H3 occupancy around a single DSB in yeast demonstrated chromatin transiently exists on resected DNA, implicating a possibility that chromatin assembly occurs on ssDNA in mammals. Therefore, he proposed a model that histone chaperone-mediated transient chromatin assembly on ssDNA serves as an intermediate platform to recruit DNA repair machinery to proceed homologous recombination. His second project elucidated a potential mechanism by which ATM and DNA-PKcs are activated in the context of chromatin upon DSBs. He showed that replication-dependent chromatin assembly participates in the prolonged activation of ATM whereas loss of chormatin assembly increased DNA-PKcs phosphorylation in response to DSBs. Histone H4K16ac that is known to induce ATM activation is downregulated by depletion of histone chaperones. In addition, cells lacking chromatin assembly showed the increased DNA-PKcs loading on chromatin, further emphasizing the critical roles of chromatin assembly in the process of DNA repair. He defended his Ph.D. dissertation, titled "Investigation of the roles of ASF1 and CAF-1-mediated chromatin assembly in the human DNA damage response" in Spring 2017.

Dr. Huang currently works as Principal Scientist at Bristol Myers Squibb.

Dr. Nagaraja defended her Ph.D. thesis titled "Tumor-cell derived inhibin, beta A is essential for adrenergic effects on fibroblast activation" in the Spring of 2017. 

She accepted an industry position directly after graduation and is presently a Senior Scientist at Arcus Biosciences in California.

Dr. Peng defended his Ph.D. thesis titled "Role of GSH metabolism in mediating stromal-leukemia interaction and promoting cell survival and drug resistance in chronic lymphocytic leukemia" in Summer 2017.

Following his Ph.D. defense, Dr. Peng stayed on in the Gibbons laboratory for two additional years as a postdoctoral fellow. He later served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at NYU Langone Health in New York. Currently Dr. Peng works as an Institute Principal Scientist for the TRACTION program at MD Anderson.

Dr. Vijayaraghavan defended her Ph.D. thesis, titled "Targeting autophagy to improve efficacy of CDK4/6 inhibition in breast cancer" in Spring 2017. 

Following her defense, Smruthi completed a short postdoctoral fellowship in the Keyomarsi laboratory at MD Anderson before moving on to a postdoctoral scientist position in Immuno-Oncology (Oncology Discovery Area) at Janssen Pharmaceuticals. She currently serves as Director of Oncology  Discovery at Johnson and Johnson.

Dr. Christopher M. Walker earned his B.S. in Physics from Trinity University and his Ph.D. in Medical Physics from the MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. His PhD project focused on developing methods for quantitative measurement of hyperpolarized agents to overcome restrictions imposed by the transient hyperpolarized state and the complexity inherent in biological systems. Dr. Walker's research designed a novel simulation architecture that combined classical chemical kinetics with the basic physics of nuclear magnetic resonance and coupled them to multiple perfusion models towards creating an infrastructure where acquisition strategies can be developed, compared, optimized and validated.  Simulation results showed that changes in the acquisition strategy used will affect the resulting quantification of chemical exchange rates and suggested that any bias that is imposed by the acquisition strategy can be avoided by using optimized pulse sequences. To validate these predictions, a phantom system was developed that allows controllable chemical conversion of hyperpolarized pyruvate into lactate with a variability less than 20%. Using this phantom system, studies showed that poorly optimized pulse sequences significantly reduced the measured value of the chemical exchange rates, whereas optimized pulse sequences showed no significant difference in chemical exchange measurements. In order to test simulation predictions for a perfused system, an animal cohort with orthotropic anaplastic thyroid cancer was scanned with multiple sequences. Again, optimized sequences showed no significant difference in measured exchange rates while poorly designed sequences significantly underestimated the exchange rates, which is consistent with the simulation results. These validation studies suggest that this simulation architecture will be a powerful tool for developing and optimizing acquisition and quantization methods for hyperpolarized magnetic resonance imaging. He defended his Ph.D. dissertation, titled "Novel Simulation to Avoid Bias in Measurement of Hyperpolarized Pyruvate: Demonstrated in Phantom and In Vivo" in Fall 2016.

Of the CPRIT Graduate Scholar Program, Chris describes "As a medical physics student I had only a cursory exposure to cancer biology. The CPRIT program gave me the opportunity to expand upon that greatly through the additional course work as well as the journal club and annual meeting. While by no means comprehensive, the additional cancer biology understanding has been invaluable to my work as an imaging scientist given the rapid translation from anatomic imaging to functional and molecular imaging that is now critical cancer management."

Dr. Walker is currently a Medical Physics Fellow at MD Anderson Cancer Center in the Department of Imaging Physics, where he splits his time between conducting research in hyperpolarized MRI and serving cancer patients as a clinical medical physics resident. His current research focuses on development and optimization of the entire hyperpolarized imaging chain using a broad range of model systems from simulation to clinical data to ensure that measurements made with hyperpolarized MRI are robust enough that they can plan a critical role in personalized cancer management. He currently provides research support to ongoing clinical research to determine the specificity and sensitivity of hyperpolarized MRI in prostate cancer.

Dr. Marco L. Leung received his B.S. in Molecular Genetics from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he served as a Research Assistant in the Department of Immunology for a year following his degree. He then joined the MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, where he earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences under the mentorship of Dr. Nicholas E. Navin. Marco's thesis project was to delineate tumor evolution and resolve intratumor heterogeneity by developing novel single cell sequencing methods and investigating the mechanisms by which colorectal tumors metastasize. He defended his Ph.D. dissertation titled, "Investigating Metastatic Lineage in Colorectal Cancer by Single Cell DNA Sequencing" in Spring 2016. 

After his Ph.D., Dr. Leung completed an American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ABMGG) Clinical Genetics Fellowship at the University of Chicago, where he learned to develop, perform, and interpret molecular assays relevant to the diagnosis and management of human genetic diseases. He currently serves as the Assistant Clinical Laboratory Director for the Center for Applied Genomics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). In his role at CHOP, Marco is involved in high-complexity molecular testing, including carrier screening, clinical exome sequencing, and molecular assay development. His current research focuses on novel technological development which can be adapted into clinical testing. 

Dr. Shih-Shin Chang defended his thesis titled "Functional regulation of Yap by Aurora A kinase in triple-negative breast cancer" in Spring 2016. 

After a short postdoc at MD Anderson, Dr. Chang joined BioVision as an Associate Scientist, wher he was quickly promoted to Scientist I. He then served as  Principle Scientist and then Director of Research and Development for AbVision, Inc. before moving to Bristol-Myers Squibb where he currently serves as Research Investigator II in the Immuno-Oncology Discovery area.

Dr. Ko defended his Ph.D. thesis titled "GSK3beta-mediated EZH2 phosphorylation suppresses methylation of H3K27 and EZH2's oncogenic functions" in Spring 2016.

Following his Ph.D., Dr. Ko returned to his native Taiwan to practice as a physician scientist at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital. He specializes in pulmonary medicine.

Dr. Krafft defended his Ph.D. in Medical Physics titled "Utilizing computed tomography image features to advance prediction of radiation pneumonitis" in Summer 2016.

He completed his Medical Physics Residency at MD Anderson Cancer Centerin 2018 and currently serves as Chief Radiation Physicist at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona.

Dr. Lim defended her Ph.D. thesis titled "Encapsulated contrast agent markers for MRI-based post-implant dosimetry" in Summer 2016. 

She completed her Medical Physics Residency at The University of California at San Diego before returning to MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2018 as Assistant Professor of Medical Physics. 

Dr. Yu defended her Ph.D. thesis, titled "Development of rational combination therapy with PARP inhibitors and kinase inhibitors in TNBC" in Summer 2016.

After graduating, she returned to her native Taiwan as a Project Director for the Minestry of Science and Technology in Taipei. She now works at Roche as a APAC Disease Area Network Medical Enabler.

Dr. Thakkar defended his Ph.D. thesis, titled "TRIM24 orchestrates metabolic reprogramming and EMT in breast cancer" in Spring 2016. 

He is currently a Senior Scientist in Translational Gene Therapy at Janssen Pharmaceuticals in San Francisco.

Dr. Huang defended her Ph.D. thesis, titled "Impact of differentiation status of kidney progenitors in Wilms Tumor development" in the Spring of 2015. 

She worked for 4 years as a Senior Coordinator of Clinical Studies in Investigative Cancer Therapeutics at MD Anderson before becoming a Research Scientist at the Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy (IPCT) at MD Anderson. Dr. Huang currently serves as a Molecular Science Liaison at Innumocore in Los Angeles.

Dr. Manton defended her Ph.D. dissertation, titled " Induction of caspase-dependent death by proteasome targeted therapy in glioblastoma" in Spring 2015.

She completed a postdoctoral fellowship under the direction of Dr. Danny Welsh at The University of Kansas Cancer Center and currently serves as high school science tacher.

During her Ph.D., Dr. Schibler worked under the mentorship of Dr. Sharon Dent. Her project used budding yeast as a model system and found that a mitotic checkpoint was regulated by histone lysine (K) methylation and found that histone H3K4 dimethylation negatively regulated the spindle assembly checkpoint, Mad2, directly bound to methylated H3K4. Of her participation in the Graduate Scholar Program, Andria reflects "The CPRIT Graduate Scholar Program was a fantastic opportunity. It helped me to get into a great lab at NCI and also introduced me to many different types of cancer research. Drs. Keyomarsi and Watowich [Program Directors] were also instrumental in my continuation of academic research."

Dr. Schibler is currently a postdoctoral fellow and a CTRA fellow for the National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute. Her current research is under the direction of Dr. Tom Misteli and focuses on the identification of factors which regulate nuclear morphology, especially nuclear shape and size. When not in the lab, Dr. Schibler plays with her puppy named Chowder, enjoys riding her motorcycle, and learns to wind surf.

Dr. Tashakori defended her dissertation, titled "In vivo significance of the MDM4 and p73 interaction during development and tumorigenesis" in Summer 2015. 

Dr. Tashakori completed her medical residency in Pathology at Henry Ford Health System in Michigan before returning to MD Anderson Cancer Center, where she is currently training as a hematopathology fellow.

Dr. Di Lorenzo defended her Ph.D. thesis, titled "Gain-of-function mouse models to investigate the biological roles of PRMT6" in the Spring of 2014. 

After a 2 year postdoctoral fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center, Dr. Di Lorenzo accepted a faculty position at Austin Community College. She currently serves as Professor of Biology for the college.

Dr. Lee defended his PhD thesis titled "p120-catenin regulates REST and CoREST, and modulates mouse embryonic stem cell differentiation" in Fall 2014.

He currently serves as a Staff Scientist at the National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Nallaparaju defended his PhD dissertation titled "The role of dual specificity phosphatase-11 in innate and adaptive immune responses" in Fall 2014.

After earning his Ph.D., he served as Scientist I at Lio Biotechnologies. In 2016, he joined EMD Serono as a Scientist in the Immuno-Oncology area, where he was promoted and later servered as a Senior Scientist for Immuno-Oncology. Kaylan now works as an Associate Director of Immunobiology at Mitobridge.

Dr. Deepavali Chakravarti completed her Bachelors of Science in Microbiology at the University of Bangalore in Karnataka, India, where she also earned a Masters of Science in Biotechnology. She later earned her M.S. in Biology from the University of Houston - Clear Lake. She joined the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and joined the laboratory of Dr. Elsa Flores. She defended her Ph.D. thesis, titled "Investigating the roles of the p63 isoforms in the microRNA biogenesis pathway" in the Spring of 2013. 

Next, Dr. Chakravarti joined the DePinho laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow at MD Anderson in the Department of Cancer Biology. She joined the CPRIT TRIUMPH Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (2014-2018) and currently serves as an Entrepreneur in Residence at TMC Innovations in Houston, Texas.

Dr. Li defended his Ph.D. thesis, titled "Therapeutic efficacy of p53 restoration in MDM2-overexpressing tumors" in the Fall of 2013.

He is currently a Principal Scientist in Translational Pharmacology at Shoreline Biosciences in San Diego.

Dr. Munoz defended his Ph.D. dissertation titled "Developmental and molecular functions of plakophilin-3" in Fall 2013. 

He currently serves as a Group Leader at Catalent Pharma in Kansas City.

Dr. Chunlei Jin earned his M.B.B.S. in Clinical Medicine and his M.S. in Pharmacology both from Zhejiang University School of Medicine in Hangzhou, China. He then served as Clinical Project Manager in the Department of Research & Development at Hangzhou Jiuyuan Gene Engineering Co., Ltd. for a few years before moving to the United States to pursue his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from the MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. He defended his Ph.D. dissertation titled, "TET1: A Unique DNA Demethylase for Maintenance of DNA Methylation Pattern in Fall 2012. He reflects on his participation in the CPRIT Graduate Scholar Program: "In the CPRIT program I had a solid scientific training in cancer research, which equipped me with a wide range of knowledge in cancer and important logical thinking ability. This prepared me well for industry, where I focus on designing phase I - III clinical trials of new anti-tumor drugs."

Dr. Jin currently serves as the Associate Medical Director at Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co., Ltd., in Shanghai, China. In his current role, he works on the clinical development of innovative anti-tumor therapies.