Lab Members
Mauro Di Pilato, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
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Mauro Di Pilato is an assistant professor in Immunology at MD Anderson. He graduated from the University of Bari (Italy) in 2006 with a master's degree in medical biotechnology and molecular medicine. After being awarded with a Leonardo da Vinci scholarship, he moved to the Spanish National Biotechnology Centre (CNB) in Madrid to study activation, cell cycle and apoptosis of T cells in autoimmunity and inflammation.
He joined the laboratory of Prof. Mariano Esteban (CNB) for his thesis in 2009. There, he mainly worked in two different projects directed toward understanding the poxvirus-dependent mechanisms involved in the generation of antigen-specific T cell responses and to improving the poxvirus’ capacity to induce these responses (four first-author original papers in J. Virol, J. Gen. Virol., PNAS, and J. Gen. Virol.). After obtaining his Ph.D. in 2015, he performed a short stay in Switzerland in Dr. Santiago González laboratory for a collaborative project between CNB and Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) of Bellinzona, to study neutrophil and T cell migration and intracellular communication using in vivo two photon imaging after vaccinia infection in mouse model.
In 2015, he joined the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston as a research fellow in the Department of Rheumatology/Center for Immunology and Inflammatory Disease, where he pursued work in immunology with Dr. Thorsten Mempel. His main research work, funded by EMBO Long-Term and Marie Curie Post-Doctoral Fellowships, focused on how regulatory ans cytotoxic T cells exert their functions in tumor mouse models. As a result from this work, he published two first-author manuscripts in Nature and Cell, describing the biological basis of these new cancer immunotherapy approaches.
In 2019, he returned to Europe (Switzerland) in the IRB based on the stipulations of his last year of Marie Currie fellowship. Here, he was carrying out the project focused on how neutrophils shape antigen-specific T cell activation upon poxvirus vaccination (first-author publication in NPJ Vaccines).
The responses of different immune cell types to distinct tumor microenvironments as well as the future applications of immunotherapy in cancer are the focus of his independent research laboratory.
Jing Pan
Senior Research Assistant
I completed my undergraduate studies at University of Shanghai (China) and I have been working as a research assistant in the Houston area for the past 20 years. I have experience in molecular and cellular biology and have acquired great expertise in cloning, western blotting and cell culture.
In April 2021, I joined the Di Pilato Lab where I am responsible for ordering animals and maintaining supplies. I am in charge of the work area and equipment to ensure the laboratory operates safely, is clean and all equipment is in good working order. I also instruct other staff and students in basic laboratory techniques and am involved with them in the discussion of project goals and strategies.
Luis Castillo
Postdoctoral Fellow
I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Carabobo, Venezuela. After being awarded with a Latin American Fellowship by The National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina, I moved to The Institute of Experimental Medicine-National Academy of Medicine of Buenos Aires where I studied the role of innate immune response against multidrug-resistant bacteria such as Klebsiella pneumoniae.
After obtaining my doctoral degree at The University of Buenos Aires in February 2022, I joined the Di Pilato Lab where I am currently focused on the responses of distinct immune subsets within the tumoral microenvironment. With the aim of understanding T cell and neutrophil dynamics, we want to develop novel strategies to improve the response of patients to cancer immunotherapy.
Fernanda Kugeratski
Postdoctoral Fellow
I completed my undergraduate (2009), specialization (2011) and master’s studies (2012) in Brazil, where my early research focused on dissecting MAPK signaling pathways in T. brucei using quantitative phosphoproteomics. For my Ph.D. studies in cancer sciences (University of Glasgow), I was awarded with a scholarship from Cancer Research UK to investigate how hypoxia remodels the secretome of cancer-associated fibroblasts to promote angiogenesis. My Ph.D. work, completed in 2017, led to the discovery of novel pro-angiogenic signaling mechanisms mediated by the hypoxic tumor microenvironment (TME) in cancer.
After concluding my Ph.D., I was awarded with a postdoctoral fellowship from the Odyssey Program at MD Anderson to investigate key aspects of exosome biology and their translational potential in immune modulation in cancer. In September 2022, I joined the Di Pilato Lab to study the role of specific dendritic cells in the regulation of CD8 T cell functions, and to decipher how components of the TME alter T cell responses. Using a combination of cutting-edge single cell-based technologies, bioinformatics, and mouse models, our goal is to gain a comprehensive understating on how different components of the myeloid compartment rewire the biology of T cells, and how these newly discovered mechanisms can be translated into immunotherapeutic modalities that can benefit cancer patients.
Ricardo Gonzalez Delgado
Ph.D. Student
I received my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biotechnology from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, México. Afterward, I worked as a research assistant at MD Anderson Cancer Center, where I studied exocytosis mechanisms regulated by platelets and the role of circulating extracellular vesicles and mitochondria from cancer cells in venous thromboembolism development.
In 2022, I was accepted to the immunology Ph.D. program at the MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. In 2023 I joined the Di Pilato Lab, where my projects focus on new dendritic cell strategies to enhance tumor control by manipulating regulatory T cells.
Ruparoshni Jayabalan
Ph.D. Student
I received my Bachelor of Technology in genetic engineering from SRM Institute of Science and Technology (India) followed by my master’s degree in cancer biology from University of Heidelberg and German Cancer Research Center. During my undergraduate studies, I performed my bachelor thesis and research assistantship in Brigham and Women’s Hospital where I focused on studying the intercellular communication and mitochondrial transfer between cancer and immune cells through tunneling nanotubes. In my master's program, I worked on understanding the role of the transcription factor T-bet in disease progression of chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
For my Ph.D., I joined the Di Pilato Lab to mechanistically investigate the interactions between regulatory T cells and dendritic cells.
Shajedul Islam
Postdoctoral Fellow
I completed my Doctor of Dental Surgery (D.D.S.) at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, and I have three years of clinical practice experience. In 2016, I was awarded a Japanese government scholarship to pursue my Ph.D. at the Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, Japan, where I investigated the epigenetic mechanisms underlying oral cancer in Dr. Chiba’s and Dr. Abiko’s laboratories. After completing my Ph.D., I joined Professor Kuramitsu’s laboratory as a research associate, focusing on pancreatic proteomics. My journey then led me to Tokyo Dental University as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Azuma’s laboratory, where I specialized in regenerative medicine, exploring the clinical potential of patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) for treating cleidocranial dysplasia.
In 2022, I became a postdoctoral fellow in the Amit Laboratory in Head and Neck Surgery at MD Anderson, where I explored the intricate cholinergic signaling involved in swallowing dysfunctions in oropharyngeal carcinoma and investigated neuro-immune interactions in head and neck cancer, particularly focusing on adrenergic signaling in immune modulation. Currently, as a member of the Di Pilato Lab, my research centers on unraveling the roles of dendritic cells in anti-tumor immune responses and the diverse functions of neutrophils within the tumor microenvironment. My aim is to pioneer innovative therapeutic approaches that can be translated into clinical trials, significantly enhancing patient outcomes.