Lab Members

Pradeep Shrestha, Ph.D.
MD Anderson Odyssey Fellow
PShrestha1@MDAnderson.org

I received my M.S. and Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the University of Louisville, Kentucky. My doctoral research was focused on modulation of innate and adaptive immune responses by engineering grafts with chimeric immune modulatory proteins.

Project(s): My research interest in the Kleinerman Lab will focus on novel strategies to modulate the tumor immune landscape and enhance cancer immunotherapy for the treatment of osteosarcoma-lung metastasis. My study aims to target immune suppressive cells with a specific goal to promote anti-tumor immunity.

Savannah Wooten, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow

Project(s): My current research projects aim to investigate anthracycline induced muscle wasting and its clinical effects in adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer patients. Though the use of surveillance computed tomography chest scans, I am monitoring muscle changes at thoracic vertebrae 4 before, during and after anthracycline chemotherapy. Simultaneously, I am working to identify underlying mechanisms contributing to anthracycline-induced muscle protein degradation. This foundational understanding of clinical and physiological changes in skeletal muscle will ultimately lead to feasibility and proof-of concept studies for an exercise and nutrition supplementation interventions to prevent muscle mass loss during anthracycline treatment in AYA sarcoma patients.

Recent Publications:

1. Wooten SV, Roth M, Livingston A, Hildebrandt MAT, Chandra J, Amini B, Kleinerman E,* Gilchrist S,* Short-Term Changes in Skeletal Muscle Mass After Anthracycline Administration in Adolescent and Young Adult Sarcoma Patients. Journal of Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology. 2021. In Press
2. Wooten SV, Fleming RD, Wolf Jr JS, Stray-Gundersen S, Bartholomew JB, Mendoza D, Stanforth PR, Stanforth D, Hernandez LM, Tanaka H. Prehabilitation program composed of blood flow restriction training and sports nutrition improves physical functions in abdominal cancer patients awaiting surgery. European Journal of Surgical Oncology. 2021 Jun 1.
3. Hoffmann F, Moestl S, Wooten SV, Stray-Gundersen S, Tomczak CR, Tank J, Tanaka H, Rittweger J, Chilibeck PD. Left Ventricular Dimensions and Diastolic Function Are Different in Throwers, Endurance Athletes, and Sprinters From the World Masters Athletics Championships. Frontiers in Physiology. 2021 Mar 15;12:248.
4. Wooten SV, Moestl S, Chilibeck P, Alvero Cruz JR, Mittag U, Tank J, Tanaka H, Rittweger J, Hoffmann F. Age-and Sex-Differences in Cardiac Characteristics Determined by Echocardiography in Masters Athletes. Frontiers in Physiology. 2021 Jan 18;11:1863.
5. Wooten SV, Mittag U, Alvero Cruz JR, Stray-Gundersen S, Hoffmann F, Michély S, Möstl S, Sies W, Mulder E, Rauschendorfer P, Chilibeck PD. Life Satisfaction, Positive Affect, and Sleep Impairment in Masters Athletes: Modulation by Age, Sex, and Exercise Type. Frontiers in Physiology. 2021 Mar 4;12:109.
6. Wooten SV, Stray-Gundersen S, Tanaka H. Hemodynamic and pressor responses to combination of yoga and blood flow restriction. International Journal of Sports Medicine. 2020 Oct;41(11):759-65.
7. Stray-Gundersen S, Wooten SV, Tanaka H. Walking with leg blood flow restriction: wide-rigid cuffs vs. Narrow-elastic bands. Frontiers in physiology. 2020 May 29;11:568.
8. Fico BG, Gourley DD, Wooten SV, Tanaka H. Heart-thigh cuff pulse wave velocity: a novel nontechnical measure of arterial stiffness. American journal of hypertension. 2019 Oct 16;32(11):1051-3.

Yuanzheng Yang, Ph.D.
Research Scientist
YYang9@MDAnderson.org

Project(s): Elicit the molecular mechanism of gene expression and regulation and identify targeting treatment for osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma, including new drugs and their application to pediatrics OS patients, immunotherapy and vaccine therapy.

Fei Wang, M.D., M.S., Ph.D.
Research Scientist
FWang8@MDAnderson.org

Project(s): Cardiotoxicity

I was a cardiology physician by training, earning an M.D. and Ph.D. at Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University in China. I have been working on doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity, skeletal muscle dysfunction, and survival research in the Kleinerman Lab. My unique abilities, skills, and knowledge of performing and analyzing echocardiograms in mice, and my surgical skills and experience in cardiac pathology enabled us to identify several pathways that contribute to chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity. We also were able to show that exercise with chemotherapy prevents this heart damage. These transformative and novel investigations led to the initiation of a clinical study in AYAs with osteosarcoma.

Recent Publications:

1. Fei Wang, Joya Chandra, Eugenie S Kleinerman (2021). Exercise Intervention Decreases Acute and Late Doxorubicin-Induced Cardiotoxicity". Cancer Medicine. 2021;10:7572-7584.
2. Zhichao Zhou, Yuanzheng Yang, Fei Wang, Eugenie S Kleinerman (2020). Neuronal Repressor REST Controls Ewing Sarcoma Growth and Metastasis by Affecting Vascular Pericyte Coverage and Vessel Perfusion. Cancers. 2020 May 29; 12(6):1405.
3. Fei Wang, Eugenie S Kleinerman (2020). Exercise prevents late Doxorubicin-induced vascular damage, decreases late-onset heart failure and fibrosis, and improved recovery from MI. Cancer Research. August 2020. DOI: 10.1158/1538-7445.AM2020-5011.
4. Rong-Hua Tao, Masato Kobayashi, Fei Wang, Yuanzheng Yang, and Eugenie S. Kleinerman (2020). Dissecting the mechanism of exercise-mediated protection of Dox-induced cardiotoxicity. Cancer Research. 2020 August. DOI: 10.1158/1538-7445.AM2020-5422.
5. Meifang Xu, Fei Wang (co-first author), Hong Chen, Lin Liu, Wenwen Liu, Yinghong Yang, Qiaoling Zheng, Lihong Zhang, Xiaoxuan Li, Suxia Lin, Shengbing Zang (2019). Inactivation of FoxO1 induces T follicular cell polarization and involves angioimmunoblastic T cell lymphoma. Cancer Biology & Medicine. 2019 Nov; 16(4):743-755.
6. Min Yang, Jingtao Liu, Fei Wang, Zhihua Tian, Bo Ma, Zhongwu Li, Boqing Wang and Wei Zhao (2019). Lysyl oxidase assists tumor-initiating cells to enhance angiogenesis in hepatocellular carcinoma. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ONCOLOGY 54: 1398-1408, 2019.
7. Fei Wang, Keri Schadler, Joya Chandra, Eugenie S Kleinerman (2018). Effect of exercise on acute and late onset Doxorubicin-induced carditoxicity. Cancer Res July 1 2018, 78 (13 Supplement) 3008-3008. DOI:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2018-3008.
8. Fei Wang, Brian Iskra, Eugenie Kleinerman, Claudia Alvarez-Florez, Thomas Andrews, Angela Shaw, Joya Chandra, #Keri Schadler, and #Gregory J. Aune (2018). Aerobic Exercise During Early Murine Doxorubicin Exposure Mitigates Cardiac Toxicity. J Pediatr Hematol Oncol 2018; 40: 208-215.
9. Min Yang, Zhiqin Fan, Fei Wang, Zhi-hua Tian, Bo Ma, Bin Dong, Zhongwu Li, Ming Zhang, Wei Zhao (2018). BMP-2 enhances the migration and proliferation of hypoxia-induced VSMCs via actin cytoskeleton, CD44 and matrix metalloproteinase linkage. Experimental Cell Research, 2018; 368(2): 248-257.
10. Jian Gao, Fei Wang, Xinyu Kuang, Rong Chen, Jia Rao, Bin Wang, Wenyan Li, Haimei Liu, Qian Shen, Xiang Wang , Hong Xu (2016). Assessment of chronic renal injury from melamine-associated pediatric urolithiasis: An eighteen-month prospective cohort study. Annals of Saudi Medicine Jul-Aug; 36(4):252-7.
11. Fei Wang, Fei Tian, Samantha A. Whitman, Donna D. Zhang, Toru Nishinaka, Nong Zhang, Tao Jiang (2012). Regulation of transforming growth factor β1-dependent aldose reductase expression by the Nrf2 signal pathway in human mesangial cells. European Journal of Cell Biology 91(10):774-781.
12. Fei Wang, Tao Jiang, Chaoshu Tang, Zijie Su, Nong Zhang and Guizhong Li (2011). Ghrelin reduces rat myocardial calcification induced by nicotine and vitamin D3 in vivo. International Journal of Molecular Medicine 28:513-519.

Prince Jeyabal, M.S., Ph.D.
Research Scientist
PJeyabal@MDAnderson.org

Project(s): Circulatory biomarkers in Doxorubicin induced acute myocardial injury and therapeutic interventions of exercise; Role of senescence in Doxorubicin induced acute cardiotoxicity.

Recent Publications:

1. Jeyabal P, Bhagat A, Wang F et. al. Circulating microRNAs and cytokines as prognostic biomarkers for doxorubicin-induced cardiac injury and for evaluating the effectiveness of an exercise intervention. Clin. Cancer Res. 2023; 29(21):4430-4440. PMID: 37651264
2. Bhagat A, Shrestha P, Jeyabal P, Peng Z, Watowich S.S, Kleinerman E.S. Doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity is mediated by neutrophils through release of neutrophil elastase. Front Oncol. 2022; 12: 947604 PMID: 9400062

Zhanglong Peng, M.M.Sc., Ph.D.
Research Scientist
ZPeng1@MDAnderson.org

Project(s): Exercise Attenuates Doxorubicin Induced Cardiotoxicity via phosphatidylserine (PS) Decarboxylase Pathway.

You Zhou, Ph.D.
Research Investigator
YZhou15@MDAnderson.org

Project(s): Targeted therapy, immunotherapy and vaccine therapy in osteosarcoma.