News & Media
News and Accolades
Jun 2024: Khalil Kasm received the Daniel Benedict Gazan Award in Sarcoma Research Excellence Award.
May 2024: Aishani Gargapati graduated from Rice and won a Distinction in Research (Neuroscience) award.
May 2024: Alesandra Echeandía Marrero was awarded an NIH T-32 training grant.
May 2024: Aishani Gargapati was accepted into the NCI Cancer Research Interns Summer Program.
May 2024: Ava Hamblett was awarded a summer internship in the Impurity Assays Group at Pfizer in Bothell, WA.
Conference Presentations
November 2024: Dr. Khalil Kasm presented a talk on the crosstalk between sensory neuronal activity and tumor cells, which promotes malignancy and cancer pain, at the 2024 Society for Neuro-Oncology annual meeting in Houston, Texas. Also from the Pan Lab, Drs. Khushboo Irshad, Anand Singh, Benjamin Aghoghovwia and Khalil Kasm presented posters of their research.
August 2024: Dr. Benjamin Aghoghovwia presented his poster on germline mutations and chemotherapy-induced oligodendrocyte deficits and cognitive dysfunction in neurofibromatosis type 1 at the 2024 Glia in Health & Disease meeting in Cold Spring Harbor, New York.
July 2024: Dr. Benjamin Aghoghovwia presented an update on the Pan Lab's research at the Gilbert Family Foundation's Vision Restoration Initiative meeting in Detroit, Michigan. The Gilbert Family Foundation Vision Restoration Initiative grant was awarded to the Pan Lab in 2022 to investigate optic nerve oligodendroglial dynamics and myelination in neurofibromatosis type 1.
July 2024: Dr. Anand Singh discussed a newly established preclinical model of pediatric chemobrain in his oral presentation at the 21st International Symposium on Pediatric Neuro-Oncology in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The model helps investigators understand the mechanisms of long-term neurocognitive side effects of brain tumor chemotherapy during childhood and may eventually identify prevention and treatment targets in pediatric cancer. This work is supported by the Kleberg Foundation.
April 2024: Madeline Ansley presented her research at the Rice Undergraduate Neuroscience Symposium held at the Rice campus in Houston, Texas.
April 2024: Madeline Ansley presented her research at the Rice Undergraduate Neuroscience Symposium held at the Rice campus in Houston, Texas.
April 2024: Nathan Bui and Aishani Gargapati presented their research at the Rice University Natural Science Undergraduate Symposium in Houston, Texas. Aishani won the Best Poster prize in the cancer biology, prevention, and therapy section.
April 2024: Aishani Gargapati presented her research at the 2024 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting in San Diego, California.
March 2024: Dr. Khalil ali Ahmad Kasm won the Best Poster award at MD Anderson's Trainee Research Day.
February 2024: Drs. Anand Singh, Benjamin Aghoghovwia, Khushboo Irshad, and Khalil Ali Ahmad Kasm presented at the 2024 Cancer Neuroscience Symposium, Houston, Texas.
November 2023: Dr. Khushboo Irshad presented her research at the Society for Neuro-Oncology 28th Annual Meeting in Vancouver, Canada.
November 2023: Dr. Khalil Ali Ahmad Kasm presented his cancer neuroscience work at the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) annual meeting in Washington D.C.
Grant and Funding Updates
July 2024
Andrew Sabin Family Foundation award to support the work of the Pan Lab.
March 2024
Kleberg Foundation award to study how chemotherapy influences cognition (chemobrain).
September 2023
US Department of Defense (DOD) award to study cancer neuroscience in neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1)-associated gliomas.
DOD award to study the effects of diet on cognitive function in NF1.
October 2022
Gilbert Family Foundation Vision Restoration Initiative award to investigate optic nerve oligodendroglial dynamics and myelination in NF1.
April 2022
Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) Recruitment of First-Time, Tenure-Track Faculty Members Award, the University of Texas Rising STARS Award, and the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation Young Investigator Award to kick-start the Yuan Pan Lab.
Publications Spotlight
JUNE 2024
Research by Dr. Pan and colleagues was spotlighted in the June issue of Medical Xpress, an online source that tracks scientific developments worldwide. The research, published originally in Nature Neuroscience, provides strong evidence that neurofibromatosis type 1 mutations delay the development of oligodendroglia, leading to disruptions in motor learning.