Lab Members
Principal Investigator
Jennifer A. Wargo, M.D., M.M.Sc.
Endowed Professor, Surgical Oncology & Genomic Medicine
Program Director for PRIME TR
Jennifer A. Wargo, M.D., M.M.Sc., has significantly contributed to the knowledge of resistance mechanisms and the effect of targeted therapy on anti-tumor immunity. She joined MD Anderson in September 2013 to build a program collecting serial biopsies in patients, particularly those with melanoma, being treated with chemotherapy, targeted therapy and immunotherapy. The goal of this program is to better understand responses to therapy and develop novel strategies to combat resistance.
By studying patients with metastatic melanoma initially treated with immune checkpoint blockade, Wargo's research program uncovered important biomarkers of response. Potential mechanisms of therapeutic resistance to immune checkpoint blockade were also identified. These findings were published in the Summer 2016 edition of Cancer Discovery and have far-reaching implications for the use of immune checkpoint blockade in precision medicine.
Currently, her team is examining the microbiome — the collective population of microorganisms that live in and on humans — to determine the role it plays in patient response to cancer therapy. In 2020, Dr. Wargo started PRIME TR - Program for Innovative Microbiome and Translational Research at MD Anderson.
Wargo Team and Prime-TR Members
Nadim Ajami, Ph.D.
Director of Scientific Research for PRIME TR
Nadim joins Dr. Wargo's team from Baylor College of Medicine. Through translational applications of microbiome science, Nadim has developed research for academic and commercial teams and programs using a genomics-driven approach to study microbe-host interactions in the context of human diseases. He has joined the team to help lead the newly developed PRIME TR program.
Elizabeth Burton, MBA
Director,
Research Planning and Develpment, Surgical Oncology
Elizabeth (Liz) serves as the Director for Research Planning and
Development for the Melanoma
Moon Shot® and its high-priority projects including basic and
translational research projects, clinical research, behavioral science
interventions and legislative/policy initiatives. Liz has is
instrumental in the success of Dr. Wargo's Lab.
Current Wargo Lab Staff
Sarah B. Johnson, Research Investigator, Surgical Oncology
Golnaz Morad, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow, Surgical Oncology
Michael G. White, M.D., Clinical Fellow, Surgical Oncology
Erez N. Baruch, M.D., Ph.D., UTH Rotating Resident
Matthew LaStrapes, Rotating Fellow, Surgical Oncology
Manoj Chelvanambi, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow, Surgical Oncology
Past Wargo Lab Members and Contributors
- Miles Andrews, Ph.D.
- Reetakshi Arora, Ph.D.
- Jacob Austin-Breneman
- Thomas Chapman
- Alexandria Cogdill, M.Eng., Ph.D.
- Zachary Cooper, Ph.D.
- Pierre-Olivier Gaudreau, M.D.
- Vancheswaran "Deepak" Gopalakrishnan, Ph.D.
- Beth Helmink, M.D.
- Hong Jiang, Ph.D.
- Md Abdul "Wadud" Khan, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow, Surgical Oncology
- Christine Miller Diaz
- Luigi Nezi, Ph.D.
- Gabriel O. Ologun, T32 Candidate, Surgical Oncology
- Peter A. Prieto, M.D., M.P.H.
- Sangeetha Reddy, M.D., MSci
- Alexandre Reuben, Ph.D.
- Christine Spencer, Ph.D.
- Robert Szczepaniak Sloane, Ph.D.
- Rohit Thakur
- Joey Toker
- Jingjing Wang, Ph.D.