Lab Members
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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.
Executive Director of Scientific Research, Genomic Medicine
Dr. Nadim Ajami co-leads MD Anderson’s Platform for Innovative Microbiome and Translational Research (PRIME-TR). PRIME-TR supports impactful translational microbiome research to improve cancer outcomes. Before joining MD Anderson, Dr. Ajami was the chief scientific officer at MicrobiomeDX, a company dedicated to supporting microbiome clinical trials with microbiome applications. He earned his Ph.D. in molecular virology and microbiology from Baylor College of Medicine, where he characterized noroviruses, the most common viral cause of epidemic gastroenteritis. This work led him to the field of microbiome research, and he joined Baylor’s Center for Metagenomics and Microbiome Research (CMMR) as a research associate. At the CMMR, he directed research collaborations as an assistant professor and helped found Diversigen, Inc., a company offering microbiome profiling services.
Dr. Ajami’s experience in both academic and commercial research has shaped the development of a program that effectively supports innovative translational microbiome research. This program includes building dedicated microbiome-dedicated computational resources, models for pre-clinical testing, a framework for clinical trials with microbiome applications, and relationships with key industry partners. PRIME-TR’s goal is to design and support microbiome studies that investigate the role of the microbiome in cancer prevention, onset, and response to therapy, and to understand the biological mechanisms behind these associations. PRIME-TR supports academic and industry projects with various aspects of microbiome specimen collection and processing, as well as data generation and analysis.
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., UT Health 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
- Elizabeth Burton, M.B.A.
- 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.