Fiscal Year 2022 Awardees
Research is a cornerstone of MD Anderson’s quest to end cancer. The Excellence in Science program is the online showcase for the Wall of Science, our quarterly program for honoring outstanding primary research selected from among publications in top journals by MD Anderson’s world-renowned scientists.
Quarter 1 (September–November 2021)
Joe Y. Chang, M.D., Ph.D., and Jack A. Roth, M.D.
Left to right: Zain Al Rstum, Ian Bostock, Ravi Rajaram, Mara Antonoff, Garrett Walsh, Ara Vaporciyan, Reza J Mehran, Boris Sepesi, Stephen Swisher, Wayne Hofstetter, David Rice and Peter White
Additional authors: Lei Feng, Vivek Verma, James W Welsh, Steven H Lin, Michael S O’Reilly, Peter A Balter, Stephen E McRae, Donald Berry and John V Heymach
Joe Y. Chang, M.D., Ph.D., FASTRO
Professor, Radiation Oncology
Director, Body Stereotactic Program
Texas 4000 Distinguished Professorship
Jack A. Roth, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Professor, Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery
Director, W.M. Keck Center for Innovative Cancer Therapies
Chief, Section of Thoracic Molecular Oncology
Bud S. Johnson Distinguished Clinical Chair Emeritus
Front row, left to right: Percy Lee, Aileen Chen, Joe Chang, Quynh-Nhu Nguyen and Matthew Ning
Back row, left to right: Saumil Gandhi, Melenda Jeter and Zhongxing Liao
Mariana Chavez Mac Gregor, M.D., and Sharon Hermes Giordano, M.D.
Mariana Chavez Mac Gregor, M.D., MSc
Associate Professor
Health Services Research & Breast Medical Oncology
Sharon Hermes Giordano, M.D., M.P.H.
Chair, Health Services Research
Professor, Health Services Research & Breast Medical Oncology
Colin Powell Chair for Cancer Research
Evaluation of COVID-19 Mortality and Adverse Outcomes in US Patients With or Without Cancer
Left to right: Hui Zhao, Sharon H. Giordano, Mariana Chavez-Macgregor, Xiudong Jennifer Lei and Paul Scheet
Courtney DiNardo, M.D., Curtis Lachowiez, M.D., Marina Konopleva, M.D., Ph.D., and Hagop M. Kantarjian, M.D.
Venetoclax Combined With FLAG-IDA Induction and Consolidation in Newly Diagnosed and Relapsed or Refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia
Left to right: Hagop M. Kantarjian, Curtis A. Lachowiez and Courtney D. DiNardo
Co-authors not pictured: Koichi Takahashi , Sanam Loghavi , Lianchun Xiao, Tapan Kadia , Naval Daver , Maria Adeoti, Nicholas J. Short , Koji Sasaki , Sa Wang , Gautam Borthakur , Ghayas Issa , Abhishek Maiti , Yesid Alvarado , Naveen Pemmaraju , Guillermo Montalban Bravo , Lucia Masarova , Musa Yilmaz , Nitin Jain, Michael Andreeff , Elias Jabbour , Guillermo Garcia-Manero , Steven Kornblau , Farhad Ravandi and Marina Y. Konopleva
Courtney DiNardo, M.D.
Associate Professor
Leukemia
Associate Chair, Institutional Review Board
Curtis Lachowiez, M.D.
Fellow
Cancer Medicine
Marina Konopleva, M.D., Ph.D.
Deputy Chair, Leukemia
Professor, Leukemia & Stem Cell Transplantation
Frances King Black Memorial Professorship for Cancer Research
Hagop M. Kantarjian, M.D.
Chair and Professor
Leukemia
Associate Vice President, Global Oncology Research
Samsung Distinguished University Chair in Cancer Medicine
Ansam Sinjab Fayed, Ph.D., Guangchun Han, Ph.D., Linghua Wang, M.D., Ph.D., and Humam Kadara, Ph.D.
Ansam Sinjab Fayed, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Translational Molecular Pathology
Guangchun Han, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Genomic Medicine
Linghua Wang, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Genomic Medicine
Humam Kadara, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Translational Molecular Pathology
Left to right: Guangchun Han, Ansam Sinjab Fayed, Linghua Wang and Humam Kadara
Co-authors not pictured: Warapen Treekitkarnmongkol, Kieko Hara, Patrick M. Brennan, Minghao Dang, Dapeng Hao, Ruiping Wang, Enyu Dai, Hitoshi Dejima, Jiexin Zhang, Elena Bogatenkova, Beatriz Sanchez-Espiridion, Kyle Chang, Danielle R. Little, Samer Bazzi, Linh M. Tran, Kostyantyn Krysan, Carmen Behrens, Dzifa Y. Duose, Edwin R. Parra, Maria Gabriela Raso, Luisa M. Solis, Junya Fukuoka, Jianjun Zhang, Boris Sepesi, Tina Cascone, Lauren Averett Byers, Don L. Gibbons, Jichao Chen, Seyed Javad Moghaddam, Edwin J. Ostrin, Daniel Rosen, John V. Heymach, Paul Scheet, Steven M. Dubinett, Junya Fujimoto, Ignacio I. Wistuba, Christopher S. Stevenson and Avrum Spira
I-Lin Ho, Ph.D., and Andrea Viale, M.D.
Epithelial memory of inflammation limits tissue damage while promoting pancreatic tumorigenesis
Back, left to right: Sergio Attanasio, I-Lin Ho, Er-Yen Yen, Andrea Viale and Charles A. Dyke
Front, left to right: Francesca Citron, Guoxin Feng and Rutvi Shah
Co-authors not pictured: Edoardo Del Poggetto, Chiara Balestrieri, Shaojun Zhang, Denise Corti, Giuseppe R. Diaferia, Chieh Yuan Li, Sara Loponte, Federica Carbone, Yoku Hayakawa, Giovanni Valenti, Shan Jiang, Luigi Sapio, Hong Jiang, Prasenjit Dey, Sisi Gao, Angela K. Deem, Stefan Rose-John, Wantong Yao, Haoqiang Ying, Andrew D. Rhim, Giannicola Genovese, Timothy P. Heffernan, Anirban Maitra, Timothy C. Wang, Linghua Wang, Giulio F. Draetta, Alessandro Carugo and Gioacchino Natoli
I-Lin Ho, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Genomic Medicine
Andrea Viale, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Genomic Medicine
Eric Jonasch, M.D.
Eric Jonasch, M.D.
Professor
Genitourinary Medical Oncology
Amanda L. Olson, M.D., Ruitao Lin, Ph.D., David Marin, M.D. and Katy Rezvani, M.D., Ph.D.
Third-Party BK Virus-Specific Cytotoxic T Lymphocyte Therapy for Hemorrhagic Cystitis Following Allotransplantation
Top row, left to right: Katayoun Rezvani, Elizabeth J. Shpall, Victor Mulanovich and David Marin
Second row, left to right: Hind Rafei, Amanda Olson, Richard E. Champlin and Indreshpal Kaur
Third row, left to right: Gabriela Rondon, Gheath Al-Atrash, Ala Abudayyeh and Paul Lin
Fourth row, left to right: Fleur M. Aung, Melissa Barnett, Uday Popat and May Daher
Bottom row, left to right: Rafet Basar, Pinaki Banerjee, Peter F. Thall
Co-authors not pictured: Ruitao Lin, Mustafa H. Bdaiwi, Indresh Kaur, Glorette Abueg, Sheetal Rao, Roy Chemaly, Amin M. Alousi, Borje S. Andersson, Paolo Anderlini, Qaiser Bashir, Karla M. Castro, Isabel M. Galvan, Chitra Hosing, Jin S. Im, Roy B. Jones, Partow Kebriaei, Issa Khouri, Rohtesh Mehta, Jeffrey Molldrem, Yago Nieto, Betul Oran, Muzaffar Qazilbash, Neeraj Saini, Bryan Spencer, Samer Srour and Dominique Washington
Amanda L. Olson, M.D.
Associate Professor
Stem Cell Transplantation
Ruitao Lin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Biostatistics
David Marin, M.D.
Professor
Stem Cell Transplantation
Katy Rezvani, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor, Stem Cell Transplantation
Director, Translational Research
Medical Director, GMP Cell Therapy Laboratory
Director, Cellular Therapy
Sally Cooper Murray Chair in Cancer Research
Kanwal Pratap Singh Raghav, M.B.B.S., and Daniel Halperin, M.D.
Kanwal Pratap Singh Raghav, M.B.B.S.
Associate Professor
GI Medical Oncology
Clinical Medical Director, Ambulatory Treatment Center
Daniel Halperin, M.D.
Associate Professor
GI Medical Oncology
Clinical Medical Director, Gastrointestinal Center
Back row, left to right: Kanwal Raghav, Daniel M. Halperin and Keith F. Fournier
Front row, left to right: Anneleis Willett (PA in Medical Oncology) and Karen Beaty (PA in Surgery)
Co-authors, not pictured: Suyu Liu, Michael J. Overman, Mark Knafl, Szu Chin Fu, Anais Malpica, Seema Prasad, Richard E Royal, Christopher P. Scally, Paul F. Mansfield, Ignacio I. Wistuba, Andrew P. Futreal, Dipen M. Maru, Luisa M. Solis Soto, Edwin R. Parra Cuentas, Honglei Chen, Pamela Villalobos, Anuj Verma, Armeen Mahvash, Patrick Hwu, Patricia Cortazar, Edward McKenna, Cindy Yun, Shannon Dervin, Katja Schulze, Walter C. Darbonne, Ajaykumar C. Morani, Scott Kopetz, Scott E. Woodman, James C. Yao, Gauri R. Varadhachary
Andrea Viale, M.D., and Giulio Draetta, M.D., Ph.D.
Draetta Lab
Authors: Francesca Puca, Fei Yu, Caterina Bartolacci, Piergiorgio Pettazzoni, Alessandro Carugo, Emmet Huang-Hobbs, Jintan Liu, Ciro Zanca, Federica Carbone, Edoardo Del Poggetto, Joy Gumin, Pushan Dasgupta, Sahil Seth, Sanjana Srinivasan, Frederick F. Lang, Erik P. Sulman, Philip L. Lorenzi, Lin Tan, Mengrou Shan, Zachary P. Tolstyka, Maureen Kachman, Li Zhang, Sisi Gao, Angela K. Deem, Giannicola Genovese, Pier Paolo Scaglioni, Costas A. Lyssiotis, Andrea Viale, Giulio F. Draetta
Andrea Viale, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Genomic Medicine
Giulio Draetta, M.D., Ph.D.
Senior Vice President, Chief Scientific Office
Professor, Genomic Medicine and Molecular & Cellular Oncology
Sewell Family Chair in Genomic Medicine in honor of Lynda Chen, M.D.
Quarter 2 (December 2021–February 2022)
Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, M.D.
Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, M.D.
Clinical Professor,
Breast Medical Oncology
Authors
Kevin Kalinsky, William E. Barlow, Julie R. Gralow, Funda Meric-Bernstam, Kathy S. Albain, Daniel F. Hayes, Nancy U. Lin, Edith A. Perez, Lori J. Goldstein, Stephen K.L. Chia, Sukhbinder Dhesy-Thind, Priya Rastogi, Emilio Alba, Suzette Delaloge, Miguel Martin, Catherine M. Kelly, Manuel Ruiz-Borrego, Miguel Gil-Gil, Claudia H. Arce-Salinas, Etienne G.C. Brain Eun Sook Lee, Jean Yves Pierga, Begoña Bermejo, Manuel Ramos-Vazquez, Kyung Hae Jung, Jean Marc Ferrero, Anne F. Schott, Steven Shak, Priyanka Sharma, Danika L. Lew, Jieling Miao, Debasish Tripathy, Lajos Pusztai, Gabriel N. Hortobagyi
Jennifer McQuade, M.D., Lorenzo Cohen, Ph.D., Carrie Daniel-MacDougall, Ph.D., and Jennifer Wargo, M.D.
Dietary fiber and probiotics influence the gut microbiome and melanoma immunotherapy response
Authors
Christine N. Spencer, Jennifer L. McQuade, Vancheswaran Gopalakrishnan, John A. McCulloch, Marie Vetizou, Alexandria P. Cogdill, Md A. Wadud Khan, Xiaotao Zhang, Michael G. White, Christine B. Peterson, Matthew C. Wong, Golnaz Morad, Theresa Rodgers, Jonathan H. Badger, Beth A. Helmink, Miles C. Andrews, Richard R. Rodrigues, Andrey Morgun, Young S. Kim, Jason Roszik, Kristi Louise Hoffman, Jiali Zheng, Yifan Zhou, Yusra B. Medik, Laura M. Kahn, Sarah Johnson, Courtney W. Hudgens, Khalida Wani, Pierre Olivier Gaudreau, Angela L. Harris, Mohamed A. Jamal, Erez N. Baruch, Eva Perez-Guijarro, Chi Ping Day, Glenn Merlino, Barbara Pazdrak, Brooke S. Lochmann, Robert A. Szczepaniak-Sloane, Reetakshi Arora, Jaime Anderson, Chrystia M. Zobniw, Eliza Posada, Elizabeth Sirmans, Julie Simon, Lauren E. Haydu, Elizabeth M. Burton, Linghua Wang, Minghao Dang, Karen Clise-Dwyer, Sarah Schneider, Thomas Chapman, Nana Ama A.S. Anang, Sheila Duncan, Joseph Toker, Jared C. Malke, Isabella C. Glitza, Rodabe N. Amaria, Hussein A. Tawbi, Adi Diab, Michael K. Wong, Sapna P. Patel, Scott E. Woodman, Michael A. Davies, Merrick I. Ross, Jeffrey E. Gershenwald, Jeffrey E. Lee, Patrick Hwu, Vanessa Jensen, Yardena Samuels, Ravid Straussman, Nadim J. Ajami, Kelly C. Nelson, Luigi Nezi, Joseph F. Petrosino, P. Andrew Futreal, Alexander J. Lazar, Jianhua Hu, Robert R. Jenq, Michael Tetzlaff, Yan Yan, Wendy S. Garrett, Curtis Huttenhower, Padmanee Sharma, Stephanie S. Watowich, James P. Allison, Lorenzo Cohen, Giorgio Trinchieri, Carrie R. Daniel, Jennifer A. Wargo
Jennifer McQuade, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Melanoma Medical Oncology
Lorenzo Cohen, Ph.D.
Professor
Palliative, Rehab & Integrative Medicine and Behavioral Science
Richard E. Haynes Distinguished Professorship for Clinical Cancer Prevention
Carrie Daniel-MacDougall, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Epidemiology
Jennifer Wargo, M.D.
Professor
Surgical Oncology and Genomic Med Research
Doctor R Lee Clark Professorship
Mikung Park, Ph.D., and Min Sup Song, Ph.D.
Mikung Park, Ph.D.
Instructor
Molecular & Cellular Oncology
Min Sup Song, Ph.D.
Professor
Molecular & Cellular Oncology
NEAT1 is essential for metabolic changes that promote breast cancer growth and metastasis
Back, left to right: Royce Lee, Min Sup Song and Chih Chen Yeh
Front, left to right: Mi Kyung Park and James Hwang
Hussein Tawbi, M.D., Ph.D.
Hussein Tawbi, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor
Melanoma Medical Oncology and Investigational Cancer Therapeutics
Director, Personalized Cancer Therapy Research
Co-Medical Director, Brain Metastasis Clinic
Top row, left to right: Courtney Jenkins, Hussein Tawbi, Jackie Smith, Irene Cormack and Ginny Honaker
Second row, left to right: Lizzy Elisondo, Rachel Trimier, Christine Spillson, Lauren Simpson and Lauren See
Third row, left to right: Courtney Powell, Helene Rider, Bonita Joe, Mick Lemoine and Lisa Beal
Bottom row, left to right: Liz Burton, Ysa Coz & Tarin Hennegan
Jason Robert Westin, M.D.
Jason Robert Westin, M.D.
Associate Professor
Lymphoma - Myeloma
Top row, left to right: Lisa Foucheaux, Jason Westin and Gita Masand
Second row, left to right: Jisha Tom, Carolyn Hawkins and Isak Durmic
Third row, left to right: Wirt Montinez and Shivon Mathew
Bottom row: Anuoluwa Ogunlere, Brittani Pulsifer and Jana Lejano
Second row, left to right: Jisha Tom, Carolyn Hawkins and Isak Durmic
Third row, left to right: Wirt Montinez and Shivon Mathew
Bottom row: Anuoluwa Ogunlere, Brittani Pulsifer and Jana Lejano
Yi Xiao, Ph.D., and Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D.
Corresponding author (Dihua Yu), two co-first authors (Hongzhong Li and Yi Xiao), and another five co-authors from the Yu Lab; other authors include Qin Li, Jun Yao, Xiangliang Yuan, Yuan Zhang, Xuedong Yin, Yohei Saito, Huihui Fan, Ping Li, Wen Ling Kuo, Angela Halpin, Don L. Gibbons, Hideo Yagita, Zhongming Zhao, Da Pang, Guosheng Ren, Cassian Yee and J. Jack Lee
Yi Xiao, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Molecular & Cellular Oncology
Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor and Chair Ad Interim, Molecular & Cellular Oncology
Hubert L. and Olive Stringer Distinguished Chair in Basic Science
Quarter 3 (March–May 2022)
Burton F. Dickey, M.D.
Burton F Dickey, M.D.
Professor
Pulmonary Medicine
Clifton D Howe Distinguished Professorship in Pulmonary Medicine
From left to right: Michael Tuvim, Joshua Hale, Boxuan Yang, Burton Dickey, Richard Kuerten, Adam Aziz, Oanh Hoang and Brianne Wharton
Inhibition of calcium-triggered secretion by hydrocarbon-stapled peptides
Seth T. Gammon, Ph.D., Federica Pisaneschi, Ph.D., and David Piwnica-Worms, M.D., Ph.D.
Front row, left to right: Caleb Gonzalez, Riccardo Muzzioli, Sarah Qureshy, Ping Yang, Bhasker Radaram and David Piwnica-Worms
Back row, left to right: Seth Gammon, Sarah Glazer, Federica Pisaneschi, Yi Rao and Margie Sutton
Seth T Gammon, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Cancer Systems Imaging
Federica Pisaneschi, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Cancer Systems Imaging
David Piwnica-Worms, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Cancer Systems Imaging
Professor, Cancer Biology
Gerald Dewey Dodd, Jr., Distinguished Chair in Diagnostic Imaging
David Gershenson, M.D.
David M Gershenson, M.D.
Clinical Professor
Gyn Oncology & Reproductive Medicine
From left to right: Charlie Gourley (Professor, University of Edinburgh), David M. Gershenson and Austin Miller (Statistician, NRG Oncology)
Gabriel Hortobagyi, M.D.
Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, M.D.
Professor
Breast Medical Oncology
Sattva S. Neelapu, M.D.
Sattva S. Neelapu, M.D.
Professor
Lymphoma – Myeloma
Swapna Binoy, Sattva Neelapu, Sherry Adkins, Liliana Vallejo and Yiming Chen
Axicabtagene ciloleucel as first-line therapy in high-risk large B-cell lymphoma: the phase 2 ZUMA-12 trial
Runmin Wei, Ph.D., Nicholas Navin, Ph.D., and Siyuan He
"Surfing the wave of science" together
Runmin Wei, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Genetics
Nicholas Navin, Ph.D.
Chair and Professor
Systems Biology and Bioinformatics & Computational Biology
The Grady F. Saunders, PhD Distinguished Professorship for Molecular Biology
Siyuan He
Graduate Research Assistant
Systems Biology
Quarter 4 (June–August 2022)
Ahmed Emam and Bin Wang, Ph.D.
Wang Lab
Ahmed Emam
Graduate Research Assistant
Molecular & Cellular Oncology
Bin Wang, Ph.D.
Professor
Genetics
Boyi Gan, Ph.D., and Chao Mao, Ph.D.
Boyi Gan, Ph.D.
Professor
Experimental Radiation Oncology and Molecular and Cellular Oncology
N.G. and Helen T. Hawkins Distinguished Professorship for Cancer Research
Chao Mao, Ph.D.
Instructor
Experimental Radiation Oncology
A ferroptosis defense mechanism mediated by glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase 2 in mitochondria
Left to Right: Chao Mao, Guang Lei, Hyemin Lee, Yilei Zhang, Boyi Gan, Yuelong Yan, Pranavi Koppula, Xiaoguang Liu and Weijie Cheng
John V. Heymach, M.D., Ph.D., and Yasir Y Elamin, M.D.
John V. Heymach, M.D., Ph.D.
Chair, Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology
Professor, Cancer Biology
David Bruton, Jr. Chair
Yasir Y Elamin, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Thoracic-Head and Neck Medical Oncology
Xubin Li, Ph.D., and Anil Korkut, Ph.D.
Xubin Li, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
Anil Korkut, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
Michael Wang, M.D.
Michael Wang, M.D., M.S.
Professor
Lymphoma-Myeloma
Puddin Clarke Endowed Professor
Michael White, M.D., and Jennifer Wargo, M.D.
Michael White, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Colon & Rectal Surgery
Jennifer Wargo, M.D.
Professor
Genetics Surgical Oncology and Genomic Medical Research
Doctor R Lee Clark Professorship
Androgen receptor blockade promotes response to BRAF/MEK-targeted therapy
Xiangliang Yuan, Ph.D., and Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D.
The corresponding author (Dihua Yu) and the first author (Xiangliang Yuan), alongside their co-authors in the Yu Lab
Xiangliang Yuan, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Molecular and Cellular Oncology
Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor and Chair Ad Interim, Molecular & Cellular Oncology
Hubert L. and Olive Stringer Distinguished Chair in Basic Science