Honors, Awards + Achievements
UF Health Cancer Center members at the 2022 Society for Neuro-Oncology 27th Annual Meeting
UF Health was well-represented at the Society of Neuro-Oncology (SNO) 27th Annual Meeting, held Nov. 16-20 in Tampa. Cancer Center members who were involved were:
Paul Castillo, M.D., presented a poster, titled “Targeting primary central nervous system B cell lymphoma IgH clonotypes using novel RNA-NPs.”
Bently Doonan, M.D., presented an oral abstract, titled “CA-4948 in combination with BRAF/MEK inhibition in melanoma brain metastases.”
Catherine Flores, Ph.D., presented an oral abstract, “Developmentally regulated antigens for immunologic targeting of embryonal pediatric brain cancers.”
Ashley Ghiaseddin, M.D., presented a poster, titled “Phase II randomized, blinded, placebo-controlled trial testing pp65 CMV mRNA dendritic cell vaccine and tetanus-diphtheria toxoid for newly diagnosed GBM (ATTAC II, NCT02465268).”
Lan Hoang-Minh, Ph.D., presented a poster, titled “Neoadjuvant PD1 blockade alters the tumor immune microenvironment after surgery in a preclinical model of recurrent glioblastoma.”
Duane Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D., delivered a keynote presentation, titled “The promise of immunotherapy in adult and pediatric neuro-oncology.”
Maryam Rahman, M.D., presented two posters, titled “The hydrogel-CXCL9-mRNA (HCM) vaccine results in significant anti-tumor efficacy through recruitment of natural killer (NK) cells” and “CCL4 drives glioblastoma (GBM) tumor microenvironment (TME) reprogramming after treatment with a novel mRNA vaccine.”
Matthew Sarkisian, Ph.D., presented a poster “Tumor cell cilia associate with specific immune cell populations in human and mouse models of GBM.”
Elias Sayour, M.D., Ph.D., presented oral abstracts, titled “Multilamellar mRNA lipid particles induce immunologic reprogramming in canine and human glioblastoma patients” and “RNA lipid particles induce bi-directional immunity against diffuse midline glioma.”
David Tran, M.D., Ph.D., presented a poster, titled “Final results of 2-THE-TOP: a pilot phase 2 study of TTFields (Optune) plus pembrolizumab plus maintenance temozolomide (TMZ) in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma (ndGBM).”
Elizabeth Ogando-Rivas, a postdoctoral fellow who is mentored by Duane Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D., received a travel scholarship from the SNO & the SNO Women and Diversity Committee to attend the SNO Annual Scientific Meeting and Education Day. She presented on primary central nervous system lymphomas.
Cancer Center members were also part of an oral abstract, titled “The IRAK-4 inhibitor Emavusertib (CA-4948) for the treatment of primary CNS lymphoma,” with coauthors Bently Doonan, M.D., Lan Hoang-Minh, Ph.D., Paul Castillo, M.D., and Duane Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D.
In addition, a poster, titled “Chemotactic recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) virotherapy improves lymphocyte recruitment in glioblastoma,” featured coauthors Lan Hoang-Minh, Ph.D., Bently Doonan, M.D., and Duane Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D.
Dejana Braithwaite, Ph.D.
Dejana Braithwaite, Ph.D., signed an agreement to serve as a reviewer on the joint Population Health and Inclusion and Diversity in Cancer Clinical Trials Panel of the Scientific Peer Advisory and Review Services Division of the American Institute of Biological Sciences.
Carma Bylund, Ph.D., and Yonghui Wu, Ph.D.
Carma Bylund, Ph.D., and Yonghui Wu, Ph.D., were recognized by the UF College of Medicine with the 2022 Exemplary Teacher Award. This award is presented to up to 10% of the College of Medicine faculty nominated by their department chair. They are elected based on their teaching excellence of medical students, residents and fellows, physician assistant students, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and mentorship of junior faculty.
Elias Sayour, M.D., Ph.D.
Elias Sayour, M.D., Ph.D., was appointed assistant dean for clinical science research in the UF College of Medicine office of research. In this role, he will develop and execute a strategic vision to facilitate clinical and translational investigations that will expand the college’s extramural funding base, enhance faculty competitiveness and increase the college’s global reputation for scholarly excellence.
Ramzi Salloum, Ph.D.
Ramzi Salloum, Ph.D., delivered a grand rounds presentation on Nov. 18 at the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, titled “Implementation Science to Advance Evidence-Based Practices in Tobacco Control.”
Susmita Datta, Ph.D.
Susmita Datta, Ph.D., was invited by the Marshall University mathematics department to give a plenary presentation Oct. 14 at the 4th International Conference on Statistical Distributions and Applications, held in Huntington, West Virginia. The title of her talk was “Statistical Analysis of single cell RNA sequencing (ScRNA-seq) data.”
Zhigang Li, Ph.D.
Zhigang Li, Ph.D., was appointed chair of the Awards Committee for the International Chinese Statistical Association, a nonprofit organization with over 1,000 active members.
Luisel Ricks-Santi, Ph.D. and John Allen, Pharm.D.
Luisel Ricks-Santi, Ph.D., John Allen, Pharm.D., and several other UF faculty attended the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Students held Nov. 16-19 in Anaheim, California. Dr. Ricks-Santi has been serving as a scientific disciplines leader for the Cancer Biology section for about five years and reviews judge applications and abstracts, as well as coordinates abstract judging during the poster session and judges oral presentations. The group also took the CaRE2 fellows with them and visited partnering institution University of Southern California. The conference provides opportunities to engage with graduate programs, as well as seminars on M.D./Ph.D. programs, how to write successful personal statements, how to choose a research mentors and postdoctoral careers.
Christiana Shaw, M.D.
Christiana Shaw, M.D., was inducted into the fifth cohort of the American College of Surgeons’ Academy of Master Surgeon Educators. She and her colleagues will work to advance the science and practice of education across all surgical specialties.
Paul Castillo, M.D.
Paul Castillo, M.D., is the principal investigator on a $225,000 grant from Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation for Cancer Research for a study, titled “Overcoming Resistance of Acute Myeloid Leukemia by Enhancing CAR T cell Activity Using RNA nanoparticles.” Olga Guryanova, M.D., Ph.D., Duane Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D., Jianping Huang, M.D., Ph.D., and Elias Sayour, M.D., Ph.D., are co-investigators.
Additionally, the Southeast Trust Company’s Board of Directors provided $250,000 to support the combinatorial approach of CAR T cells and RNA nanoparticles to target acute myeloid leukemia.
Margaret Wallace, Ph.D.
Margaret Wallace, Ph.D., received a $146,384 clinical research award from the Children’s Tumor Foundation for a study, titled “Study of NF1 in Families.”
She is also the PI on a National Institutes of Health U01 grant, titled “Susceptibility Patterns for Grade C Periodontitis in Young Individuals.”
Fan Zhang, Ph.D.
Fan Zhang, Ph.D., received a $50,000 grant from the American Brain Tumor Association for a study, titled “Selectively target MDSCs with dendrimer-based STING agonist prodrug.”
Carolyn Tucker, Ph.D.
Carolyn Tucker, Ph.D., submitted a paper to Division 38 of the American Psychological Association (APA) that was selected as one of the six top-rated papers. The paper was presented at the APA Convention in August, where she also received the 2022 Excellence in Health Psychology Research Award.
Mei He, Ph.D.
Mei He, Ph.D., was an invited speaker on Exosome Delivery Approach for Precision Medicine at the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists 2022 annual meeting 2022 held Oct 19 in Boston.
She was also a symposium panel speaker at the 4th Extracellular Vesicle-based Therapeutic Development Summit held Oct. 3-6 in Boston.
In addition, she delivered a seminar on Extracellular Vesicles for Precision Drug Delivery at the Ohio State University Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in September.
Janet Brishke, M.P.H.
Janet Brishke, M.P.H., of the Citizen Scientist Program, had two abstracts on the cancer curriculum, titled, “Applying Learning Health System Strategies to Cancer Research: The Citizen Scientist Cancer Research Curriculum,“ and “Improving Cancer Research Through Empathic Instructional Design Approaches,” accepted for the AcademyHealth Dissemination and Implementation conference on Dec. 13.
Lakeshia Cousin, Ph.D., APRN, AGPCNP-BC
Lakeshia Cousin, Ph.D., APRN, AGPCNP-BC, received a Best Research Award at the 2022 10th Annual Nursing Research & Innovation Conference at UF Heath Shands Hospital for her presentation, titled “’I Thank God for Everything:’ The Role of Gratitude on Psychosocial Health in African Americans Living with Multimorbidity.”
She also received a Best Research Award at the 2022 International Cancer Education Conference, held in College Park, Maryland, for her presentation, titled “Taking a Look at the Goal Attainment Scale: Can Training Programs Change Interest in Pursuing Careers in Cancer Research?”
Walter O’Dell, Ph.D.
Walter O’Dell, Ph.D., received a lifetime achievement award in mentoring for the ReTOOL program, a UF summer research experience for minority undergraduate students.
John Ligon, M.D.
John Ligon, M.D., received a $60,000 quick funding award from the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation focus group for a project, titled “Determining and enhancing stability of RNA-nanoparticle vaccines for a multi-center NPCF clinical trial for patients with metastatic osteosarcoma.”
He also gave a virtual presentation on Oct. 28, at the Resonance Acute Leukemia Research and Care Network, titled “Fertility and CAR T-cells: Current practice and future directions.” He also gave a virtual presentation on Oct. 14 at the PRECINCT Steering Committee Meeting, titled “Dissecting the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment of osteosarcoma.” In addition, he was a panel moderator at the UF College of Veterinary Medicine’s Comparative Oncology Retreat.
Ilyas Sahin, M.D.
Ilyas Sahin, M.D., is the guest editor for a special issue, titled “Recent advances in hepatobiliary cancers: from diagnosis to treatment,” in Cancers.
Aaron Franke, M.D.
Aaron Franke, M.D., presented at the American Cancer Society/National Lung Cancer Roundtable Project, ECHO: Addressing Lung Cancer Biomarker Testing. He also participated in the ASCO Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry (TAPUR) Study Molecular Tumor Board.
Xin Tang, Ph.D.
Xin Tang, Ph.D., is a guest editor for a special issue, titled “Mechanobiology and Cell Mechanics in Biology and Diseases,“ in Bioengineering.
Olga Guryanova, M.D., Ph.D.
Olga Guryanova, M.D., Ph.D., was an invited speaker at the Genomic Instability: From Discovery to Personalized Medicine Symposium held Oct. 14 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Lindsey King, Ph.D.
Lindsey King, Ph.D., participated in a UF Wellness Talk episode on lung cancer. She shared information and resources about lung cancer and smoking cessation.
Duane Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D.
Duane Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D., discussed his research on an episode of the V Foundation’s Voices for Victory podcast. In addition, his research was featured in a spotlight video from the UF College of Medicine.
Sumita Bhaduri-McIntosh, M.D., Ph.D.
Sumita Bhaduri-McIntosh, M.D., Ph.D., was appointed to the editorial board of Virology.
Jesus Fabregas, M.D.
Jesus Fabregas, M.D., gave a presentation, titled “Colon Cancer Disparities,” at the Florida Society of Clinical Oncology 2nd Annual Disparities in Cancer Care and Health Equity Summit on Nov. 11 in Hollywood, Florida.
Loic Deleyrolle, Ph.D.
Loic Deleyrolle, Ph.D., was appointed to a two-year term as associate editor for the journals Frontiers in Neurology and Frontiers in Oncology.
Bently Doonan, M.D.
Bently Doonan, M.D., presented a poster, titled “111 Immune modulation of melanoma brain metastases by IRAK-4 inhibition,” at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Annual Meeting held Nov. 8-12 in Boston. Coauthors from the Cancer Center were Duane Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D., and Lan Hoang-Minh, Ph.D.
Kate Hitchcock, M.D., Ph.D. and William Mendenhall, M.D.
Kate Hitchcock, M.D., Ph.D., and William Mendenhall, M.D., published a book chapter, titled “Radiation therapy for dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans,” in Radiation Therapy for Sarcomas and Skin Cancers: A Practical Guide on Treatment and Techniques published by Springer.
Meghan Ferrall-Fairbanks, Ph.D.
Meghan Ferrall-Fairbanks, Ph.D., was a coauthor on an oral and poster presentation, titled “High performance computing used in identifying mechanisms of PARP inhibitor resistance in cancer,” presented at the Fifth Annual Fall HiPerGator Symposium held Nov. 1 in Gainesville.
She was also a coauthor on a poster, titled “Developing novel geospatial metrics to evaluate the tumor immune microenvironment,” presented at the Integrative Mathematical Oncology (IMO) Workshop X held Oct. 31 to Nov. 4 at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Tampa.
She was additionally a coauthor on a poster, titled “Quantifying functional diversity in ovarian cancer,” presented at the 2022 Fall Undergraduate Research Symposium held Oct. 26 in Gainesville.
Furthermore, she was a coauthor on a poster, titled “HSC depletion and expansion of inflammatory GMP cells are clinically relevant features of disease progression in chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML),” presented at the Systems Approaches to Cancer Biology held Oct. 19-22 at Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
She was also a coauthor on a poster, titled “Mechanisms of PARP inhibitor resistance in ovarian cancer,” presented at the Biomedical Engineering Society Annual Meeting held Oct. 12-15 in San Antonio, Texas.
Jason Brant, Ph.D.
Jason Brant, Ph.D., is the Co-I on a grant from the National Institutes of Health, titled “Mechanisms and blood-based biomarkers of intergenerational neurobehavioral effects of general anesthetics.” Anatoly Martynyuk, Ph.D., is the PI.
Ali Zarrinpar, M.D., Ph.D.
Ali Zarrinpar, M.D., Ph.D., received the American Society of Transplant Surgeons’ Poster of Distinction Award for his work, “Optimizing kidney transplant immunosuppression using a phenotypic personalized dosing model.”
In addition, he presented “Comparison of Low vs Standard Dose of Indocyanine Green in the Identification of Biliary Anatomy using Near Infrared Fluorescence Imaging” at the Southern Surgical Association’s annual meeting on Dec. 6 in Palm Beach, Florida.
Gabriel Prado
Gabriel Prado, a student in the regenerative medicine program mentored by Jonathan Licht, M.D., defended his Ph.D. thesis on the consequences of KMT2C loss in cancer models.
University of Florida College of Pharmacy graduate students Richard Marrero, Pharm.D., and Francisco Marchi were honored with abstract awards at the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting in New Orleans on Dec. 10. The pair are researchers in the lab led by Jatinder Lamba, Ph.D.