UF Health Cancer Center at ASCO GI Symposium
The UF Health Cancer Center presented at the 2023 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium held Jan. 19-21 in San Francisco, California, and virtually. See UF presenters.
Ramzi Salloum, Ph.D.
Ramzi Salloum, Ph.D., was invited by the National Cancer Institute to chair the Consortium for Cancer Implementation Science Learning Healthcare Systems as Natural Laboratories action group.
Carrie Miller, Ph.D., Carla Fisher, Ph.D., Stephanie Staras, Ph.D., and Martina Murphy, M.D.
Carrie Miller, Ph.D., Carla Fisher, Ph.D., Stephanie Staras, Ph.D., and Martina Murphy, M.D., received a $49,899 grant from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for a study, titled “Clinical Trials Education in GME: A Needs Assessment.”
In addition, Dr. Miller coauthored a book chapter with Jeanine P.D. Guidry, titled “Social Media: Facebook,” in the International Encyclopedia of Health Communication published by Wiley Blackwell-ICA.
Walter O’Dell, Ph.D.
Walter O’Dell, Ph.D., was designated as a UF Center for Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentor Champion.
Dejana Braithwaite, Ph.D.
Dejana Braithwaite, Ph.D., was invited by the Christina Phipps Foundation to give a lecture, titled “Introduction to Cancer Prevention,” on Jan. 28.
In addition, she will co-lead the New Investigator Workshop at the American Society of Preventive Oncology annual conference in March with four senior investigators from the National Cancer Institute, Harvard, UNC and the University of Colorado. This effort is relevant to initiatives regarding T32 program development, with a focus on cancer control science.
Lizi Wu, Ph.D., Frederic Kaye, M.D., and Jianrong Lu, Ph.D.
Lizi Wu, Ph.D., is the PI on a $587,097 grant from the Florida Department of Health Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research Program for a study, titled “Elucidating and targeting INSL4 signaling in lung cancer.” Frederic Kaye, M.D., and Jianrong Lu, Ph.D., are Co-Is.
Mingyi Xie, Ph.D.
Mingyi Xie, Ph.D., gave a presentation, titled “When microRNAs CLASH with their targets,” at the University of Pittsburgh on Dec. 14.
Jatinder Lamba, Ph.D., Timothy Garrett, Ph.D., and Christopher Vulpe, M.D., Ph.D.
Jatinder Lamba, Ph.D., is the PI on a $3.3 million grant from the National Cancer Institute for a study, titled “Integrated Systems Biology of Pediatric AML.” Timothy Garrett, Ph.D., and Christopher Vulpe, M.D., Ph.D., are Co-Is.
Also, Dr. Lamba gave a talk, titled “AML treatment personalization using transcriptomics and pharmacogenomics based scores,” as part of the Pharmacogenomics Global Research Network’s Research in Progress Seminar Series on Dec. 9.
In addition, she was appointed to the American Society of Hematology (ASH) subcommittee on precision medicine and the Pharmacogenomics Global Research Network Scientific Committee.
Furthermore, two of her trainees received abstract awards at ASH.
Weizhou Zhang, Ph.D.
Weizhou Zhang, Ph.D., a professor in the department of pathology, immunology & laboratory medicine in the University of Florida College of Medicine, has received a $2.5 million R01 grant from the National Cancer Institute to study a novel therapeutic strategy to treat renal clear cell carcinomas.
Daiqing Liao, Ph.D.
Daiqing Liao, Ph.D., received a $569,400 grant from the Florida Department of Health James and Esther King Biomedical Research Program to define the molecular mechanism and signaling pathways that promote DAXX-mediated lipid synthesis and resistance to ferroptosis in triple negative breast cancer models.
Jianping Huang, M.D., Ph.D.
Jianping Huang, M.D., Ph.D., received a grant from the Live Like Bella® Pediatric Cancer Research Initiative to begin a phase I/II clinical trial for malignant pediatric gliomas using 8R-70CAR T cells.
Chengguo Xing, Ph.D., Kristianna Marie Fredenburg, M.D., Ph.D., and Zhiguang Huo, Ph.D.
Chengguo Xing, Ph.D., received a $295,000 grant from the Florida Department of Health Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research Program to evaluate the potential of AB-free kava against tobacco smoke–induced lung cancer. He is collaborating with Kristianna Marie Fredenburg, M.D., Ph.D., and Zhiguang Huo, Ph.D.
Satya Narayan, Ph.D.
Satya Narayan, Ph.D., received a $570,000 Florida Department of Health James and Esther King Biomedical Research Program grant to describe the discovery of a novel small molecule, biisoquinolinederivative (DH20931). This molecule stimulates ceramide synthase 2 (CerS2) activity and induces lipotoxic and endoplasmic reticulum stress as well as apoptosis in breast cancer cells.
John Ligon, M.D.
John Ligon, M.D., received a $50,000 Emerging Investigator Fellowship Grant from the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation for a study, titled “Investigating the Immune Response to RNA-lipid Nanoparticle Vaccines in a Clinical Trial for Canines with Osteosarcoma.”
Paul Castillo, M.D.
Paul Castillo, M.D.‘s mentee, Arnav Barpujari, was a UF recipient of the Beyond120 Scholarship.
Mei He, Ph.D.
Mei He, Ph.D., served on the study sections for the College of Pharmacy’s December 2022 PROSPR funding review and the 2022 National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Special Emphasis Panel, AMP-PD Extracellular RNA Sequencing Research Resource Review (R24), ZNS1 SRB-O (21).
In addition, she was the conference chair for the SelectBio Extracellular Vesicles 2022 conference held Dec. 12-14 in Long Beach, California.
Furthermore, her mentee, Maria Serafim, received a UF NanoDay Best Poster Presentation Award.
Erin Dean, M.D.
Erin Dean, M.D., was a speaker at the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Florida Blood Cancer Conference on Jan. 14 in Ft. Lauderdale. Her session topic was multiple myeloma.
Linda Cottler, Ph.D., FACE
Linda Cottler, Ph.D., FACE, was selected to be a distinguished editor for the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award Program (DP2). As a member of the Editorial Board, Dr. Cottler will review all applications and the three Stage 1 critiques/reviews. Editorial Board reviewers will generate a short statement outlining their views and the potential significance and impact of the work, along with the chances for success.
Matthew Disney, Ph.D., and Matthew Pipkin, Ph.D.
Matthew Disney, Ph.D., was a host of the RNA: From Biology to Drug Discovery symposium hosted by the Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology. He also gave a presentation, titled “Translating RNA Sequence Into Lead Small Molecule Medicines.”
In addition, Matthew Pipkin, Ph.D., gave a presentation, titled “RNA expression dynamics that specify protective T cell mediated immunity.”
Yi Guo, Ph.D.
Yi Guo, Ph.D., was invited to join the editorial board of the Journal of Rural Health.
Stephanie Staras, Ph.D., and Ramzi Salloum, Ph.D.
Stephanie Staras, Ph.D., presented two posters at the 15th annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation of Health held Dec. 11-14 in Washington, D.C. The posters were titled “Understanding strategies to increase patient acceptability and feasibility to participate in phase i cancer clinical trials” and “Evaluation of a Zoom-based clinician training on the C-LEAR HPV vaccine recommendation strategy.”
In addition, Ramzi Salloum, Ph.D., was a coauthor on a paper presented at the conference, titled “Workflow analysis for the adaptation and implementation of an interoperable clinical decision support tool for chronic pain management.”
Ashley Ghiaseddin, M.D.
Ashley Ghiaseddin, M.D., participated in the UF Health MedEd Cast podcast in an episode titled “Treatment Strategies for Malignant Gliomas.”
Padraic O’Malley, M.D.
Padraic O’Malley, M.D., was appointed chief of the UF division of urologic oncology in the department of urology. He succeeds Paul Crispen, M.D., in this role and will lead the division in all aspects including clinical, education and research.
Jane Aldrich, Ph.D.
Jane Aldrich, Ph.D., has been re-elected councilor for the Medicinal Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society. She will serve as an academic councilor from 2023-25.
Alberto Perez, Ph.D.
Alberto Perez, Ph.D., received a National Science Foundation CAREER award from the Chemical Theory, Models and Computational Methods program in the Division of Chemistry. The award will fund the development of new computational methods to deepen our understanding of nucleic acids.
Kiley Graim, Ph.D.
Kiley Graim, Ph.D., and her team won a $20,000 catalyst grant during the inaugural UF AI2Heal Datathon for their project “Improving Sepsis Outcomes Through Ancestry-Aware Genomic Machine Learning Analysis”