Honors, Awards + Achievements
Mattia Prosperi, Ph.D.
Mattia Prosperi, Ph.D., was appointed associate dean for artificial intelligence and innovation in the College of Public Health and Health Professions. In addition, he received a grant from the Syngenta North America Environmental Safety Strategic Science Enabling initiative for a study, titled “Twitter networks and dynamics of discussions related to pesticides,” with Jiang Bian, Ph.D.
Carma Bylund, Ph.D.
Carma Bylund, Ph.D., received a $152,500 grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute for a study, titled “S.E.N.D.: Developing a web-based, interactive guide to enhance patient-clinician electronic communication by focusing on specificity, expressing concerns, need, and directness.”
Melike Caglayan, Ph.D.
Melike Caglayan, Ph.D., received a $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of General Medical Sciences for a study, titled “DNA ligase activities during base excision repair coordination.”
Ronald Castellano, Ph.D.
Ronald Castellano, Ph.D., received a $495,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for a study, titled “Programming supramolecular polymer structure and function using covalently-fixed monomers.”
Erin Dean, M.D.
Erin Dean, M.D., received a $50,000 grant from the Ocala Royal Dames for Cancer Research for a study, titled “Evaluating soluble B-cell maturation antigen as a new serum marker of minimal residual disease in patients with multiple myeloma.”
Carl Denard, Ph.D.
Carl Denard, Ph.D., received a $1.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of General Medical Sciences for a study, titled “Reprogramming proteases: tackling human diseases with next-generation modulators.”
Kristianna Fredenburg, M.D., Ph.D.
Kristianna Fredenburg, M.D., Ph.D., received a $610,000 grant from the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition for a study, titled “Investigating miR-9-5p and its targets as interventional and clinicopathologic predictors of laryngeal cancer racial disparate outcomes.”
Kiley Graim, Ph.D.
Kiley Graim, Ph.D., received a $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute for a study, titled “Leveraging mammalian cancers, platinum-quality genome assemblies, and large-scale data to identify mechanisms of rare human cancers.”
Patrick Griffin, Ph.D.
Patrick Griffin, Ph.D., received a $2.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for a study, titled “Quantifying and modeling ligand-dependent control of RORy dynamics via structural proteomics.”
Juan Guan, Ph.D.
Juan Guan, Ph.D., received a $1.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of General Medical Sciences for a study, titled “Mechanisms of assembly and functional regulation in non-canonical biomolecular condensates.”
Andrew Judge, Ph.D.
Andrew Judge, Ph.D., received a $2.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases for a study, titled “The Complement System and Cancer Cachexia.” Carl Atkinson, Ph.D., is the co-PI and Sarah Judge, Ph.D., is a co-investigator.
Walter Murfee, Ph.D.
Walter Murfee, Ph.D., received a $208,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering for a study, titled “Team-based design for clinical translation.” Eric Fuller, Ph.D., is the co-PI.
He also received a $415,310 grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for a study, titled “Bioengineering approach for advancing reparative medicine stem cell technologies.”
Zhijian Qian, Ph.D.
Zhijian Qian, Ph.D., received a $1.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for a study, titled “The role of ALKBH5-mediated RNA demethylation in the maintenance of genomic stability in HSPCs.”
Laura Solt, Ph.D.
Laura Solt, Ph.D., received a $531,300 grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for a study, titled “Identification of cellular heme transport receptors that regulate T cell function.”
Stephanie Staras, Ph.D.
Stephanie Staras, Ph.D., received a $4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute for a study, titled “ReMARk: A multi-level strategy to address disparities in rural HPV-related cancer prevention.”
Chengguo Xing, Ph.D.
Chengguo Xing, Ph.D., received a $152,500 grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute for a study, titled “Quantifying NNK metabolites to facilitate Kava lung cancer prevention clinical translation.”
Fan Zhang, Ph.D.
Fan Zhang, Ph.D., received a $50,000 grant from the Ocala Royal Dames for Cancer Research for a study, titled “In situ program CAR-Macrophage against glioblastoma.”
Lisa Spiguel, M.D.
Lisa Spiguel, M.D., spoke at the American Cancer Society’s Real Men Wear Pink Golf Tournament on Oct. 14 at Hawkstone Country Club.
Coy Heldermon, M.D., Ph.D.
Coy Heldermon, M.D., Ph.D., spoke at the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event in Celebration Pointe on Oct. 22.
Thomas George, M.D., FACP
Thomas George, M.D., FACP, presented on colorectal cancer clinical trials at the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project Foundation’s fall virtual meeting on Oct. 14. He provided an overview of circulating tumor DNA applications in colorectal cancer studies and discussed opportunities to move the field forward in the adjuvant and post-adjuvant therapy settings.
Jonathan Licht, M.D.
Jonathan Licht, M.D., gave a distinguished lecture, titled “Aberrant histone methylation in lymphoid malignancies,” on Oct. 21 at Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute in Spain.
Sherise Rogers, M.D.
Sherise Rogers, M.D., spoke about her career path in medicine during an Alumni-Student Forum hosted by the Association for Students of Color at Cornell University’s College of Human Ecology on Oct. 19. She earned her bachelor’s degree in human development from Cornell.
Rhonda Bacher, Ph.D.
Rhonda Bacher, Ph.D., received the Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of General Medicine Sciences. The goal of the awards program is to provide investigators with greater stability and flexibility, thereby enhancing scientific productivity and the chances for important breakthroughs. She is believed to be the first faculty member in the College of Public Health & Health Professions to receive the award, which is presented to highly talented and promising investigators.
Elias Sayour, M.D., Ph.D.
Elias Sayour, M.D., Ph.D., received a 2022 UF McKnight Brain Institute Programmatic Research & Equipment Support Grant. His project is titled “CellCelector to enable unparalleled access to patient derived single cells for enhanced brain cancer diagnostics and therapeutics.” Co-investigators who are Cancer Center members are Loic Deleyrolle, Ph.D.; Catherine Flores, Ph.D.; Jeffrey Harrison, Ph.D.; Jianping Huang, M.D., Ph.D.; Duane Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D.; Carlos Rinaldi-Ramos, Ph.D.; Greg Sawyer, Ph.D.; and David Tran, M.D., Ph.D. Brian Hoh, M.D., is also a co-investigator.
Oluwadamilola Oladeru, M.D.
Oluwadamilola Oladeru, M.D., was named an affiliate faculty member of the SEICHE Center for Health and Justice, an academic collaboration between the Yale School of Medicine and Yale Law School.
Roger B. Fillingim, Ph.D.
Roger B. Fillingim, Ph.D., is the co-PI on a new $559,388 grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, titled “Understanding Laser Light Treatment Applications for TMD, or ULLTRA-TMD.” Margarete Ribeiro-Dasilva, D.D.S., Ph.D., a prosthodontist in the UF department of restorative dental sciences, is the lead investigator on the project.
David Bloom, Ph.D., Julie Bradley, M.D., David Janicke, Ph.D., ABPP, Joanne Lagmay, M.D., Jatinder K. Lamba, Ph.D., Anna McDaniel, Ph.D., R.N., FAAN, Angela Starkweather, Ph.D., R.N., ACNP-BC, CNRN, FAAN
Thirty-three UF faculty were formally recognized as endowed chairs and professors at the 2022 Celebrating Distinction ceremony on Oct. 13 at the Health Professions, Nursing and Pharmacy Auditorium.
Cancer Center members who were honored were:
David Bloom, Ph.D.
Hazel Kitzman Professorship in Genetics
Julie Bradley, M.D.
James E. Lockwood Jr. Professorship in Proton Therapy
David Janicke, Ph.D., ABPP
Elizabeth H. Faulk Professorship
Joanne Lagmay, M.D.
STOP Children’s Cancer of Palm Beach County Inc. Professorship in Pediatric Oncology
Jatinder Lamba, Ph.D.
Frank Duckworth Eminent Scholar Chair in Drug Research and Development
Anna McDaniel, Ph.D., R.N., FAAN
Linda Harman Aiken Chair
Angela Starkweather, Ph.D., R.N., ACNP-BC, CNRN, FAAN
Chamings Endowed Professorship in Nursing
Mei He, Ph.D.
Three members of Mei He, Ph.D.,’s lab gave presentations at PHarmSci360, the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists annual meeting, held Oct. 16-19 in Boston.
Xiaoshu Pan, Ph.D., a postdoctoral associate, presented “Novel Targeted Gene Therapy in Hearing Loss Diseases” and “Exosome-Based Allel-Specific Genome Editing for Hearing Loss Diseases.”
Nina Erwin, a graduate student, presented “High-Throughput 3D Bio-Printed Tumor Microenvironment Platform for Mimicking Lung Cancer” and “Nano-Transfection for On Demand Cellular Packaging of Extracellular Vesicles.”
Zachary Greenberg, M.S., a doctoral student, presented “Deep Learned Screenings of Peptide Vaccines for Exosome-Based Precision Delivery” and “An End-to-End Method for AI-Driven Peptide Vaccine Formulation and Translation through Deep Learned Exosome Precision Drug Delivery.” He received Best Poster and Best Abstract awards for the second consecutive year.
Julie A. Bradley, M.D., Raymond Mailhot Vega, M.D., and Daniel J. Indelicato, M.D.
Julie A. Bradley, M.D., Raymond Mailhot, M.D., and Daniel J. Indelicato, M.D. presented at the American Society for Radiation Oncology’s 64th Annual Meeting in San Antonio, held Oct. 23-26.
Dr. Mailhot presented “Perspectives from the Field: Radiation Oncology Residency and Beyond,” “Successful Implementation of Global Oncology Research: Decolonization and Health Equity Centering as Strategies for Overcoming Historic Barriers and Obstacles,” “Advancing Health Equity Along the Cancer Care Continuum” and “A Toolkit for Promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Your Practice.”
Dr. Indelicato presented at a joint session, titled “Lessons Learned from Treating Children During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” He also presented “Providing Comprehensive Care in Pediatric Radiation Oncology – Novel Applications and Key Outcomes from Recent Investigations.”
Dr. Bradley presented “Deciding Between Nothing and Everything: Boost, Bolus and Fraction Numbers in Breast Radiotherapy.”
Additionally, chief resident Fantine Giap, M.D., presented “Refining the Therapeutic Ratio in Pediatric Radiation Oncology – Minimizing Toxicity and Maximizing Disease Control.” Chief resident Alexandra N. De Leo, M.D., presented “Radiation Oncology Payment Policy and Economics.”
Erin Mobley, Ph.D.
Erin Mobley, Ph.D., presented “County-level factors associated with high age-adjusted incidence rates of pancreatic cancer in the U.S.” at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress 2022, held Oct. 16-20 in San Diego, CA. Other coauthors from the Cancer Center were Ramzi Salloum, Ph.D., and Alexander Parker, Ph.D.
Linda Cottler, Ph.D.
Linda Cottler, Ph.D., is directing a National Institutes of Health program, called All of Us, that is designed to advance precision medicine. The University of Florida received $1.86 million in initial funding from the National Institutes of Health to create a network that engages researchers from diverse backgrounds in the All of Us research program. She is directing the program with Milton “Mickey” Eder, Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota.
Lauren McIntyre, Ph.D.
Lauren McIntyre, Ph.D., was named editor-in-chief of the journal G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics, beginning in January 2023.
Yunjie Wen
Yunjie Wen, a graduate student in the lab of Yong Zeng, Ph.D., won the Widmer Poster Award for overall best presented poster at the 26th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences, held Oct. 23-27 in China and virtually. The poster was titled “Topographic modulation of enzymatic reaction affords ultrasensitive compartment-free digital phenotyping of tumor-derived exosomes.”