Honors, Awards + Achievements
Lan Hoang-Minh, Ph.D.
Lan Hoang-Minh, Ph.D., was awarded a $100,000 grant from the St. Baldrick’s Foundation for a preclinical research project seeking to advance adoptive T-cell therapy for pediatric brain tumors. Using a technique that will “label” T cells with nanoparticles optimized in the lab of Carlos Rinaldi-Ramos, Ph.D., Hoang-Minh will evaluate the efficacy of differing routes of delivery of adoptive T cell therapy in a mouse model of high-risk pediatric brain tumor under the mentorship of Duane Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D.
Lakeshia Cousin, Ph.D., APRN, AGPCNP-BC
Lakeshia Cousin, Ph.D., APRN, AGPCNP-BC, received a $10,000 inaugural UF College of Nursing & UF Health Shands Demonstration Project Award for a study, titled “Development of a Community-Engaged Nurse Development and Retention Program: A Pipeline to Empower Underrepresented High School Students in the East Gainesville Community.”
Also, her symposium was accepted at the Council for the Advancement of Nursing Science 2022 State of the Science Congress on Nursing Research Conference, to be held in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 15-17. Her symposium, “Impact of Social Determinants of Health on Black Women and Men Throughout the Lifecycle,” will include preliminary data results from the UF Health Cancer Center Community-Partnered Cancer Disparities Research Collaborative.
She also joined the Editorial Board of the journal Seminars in Oncology Nursing.
Piyush Jain, Ph.D.
Piyush Jain, Ph.D., received a $1,833,076 MIRA R35 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) for a study, titled “Discovery and Engineering of CRISPR/Cas Systems.”
Additionally, he is the Co-I on a $541,375 NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) grant for a study, titled “Relapsing Malaria in Africa.” Rhoel Dinglasan, Ph.D., is the PI.
Also, Dr. Jain gave a TEDx Talk at TEDxUF, titled “How CRISPR Can Revolutionize Diagnostics.” He was also featured on a Tech Tuesday segment on WCJB TV20, where he discussed expanding the use and reliability of at-home medical tests.”
Hui Shao, M.D., Ph.D.
Hui Shao, M.D., Ph.D., received a five-year, $2.8 million Research Demonstration Cooperative Agreement (U18) from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The project is titled “Assessing Barriers and Facilitators for Participating Structured Lifestyle Intervention and its Real-world Effectiveness and Cost-Effectiveness Among U.S. Veterans.”
Dr. Shao is also co-PI on a new project that aims to improve health equity in diabetes care, funded by a $2.5 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. The team will develop an algorithm to accurately identify patients who would benefit the most from newer glucose-lowering drugs and then target the population with policy-level interventions to increase the use of these drugs.
Todd Manini, Ph.D., Jesse Dallery, Ph.D., and Jordan Alpert, Ph.D.
Todd Manini, Ph.D., is Co-PI and Jesse Dallery, Ph.D., and Jordan Alpert, Ph.D., are Co-Is on a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institutes on Aging (NIA) R21 grant awarded to Parisa Rashidi, Ph.D., and her team. The team will develop a new smartwatch-enabled symptom surveillance platform that will facilitate post-surgical care management.
Wesley Bolch, Ph.D.
Wesley Bolch, Ph.D., and researchers were awarded a National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) $10.7 million grant. The team will conduct multiscale evaluations and investigate mitigation of toxicities following internal radionuclide contamination.
Ben Keselowsky, Ph.D., and Ali Zarrinpar, M.D., Ph.D.
Ben Keselowsky, Ph.D., and Ali Zarrinpar, M.D., Ph.D., are leading a three-year, $2.6 million R01 project funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases that will further develop a novel enzyme-based therapeutic that has shown early promise in the treatment of liver ischemia-reperfusion injury.
Merry Jennifer Markham, M.D., FACP, FASCO
Merry Jennifer Markham, M.D., FACP, FASCO, was elected as a member of the Board of Trustees of Cancer Hope Network, a nonprofit that provides free one-on-one emotional peer support to adult cancer patients and their loved ones.
Oluwadamilola Oladeru, M.D.
Oluwadamilola Oladeru, M.D., gave a presentation at the National Medical Association (NMA) Annual Conference in the Radiation Oncology section, titled “Cancer Disparities in the Incarcerated Population.” The topic is her health services research focus. While at the conference, held July 30-Aug. 3 in Atlanta, she also participated in a Career Development in Academic Medicine workshop that she was selected for as a National Institutes of Health (NIH)/NMA Academic Medicine Fellow. As a fellow, she received a NIH/NMA travel award to attend.
Zhigang Li, Ph.D.
Zhigang Li, Ph.D., wrote a paper that was selected by the Department of Biostatistics for the College of Public Health & Health Professions Dean’s Citation Paper Award. The paper, titled “IFAA: Robust Association Identification and Inference for Absolute Abundance in Microbiome Analyses,” describes the development of a robust approach to analyze the microbiome in association with covariates and the ability to control the false discovery rate.
Sherise Rogers, M.D.
Sherise Rogers, M.D., was accepted into the 2022-23 Strategic Communications Academy for UF Leaders & Scholars. She will begin her training in September. The academy provides an opportunity for university leaders and scholars to develop next-level communication skills to build communities, communicate persuasively and drive positive change.
Richard Bennett, Ph.D.
Richard Bennett, Ph.D., was promoted to research associate professor in the division of hematology & oncology, department of medicine.
Nosha Farhadfar, M.D.
Nosha Farhadfar, M.D., was promoted to associate professor in the division of hematology & oncology, department of medicine.
Jack Hsu, M.D.
Jack Hsu, M.D., was promoted to clinical professor in the division of hematology & oncology, department of medicine.
Zsolt Toth, Ph.D.
Zsolt Toth, Ph.D., was promoted and approved for tenure as associate professor in the department of oral biology in the College of Dentistry.
Julia Close, M.D.
Julia Close, M.D., was invited to serve on the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting Scientific Program Committee, Professional Development and Educational Advances Track. The Scientific Program Committee and track leaders of the Annual Meeting Education Committee select abstracts for presentation at the ASCO Annual Meeting and publication in the program/proceedings. The 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting will be held June 2-6 in Chicago and virtually.
Martina Murphy, M.D.
Martina Murphy, M.D., was interviewed for an article in MedPage Today about a new clinical review on treatment of advanced cervical cancer. Dr. Murphy coauthored the review, published in JCO Oncology Practice, with Shiyi Sarah Pang, M.D., a hematology & oncology fellow, and Merry Jennifer Markham, M.D., FACP, FASCO.
John Ligon, M.D.
John Ligon, M.D., discussed his research on a recent episode of the OsteoBites podcast from MIB Agents, a pediatric osteosarcoma nonprofit. Dr. Ligon recently received a grant from MIB Agents for a study titled “Using RNA-nanoparticle Vaccines to Overcome the Immunosuppressive Tumor Microenvironment of Canine Osteosarcoma.” The episode was sponsored by the Osteosarcoma Institute.
Loic Deleyrolle, Ph.D.
Loic Deleyrolle, Ph.D., gave an invited oral presentation at the 4th Cancer Stem Cell Conference organized by the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center and the National Center for Regenerative Medicine in Cleveland in July. His presentation was titled “Architectural Heterogeneity and Spatial Interactions within the Glioma Microenvironment.”