Molecular Oncology News Archive

December 2021

• Congratulations to the Winners of the Molecular Oncology Research in Progress series for Outstanding Presentations (July-December 2021):

Junior Trainee Awards:

• 1st Place, Daniel Lester (Lau lab)
• 2nd Place, Nicol Mecozzi (Karreth lab)
• 3rd Place Tie, Tie Tracess Smalley, PhD (Binning lab) & Kaizhen Wang (Karreth lab)

Daniel Lester, 1st Place Junior Trainee	Nicol Mecozzi, 2nd Place Junior Trainee	From left, Tracess Smalley, PhD, and Kaizhen Wang, 3rd Place Junior Trainee

Senior Trainee Awards:

• 1st Place, Marco Napoli, PhD (Flores lab)
• 2nd Place, Laura Torrente, PhD (DeNicola lab)
• 3rd Place, John Lockhart, PhD (Flores lab)

Marco Napoli, PhD, 1st Place Senior Trainee	Laura Torrente, PhD, 2nd Place Senior Trainee	John Lockhart, PhD, 3rd Place Senior Trainee

• New Grant Award: Doug Cress, PhD received notification of an R21 award from NCI to support the project “Molecular Drivers of Lung Cancer in Hispanics” as contact MPI.
• New Grant Award: Florian Karreth, PhD received a notice of award from the NIH for an R21 grant on assessing the role of oncogenic circRNAs in melanoma development.
• New Trainee:  Nicol Mecozzi, PhD student in the Cancer Biology program, starts her rotation in the Karreth lab.
• New Patent: Mark G. Alexandrow, PhD is named inventor for a Provisional Patent submission covering new chemical composition of CMG helicase inhibitor-degrader compounds (CMGid^TM).

November 2021

• New Publication: Postdoctoral fellow Xiaonan Xu, PhD, from the Karreth lab posted a preprint on bioRxiv titledChromosome 1q amplification perturbs a ceRNA network to promote melanoma metastasis.

October 2021

• New Grant Award: Doug Cress, PhD received notification of award from M2GEN to support the project “Analysis of genetic ancestry across the ORIEN Network” as co-Investigator.

• New Grant Award: Florian Karreth, PhD was awarded a Research Scholar Grant from the American Cancer Society to explore the role of MAFG in melanoma.
• New Trainee: Nicole Wang and Sabrina Chowdhury, USF Master students in Medical Sciences, join the Karreth lab as volunteers.
• New Patent: Mark G. Alexandrow, PhD is named inventor for a final PCT Patent submission #10110-266WO1. Patent covers new CMG helicase and HPV helicase inhibitors.
• Jennifer Binning, PhD was appointed as Co-Director of the Moffitt Chemical Biology Core.

September 2021

• New Grant Award: Tracess Smalley, PhD, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Binning Lab, received an AIDS Malignancy Consortium Scholar Award.
• New Publication:
• New Trainee: Nick Spinosa, PhD student in the Cancer Biology program, starts his rotation in the Karreth lab.
• New Trainee: Ben Posorske joins the Karreth lab as a Research Associate II.

August 2021

• Winners of the Molecular Oncology Research in Progress series for Outstanding Presentations (January-June 2021) were announced:
  
  

  Junior Trainees:

  • 1st Place, Qian Liu (Lau lab)
  • 2nd Place, Olga Vera Puente, PhD (Karreth lab)
  • 3rd Place, Ilah Bok (Karreth lab)
  
  

  Senior Trainees:

  • 1st Place, Junhao Lu, PhD (Chen lab)
  • 2nd Place, Hayley Ackerman, PhD (Flores lab)
  • 3rd Place, Yun Pyo Kang, PhD (DeNicola lab)
• New Grant Award: Florian Karreth, PhD received a notice of award from the NIH for an R21 grant on exploring miR-29 in melanoma progression and prevention.
• Ana P. Gomes, PhD was named a Forbeck Scholar by the William Guy Forbeck Research Foundation.
• New Publication: Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte treatment for anti-PD-1-resistant metastatic lung cancer: a phase 1 trial. Creelan BC, Wang C, Teer JK, Toloza EM, Yao J, Kim S, Landin AM, Mullinax JE, Saller JJ, Saltos AN, Noyes DR, Montoya LB, Curry W, Pilon-Thomas SA, Chiappori AA, Tanvetyanon T, Kaye FJ, Thompson ZJ, Yoder SJ, Fang B, Koomen JM, Sarnaik AA, Chen DT, Conejo-Garcia JR, Haura EB, Antonia SJ. Nat Med. 2021 Aug;27(8):1410-1418. doi: 10.1038/s41591-021-01462-y. Epub 2021 Aug 12. PMID: 34385708
• New Publication: PLoS Genetics Research Article featuring Mol Onc trainees Aziz Aiderus, Justin Y. Newberg, Ana Contreras-Sandoval, and Amanda Meshey and Mol Onc faculty Karen M. Mann and Michael B. Mann: Transposon mutagenesis identifies cooperating genetic drivers during keratinocyte transformation and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma progression. Aiderus, Newberg JY, Guzman-Rojas L, Contreras-Sandoval AM, Meshey AL, et al., 2021, PLOS Genetics 17(8): e1009094. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1009094
• New Trainee: Jheng-Yu Wu, PhD (Johnny) joins the Alexandrow Lab as a Postdoctoral Fellow
• New Trainee: Yifeng Gao, PhD joins the Flores Lab as a Postdoctoral Fellow.

July 2021

• New Grant Award: Florian Karreth, PhD received a notice of award from the Florida Department of Health for a Bankhead Coley grant to study non-canonical tumor suppressor functions of PTEN in melanoma.
• New Publication: Xiaonan Xu, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Karreth lab published a methods chapter titled "Pseudogenes as Competitive Endogenous RNAs: Testing miRNA Dependency" in Methods in Molecular Biology. PMID: 34165713
• New Publication: Ilah Bok, Graduate Student in the Karreth lab published a methods chapter titled "Strategies to Study the Function of Pseudogenes in Mouse Models of Cancer" in Methods in Molecular Biology. PMID: 34165722
• New Publication: Florian Karreth, PhD, published a methods chapter titled "Pseudogenes as Competitive Endogenous RNAs: Target Prediction and Validation" in Methods in Molecular Biology. PMID: 34165712
• New Publication: Nicol Mecozzi, Research Associate in the Karreth lab published a review article titled "Squaring the circle: circRNAs in melanoma" in Oncogene. PMID: 34331015New Publication: The non-canonical target PARP16 contributes to polypharmacology of the PARP inhibitor talazoparib and its synergy with WEE1 inhibitors. Palve V, Knezevic CE, Bejan DS, Luo Y, Li X, Novakova S, Welsh EA, Fang B, Kinose F, Haura EB, Monteiro AN, Koomen JM, Cohen MS, Lawrence HR, Rix U.  Cell Chem Biol. 2021 Jul 22:S2451-9456(21)00348-2. doi: 10.1016/j.chembiol.2021.07.008. Online ahead of print. PMID: 34329582
• New Publication: Macrophage-derived cholesterol contributes to therapeutic resistance in prostate cancer.  El-Kenawi A, Dominguez-Viqueira W, Liu M, Awasthi S, Abraham-Miranda J, Keske A, Steiner KK, Noel L, Serna AN, Dhillon J, Gillies RJ, Yu X, Koomen JM, Yamoah K, Gatenby RA, Ruffell B. Cancer Res. 2021 Jul 23:canres.4028.2020. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-20-4028. Online ahead of print. PMID: 34301759
• New Publication: A Mutational Survey of Acral Nevi.  Smalley KSM, Teer JK, Chen YA, Wu JY, Yao J, Koomen JM, Chen WS, Rodriguez-Waitkus P, Karreth FA, Messina JL.  JAMA Dermatol. 2021 Jul 1;157(7):831-835. doi: 10.1001/jamadermatol.2021.0793.  PMID: 33978681
• New Publication:  Global Phosphoproteomics Reveal CDK Suppression as a Vulnerability to KRas Addiction in Pancreatic Cancer. Kazi A, Chen L, Xiang S, Vangipurapu R, Yang H, Beato F, Fang B, Williams TM, Husain K, Underwood P, Fleming JB, Malafa M, Welsh EA, Koomen J, Trevino J, Sebti SM.  Clin Cancer Res. 2021 Jul 15;27(14):4012-4024. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-20-4781. Epub 2021 Apr 20. PMID: 33879459
• New Trainee: S. Hossein Kashfi, PhD joins the Gomes Lab as a postdoctoral fellow.

June 2021

• New Grant Award: Mark G. Alexandrow, PhD received a notice of award from the NIH for an R01 grant to study the roles of Rb and Myc in directly controlling enzymatic activity of the replicative CMG helicase. Damon Reed, MD, is a collaborator on the project.
• Jennifer Binning, PhD, received a notice of award from the NIH for an R35 MIRA grant to study the molecular details governing deglycation and protein repair.
• New Grant Award: Ana P. Gomes, PhD, received an Innovation Award from the American Lung Association to study age-related mechanisms of drug resistance in non-small cell lung cancer.
• New Grant Award: Ana P. Gomes, PhD, received a Scientific Research Grant from the Florida Breast Cancer Foundation to evaluate NAD+ Kinase’s role in metastatic triple negative breast cancer.
• New Grant Award: Ana P. Gomes, PhD, in collaboration with Gina DeNicola, PhD and Stephen Gardell, PhD (Advent Health) received a Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research Award from the State of Florida to study the role of aging and pyridine nucleotides in non-small cell lung cancers.
• New Publication: Wright GM, Gimbrone NT, Sarcar B, Percy TR, Gordián ER, Kinose F, Sumi NJ, Rix U, Cress WD. CDK4/6 inhibition synergizes with inhibition of P21-Activated Kinases (PAKs) in lung cancer cell lines. PLoS One. 2021;16(6):e0252927. Epub 2021/06/18. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0252927. PubMed PMID: 34138895.
• New Publication: Ana P. Gomes, PhD, co-lead a study describing how NAD+ kinase is regulated by oncogenic KRAS to sustain de novo NADP+ production in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. “NADK is activated by oncogenic signaling to sustain pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma”. Cell Rep. 2021 Jun 15;35(11):109238. PMID: 34133937
• New Trainee: Stanislav Drapela, PhD joins the Gomes Lab as a postdoctoral fellow.

May 2021

• New Grant Award: Florian Karreth, PhD received a notice of award from the NIH for an R01 grant focused on chromosome 1q ceRNAs in melanoma progression and metastasis.
• New Publication: Florian Karreth, PhD, co-authored a study lead by Keiran Smalley, PhD and Jane Messina, MD describing mutations found in acral nevi. "A Mutational Survey of Acral Nevi”. JAMA Dermatol. 2021 May 12. PMID: 33978681
• Nicol Mecozzi, Research Associate in the Karreth lab submitted a preprint to bioRxiv titled "Genetic Tools for the Stable Overexpression of Circular RNAs." doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.27.446018
• Ana P. Gomes, PhD, presented at the 2020 AACR Annual Meeting at the Educational Session: Understanding Mechanisms of Aging in Cancer Development in Human Populations.
• New Trainee: Devesh Raizada, a graduate student in the Moffitt-USF Cancer Biology Ph.D. Program, selects Ana P. Gomes, PhD, as his major professor and joins the Gomes Lab.

April 2021

• New Publication: Olga Vera, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Karreth lab published an article titled "A MAPK/miR-29 Axis Suppresses Melanoma by Targeting MAFG and MYBL2." Cancers. 2021 Mar 19. PMID: 33808771
• Ana P. Gomes, PhD, was selected as a Rising Star of Cancer Metabolism and Signaling by the New York Academy of Sciences.
• New Trainee: Joanne Tejero, a graduate student in the USF Molecular Medicine Ph.D. Program, selects Ana P. Gomes, PhD, as her major professor and joins the Gomes Lab.

March 2021

• Faculty: Joseph (Joe) Kissil, PhD joins the department as Vice-chair and Senior Member, Moffitt Distinguished Scholar, and Co-Leader of the Cancer Biology & Evolution Program. Welcome, Dr. Kissil!
• New Grant: Elsa Flores, PhD, received notification that a P01 focused on Lung Cancer Metabolism will receive funding. Dr. Flores is the contact PI, co-Director of the Administrative Core, and Leader of Project 1. Doug Cress, PhD, and Florian Karreth, PhD, will serve a co-Directors of the Pre-Clinical Core. John Koomen, PhD, will serve as Director of the Proteomics and Metabolism Core.
• Suman Govindaraju, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in the K. Mann Lab, was selected for an Oral Presentation at the upcoming 2021 Moffitt Scientific Symposium.
• New Patent: Mark G. Alexandrow, PhD is named inventor for Provisional Patent submission #63/157,268 “Helicase Inhibitors for the Treatment of Cancers”. Identified first-in-class inhibitors of HPV16/18/31 E1 helicases.
• New Trainee: Amanda Meshey, graduate student in the Moffitt-USF Cancer Biology Ph.D. Program, selects Michael Mann, PhD, as her major professor and joins the M. Mann Lab.

February 2021

• New Grant Award: Gary W. Reuther, PhD received a notice of award from the NIH for an R01 grant to study the role of SHP2 in JAK2 inhibitor persistence in myeloproliferative neoplasms.
• New Publication: Gary W. Reuther, PhD co-authored work from a Moffitt team science collaboration with the labs of Nicholas Lawrence and Ernst Schönbrunn (Drug Discovery) reporting the Schönbrunn lab’s determination of the first-ever co-crystal structures of two FDA-approved JAK2 inhibitors for myeloid neoplasms, ruxolitinib and fedratinib, with the kinase domain of JAK2. “Structural Insights into JAK2 Inhibition by Ruxolitinib, Fedratinib, and Derivatives Thereof”. J Med Chem. 2021 Feb 11. PMID: 33570945.
• New Publication: John Koomen, PhD, Proteomics & Metabolomics Scientific Director, contributed to Solanki HS, Welsh EA, Fang B, Izumi V, Darville LNF, Stone B, Franzese R, Chavan S, Kinose F, Imbody D, Koomen JM, Rix U, Haura EB. Cell-type Specific Adaptive Signaling Responses to KRASG12C inhibition. Clin Cancer Res. 2021 Feb 22:clincanres.CCR–20–3872-A.2020. Online ahead of print. PMID: 33619172.
• New Trainee: Rahim Ullah, PhD, joins the Lixin Wan Lab as a Postdoctoral Fellow.
• New Trainee: Oscar Ospina, PhD, was appointed to the T32 Training Program in Cancer Biology and Data Science.
• New Publication: Ana Gomes, PhD wrote an Authors’ view piece in Molecular & Cellular Oncology: Age-induced metabolic reprogramming underlies cancer progression.
• New Publication: Florian Karreth, PhD, co-authored a perspective on the future of animal models in melanoma research in Cancer Cell. This paper, titled "Melanoma models for the next generation of therapies", is the result of a workshop on melanoma models organized by the Melanoma Research Alliance.
• New Trainee: Nicol Mecozzi, Research Associate in the Karreth lab, was admitted to the Moffitt/USF Cancer Biology PhD program.
• Neel Jasani, graduate student in the Moffitt-USF Cancer Biology Ph.D. Program in the Karreth lab, won a Best Poster Award at the University of South Florida’s Health Research Day.
• Ella Bok, graduate student in the Moffitt-USF Cancer Biology Ph.D. Program, in the Karreth lab, won a 2020 Outstanding Research Accomplishment Award from Moffitt's PhD program.
  

January 2021

• New Publication: Aziz Aiderus, PhD, Post-doctoral Fellow in the M. Mann Lab, Ana M. Contreras-Sandoval, PhD, Post-doctoral Fellow in the M. Mann Lab, & Amanda Meshey, PhD Graduate Student in the M. Mann Lab, published a joint first co-authored publication in Cancers, entitled “Promoterless Transposon Mutagenesis Drives Solid Cancers via Tumor Suppressor Inactivation”. This collaborative work from senior co-authors Karen Mann, PhD and Michael Mann, PhD, Demonstrates there are oncogene independent routes to drive cancer development! This manuscript uncovers the critical role of tumor suppressor genes (both new and known) in the initiation and progression of multiple solid cancers.
• New Trainee: Allison Bahr joined the team as a Research Associate supporting the Puerto Rico Bio-Bank. Allison is a recent University of Florida graduate who double-majored in Microbiology and Spanish.
• New Appointment: Doug Cress, PhD, was appointed as Moffitt’s Institutional Research Integrity Officer.
• New Appointment: Michael Mann, PhD, joins the Editorial Board of Biomolecules as a Special Topics Editor. His first project as Guest Editor is developing a multi-disciplinary Cancer Genetics issue launching later in 2021.
• New Publication: John Koomen, PhD, Proteomics & Metabolomics Scientific Director, contributed to Stewart PA, Welsh EA, Fang B, Izumi V, Mesa T, Zhang C, Yoder S, Zhang G, Cen L, Pettersson F, Zhang Y, Chen Z, Cheng CH, Thapa R, Thompson Z, Avedon M, Wloch M, Fournier M, Fellows KM, Francis JM, Saller JJ, Boyle TA, Chen YA, Haura EB, Teer JK, Eschrich SA, Koomen JM. Managing a Large-Scale Multiomics Project: A Team Science Case Study in Proteogenomics. Methods Mol Biol. 2021;2194:187–221. PMID: 32926368

December 2020

• Apis Assay Technologies has signed a master collaboration agreement with Tampa, Florida-based Moffitt Cancer Center to determine the suitability of TROLL–2 and TROLL–3 long non-coding RNAs (lncRNA) as predictive biomarkers for cancer progression.
• New Publication: John Koomen, PhD, Proteomics & Metabolomics Scientific Director, contributed to Fang B, Izumi V, Rix LLR, Welsh E, Pike I, Reuther GW, Haura EB, Rix U, Koomen JM. Lowering Sample Requirements to Study Tyrosine Kinase Signaling Using Phosphoproteomics with the TMT Calibrator Approach. Proteomics.2020 Dec;20(24):e2000116. Epub 2020 Sep 30. PMID: 32865326.
• New Publication: Doug Cress, PhD, lead Karthikeyan SK, Gimbrone NT, Percy TR, Cress WD. Loss of cellular identity in common pre-clinical models of serine threonine kinase 11 (Liver kinase B1) loss. Cancer Treat Res Commun. PubMed PMID: 33338855.
• New Publication: Olga Vera, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, and Neel Jasani, Graduate Student, in the Karreth lab published a review article titled "Long Non-Coding RNAs in Melanoma Development and Biology" in Proceedings of the Singapore National Academy of Sciences.
• New Publication: John Koomen, PhD, Proteomics & Metabolomics Scientific Director, contributed to Hajiran A, Chakiryan N, Aydin AM, Zemp L, Nguyen J, Laborde JM, Chahoud J, Spiess PE, Zaman S, Falasiri S, Fournier M, Teer JK, Dhillon J, McCarthy S, Moran-Segura C, Katende EN, Sexton WJ, Koomen JM, Mulé J, Kim Y, Manley B. Reconnaissance of tumor immune microenvironment spatial heterogeneity in metastatic renal cell carcinoma and correlation with immunotherapy response. Clin Exp Immunol. 2020 Dec 21. Online ahead of print. PMID: 33346915.

November 2020

• Ana Gomes, PhD contributed with an opinion piece for Cancer Cell - Voices on the impact of COVID–19 Pandemic on cancer research. Dr. Gomes reflects on the challenges of starting a lab as a junior faculty in the middle of the COVID–19 pandemic.
• New Publication: Gary W. Reuther, PhD and members of Ken Wright’s lab (Immunology) published a perspective on “Metabolic Vulnerabilities and Epigenetic Dysregulation in Myeloproliferative Neoplasms”. Front Immunol. 2020 Nov 30. PMID: 33329600.
• Doug Cress, PhD, served as a co-host of the “Footsteps to Funding” event, in support of training for GMAP Region 2
• Doug Cress, PhD, gave a virtual seminar at the University of Puerto Rico entitled, “Molecular Drivers in Lung Cancer”
• New Publication: John Koomen, PhD, Proteomics & Metabolomics Scientific Director, contributed to Garg SK, Welsh EA, Fang B, Hernandez YI, Rose T, Gray J, Koomen JM, Berglund A, Mulé JJ, Markowitz J. Multi-Omics and Informatics Analysis of FFPE Tissues Derived from Melanoma Patients with Long/Short Responses to Anti-PD1 Therapy Reveals Pathways of Response. Cancers (Basel).2020 Nov 26;12(12):3515. doi: 10.3390/cancers12123515. PMID: 33255891.
• Mark Alexandrow, PhD, received Award from Adolescent and Young Adult Program (AYA) at Moffitt for a project titled: “Assessing the anti-tumor efficacy of first-in-class human CMG helicase inhibitors in pre-clinical models of osteosarcoma”. Drs. Mark Alexandrow and Damon Reed are co-PIs.
• Trainee Milestone: Koji Nakamura, PhD, former Postdoctoral Fellow left the Karreth lab and returned to his native Japan where he assumed an Assistant Professor position at Osaka University.

October 2020

• New Grant Award: Jennifer Binning, PhD received a pilot Award from the Center For Immunization And Infection Research In Cancer (CIIRC) for Moffitt Faculty Conducting Research in Immunizations and Infection-Related Cancers.
• New Patent: Mark G. Alexandrow, PhD is named inventor for Provisional Patent submission #63/087,415 “CMG Helicase Inhibitors for the Treatment of Cancers”.
• New Publication: John Koomen, PhD, Proteomics & Metabolomics Scientific Director, contributed to Darville LNF, Cline JK, Rozmeski C, Martinez YC, Rich S, Eschrich SA, Egan KM, Yaghjyan L, Koomen JM. LC-HRMS of derivatized urinary estrogens and estrogen metabolites in postmenopausal women. J Chromatogr B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci. 2020 Oct 1;1154:122288. Epub 2020 Jul 29. PMID: 32769047.
• New Publication: Napoli M, Li X, Ackerman HD, Barranikov I, Pisegna MA, Bedrodian I, Mitsch J, Quinlan P, Thompson A, Rajapakshe K, Coarfa C, Gunaratne P, Marchion D, Magliocco A, Tsai KY, Flores ER. Pan-cancer analysis reveals TAp63-regulated oncogenic lncRNAs that promote cancer progression through AKT activation. Nat Commun. 2020 Oct 14;11(1):5156. PMID: 33056990
• New Publication: Nguyen TN, Rajapakshe K, Nicholas C, Tordesillas L, Ehli EA, Davis CM, Coarfa C, Flores ER, Dickinson SE, Curiel-Lewandrowski C, Tsai KY. Integrative transcriptomic analysis for linking acute stress responses to squamous cell carcinoma development. Sci Rep. 2020 Oct 14;10(1):17209. PMID: 33057049
• New Publication: John Koomen, PhD, Proteomics & Metabolomics Scientific Director, contributed to Taylor NJ, Gaynanova I, Eschrich SA, Welsh EA, Garrett TJ, Beecher C, Sharma R, Koomen JM, Smalley KSM, Messina JL, Kanetsky PA. Metabolomics of primary cutaneous melanoma and matched adjacent extratumoral microenvironment. PLoS One. 2020 Oct 27;15(10):e0240849. PMID: 33108391.
• Trainee Milestone: Nicol Mecozzi, visiting student in the Karreth lab, defended her Master's thesis in Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Pisa in Pisa, Italy.

September 2020

• Trainee Milestone: Marco Napoli, PhD in the Flores Lab is promoted to Research Scientist II
• New Publication: John Koomen, PhD, Proteomics & Metabolomics Scientific Director, contributed to Zhang C, Smalley I, Emmons MF, Sharma R, Izumi V, Messina J, Koomen JM, Pasquale EB, Forsyth PA, Smalley KSM. Noncanonical EphA2 Signaling Is a Driver of Tumor-Endothelial Cell Interactions and Metastatic Dissemination in BRAF Inhibitor‒Resistant Melanoma. J Invest Dermatol. 2020 Sep 2:S0022–202X(20)32047–9. Online ahead of print. PMID: 32890629.
• New Publication: John Koomen, PhD, Proteomics & Metabolomics Scientific Director, contributed to Hamaidi I, Zhang L, Kim N, Wang MH, Iclozan C, Fang B, Liu M, Koomen JM, Berglund AE, Yoder SJ, Yao J, Engelman RW, Creelan BC, Conejo-Garcia JR, Antonia SJ, Mulé JJ, Kim S. Sirt2 Inhibition Enhances Metabolic Fitness and Effector Functions of Tumor-Reactive T Cells. Cell Metab. 2020 Sep 1;32(3):420–436.e12. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2020.07.008. Epub 2020 Aug 7. PMID: 32768387.

August 2020

• Karen Mann, PhD, presented at the 2020 PanCAN Virtual Scientific Summit at platform presentation entitled, “The Splicing Factor RBFOX2 Drives Pancreatic Cancer Progression”.
• New Trainee: Suehelay Acevedo, PhD, joins the Flores Lab as a postdoctoral fellow.
• New Trainee: Aleah Masucci joined the team as a Covid–19 SPARK Intern.
• New Publication: John Koomen, PhD, Proteomics & Metabolomics Scientific Director, contributed to Hesterberg RS, Beatty MS, Han Y, Fernandez MR, Akuffo AA, Goodheart WE, Yang C, Chang S, Colin CM, Alontaga AY, McDaniel JM, Mailloux AW, Billington JMR, Yue L, Russell S, Gillies RJ, Yun SY, Ayaz M, Lawrence NJ, Lawrence HR, Yu XZ, Fu J, Darville LN, Koomen JM, Ren X, Messina J, Jiang K, Garrett TJ, Rajadhyaksha AM, Cleveland JL, Epling-Burnette PK. Cereblon harnesses Myc-dependent bioenergetics and activity of CD8+ T lymphocytes. Blood. 2020 Aug 13;136(7):857–870. doi: 10.1182/blood.2019003257. PMID: 32403132.
• New Grant Award: Florian Karreth, PhD, and Dennis Adeegbe, PhD, (Department of Immunology) were awarded a Moffitt Team Science Award for their proposal to generate iGEMMs, chimeric melanoma mouse models to study immune cell-specific gene functions.
• New Grant Award: Florian Karreth, PhD, was awarded a Pilot Award from the Donald A. Adam Melanoma and Skin Cancer Center of Excellence.

July 2020

• New Publication: Jinesh GG, Napoli M, Ackerman HD, Raulji PM, Montey N, Flores ER, Brohl AS. Regulation of MYO18B mRNA by a network of C19MC miRNA–520G, IFN-γ, CEBPB, p53 and bFGF in hepatocellular carcinoma. Sci Rep. 2020 Jul 23;10(1):12371. PMID: 32704163
• Doug Cress, PhD, participated in an NCI Grant Review Panel, U54 Partnerships for Cancer Health Equity.
• New Grant Award: Michael Mann, PhD, received a Pilot Award from the Donald A. Adam Melanoma and Skin Cancer Center of Excellence for Projects in Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer.
• New Appointment: Michael Mann, PhD, joins Cancers as a Review Board Member.

June 2020

• New Faculty: Ana Gomes, PhD joins the department as an Assistant Member. Welcome Dr. Gomes!
• Beyond our Walls: On June 10, the Department of Molecular Oncology took the time to read and reflect on the following in solidarity with inclusion and racial justice in Basic and Cancer Science: I could have been George Floyd - many times. Rob Winn, MD – The Cancer Letter, I could have been George Floyd, too. Otis Brawley, MD, MACP, FASCO, FACE – The Cancer Letter, White Academia: Do Better. The Faculty - Medium, Systemic racism: science must listen, learn and change - Nature, and Concrete Steps for Recruiting, Supporting, and Advancing Underrepresented Minoritized Scientists
• New Grant Award: Gary Reuther, PhD and Nicholas Lawrence, PhD (Drug Discovery) and Ernst Schönbrunn, PhD (Drug Discovery), were awarded funding for three years from the State of Florida Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research program for their project entitled “Novel monovalent and bivalent JAK2 inhibitors for targeted MPN and cancer therapies”.
• New Grant Award: Jiandong Chen, PhD, Faculty Mark Ji, PhD (Drug Discovery) and Gary Daughdrill, PhD (USF Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology), were awarded funding for three years from the State of Florida Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research program for their project entitled "Discovery of p53 Inhibitors for Reducing Toxicity of Chemotherapy."
• New Publication: Mark G. Alexandrow, PhD, together with a diverse set of Moffitt Faculty, published a new paper "An Evolutionary Framework for Treating Pediatric Sarcomas" in Cancer doi: 10.1002/cncr.32777. PMID: 32176331.
• New Publication: Qingling Li, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Chen Lab, published a new paper in Oncogene. "Inhibition of p53 DNA binding by a small molecule protects mice from radiation toxicity." Qingliang Li, Rezaul M. Karim, Mo Cheng, Mousumi Das, Lihong Chen, Chen Zhang, Harshani R. Lawrence, Gary Daughdrill, Ernst Schonbrunn, Haitao Ji, and Jiandong Chen. (2020). In press. doi: 10.1038/s41388–020–1344-y
• New Publication: Michael B. Mann, PhD, and Justin Y. Newberg, PhD, alumnus Applied Research Scientist, contributed to a paper published in Journal of Investigative Dermatologyby directed by Kenneth Y. Tsai, MD, PhD (Tumor Biology & Anatomic Pathology). PMID: 32553564.
• New Publication: Qingling Huang, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Chen Lab, published a new paper in EMBO J. “MDMX inhibits CK1α kinase activity and stimulates Wnt signaling”. Qingling Huang, Lihong Chen, Ernst Schonbrunn, Jiandong Chen. (2020). DOI: 10.15252/embj.2020104410. PMID: 32511789.
• Faculty in the Spotlight: John Koomen, PhD, Proteomics & Metabolomics Scientific Director, mentored Proteomics & Metabolomics Core staff for their presentations at the American Society for Mass Spectrometry Annual Conference Reboot, which is our first online-only virtual conference.
• Trainee Milestone: Trent Percy, an undergraduate student completed his Bachelor’s Degree at USF and will begin studies Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine in the fall of 2020.

May 2020

• Faculty in the Spotlight: Doug Cress, PhD, was quoted in an Endeavor article: Making the Most Impact to Save the Future.
• Trainee Milestone: Santhosh Kumar Karthikeyan, a graduate student in Dr. Cress’ lab completed his Bioinformatics Master’s Program and will begin a PhD graduate program at the University of Alabama in the fall of 2020.
• New Grant Award: John Koomen, PhD and Theresa Boyle, MD, PhD (Anatomic Pathology & Clinical Pathology) started a new MPI project to compare multiple lung cancer metastases in patients to examine tumor biology in terminal disease to generate additional treatment strategies, which is funded by a 3 year Bankhead Coley Discovery Science Award.
• New Publication: John Koomen, PhD, Proteomics & Metabolomics Scientific Director, worked with Victoria Izumi (Core research specialist) and Bin Fang (Core manager) to support a project led by Keiran Smalley, PhD (Tumor Biology & Cutaneous Oncology) examining protein biomarkers associated with prognosis in melanoma brain metastases. Smalley I, Law V, Wyatt C, Evernden B, Fang B, Koomen JM, Welsh EA, Macaulay RJB, Forsyth PA, Smalley KSM. “Proteomic Analysis of CSF from Patients with Leptomeningeal Melanoma Metastases Identifies Signatures Associated with Disease Progression and Therapeutic Resistance.” Clin Cancer Res. 2020 May 1;26(9):2163–2175. PMID: 31924735.
• New Publication: John Koomen, PhD, Proteomics & Metabolomics Scientific Director, contributed to a publication in metabolomics, which indicates continuing development of metabolomics services at Moffitt and additional productivity for our ongoing metabolomics collaborations with Tim Garrett, PhD, an investigator in the South East Center for Integrated Metabolomics at the University of Florida. Hesterberg RS, Beatty MS, Han Y, Fernandez MR, Akuffo AA, Goodheart WE, Yang C, Chang S, Colin C, Alontaga AY, McDaniel J, Mailloux AW, Billington JMR, Yue L, Russell S, Gillies RJ, Yun SY, Ayaz M, Lawrence NJ, Lawrence H, Yu XZ, Fu J, Darville LN, Koomen JM, Ren X, Messina J, Jiang K, Garrett TJ, Rajadhyaksha A, Cleveland JL, Epling-Burnette PK. Cereblon Harnesses Myc-Dependent Bioenergetics and Activity of CD8+ T lymphocytes. Blood. 2020 May 13:blood.2019003257. PMID: 32403132.

April 2020

• New Publication: Ngoc Bui, PhD, alumnus Postdoctoral Fellow in the Flores Lab, published a paper in Cancer Research: Spatiotemporal regulation of ∆Np63 by TGFβ-regulated miRNAs is essential for cancer metastasis. Bui NHB, Napoli M, Davis AJ, Abbas HA, Rajapakshe K, Coarfa C, Flores ER. Cancer Res. 2020 Apr 20:canres.2733.2019. doi: 10.1158/0008–5472.CAN–19–2733. PMID: 32312834.
• New Publication: Mark G. Alexandrow, PhD, and Damon R. Reed, MD, Medical Oncology and Program Leader of the Adolescent Young Adult Program, were co-corresponding authors of a paper in BioEssays: Myc and the Replicative CMG Helicase: The Creation and Destruction of Cancer. doi: 10.1002/bies.201900218. PMID: 32080866.

 

March 2020

• New Patent: Gary Reuther, PhD had a patent entitled “Low Dose Combination Therapy for Treatment of Myeloproliferative Neoplasms” granted, in collaboration with Incyte Corporation. (US20190175578)
• New Publication: Andrew Davis, PhD, alumnus Postdoctoral Fellow in the Flores Lab, published a paper in Cancer Research: TAp63-regulated microRNAs suppress cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma through inhibition of a network of cell cycle genes. Davis AJ, Tsinkevich M, Rodencal J, Abbas HA, Su XH, Gi YJ, Fang B, Rajapakshe K, Coarfa C, Gunaratne PH, Koomen JM, Tsai KY, Flores ER. Cancer Res. 2020 Mar 10: doi: 10.1158/0008–5472.CAN–19–1892. PMID: 32156775.
• Trainee Milestone: Kyubum Lee, PhD appointed to the T32 Training Program.
• New Publication: John Koomen, PhD, Proteomics & Metabolomics Scientific Director, worked on metabolomics with Lancia Darville, PhD (Core staff scientist) for an external collaboration between Dr. Cleveland and Ira Tabas’s lab, which produced the following publication (Moffitt authors underlined): Yurdagul A Jr, Subramanian M, Wang X, Crown SB, Ilkayeva OR, Darville L, Kolluru GK, Rymond CC, Gerlach BD, Zheng Z, Kuriakose G, Kevil CG, Koomen JM, Cleveland JL, Muoio DM, Tabas I. Macrophage Metabolism of Apoptotic Cell-Derived Arginine Promotes Continual Efferocytosis and Resolution of Injury. Cell Metab. 2020 Mar 3;31(3):518–533. PMID: 32004476.
• New Publication: Lixin Wan, PhD, and this lab published a review article was published in Seminars in Cancer Biology: "ITCH as a potential therapeutic target in human cancers." PMID: 32165318.

February 2020

• Annual Retreat: Fourth Annual Molecular Oncology Departmental Retreat at ZooTampa at Lowry Park.
• Congratulations to the 2020 Molecular Oncology Annual Departmental Retreat Award Recipients.
• Oral Presentation Awards: Aziz Aiders, PhD, Postdoc Fellow, M Mann Lab, Fan He, Graduate Student, Chen Lab, Garima Pandey, PhD, Research Scientist, Reuther Lab, Kara Snyder, Graduate Student, Le-Lau Lab
• Poster presentation awards: Julia Billington, Graduate Student, K Mann Lab, Marco Napoli, PhD, Postdoc Fellow, Flores Lab, Olga Vera Puente, PhD, Postdoc Fellow, Karreth Lab, Nicolas Prieto, Research Associate, DeNicola Lab
• New Grant Award: Jennifer Binning, PhD, and the Teng lab (USF) received the Anna Valentine-Charles Oehler Award for their project entitled, "Molecular mechanisms of innate immune suppression by the HPV oncoprotein E6."
• New Publication: Marco Napoli, PhD, postdoc in the Flres Lab, published a News & Views in Nature: Loss of p53 protein strikes a nerve to aid tumour growth. Napoli M, Flores ER. Nature. 2020 Feb;578(7795):367–369. doi: 10.1038/d41586–020–00328–6. PMID: 32066916 

January 2020

• Faculty in the Spotlight: Department Chair Elsa R. Flores, PhD, delivered a platform presentation at a Keystone Symposium on Non-coding RNAs.
• New Publication: Marco Napoli, PhD, postdoc in the Flores Lab, published a review in RNA Biology: The p53 family reaches the final frontier: the variegated regulation of the dark matter of the genome by the p53 family in cancer. Napoli M, Flores ER. RNA Biol. 2020 Jan 7:1–12. doi: 10.1080/15476286.2019.1710054. PMID: 31910062.
• New Grant Award: Gary Reuther, PhD was awarded a 2019 Miles for Moffitt Milestone Award to fund his lab’s project entitled "Overcoming the inefficacy of ruxolitinib in myeloproliferative neoplasm patients by targeting the SHP2 tyrosine phosphatase."
• New Grant Award: Mark Alexandrow, PhD was awarded an MPI grant, with Nicholas Lawrence, PhD (Drug Discovery) and Brian Ruffell, PhD (Immunology), funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb project entitled: "Immunological Modulation Through Cereblon Suppression."

December 2019

• Faculty Chair Elsa Flores, PhD, Faculty Lead Lixin Wan, PhD, and Faculty Co-Lead Karen Mann, PhD present the 2019 Molecular Oncology Research-In-Progress (MO-RIP) Seminar Series Finale Awards and Holiday Luncheon.
  o Suman Govindaraju, PhD (K. Mann Lab) was awarded best presentation by a senior trainee and Junhao Lu, PhD (Chen Lab) was awarded best presentation by a junior trainee during Q4 of the 2019 MO-RIP Seminar Series.
  o Qingling Huang, PhD (Chen Lab) and Junhao Lu, PhD (Chen Lab) received awards for excellence in providing high-quality peer review and evaluation to presenters throughout 2019 MORIP Seminar Series.
  o For the second year in a row, faculty member Mark Alexandrow, PhD was recognized as the most dedicated faculty evaluator during the 2019 MO-RIP Seminar Series.
  o Chang Jiang, PhD (DeNicola Lab) was recognized as the trainee who asked the most questions throughout the 2019 MO-RIP Seminar Series.

From left, Lixin Wan, Karen Mann, Suman Govindaraju, Junhao Lu, Elsa Flores, Chang Jiang, Qingling Huang and Mark Alexandrow

• Garima Pandey, PhD, a post-doctoral fellow in Gary Reuther’s lab, presented her work and won an Abstract Achievement Award for her presentation on her studies on SHP2 and myeloid neoplasms at the 2019 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, the premier meeting in the world for malignant hematology research.
• The Reuther lab collaborated with the lab of Dr. Ken Wright at Moffitt on an important study published in the journal Blood highlighting the role of HDAC11 in myeloid neoplasms. In addition to Dr. Gary Reuther, Narmin Amin (research associate in the Reuther lab) is a co-author on the studies.
• Published a paper in Bio-protocol: Brook S. Nepon-Sixt and Mark G. Alexandrow. 2019. DNAse I Chromatin Accessibility Analysis. Bio-protocol, 9(23): e3444. DOI: 10:21769/BioProtoc.3444.
• John Lockhart, PhD was appointed as the inaugural postdoctoral fellow to a newly-funded T32 in Cancer Biology and Data Science. Dr. Lockhart holds a B. S. in Biology, an M.S. in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology and recently earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology. Dr. Flores will serve as his primary mentor. For more information, or to apply to become the next postdoctoral fellow, visit the program website.

November 2019

• Ana Contreras-Sandoval, PhD (Postdoc Fellow, M. Mann Lab) received a travel award and was invited to present her work entitled “Harnessing Sleeping Beauty transposon mutagenesis to model tumor heterogeneity in melanoma preclinical models” at the Society for Melanoma Research 16th International Congress, Salt Lake City, UT.
• Lucia Mazzacurati, PhD, a research scientist in Gary Reuther’s lab, published her work demonstrating the efficacy of targeting PIM kinases in combination with JAK2 inhibition in preclinical models of myeloid neoplasms in Blood Advances (PMID: 31725895). This work supported the initiation of a clinical trial to test the combination of the pan-PIM inhibitor INCB053914 and ruxolitinib (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02587598) which is accruing patients at Moffitt and other locations. In addition to Lucia, other members of Dr. Reuther’s lab who are co-authors on this work include Garima Pandey, PhD (postdoctoral fellow) and Narmin Amin (research associate). This work was chosen as a highlight of the issue by the editor in chief of Blood Advances and was also highlighted on the Blood Advances Twitter feed.
• Faculty member Michael Mann, PhD was selected as an American Cancer Society Funded Moffitt Cancer Center Researcher to deliver a Keynote "Harnessing Genomics for Future Cancer Care" at The New Wave of Cancer Research and Treatment Luncheon hosted by the American Cancer Society and Dr. James J. Vopal, DDS, MD, FACS of the The Breast Care Center of the Treasure Coast.
• New paper published in Cancer Research: "A versatile ES cellbased melanoma mouse modeling platform." (Karreth Lab)
• Nicol Mecozzi (Master’s student) joins the Karreth Lab.

October 2019

• Molecular Oncology faculty and trainees very successful 2019 Cancer Biology and Evolution Symposium. The event was organized by Faculty Member Karen Mann, PhD and Department Admin and CBE Program Coordinator, Kristen Gilpin. Molecular Oncology trainees presented 21 abstracts at this year’s Symposium. Congratulations to the following Molecular Oncology Trainees who received awards for their presentations:
  o Poster Highlights Awardees Lucia Mazzacurati, PhD (Postdoc Fellow, Reuther Lab) and Haley Ackerman, PhD (Postdoc Fellow, Flores Lab), Oral Presentation Awardee Marco Napoli, PhD (Postdoc Fellow, Flores Lab), and Poster Presentation Awardee Suman Govindaraju, PhD (Postdoc Fellow, K. Mann Lab) were presented their respective awards by CBE Symposium Faculty Chairperson Dr. Karen Mann.

From left, Marco Napoli and Karen Mann. Lucia Mazzacurati, Haley Ackerman and Karen Mann.

• Faculty member Doug Cress, PhD was appointed to serve as co-investigator of an Administrative Supplement to Moffitt’s Cancer Center Support Grant (P30CA076292: Sellers, PI) continuing efforts to serve as the ‘regional hub’ for strengthening research, training, and outreach capacity for the Geographic Management of Cancer Health Disparities (CHD) Program for Region 2 (GMaP–2) spanning AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, MO, MS, and PR. Specifically, Dr. Cress will support biospecimen resources for the entire GMAP Region 2.
• Faculty Member Karen Mann, PhD presented a talk at the Gigi Arledge Shaw Conference on Pancreatic Diseases at Columbia University in NYC.
• Faculty member Karen Mann, PhD presented at the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN) Annual Scientific Summit in Miami, FL.
• Jameela Lokhandwala, PhD (Postdoctoral fellow), Angelo Nicolaci (Research Associate), and Sanja Todorovic (Intern) join the Binning Lab.

September 2019

• Faculty Members Elsa Flores, PhD and Doug Cress, PhD received a Notice of Award for a 1.5 million dollar NCI T32 training Integrated Program in Cancer and Data Science
• Faculty Member Doug Cress, PhD presented his work at the James and Esther King Biomedical Research Grant Symposium

August 2019

• New paper published in Nature Communications: "Interplay between c-Src and the APC/C co-activator Cdh1 regulates mammary tumorigenesis.” (Wan Lab)
• New paper published in FEBS Open Bio "Characterization of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) P848L, an unusual EGFR variant present in lung cancer patients, in a murine Ba/F3 model." (Cress Lab)
• New paper published in Cancer Research: "MEK inhibition modulates cytokine response to mediate therapeutic efficacy in lung cancer." (Cress Lab)

July 2019

• Qingliang Li, PhD (Postdoc Fellow, Chen Lab) was recognized and awarded best trainee presentation during the 2019 second quarter Department of Molecular Oncology Research-In-Progress Seminar Series (RIP).
• Faculty member Florian Karreth, PhD presented a seminar at the Anna Spiegel Center of Translational Research at the Medical University Vienna, Austria.
• Shengyan (Kevin) Xiang, PhD (Research Scientist) and Jon Faughn, Ph.D. (Postdoctoral Fellow) join the Alexandrow Lab.
• Rajanikanth Vangipurapu, PhD (Research Scientist) joins the K Mann Lab.
• Kazi Aslamuzzaman, PhD (Research Scientist) joins the Flores Lab.
• Ariana Angarita Medrano (Research Associate) joins the Karreth Lab.

June 2019

• Faculty member Florian Karreth, PhD presented at the 3rd International Symposium on Frontiers in Molecular Science - RNA Regulatory Networks conference in Lisbon, Portugal.
• Graduate student Ella Bok published a preprint on BioRxiv: Bok et al., “A versatile ES cell-based melanoma mouse modeling platform.” (Karreth Lab)
• Faculty members Jennifer Binning, PhD and Michael Mann, PhD presented the 2019 Annual Florida Academic Cancer Center Alliance (FACCA) Research Retreat

May 2019

• Molecular Oncology faculty Karen Mann, PhD and Michael Mann, PhD together with Philipp Altrock, PhD (Integrated Mathematical Oncology) and Eric Padron, MD (Malignant Hematology) were awarded a Moffitt Cancer Center 2019 Team Science Early Development Award to study latent therapeutic vulnerabilities in myeloid leukemia using integrated animal and mathematical modeling.
• Marco Napoli, PhD (Postdoc Fellow, Flores Lab) was awarded best trainee presentation during the 2019 first quarter Department of Molecular Oncology Research-In-Progress Seminar Series (RIP).
• Michael Mann, PhD and Postdoc Fellow Ana M. Contreras-Sandoval, PhD presented their work within Interdisciplinary Spotlight on Disease Models Mini-Symposium at the 77th Annual Society for Investigative Dermatology Meeting in Chicago, IL.
• Congratulations to Marco Napoli, PhD (Postdoc Fellow, Flores Lab) for being selected as an Oral Presenter Award representing Basic Science Research and to Garima Pandey, PhD (Postdoc Fellow, Reuther Lab) for being selected as a Featured Poster Presenter Award representing Basic Science Research at the 2019 Moffitt Scientific Symposium.
• Molecular Oncology trainees presented 20 abstracts at the 2019 Moffitt Scientific Symposium.

April 2019

• Molecular Oncology faculty welcome our newest Assistant Member Jennifer Binning, PhD.

March 2019

• Faculty member Lixin Wan, PhD was named the 2018 Moffitt Junior Faculty of the Year for Basic Science.
• New paper published in Communications Biology (Nature Press): "Myc-Driven Chromatin Accessibility Regulates Cdc45 Assembly into CMG Helicases.” (Alexandrow Lab)
• USF undergraduate student Trent Percy, who conducts research in the Cress Lab, won an award for his presentation at the Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology Department Research Conference.

February 2019

• Faculty member Karen M. Mann, PhD was featured in the Moffitt Cancer Center publication, 2019 Women In Oncology Magazine.
• Nicholas Gimbrone, Graduate Student in the Cress Lab successfully defends his doctoral dissertation. Congratulations Dr. Gimbrone.
• Third Annual Molecular Oncology Departmental Retreat at ZooTampa at Lowry Park.
• Congratulations to the 2019 Molecular Oncology Annual Departmental Retreat award winners:
          • Oral presentation awards:
             • Yannis Grammatikis, PhD, Research Scientist, Flores Lab
             • Laura Torrente Fernandez, PhD, Postdoc Fellow, DeNicola Lab
             • Suman Govindaraju, PhD, Postdoc Fellow, K Mann Lab
             • Daniel Lester, Graduate Student, Le-Lau Lab
          • Poster presentation awards:
             • Aziz Aiders, PhD, Postdoc Fellow, M Mann Lab
             • Xiaobo Li, PhD, Postdoc Fellow, Flores Lab
             • Lucia Mazzacurati, PhD, Research Scientist, Reuther Lab
             • Marco Napoli, PhD, Postdoc Fellow, Flores Lab
             • Qing Yin, PhD, Postdoc Fellow, Wan Lab
             • Yun Pyo Kang, PhD, Postdoc Fellow, DeNicola Lab

December 2018

• Drs. Elsa Flores, Michael Mann and Lixin Wan present the 2018 Research-In-Progress Seminar Series Final Wrap up session and Holiday Luncheon.
• Andrew Davis, PhD (Flores Lab) was awarded best presentation by a junior trainee at the Department of Molecular Oncology – Research-In-Progress Seminar Series (RIP).
• Brook Nepon-Sixt, PhD (Alexandrow Lab) and Yannis Grammatikakis, PhD (Flores Lab) received awards for excellence in providing high-quality peer-review and evaluation to presenters throughout 2018 Research-In-Progress Seminar Series.

October 2018

• Andrew Davis, PhD was awarded the Helmsley Scholarship to attend the Computational Genomics Course at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories.
• Hayley Ackerman, PhD was awarded best presentation by a junior member at the Department of Molecular Oncology – Research In Progress Seminar Series (RIP).
• Florian Karreth, PhD received a Melanoma Research Foundation Mucosal Melanoma Career Development Award.
• Karen Mann is awarded the 2018 Skip Viragh Pancreatic Cancer Action Network Career Development Award to study RBFOX2-mediated splicing regulation in pancreatic cancer progression.
• Michael Mann, PhD was awarded an Moffitt Cancer Center’s American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant (ACS-IRG) Program Award.
• New paper published in Molecular Cancer Research: "TGFß1 Cell Cycle Arrest Is Mediated by Inhibition of MCM Assembly in Rb-deficient Conditions.” (Alexandrow Lab)
• New grant funded by the James and Esther King Program, State of Florida: "Chemoprevention of Lung Cancer in Former Smokers." (Alexandrow Lab)
• Brook Nepon-Sixt, PhD (Alexandrow Lab) received award for highest rated Molecular Oncology Research in Progress speaker for senior postdoc category.

September 2018

• Elsa R. Flores, PhD and Marco Napoli, PhD presented their research at the 8^th International p63/p73 Workshop in Frankfurt, Germany. 
• Garima Pandey, PhD (Postdoc Fellow, Reuther lab) was invited to present her work entitled "The Persistent Survival of MPN Cells to JAK2 Inhibition Is Dependent on SHP2 Activity, Which May Provide a Therapeutic Target to Enhance Current Anti-MPN Therapies” at the American Society of Hematology 60th Annual Meeting in December, 2018 in San Diego, CA

July 201​8

• Flores Lab graduate students Ngoc Bui and Andrew Davis successfully defended their PhD dissertations. Congratulations, Drs. Bui and Davis.
• Gary Reuther, PhD together with Nicholas Lawrence and Ernst Schonbrunn (both in the Drug Discovery Department) were informed that a second year of funding for their Screen to Lead Program grant from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society was awarded.

June 2018

• Molecular Oncology trainees presented 17 abstracts at the 2018 Cancer Biology and Evolution Symposium. Congratulations to Ngoc Bui, PhD (Postdoc Fellow, Flores Lab) for receiving an oral presentation award and to Nick Gimbrone (Grad Student, Cress Lab), Xiaobo Li, PhD (Postdoc Fellow, Flores Lab), and Andrew Davis, PhD (Postdoc Fellow, Flores Lab) for receiving poster presentation awards.
• An abstract by Nick Gimbrone (Grad Student, Cress lab) was selected for an oral presentation at the upcoming 2018 Lung Cancer SPORE Workshop.
• Justin Newberg, PhD (labs of Karen Mann, PhD and Michael Mann, PhD) published a paper in Nucleic Acid Research entitled "SB Driver Analysis: A Sleeping Beauty cancer driver analysis framework for identifying and prioritizing experimentally actionable oncogenes and tumor suppressors."
• Mark Alexandrow, PhD and Nagi Kumar, PhD received a long awaited FL-DOH grant which represents a collaboration between Molecular Oncology and Population Sciences. The teams are also looking forward to positive news on another grant application in the near future.

May 2018

• Congratulations to Doug Cress, PhD as the recipient of the Researcher Mentor of the Year award at the 2018 Moffitt Scientific Symposium.
• Molecular Oncology trainees presented 20 abstracts at the 2018 Moffitt Scientific Symposium.
• Postdoctoral Fellow Marco Napoli, PhD (Flores Lab) had his abstract selected for oral presentation at the 2018 Moffitt Scientific Symposium.
• Florian Karreth, PhD was awarded a 2018 Miles for Moffitt Milestone grant.

April 2018

• Congratulations to the Molecular Oncology Research In Progress Seminar Series Award winners for first quarter of 2018:
  o Senior Trainee Award to Marco Napoli, PhD, Postdoc Fellow, Flores Lab
  o Junior Trainee Award to Nicholas Gimbrone, Grad Student, Cress Lab

February 2018

• Congratulations to the Molecular Oncology Annual Departmental Retreat poster and oral presentation award winners
  • Oral presentation award:
     o Qing Yin, PhD, Postdoc Fellow, Wan Lab
  • Poster presentation awards:
     o Brook Nepon-Sixt, PhD, Postdoc Fellow, Alexandrow Lab
     o Ngoc Bui, Grad Student, Flores Lab
     o Xiaobo Li, PhD, Postdoc Fellow, Flores Lab
     o Ioannis Grammatikis, PhD, Research Scientist, Flores Lab
     o Nate Ward, PhD, Postdoc Fellow, DeNicola Lab

December 2017

• Nick Gimbrone (Cress lab) published a paper in Journal of Thoracic Oncology entitled "Somatic Mutations and Ancestry Markers in Hispanic Lung Cancer Patients." Nick’s paper was highlighted in an Editorial at JTO.

November 2017

• Melissa Hoffman (Koomen lab) published a paper in the Journal of Proteome Research entitled "Comparison of Quantitative Mass Spectrometry Platforms for Monitoring Kinase ATP Probe Uptake in Lung Cancer."
• Hussein Abbas (Flores lab) published a chapter in Cancer Research entitled "Distinct TP63 isoform-driven transcriptional signatures predict tumor progression and clinical outcomes."

October 2017

• Justin Newberg (labs of Karen Mann, PhD and Michael Mann, PhD) published a paper in Nucleic Acid Research entitled "SBCDDB: Sleeping Beauty Cancer Driver Database for gene discovery in mouse models of human cancers." Check out the SBCDDB here.

September 2017

• Marco Napoli, PhD (Flores lab) published an outlook in Genes & Development entitled "Another case for diet restriction: TAp73-expressing medulloblastomas are stunted by glutamine withdrawal."

August 2017

• Michael Mann, PhD was awarded a Moffitt Skin Cancer SPORE Career Enhancement Program Grant.
• Karen Mann, PhD was awarded an American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant.
• Yi Chen (Koomen lab) published a chapter in Methods in Molecular Biology entitled "Multiplexed Liquid Chromatography-Multiple Reaction Monitoring Mass Spectrometry Quantification of Cancer Signaling Proteins."

July 2017

• Gary Reuther, PhD together with Nicholas Lawrence and Ernst Schonbrunn (both in the Drug Discovery Department) were awarded a Screen to Lead Program grant from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

June 2017

• Justin Newberg, PhD (labs of Karen Mann, PhD and Michael Mann, PhD), Brook Nepon-Sixt, PhD (Alexandrow Lab), Marco Napoli, PhD (Flores Lab), Rahul Checker, PhD (Flores Lab), Ngoc Bui (Flores Lab), and Andrew Davis (Flores Lab) were awarded poster prizes ad the Moffitt Cancer Biology & Evolution Symposium.

May 2017

• Molecular Oncology participates in Miles for Moffitt to raise funds for research.

April 2017

• Florian Karreth, PhD was awarded a Young Investigator Award from the Melanoma Research Alliance.
• Xiaohua Su (Flores lab) published a chapter in Oncogene entitled "TAp63 suppresses mammary tumorigenesis through regulation of the Hippo pathway."

March 2017

• Paul Stewart (Koomen lab) published a paper in Proteomics entitled "Relative protein quantification and accessible biology in lung tumor proteomes from four LC-MS/MS discovery platforms."
• Yi Chen (Koomen lab) published a chapter in Proteomics entitled "Quantitative proteomics of breast tumors: Tissue quality assessment to clinical biomarkers."

February 2017

• 1st Annual Molecular Oncology Department Retreat held at Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club.

January 2017

• Marco Napoli, PhD (Flores lab) published a review in the British Journal of Cancer entitled "The p53 family orchestrates the regulation of metabolism: physiological regulation and implications for cancer therapy."