Welcoming new faculty to CCR.
Christine Alewine, M.D., Ph.D.
Alewine has been promoted to a Lasker Scholar Tenure Track Investigator in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Her research focuses on using novel therapies to target pancreatic cancer, with an interest in immunotoxin therapeutics and how these can be used to improve outcomes for patients.
Terri Armstrong, Ph.D.
Terri Armstrong has joined the Neuro-Oncology Branch (NOB) as a senior investigator. Dr. Armstrong’s work is focused on improving the assessment of patient outcomes measures and their incorporation into clinical trials. She is also exploring the clinical phenotypes and genotypes associated with significant symptoms as well as the underlying biologic correlates of both symptoms and toxicity with the goal of developing interventions to improve patient outcomes.
Ramiro Iglesias Bartolome, Ph.D.
Ramiro Iglesias Bartolome joins the Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biology as a Stadtman Tenure Track Investigator. Dr. Iglesias Bartolome is an expert in G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and their regulation of signaling mechanisms that control tissue-specific stem cell differentiation and renewal. His research focuses on identifying GPCRs that are expressed in epithelial stem cells and that regulate their proliferation and differentiation; identifying and studying heterotrimeric G proteins coupled to the GPCRs; and identifying and characterizing cytoplasmic and nuclear events downstream of the GP-CRs and G proteins.
Pedro Jorge Batista, Ph.D.
Pedro Jorge Batista has joined the Laboratory of Cell Biology (LCB) as a Stadtman Tenure Track Investigator. Dr. Batista’s research focuses on the determination of the effect of RNA modifications on RNA biogenesis and function and the underlying mechanisms of why RNA molecules are modified or how these modifications affect RNA maturation and function.
John Brognard, Ph.D.
John Brognard is now a Stadtman Tenure Track Investigator in the Laboratory of Cell and Development Signaling. Dr. Brognard’s research focuses on identifying and characterizing new protein kinases that function as drivers of human cancer, with the goal of elucidating new targets for therapeutic intervention and drug discovery. He aims to translate his findings to the clinic by developing patient-derived xenograph mouse models of the newly identified kinases and by encouraging the design of therapeutic strategies focused on these new kinase targets.
Natasha Caplen, Ph.D.
Natasha Caplen is now a Tenure Track Investigator in CCR’s Genetics Branch. She joined CCR in 2004 as a senior scientist where she pioneered approaches for exploiting RNAi to investigate cancer biology and treatment and helped establish a trans-NIH facility for genome-wide RNAi screening. Her current research focuses on using functional genetic methods to inter-rogate specific aspects of the genetic, transcriptional and signaling alternations observed in cancers driven by fusion oncogenes.
Alex Compton, Ph.D.
Alex Compton has joined the HIV Dynamics and Replication Program (HIV-DRP) as a Tenure Track Investigator. Compton’s research is broadly focused on the antiviral innate immune response against HIV-1 infection. His work combines cell biology, immunology, virology and evolutionary biology.
Chengkai Dai, Ph.D.
Chengkai Dai is a new Stadtman Tenure Track Investigator in the Mouse Cancer Genetics Program (MCGP). Dai is a pioneer in the field of proteomic stability, and his findings on the interjections of proteotoxic stress response with RAS/MAPK-MEK signaling, cell cycle regulation, protein translation and amyloidogenesis have already laid the foundation for collaborations with members of MCGP. His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms by which proteomic instability may affect genomic instability, cell invasion and autophagy - areas that hold promise to unveil new molecular pathways for targeted cancer therapy.
Jonathan Hernandez, M.D.
Jonathan Hernandez has joined the Thoracic and Gastrointestinal Oncology Branch (TGIB) as a Tenure Track Investigator. Dr. Hernandez will be developing a clinical program focused on innovative surgical management of pancreatic and hepatobiliary malignancies, including the development of novel approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of these neoplasms through his laboratory research. His service responsibilities will include surgical management of patients with GI malignancies on TGIB protocols, as well as consults from other NIH services.
Jung-Min Lee, M.D.
Jung-Min Lee is now a Lasker Scholar Tenure-Track Investigator in the Women’s Malignancies Branch (WMB). Dr. Lee first joined CCR as a medical oncology clinical fellow and most recently served as an assistant clinical investigator. Her research focuses on investigating the biology of breast and ovarian cancers, developing novel therapeutic strategies and evaluating these therapeutic approaches in clinical trials. She is the principal investigator on numerous clinical trials, including two parallel phase 1 and 2 studies combining either olaparib or cediranib with an immune checkpoint anti-PDL1 inhibitor for patients with ovarian cancer and triple negative breast cancer.
Frank Lin, M.D.
Frank Lin has joined the Molecular Imaging Program (MIP) as a Lasker Clinical Research Scholar. Dr. Lin will perform pre-clinical and clinical research in the use of targeted radionuclide therapy (tRNT). He will conduct research with promising new targeted agents capable of harnessing therapeutic radioistopes as well as imaging isotopes.
Jagan Muppidi, M.D., Ph.D.
Jagan Muppidi has joined the Lymphoid Malignancies Branch (LYMB) as a Stadtman Tenure Track Investigator. Dr. Muppidi will develop an independent research program centered on mechanisms of lymphomagenesis and collaborate on clinical investigations into the treatment of lymphoma.
Ramaprasad Srinivasan, M.D., Ph.D.
Ramaprasad Srinivasan has been appointed as a Tenure Track Investigator in the Urologic Oncology Branch (UOB). Dr. Srinivasan is a recognized expert in genitourinary oncology, notably in targeted therapeutic approaches for patients with advanced forms of renal cell carcinoma. His research focuses on developing and conducting clinical trials using molecular treatment approaches targeting kidney cancer pathways and targeted therapeutic agents in patients with localized and advanced forms of kidney cancer. He is currently investigating a variety of newer targeted agents in clear cell and papillary kidney cancer, as well as hereditary kidney cancer syndromes, such as von Hippel-Lindau, hereditary leiomyomatosis and renal cell cancer and hereditary papillary renal cell cancer.
Ping Zhang, Ph.D.
Ping Zhang has joined the Structural Biophysics Laboratory (SBL) as a Stadtman Tenure Track Investigator. Dr. Zhang’s expertise is in the fields of X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM for the study of multicomponent complexes relevant to cancer and human disease. Her program is expected to be synergistic with the existing program with the SBL and to expand the expertise into the rapidly developing area of cryo-EM investigation of proteins and protein-complexes.