Virtual Research Symposium Recap
Watch a recording of the keynote address, see trainee award winners & more
On Dec. 8-10, the UF Health Cancer Center hosted its first ever Virtual Research Symposium.
This virtual symposium featured 100 poster presentations, a keynote lecture from Robert Winn, M.D., director of the Massey Cancer Center at Virginia Commonwealth University, and trainee award presentations.
watch the keynote lecture
Lecture title: Making Impact: Cancer Centers in the 21st Century
Robert Winn, M.D., was appointed director of the Massey Cancer Center at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia in December 2019. In this position, he oversees a cancer center designated by the National Cancer Institute that provides outstanding cancer care, conducts groundbreaking research to discover new treatments for cancer and offers high-quality education, training and community outreach programs.
Dr. Winn is committed to community-engaged research centered on eliminating health disparities. He is a principal investigator on several community-based projects funded by the NIH and National Cancer Institute, including the All of Us Research Program, a NIH precision medicine initiative. He has received national and international acclaim for his efforts to empower underserved patient populations, improve health care delivery and ensure equal access to cancer care.
Congrats to our 2020 poster winners
Undergraduate Student Category
- Shoba Abraham
Mentor: Walter O’Dell, Ph.D.
Evaluating Variability in the Measurement of Global Longitudinal Strain with Slice Orientation
Graduate Student Category
- Christopher Fields
Mentor: Mingyi Xie, Ph.D.
Transcription Start Site microRNA-320a promotes the integrated stress response by targeting Calnexin - Mohammed Gbadamosi
Mentor: Jatinder Lamba, Ph.D., MSc
Novel CD33 Antibodies Reveal New Strategies for Advances in CD33 Immunotherapy - Charlotte Kaestner
Mentor: Jonathan D. Licht, M.D.
Identifying molecular targets to overcome oncogenic NSD2 in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia - Jennifer LeLaurin
Mentor: Ramzi G. Salloum, Ph.D.
Implementing a multi-level tobacco treatment intervention for UF Health cancer patients: Challenges and opportunities - Gabriel Prado
Mentor: Jonathan D. Licht, M.D.
Loss of KMT2C, the Catalytic Component of the COMPASS-like Complex, Cooperates with Oncogenic Signaling to Drive Cancer - Kelton Schleyer
Mentor: Lina Cui, Ph.D.
Selective fluorogenic probe for rapid detection of cathepsin L activity - Mai Tanaka
Mentor: Dietmar W. Siemann, Ph.D.
AXL multimodally promotes breast cancer bone metastasis and bone remodeling - Zachary Wakefield
Mentor: Dietmar W. Siemann, Ph.D.
Aerobic Exercise Impairs Breast Cancer Growth and Suppresses Doxorubicin-Induced Cardiotoxicity in Retired Breeder Mice - Lei Wang
Mentor: Weizhou Zhang, Ph.D.
Protac-based NR4A1 degrades for cancer therapy
Postdoctoral Trainee Category
- Ranjithkumar Chellian, Ph.D.
Mentor: Adriaan Bruijnzeel, Ph.D.
Adolescent nicotine treatment increases the motivation to self-administer nicotine in adulthood in rats: a behavioral economics approach - Laura E. Hanold, Ph.D.
Mentor: Jane Aldrich, Ph.D.
Exploring the role of the Macrocyclic Peptide [D-Trp]CJ-15,208 in the c-Myc Degradation Pathway - Iqbal Mahmud, Ph.D.
Mentor: Timothy J. Garrett, Ph.D.
Urinary metabolite-based diagnosis of prostate malignancy and surveillance - Amin Sobh, Ph.D.
Mentor: Jonathan D. Licht, M.D.
Adenylate Kinase 2 is a Selective Dependency in NSD2-high Multiple Myeloma
Predoctoral Awardees
Every year, the UF Health Cancer Center awards exceptional graduate students the UFHCC Predoctoral Awards. These awards are intended to recognize and support outstanding predoctoral candidates who are conducting innovative cancer research.
At the Virtual Research Symposium, the 2019 and 2020 UFHCC Predoctoral Awardees gave three-minute presentations on their cancer research.
2020 Predoctoral Awardees
Chandler Callaway
Mentor: Andrew Judge, Ph.D.
Dissertation Title: “CXCL-CXCR2 Signaling Contributes to Muscle Wasting and Dysfunction During Pancreatic Cancer Cachexia”
Yang Feng
Mentor: Olga Guryanova, M.D., Ph.D.
Dissertation Title: “Clonal Hematopoiesis (CH) Impacts Colon Cancer by Modifying Anti-Cancer Immunity
Amanda Kastrinos
Mentors: Carma Bylund, Ph.D., and Carla Fisher, Ph.D.
Dissertation Title: “Parental disclosure, uncertainty, and disease trajectory in the coping experience of emerging adult cancer caregivers”
Kelton Schleyer
Mentor: Lina Cui, Ph.D.
Dissertation Title: “Development of an Imaging Toolkit for Heparanase Enzymatic Activity”
Vrunda Trivedi
Mentor: Duane Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D.
Dissertation Title: “A Novel T-cell Engineering-based Immunotherapy Approach to Improve Antigen-mediated Response in the Tumor Microenvironment”
Zachary Wakefield
Mentor: Dietmar Siemann, Ph.D.
Dissertation Title: “The Physiologic Effects of Aerobic Exercise on Tumor Growth, Metastasis and Normal Tissue Toxicity to Chemotherapy”
2019 Predoctoral Awardees
Bayli DiVita Dean
Biomedical Sciences Program – Immunology & Microbiology
Mentor: Catherine Flores, Ph.D.
Dissertation Title: “Elucidating the role of gliomas on hematopoietic cells”
Abdelrahman Elsayed
Clinical Pharmaceutical Sciences Program
Mentor: Jatinder Lamba, Ph.D.
Dissertation Title: “Genome Wide and Targeted Approaches to Identify Biomarkers Associated with Clinical Outcomes in Pediatric AML Patients”
Adaixa Padron
Clinical Health Psychology Program
Mentor: Deidre Pereira, Ph.D.
Dissertation Title: “Diurnal Variations in Salivary Concentrations of Pro-Tumorigenic Cytokines and Possible Effects of Psycho-Physiological Stress in Oncology Patients and Matched Healthy Controls”
Mai Tanaka
Biomedical Sciences Program – Cancer Biology
Mentor: Dietmar Siemann, Ph.D.
Dissertation Title: “Multimodal roles of Axl in Cancer Metastasis”
Kartika Venugopal
Biomedical Sciences Program – Cancer Biology
Mentor: Olga Guryanova, M.D., Ph.D.
Dissertation Title: “Leukemia-associated DNMT3A mutant cells are more sensitive to replication stalling pharmacological agents”
Thank you to our poster judges
Jörg Bungert, Ph.D.
Melike Çağlayan, Ph.D.
Lina Cui, Ph.D.
Santanu Datta, Ph.D., MBA, M.S.
Z. Hugh Fan, Ph.D.
Raad Gharaibeh, Ph.D.
Mei He, Ph.D.
Coy Heldermon, M.D., Ph.D.
Margaret James, Ph.D.
Georges Khalil, Ph.D., MPH
Sergei Kusmartsev, Ph.D.
Jatinder Lamba, Ph.D., M.Sc.
Daiqing Liao, Ph.D.
Jonathan Licht, M.D.
Volker Mai, Ph.D., MPH
Bernadett Papp, Ph.D.
Deidre Pereira, Ph.D., ABPP
Brian Ramnaraign, M.D.
Rolf Renne, Ph.D.
Lori Rice, Ph.D.
Ramzi Salloum, Ph.D., M.A., MBA
Xin Tang, Ph.D.
Jenny Wilkerson, Ph.D.
Lizi Wu, Ph.D.
Chengguo (Chris) Xing, Ph.D.