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Faculty and Alumni Research
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Faculty and Alumni Research |
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The Faculty |
The Alumni | |
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Isabelle Berquin, Ph.D., 1995  Isabelle Berquin, Ph.D., 1995 Assistant Professor Department of Pathology Bowman-Gray Medical Center Wake Forest University Winston-Salem, North Carolina I enjoyed being a student in the Graduate Program in Cancer Biology. The multidisciplinary approach at Wayne is very well suited for cancer, which is a complex and changing disease. Therefore, a strong background in biochemistry, cell and molecular biology, pharmacology, physiology, pathology and immunology is essential, as well as a thorough training in the biology of cancer. I took challenging classes taught by faculty who are nationally recognized as experts in their field. They prepared me for critical analysis of the literature and set the stage for laboratory research. I particularly enjoyed working in the laboratory under Dr. Bonnie Sloane's guidance. During my dissertation work, I not only learned how to ask a scientific question and conduct research, but I also began to acquire a set of skills that help me in my work every day. These skills include scientific writing, grant proposal preparation, networking, teaching and directing the work of others. I feel that the training I received throughout my graduate studies was excellent, and gave me the tools that allowed me to develop into an independent investigator. My present research at Wake Forest University focuses mainly on the transcriptional and translational regulator, YB-1 (Y-box binding protein 1). I became interested in this protein during postdoctoral studies in Steve Ethier's laboratory, then at the University of Michigan. We isolated YB-1 in a functional screening of a breast cancer cDNA library and found that it could confer growth factor autonomy to human mammary epithelial cells. YB-1 has been linked to poor patient prognosis in breast and other cancer types, and YB-1 transgenic mice spontaneously develop mammary tumors. In a NIH-funded international collaboration between my laboratory and those of Drs. Sandra Dunn (University of British Columbia, Canada) and H.D. Royer (Caesar Foundation, Germany), we are currently investigating the mechanism by which YB-1 contributes to abnormal cell growth in vitro and tumor development in vivo. In addition to the above studies, I am also involved in a Program Project with Drs. Yong Chen and Iris Edwards which focuses on the role of omega-3 fatty acids in prostate cancer progression. Photograph taken in front of Wait Chapel, on Reynolds campus of Wake Forest University |
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Dawn Clifford Hart, Ph.D., 2004  Dawn Clifford Hart, Ph.D., 2004 Postdoctoral Fellow Vanderbilt University Medical School Nashville, Tennessee The Graduate Program in Cancer Biology at Wayne State University is an invaluable training experience. With more than 50 faculty members participating in the program, you have the freedom to explore research training across many disciplines of cancer biology, from basic science research in model systems to clinical trial studies. Unique to this program is a clinical rotation at the Karmanos Cancer Institute where you spend time shadowing an oncologist and receive a first hand view of laboratory research being put to work. Regardless of what dissertation topic you choose to pursue, the experience of meeting cancer patients and their families will motivate you in the lab and for the duration of your career. After completing a series of traditional biology courses, the program offers a variety of seminars and advanced cancer biology courses that all Cancer Biology students participate in throughout their graduate training. With the curriculum designed this way, the Cancer Biology student remains current on new developments in cancer research beyond their specialty area. For this reason, Cancer Biology Ph.D. graduates have a strong background in several areas of cancer biology and can easily transition to a different area of cancer research as their career advances. While my dissertation research in Dr. George Brush’s lab concentrated on understanding the regulation of proteins involved in DNA metabolism during meiotic progression, my postdoctoral training in Dr. Kathy Gould’s lab at Vanderbilt University Medical Center utilizes fission yeast as a model system to understand the regulation of mitosis and cytokinesis. Fission yeast cells, like human cells, form a ring structure composed of several proteins that assemble at the future site of cell division. Placement of the ring during mitosis spatially dictates where the cell will divide during cytokinesis. Therefore, a centrally located ring is critical for equal distribution of chromosomes to newly generated cells and certainly contributes to preserving the genomic stability of a cell. To support this research, I was awarded an NRSA individual postdoctoral fellowship. I’m certain that my training at Wayne State University in the Cancer Biology program prepared me to attain a position in a prestigious laboratory and receive competitive funding. Photograph taken in front of the original entrance to Vanderbilt University Medical School |
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Jennifer Koblinski, Ph.D., 1999  Jennifer Koblinski, Ph.D., 1999 Research Assistant Professor Northwestern University Department of Pathologyr Chicago, Illinois Achieving my Ph.D. in the Graduate Program of Cancer Biology at Wayne State University prepared me for the next steps in my career by teaching me to think critically. The broad course work consisting of molecular and cellular biology, immunology and cancer biology taught me that there are many different ways to approach studying cancer. Many of the investigators at Wayne State University and the Karmanos Cancer Institute are highly regarded in their fields of study. The availability of the scientific investigators studying cancer at different levels and with different approaches allows you many choices in choosing a thesis project. I was able to go to national and international meetings, which allowed me to present my work, meet collaborators, and make connections for future job possibilities. I am currently transitioning from a research assistant professor to an assistant professor at Northwestern University studying breast cancer metastasis to bone and brain. I know that the training I received at Wayne State University in the Graduate Program of Cancer Biology helped me to be successful in moving forward with an academic career. Photograph taken in front of National Institutes of Health |
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Pamela Osenkowski, Ph.D., 2005  Pamela Osenkowski, Ph.D., 2005 Postdoctoral Fellow Harvard Medical School Brigham and Women’s Hospital Center for Neurologic Diseases I think back very fondly on the time I spent as a graduate student in the Cancer Biology Program at Wayne State University (2000-2005). I particularly enjoyed the broad selection of classes, which enabled a deep understanding of cancer from a variety of angles. Weekly journal clubs allowed us to keep on top of the current literature, and student seminars taught us how to present our own data to the scientific community. I found the clinical rotation, offered during the first year of classes, to be one of my most memorable experiences in the program. Students were allowed to shadow oncologists and meet patients afflicted with various cancers.Not only did this enable us to learn more about specific cancers and treatments, but more importantly, it left students with an intense motivation to get back to the bench to do the research necessary to help those suffering from cancer.I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work in the lab of Dr. Rafi Fridman, who served as an excellent mentor and taught me what it truly takes to be a good scientist and teacher.I feel the Cancer Biology Program prepared me very well for the postdoctoral position I now hold at the Center for Neurologic Diseases at Harvard Medical School/Brigham and Women’s Hospital. My interest in proteases implicated in cancer led me to study gamma secretase, an enzyme complex implicated in Alzheimer’s disease. Currently, my research is focused on how the lipid microenvironment can regulate gamma secretase activity and substrate selectivity. Photograph taken in a laboratory at Harvard Medical School |
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Steven Silletti, Ph.D., 1995  Steven Silletti, Ph.D., 1995 Assistant Professor American Cancer Society Research Scholar Moores Cancer Center University of California, San Diego The experiences I had while still a graduate student in the Cancer Biology Program at Wayne State were invaluable in preparing me for the challenges of a career in academia. Not only did the multidisciplinary nature of the program afford an excellent background in the overlapping fields of study in cancer biology, but the stimulating and demanding rigors of the program fostered the development of initiative and self confidence that have been truly tested in the subsequent years of post-doctoral study and the initial development of an independent career. While providing a structured environment within which to work, the program offered flexibility to develop individual ideas and pursu epersonalized goals. I would highly recommend this program to those seeking to maximize their potential return on an investment in their future in the scientific pursuit of insight into the biology of cancer and its application to normal homeostatic systems as well. Currently, my work centers around the role of cell surface molecules (e.g. integrins, CAMs and proteases) in the aspects of cellular invasion associated with tumor processes as well as the normal functions of angiogenesis and development. I have had the good fortune to work with many notable people in these fields and have since begun to establish myself among the faculty at the University of California San Diego campus. Photograph taken in front of the main library at the University of California, San Diego. |
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Nathan Wall, Ph.D., 2000  Nathan Wall, Ph.D., 2000 Assistant Professor Loma Linda University California As a former Cancer Biology student (1996-2000), I am very proud to recommend this program to anyone who is interested in being a part of a unique training experience. This program offered me an interdisciplinary didactic curriculum spanning topics from basic science to translational cancer research and brought me face to face with the reason I wanted to do cancer research; witnessing discoveries in the laboratory being put to use in the clinic for the betterment of patient treatment and for a better understanding of these diseases called cancer. As part of the training, you will have the opportunity to see the outcome of cancer research being utilized at the bed side while you rotate during your first summer through the chemo-clinics at the Karmanos Cancer Institute. I personally believe that this degree sets cancer biology graduates apart from Ph.D.’s who have graduated from more traditional science programs in that it provides the training which allows us to be competitive and yet also provides a level of specialization. I am also proud to say that upon finishing this degree most of my classmates have gone on to very respectable laboratories at distinguished institutions all over the United States. I myself trained from 2000 until 2004 at first Yale University in New Haven, CT and then at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. I recently (2004) was hired by Loma Linda University’s School of Medicine as an assistant professor with appointments in Biochemistry and Microbiology.Working with three other faculty, I have recently been awarded an 8.3 million dollar NIH grant to study Health Disparities in minority groups living in the Greater Los Angeles Basin’s Inland Empire. This program project (P20) also establishes a new center for the study of health disparities in which my lab will be focusing on pancreatic cancer. We have also, recently been funded by The Hirshberg Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research. Both of these awards have been instrumental and helping my laboratory to immediately be up and running and productive. Along with our work on pancreatic cancer and health disparities, my laboratory focuses on three primary areas: transcriptional regulation of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) survivin as well as other essential cancer-associated genes for cancer therapeutics, identification of protein factors associated with cancer cell proliferation and oncogenesis, and molecular gene targeting and anticancer drug action. Photograph taken in laboratory at Loma Linda University School of Medicine |
