Katherine Chiappinelli, PhD

Assistant Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine, George Washington University School of Medicine 

Education: PhD, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine; Postdoctoral fellowship, Johns Hopkins University

More information: https://smhs.gwu.edu/chiappinelli-lab/  

 

Research Description

My research focuses on how epigenetic therapies can be used against cancers, specifically in the context of arming the host immune system to fight cancer cells. We study the epigenetic changes in cancer and how epigenetic drugs can reverse these, specifically focusing on noncoding regions of the genome and the tumor cell immune response.

Priyanka Verma, PhD

Assistant Professor, Siteman Cancer Center, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO

Assistant Professor, Siteman Cancer Center, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO

Education: Ph.D., Biochemistry, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, India

Postdoc: Department of Cancer Biology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 

More information: https://www.vermalab.org/

Research Description

The overarching goal of the research in my lab is to understand how alterations in DNA replication and repair pathways impact etiology and chemotherapeutic responses in high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma. Our work integrates several molecular, cellular and functional genomic approaches to translate fundamental mechanistic discoveries into clinically impactful results.  

Achuth Padmanabhan, PhD

Assistant Professor, UMBC, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD

Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland Baltimore County;
Member, University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenbaum Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Education: Ph.D., Biological Sciences, University of Maryland Baltimore County
Postdoctoral Training: Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University
Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine

More information: https://padmanabhanlab.umbc.edu/

Research Description:

The long-term goal of my lab is to identify factors that drive ovarian cancer progression and metastasis and develop clinically translatable strategies to target them. We are particularly interested in understanding the dynamic interaction between cancer cell intrinsic and extrinsic factors and their impact on tumor progression and therapeutic response.

Rinda T. Soong, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine 

Education:   MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
PhD and MPH, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Pathology residency and fellowship: Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School 

More information: https://www.path.pitt.edu/people/t-rinda-soong-md-phd-mph 

Research description: 

The long-term goal of my research program is to identify factors that facilitate the initiation and progression of ovarian high grade serous carcinoma in relation to the immune microenvironment and host epidemiologic profiles. Our work interrogates human tissue, cell lines, and mouse models to examine the evolution of tumor precursors into malignancy, as well as the mechanisms underlying the heterogeneity and progression of carcinoma with the ultimate aims to uncover early detection biomarkers and therapeutic targets.

Alexander Melamed, MD, MPH

Member of the Faculty of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Medicine (rank pending)

Harvard Medical School
Assistant in Gynecologic Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital
Education: MD, MPH University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine
Ob/ Gyn Residency: Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital
Gynecologic Oncology Fellowship: Massachusetts General Hospital

More Information: https://www.alexandermelamed.com/bio

Research Description

I am a health services and comparative effectiveness researcher and a practicing gynecologic oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. My research focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of healthcare services, with a focus on the role of surgery in improving outcomes among women with gynecologic cancer. To this end, I have taken a broad interdisciplinary approach incorporating translational, observational, and interventional clinical research. Much of my work seeks to estimate causal association in observational data. To that end, I have developed expertise in applying advanced analytic techniques to questions with clinical and policy significance in cancer care. My work has been published in high-impact medical journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and BMJ.

Salvatore Condello, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN

Education: Ph.D., Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Messina, Italy
Postdoc: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN

More information: https://medicine.iu.edu/departments/obgyn/faculty/6232/condello-salvatore/

Research Description

My ongoing research aims at understanding the intersection between tissue transglutaminase, a multifunctional protein highly expressed in ovarian tumors, and the oncogenic Wnt/beta-catenin pathway in promoting the cancer stem cell phenotype, which has been associated with the clinically relevant problem of platinum resistance in ovarian cancer. My research program interrogates several ovarian cancer cell lines, primary cells, cancer stem-like cells, and animal models to address the importance of various signaling pathways and metabolic pattern alterations in this inherently heterogeneous disease with the ultimate goal to find new functional target genes and test novel therapeutics.

Marion Curtis, PhD

Assistant Professor of Immunology, Departments of Immunology and Cancer Biology, College of Medicine and Science, Mayo Clinic

Education: Ph.D., Cancer Biology, Biological Sciences Division, University of Chicago

Postdoctoral Training: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Chicago

More information:
https://www.mayo.edu/research/faculty/curtis-marion-r-ph-d/bio-20454201

Research Description:

The long term goal of our lab is to improve the understanding of the relationship between ovarian cancer and the immune system, which will enable the development of new therapies to improve outcomes for women with this deadly disease. Our current research seeks to exploit the DNA damage repair deficiencies present in ovarian tumors in order to activate an effective anti-tumor immune response. We use a combination of cellular and mouse models of ovarian cancer, as well as, a large biobank of primary human samples to reach our goal. Our work is anticipated to have an enormous impact for women battling ovarian cancer, which currently lack truly effective treatment options following disease recurrence.

Alexandre Gaspar-Maia, PhD

Assistant Professor of Pharmacology, Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic

Education: PhD, University of California San Francisco/ Universidade de Coimbra (Portugal); Postdoctoral fellowship, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai NY

More information:
https://www.mayo.edu/research/labs/functional-epigenomics

My group has been focusing on various aspects of transcription and enhancer regulation with implications in cellular heterogeneity, in particular in cancer stem cell states that lead to drug resistance. The goal is to use epigenomic profiling to define transcriptional dependencies and better understand cancer programs associated with malignancy, metastasis and drug sensitivity. To achieve this goal we use 3 complementary avenues: 1) Technology development: by adapting the most recent advances in sequencing technologies to a variety of model systems (3D organoids, PDXs and liquid biopsy) we aim to address tumor heterogeneity and epigenomic profiling in small populations of cells; 2) Bioinformatic analysis: with a special interest in incorporating different sequencing platforms to identify epigenomic patterns, we focus on extracting the most information from RNA-seq, HiChIP, HiC, ATAC-seq and single cell ATAC-seq/RNA-seq data. 3) Mechanistic Studies: using CRISPR/Cas9 based technologies and co-culturing systems to address cellular heterogeneity, we aim to target novel transcription factor candidates and non-coding elements to functionally validate their roles in cancer stem cell states. 

Melissa A. Merritt, PhD

Senior Research Fellow, The Daffodil Centre
Stream Co-Leader, Ovarian Cancer
Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney

Education: PhD, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Postdoctoral fellowships: Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA; Imperial College London, United Kingdom

More information:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9BjMTpUAAAAJ&hl=en

Research Description:

My research program integrates molecular epidemiology, biomarkers for disease risk and progression, and disparities research using data from epidemiological cohort studies. My long term goal is to assist to develop better strategies for ovarian cancer prevention and to identify targets for pharmacologic and lifestyle interventions to improve outcomes for ovarian cancer patients. Using the exemplary resources available in the Ovarian Cancer Cohort Consortium (OC3), one of my specific goals is to study how pre-diagnosis and post-diagnosis aspirin and non-aspirin non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) use may influence survival among ovarian cancer patients in the context of patient characteristics and tumor immune marker profiles.

Naoko Sasamoto, MD, MPH

Instructor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology

Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School

Education: MD, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan

Postdoctoral Training: Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA

More information: https://www.dfhcc.harvard.edu/insider/member-detail/member/naoko-sasamoto-md-mph/

My research interest focuses on discovery of early detection biomarkers to improve clinical outcomes of women with ovarian cancer by detecting ovarian cancer at earlier stages and identifying novel biologic pathways related to early stage disease and disease progression which could inform development of novel prevention strategies or therapeutics. The primary objective of my current research is to discover novel biomarkers for early detection of ovarian cancer using a unique study with blood samples drawn one to seven years prior to diagnosis of late stage ovarian cancer and apply the cutting-edge technology which can simultaneously measure more than a thousand proteins using small amount of blood. Results from this study will lead to discovery of novel ovarian cancer screening biomarkers targeted to women with average risk, which will have great impact on improving ovarian cancer survival.

Jogender Tushir-Singh, PhD

Associate Professor of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at the University of California, Davis

Education: Ph.D.  Cell and Molecular Biology, University Notre Dame, Notre Dame IN
Post Doctoral Studies: University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester MA

More information: https://health.ucdavis.edu/medmicro/Faculty_MR/Tushir-Singh/index.html/

Research Description

I am a rare early stage academic investigator who knows what it takes to translate research into the clinic due to both basic and industrial training. The overarching goals of my research are to investigate molecular mechanism of ovarian cancer and rationally apply antibody engineering based strategies for therapeutic targeting. We are particularly interested in dual-specificity antibodies, antibody conjugates and chimeric receptors. Current projects in my laboratory are focused on Bispecific Anchored Cytotoxic Activator strategy and CAR-NK cells against ovarian cancer overexpressed receptors. We currently focus on characterizing, comparing and combining both immune-dependent (Cancer Immunotherapy) and immune-independent strategies for effective ovarian cancer targeting. Additional projects are planned towards combinatorial ways to overcome clinical resistance to ovarian cancer therapies.

Oladapo Yeku, MD, PhD

Instructor, Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Clinical Assistant Attending, Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital

Education: MD, PhD, Stony Brook University School of Medicine

Medical Oncology Fellowship, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

More information: https://www.massgeneral.org/cancer-center/doctors/20425/Oladapo-Yeku

Research Description

I am characterizing the suppressive tumor microenvironment and evaluating strategies to improve the efficacy of novel immunotherapeutic approaches for the management of gynecologic malignancies. This includes immune checkpoint inhibitors, antibody-drug conjugates, bispecific T-cell engager therapy, and adoptive cellular therapy, including CAR-T cells.

Rachel I. Vogel, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Women's Health, Medical School
University of Minnesota

Education: M.S.: Biostatistics and Ph.D.,  Epidemiology. University of Minnesota School of Public Health

More information: https://med.umn.edu/bio/obgyn-faculty/rachel-vogel

Research Description

My research focuses on cancer survivors with the end goal of maximizing survivors' quality of life and outcomes.  As the number of cancer survivors increases, the long-term effects of the disease and treatment have become a substantial public health concern. The goal of this funded research is to determine whether CMV (cytomegalovirus) reactivation in the presence of high inflammation contributes to patient-reported fatigue and negatively affects cancer prognosis among women with ovarian cancer.