Cancer Genomics, Epigenetics, and Pharmaceuticals Expert

Expertise

• Preclinical pharmaceutical development and therapeutic analysis in rodents.
• Investor due diligence of preclinical data.
• Cancer genetics, genomics, epigenetics, and epigenomes.
• Bioinformatics.
• Genetically engineered and transplantable animal models of disease.
• High throughput and next generation DNA and RNA sequencing.
• Genome engineering using CRISPR.
• Molecular biology and pharmacology.
• Biomarker development and testing.

Experience

Undisclosed Medical Facility, Attending Physician, 2013 - 2014

Director

• Oversee a team of 12 scientists studying human cancer genetics, epigenetics, biomarker development, and therapeutic analysis in mouse models of lung adenocarcinoma, lung squamous cell carcinoma, small cell lung cancer, and mesothelioma.
• Working with institutional clinical colleagues including medical oncologists, pathologists, and radiologists on translational research and clinical trial development.
• Development and management of a program to generate patient derived primary xenografts of human lung cancer for preclinical therapeutic analysis of anti-cancer pharmaceuticals.

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, Postdoctoral Fellow, 2012 - 2013

• Responsible for training and supervision of junior fellows and Ph.D. candidates.

Research Activities, 2014 - 2021

NCI (National Cancer Institute)

• Preclinical development of a DLL3-targeted theranostic for small cell lung cancer
• Immuno-PET imaging of high-grade neuroendocrine lung tumors using Zr-rovalpituzumab, a DLL3-targeting monoclonal antibody
• Coordinating center for the NCI small cell lung cancer research consortium. Identification of tumor cell and microenvironmental determinants of response to immune checkpoint blockade in lung cancer. Collaborative grant between MSKCC, DFCI, and the Broad Institute is to characterize determinants of efficacy for immune checkpoint inhibitors.
• Identification of tumor cell and microenvironmental determinants of response to immune checkpoint blockade in lung cancer. Characterization determinants of efficacy for immune checkpoint inhibitors.
• Targets for Therapy for Carcinomas of the Lung (Core A: Molecular Profiling and Pathology). To genotype approximately 100 lung adenocarcinomas diagnosed in women with a history of radiation treatment for breast cancer for all known point mutations and indels in driver oncogenes and for ALK, RET and ROS fusions.
• Identification and validation of synthetic lethality in KRAS mutant lung adenocarcinoma patient derived xenografts. KRAS mutations are the single most common driver oncogenes in human cancer. KRAS is intrinsically difficult to target with new drugs. KRAS Synthetic Lethality Network intends to identify synthetic gene dependencies in KRAS mutant cancers.
• Determinants of acquired resistance in small cell lung cancer while initially very responsive to chemotherapy, small cell lung cancer nearly always develop resistance to treatment. Taking several approaches to defining why this happens: First using patient derived tumors in mice, and second using isolation of circulating tumor cells. These approaches will identify strategies to prevent or treat chemotherapy resistance in patients with small cell lung cancer.

Young Innovator Award

• Using GEMM and PDX Models to Investigate EZH2 as a Therapeutic Target in Small Cell Lung Cancer.
• Free To Breathe: Mechanisms of resistance to targeted Bcl-2 family inhibitors in small cell lung cancer. The goal of this award is to study mechanisms of resistance to Bcl-2 family protein inhibition in small cell lung cancer.

LUNGevity Foundation

• Defining molecular mechanisms of acquired drug resistance in small cell lung cancer. The goal of this award is to evaluate putative molecular mechanisms of acquired drug resistance in preclinical models of SCLC.

Druckenmiller Center for Lung Cancer Research

• Preclinical development of a DLL3-targeted theranostic for high-grade neuroendocrine lung cancers.
• Genomic analysis of lung neuroendocrine tumors in the context of detailed histological, immunohistochemical and clinical correlation.
• eIF4A is a New Therapeutic Target in Small Cell Lung Cancer.

Educator, 2011 - 2016

John Hopkins University

• Teaching Assistant: Virology, 2nd year graduate students
• Lecturer: Medical Virology, 1st year medical students
• Thesis Advisor; graduate students in Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences

Sloan Kettering Institute for Cancer Research

• Thesis Advisor
• Postdoctoral Mentor

Honors & Publications

Academic and Professional Affiliations

• Member, American Association for Cancer Research
• Member, International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer

Awards

• Addario Lung Cancer Foundation Young Innovator Team Award
• LUNGevity Career Development Award
• Free to Breathe Young Investigator Award
• Michelson-Morely Award
• First Place, Natural Science and Mathematics Undergraduate Research Symposium
• Summer Undergraduate Research Program Fellow, Case Dept. of Pharmacology
• Summer Research Fellowship, The Endocrine Society

Publications and Patents

• Author and Co Author of numerous publications in peer reviewed journals, educational text.

Education

• Ph.D. Cellular & Molecular Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
• B.S. Biology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH