Shabnam Pirestani
Mentor: Erica Golemis, PhD (Fox Chase Cancer Center)

• “Recent advances in etiology and treatment of von Hippel-Lindau Disease (VHLD)”
  Pirestani S, Nicolas E, Broadrup RL, Clapper ML, Golemis E.
  Cancer Metastasis Rev. 2026 Aug 13;45(3):57. doi: 10.1007/s10555-026-10370-x.PMID: 42593521
• “H2-gamendazole: a new therapeutic lead for the treatment of polycystic kidney disease”
  Pirestani S, Golemis EA
  Am J Physiol Renal Physiol. 2022 Dec 1;323(6):F613-F615. doi: 10.1152/ajprenal.00225.2022. Epub 2022 Sep 15.PMID: 36108051

Kalisse Horne upload/overwrite larger photo
Mentor: Eishi Noguchi, PhD (Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology)

• “Evolutionarily Conserved but Mechanistically Distinct Mitochondrial Responses to Loss of Timeless/Swi1”
  Horne KI, Mell JC, Noguchi C, Jana SH, Pinisetty S, Masand R, Sell C, Noguchi E. Biomolecules. 2026 Aug 12;16(8):1177. doi: 10.3390/biom16081177.PMID: 42650843

Teddy Nguyen
Mentor: Erica Golemis, PhD (Fox Chase Cancer Center)

• “NN-01-195, a Novel Conjugate of HSP90 and AURKA Inhibitors, Effectively Targets Solid Tumors”
  Nguyen TT, Nandwana NK, Srikanth YVV, Bagnyukova T, Chkhalo O, Cai KQ, Lamperelli J, Pirestani S, Mehra MK, Burtness BA, Borghaei H, Akunuri R, Cassel J, Lu L, Salvino JM, Golemis EA.
  Mol Cancer Ther. 2026 Aug 4;25(8):1231-1245. doi: 10.1158/1535-7163.MCT-25-0857.PMID: 41576363
• “Aurora Kinases as Therapeutic Targets in Head and Neck Cancer”
  Nguyen TT, Silva FN, Golemis EA
  Cancer J. 2022 Sep-Oct 01;28(5):387-400. doi: 10.1097/PPO.0000000000000614

Riley Young
Mentor: Mauricio J. Reginato, PhD (Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology)

• “ACSS2 Suppresses Ferroptosis to Drive Breast Cancer Brain Metastasis”
  Young RG, Esquea EM, Ciraku L, Merzy J, Ahmed NN, Talarico AN, Karuppiah M, Medori SM, Warade RP, Gocal W, Dick A, Simone NL, Reginato MJ.
  Cancer Res. 2026 Jul 15;86(14):3502-3518. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-25-3006.PMID: 42017807

Anna Lilly
Mentor: Erica Golemis, PhD (Fox Chase Cancer Center)

• “Role of SCAP in regulation of pancreatic homeostasis, pancreatitis, and tumorigenesis”
  Lilly AC, Pavlov VA, Pirestani S, Chatoff A, Cai KQ, Cukierman E, Snyder NW, Astsaturov I, Golemis EA.
  Oncogene. 2026 Jun;45(21):1999-2013. doi: 10.1038/s41388-026-03784-y. Epub 2026 Apr 15.PMID: 41986652
• “Intrapancreatic fat, pancreatitis, and pancreatic cancer”
  Lilly AC, Astsaturov I, Golemis EA
  Cell Mol Life Sci. 2023 Jul 15;80(8):206. doi: 10.1007/s00018-023-04855-z

Nima Sarfaraz
Mentor: Michael Bouchard, PhD (Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology)

• “The Liver-Enriched Long Non-Coding RNA FAM99A Suppresses Tumorigenesis Through Negative Regulation of Protein Synthesis”
  Sarfaraz N, Kaur R, Harper S, Oni L, Somarowthu S, Bouchard MJ.
  J Mol Biol. 2026 Mar 15;438(6):169653. doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2026.169653. Epub 2026 Jan 23.PMID: 41581654
• “The interplay of long noncoding RNAs and hepatitis B virus”
  Sarfaraz N, Somarowthu S, Bouchard MJ
  J Med Virol. 2022 Aug 9. doi: 10.1002/jmv.28058. Online ahead of print. PMID: 35946066

River Rell
Mentor: Akhil Vaidya, PhD (Department of Microbiology and Immunology)

• “Dual function of mitochondrial complex III in Plasmodium falciparum”
  Rell RS, Shukla A, Morrisey JM, Okoye IC, Mather MW, Vaidya AB.
  PLoS One. 2026 Feb 20;21(2):e0334727. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0334727. eCollection 2026.PMID: 41719230

Courtney Wallace
Mentor: Zachary Klase, PhD (Department of Pharmacology & Physiology)

• “HIV associated epigenetic trends and chronic diseases: insights into the hidden burden of chronic infection”
  Wallace CG, Capriotti Z, Klase Z.
  Clin Epigenetics. 2026 Jan 16;18(1):28. doi: 10.1186/s13148-025-02045-1.PMID: 41546127

Mihyun Oh
Mentor: Srinivas Somarowthu, PhD (Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology)

• “Decoding the lncRNA World: Comprehensive Approaches to lncRNA Structure and Interactome Studies”
  Oh M, Lee BL, Somarowthu S.
  Cells. 2026 Jan 7;15(2):105. doi: 10.3390/cells15020105.PMID: 41597180
• “LncRNA SChLAP1 Promotes Cancer Cell Proliferation and Invasion Via Its Distinct Structural Domains and Conserved Regions”
  Oh M, Kadam RN, Charania ZS, Somarowthu S.
  J Mol Biol. 2025 Oct 1;437(19):169350. doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2025.169350.

Jill Lawrence
Mentor: Michael Nonnemacher, PhD (Department of Microbiology & Immunology)

• “Inflammatory microglia signals drive A1-like polarization of astrocytes even in the presence of HIV-1 Tat”
  Lawrence JM, Dampier W, Mell JC, De Souza DR, Schardien K, Yeakle K, Barnett RJ, Sen B, Ahmed A, Bouchard M, Wigdahl B, Nonnemacher MR.
  Mol Neurobiol. 2025 Dec 4;63(1):251. doi: 10.1007/s12035-025-05409-z.
• “Roles of neuropathology-associated reactive astrocytes: a systematic review”
  Lawrence JM, Schardien K, Wigdahl B, Nonnemacher MR
  Acta Neuropathol Commun. 2023 Mar 13;11(1):42. doi: 10.1186/s40478-023-01526-9

Camille Cunanan
Mentor: Edward Hartsough, PhD (Department of Pharmacology & Physiology)

• “Functions and clinical implications of the liver microenvironment in hepatic uveal melanoma metastases”
  Cunanan CJ, Sanders AB, Gallant KC, Seedor RS, Hartsough EJ.
  Cancer Metastasis Rev. 2025 Oct 29;44(4):80. doi: 10.1007/s10555-025-10298-8.
• “BAP1 Loss Affords Lipotoxicity Resistance in Uveal Melanoma”
  Cunanan CJ, Amirfallah A, Sanders AB, Gallant KC, Cavallo MR, Homer EA, El Naggar OS, Farnan JK, Romano G, Hope JL, Jackson JG, Hartsough EJ.
  Pigment Cell Melanoma Res. 2025 May;38(3):e70021. doi: 10.1111/pcmr.70021.

Chloe Azadegan
Mentor: Johnathan Whetstine, PhD (Fox Chase Cancer Center)

• “Connecting the dots: Epigenetic regulation of extrachromosomal and inherited DNA amplifications”
  Azadegan C, Santoro J, Whetstine JR.
  J Biol Chem. 2025 Jun;301(6):108454. doi: 10.1016/j.jbc.2025.108454.

Shih-Chun Shen
Mentor: Alexander Muller, PhD (Lankenau Institute for Medical Research)

• “Neovascular pruning by IDO1 inhibitors can potentiate immunogenic cytotoxicity of ischemia-targeted agents to synergistically enhance anti-PD-1 responsiveness”
  Shen SC, Dey S, DuHadaway JB, Sutanto-Ward E, Hampton MT, Kozlov SV, Prendergast GC, Muller AJ.
  J Immunother Cancer. 2025 May 30;13(5):e011398. doi: 10.1136/jitc-2024-011398.
• “Matrigel implants embedded with IDVCs (IDO1-dependent vascularizing cells) to study inflammatory neovascularization”
  Shen SC, DuHadaway JB, Mondal A, Dey S, Muller AJ.
  Methods Cell Biol. 2025;196:251-270. doi: 10.1016/bs.mcb.2025.01.010.

Zachary Capriotti
Mentor: Zachary Klase, PhD (Department of Pharmacology & Physiology)

• “Innate immune memory in chronic HIV and HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND): potential mechanisms and clinical implications”
  Capriotti Z, Klase Z
  J Neurovirol. 2024 Dec;30(5-6):451-476. doi: 10.1007/s13365-024-01239-2. Epub 2024 Dec 28. PMID: 39733092

Jason DaCunza
Mentor: Seena Ajit, PhD (Department of Pharmacology & Physiology)

• “miRNA packaging into small extracellular vesicles and implications in pain”
  DaCunza JT, Wickman JR, Ajit SK
  Pain Rep. 2024 Oct 23;9(6):e1198. doi: 10.1097/PR9.0000000000001198. eCollection 2024 Dec. PMID: 39450410

Skandha Ramakrishnan
Mentor: Liang Oscar Qiang, MD, PhD (Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy)

• “Unraveling Isoform Complexity: The Roles of M1- and M87-Spastin in Spastic Paraplegia 4 (SPG4)”
  Ramakrishnan S, Mohan N, Dong Z, Liu M, Qiang L
  Mov Disord. 2024 Nov 29. doi: 10.1002/mds.30072. Online ahead of print. PMID: 39614608

Kareen Pestana
Mentor: Eugenia Lo, PhD (Department of Microbiology & Immunology)

• “Copy Number Variations of Plasmodium vivax DBP1, EBP/DBP2, and RBP2b in Ethiopians Who Are Duffy Positive and Duffy Negative”
  Pestana K, Ford A, Rama R, Abagero B, Kepple D, Tomida J, Popovici J, Yewhalaw D, Lo E
  J Infect Dis. 2024 Oct 16;230(4):1004-1012. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiae388. PMID: 39102894

Rachel Berman
Mentor: Michael Nonnemacher, PhD (Department of Microbiology & Immunology)

• “What's in a cure: designing a broad-spectrum HIV gene therapy”
  Berman RE, Dampier W, Nonnemacher MR, Wigdahl B
  Curr Opin HIV AIDS. 2024 May 1;19(3):150-156. doi: 10.1097/COH.0000000000000846. Epub 2024 Mar 1. PMID: 38547339

Dorothy Benton
Mentor: Jonathan Chernoff, PhD (Fox Chase Cancer Center)

• “Synergistic effect of PAK and Hippo pathway inhibitor combination in NF2-deficient Schwannoma”
  Benton D, Yee Chow H, Karchugina S, Chernoff J
  PLoS One. 2024 Jul 31;19(7):e0305121. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0305121. eCollection 2024. PMID: 39083549
• “RHOA drivers take alternate routes in gastric cancer”
  Benton D, Chernoff J
  Sci Signal. 2023 Dec 19;16(816):eadk9171. doi: 10.1126/scisignal.adk9171. Epub 2023 Dec 19.PMID: 38113334
• “TRIMming away colon cancer: TRIM21-mediated ubiquitination as an activator of the Hippo tumor suppressor pathway”
  Benton D, Chernoff J
  Cell Chem Biol. 2023 Jul 20;30(7):699-701. doi: 10.1016/j.chembiol.2023.06.023. PMID: 37478825
• “A New Rho(d) Map to Diffuse Gastric Cancer”
  Benton D, Chernoff J
  Cancer Discov. Feb 2020;10(2):182-184

Allison Yankey
Mentor: Srinivas Somarowthu, PhD (Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology)

• “A novel partnership between lncTCF7 and SND1 regulates the expression of the TCF7 gene via recruitment of the SWI/SNF complex”
  Yankey A, Oh M, Lee BL, Desai TK, Somarowthu S
  Sci Rep. 2024 Aug 21;14(1):19384. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-69792-8. PMID: 39169000
• “Purification and Structural Characterization of the Long Noncoding RNAs”
  Yankey A, Clark SC, Owens MC, Somarowthu S
  Methods Mol Biol. 2021;2372:93-110. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1697-0_10. PMID: 34417746

Jasmine Peake
Mentor: Eishi Noguchi, PhD (Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology)

• “The p53 DNA damage response and Fanconi anemia DNA repair pathway protect against acetaldehyde-induced replication stress in esophageal keratinocytes”
  Peake JD, Horne KI, Noguchi C, Gilligan JP, Noguchi E
  Cell Cycle. 2023 Sep;22(18):2088-2096. doi: 10.1080/15384101.2023.2261740. Epub 2023 Nov 23.PMID: 37749911
• “Fanconi anemia: current insights regarding epidemiology, cancer, and DNA repair”
  Peake JD, Noguchi E
  Hum Genet. 2022 May 21. doi: 10.1007/s00439-022-02462-9. PMID: 35596788
• “FANCD2 limits acetaldehyde-induced genomic instability during DNA replication in esophageal keratinocytes”
  Peake JD, Noguchi C, Lin B, Theriault A, O'Connor M, Sheth S, Tanaka K, Nakagawa H, Noguchi E
  Mol Oncol. 2021 Jul 30. doi: 10.1002/1878-0261.13072. Online ahead of print. PMID: 34328261

Emily Esquea

• “Fructose promotes liver cancer via microbial acetate-induced O-GlcNAcylation”
  Esquea EM, Young RG, Reginato MJ
  Trends Endocrinol Metab. 2024 Feb;35(2):88-90. doi: 10.1016/j.tem.2023.12.002. Epub 2023 Dec 13.PMID: 38097465
• “Selective and brain-penetrant ACSS2 inhibitors target breast cancer brain metastatic cells”
  Esquea EM, Ciraku L, Young RG, Merzy J, Talarico AN, Ahmed NN, Karuppiah M, Ramesh A, Chatoff A, Crispim CV, Rashad AA, Cocklin S, Snyder NW, Beld J, Simone NL, Reginato MJ, Dick A
  Front Pharmacol. 2024 May 16;15:1394685. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2024.1394685. eCollection 2024.PMID: 38818373

Alexa Cannon
Mentor: Jonathan Chernoff, PhD (Fox Chase Cancer Center)

• “Unique vulnerability of RAC1-mutant melanoma to combined inhibition of CDK9 and immune checkpoints”
  Cannon AC, Budagyan K, Uribe-Alvarez C, Kurimchak AM, Araiza-Olivera D, Cai KQ, Peri S, Zhou Y, Duncan JS, Chernoff J
  Oncogene. 2024 Mar;43(10):729-743. doi: 10.1038/s41388-024-02947-z. Epub 2024 Jan 19.PMID: 38243078
• “A Facile Method to Append a Bio-ID Tag to Endogenous Mutant Kras Alleles”
  Budagyan K, Cannon AC, Chernoff J
  Methods Mol Biol. 2024;2797:351-362. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-3822-4_25.PMID: 38570472
• “RAC1 as a Therapeutic Target in Malignant Melanoma”
  Cannon AC, Uribe-Alvarez C, Chernoff J
  Trends Cancer. Jun 2020;6(6):478-488

John Chojnowski
Mentor: Todd Strochlic, VMD, PhD (Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology)

• “Copper Modulates the Catalytic Activity of Protein Kinase CK2”
  Chojnowski JE, Li R, Tsang T, Alfaran FH, Dick A, Cocklin S, Brady DC, Strochlic TI
  Front Mol Biosci. 2022 Jun 9;9:878652. doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2022.878652. eCollection 2022.PMID: 35755824

Theodore Gurrola

• “Delivering CRISPR to the HIV-1 reservoirs”
  Gurrola TE, Effah SN, Sariyer IK, Dampier W, Nonnemacher MR, Wigdahl B
  Front Microbiol. 2024 May 15;15:1393974. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1393974. eCollection 2024.PMID: 38812680

Rachel Berman

• “What's in a cure: designing a broad-spectrum HIV gene therapy”
  Berman RE, Dampier W, Nonnemacher MR, Wigdahl B
  Curr Opin HIV AIDS. 2024 May 1;19(3):150-156. doi: 10.1097/COH.0000000000000846. Epub 2024 Mar 1.PMID: 38547339

Beka Abagero

• “Detection of Duffy blood group genotypes and submicroscopic Plasmodium infections using molecular diagnostic assays in febrile malaria patients”
  Abagero BR, Rama R, Obeid A, Tolosa T, Lukas B, Teka T, Tesfaye D, Lo E, Yewhalaw D
  Malar J. 2024 Jun 20;23(1):194. doi: 10.1186/s12936-024-04875-5.PMID: 38902674

Carly DeAntoneo
Mentor: Siddharth Balachandran, PhD (Fox Chase Cancer Center)

• “Z-form nucleic acid-binding protein 1 (ZBP1) as a sensor of viral and cellular Z-RNAs: walking the razor's edge”
  DeAntoneo C, Herbert A, Balachandran S
  Curr Opin Immunol. 2023 Aug;83:102347. doi: 10.1016/j.coi.2023.102347. Epub 2023 Jun 3. PMID: 37276820
• “Reovirus Activated Cell Death Pathways”
  DeAntoneo C, Danthi P, Balachandran S
  Cells. 2022 May 27;11(11):1757. doi: 10.3390/cells11111757. PMID: 35681452