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DECEMBER 2023

Ali Vaziri-Gohar, PhD has been awarded a Pardee Foundation grant titled "Identifying metabolic vulnerabilities in metastatic pancreatic cancer microenvironment"

Ali Vaziri-Gohar, PhD has been awarded a Perritt Foundation grant titled "Identifying metabolic determinants of drug resistance in pancreatic cancer"

NOVEMBER 2023

Congratulations to Irida Kastrati for her recognition by the Institute for Translation Medicine and the VIDEO production describing her work.

Our goal in the Kastrati lab is to close the racial disparity gap in breast cancer. Black women are 40% more likely to die from breast cancer compared to White counterparts, and this is readily apparent in our Chicago community. First, we want to understand the underlying biological factors contributing to this disparity. We are funded by NIH/NCI to study a new tumor suppressor in breast cancer - the loss of it disproportionately affects Black patients and may drive aggressive disease and poor patient outcome. Second, we are harnessing this knowledge to identify new and better targets against deadly breast cancers. We have teamed up with a medicinal chemist to develop new drug-like inhibitors, which we are testing in breast cancer models derived from Black patients.

Watch VIDEO here!

Congratulations to Steve Kregel for his recognition by the Institute for Translation Medicine and the VIDEO production describing his work.

The Kregel lab’s goal is to study the mechanisms of prostate cancer development and therapeutic resistance, with a focus on racial disparities. In Chicago, black men die on average about a decade before their white counterparts, and black men are more likely to develop advanced prostate cancer. We are interested in how we can better target advanced prostate tumors, like the ones that are more likely to kill black patients, by harnessing the immune system by using newly FDA approved drugs that activate immune responses. We are studying how these therapies work together with the standard treatments that patients typically receive in hope that we can better treat advanced
tumors that are the most fatal.

Watch VIDEO here!

OCTOBER 2023

Derek Wainwright, PhD has been awarded an ABTA grant titled "Maladaptive Effects of the Aged Brain in Older Adults with Glioblastoma"

Clodia Osipo, PhD has been awarded a BCRF grant titled "Mechanistic Insight into Breast Cancer Stem Cell Survival and Resistance to Therapy: Cross-Regulation between Notch4 and DAXX" 

SEPTEMBER 2023

Irida Kastrati, PhD has been awarded  an NIH grant titled "SELENOF is a Novel Tumor Suppressor and a New Target to Overcome Racial Disparity in Breast Cancer"

Sean Fanning, PhD received a DOD Breast Cancer Research expansion award titled "Development of New Agents for Treatment of Hormone Receptor+/HER2+ Breast Cancer" (with University of Wisconsin-Madison)

AUGUST 2023

Derek Wainwright, PhD has been awarded an NIH grant titled "Extratumoral Biological Determinants that Decrease Survival in Older Adults with Glioblastoma"

JULY 2023

Ali Vaziri-Gohar, PhD has been awarded a Pardee Foundation grant titled "Identifying metabolic vulnerabilities in metastatic pancreatic cancer microenvironment"

Ali Vaziri-Gohar, PhD has been awarded a Perritt Foundation grant titled "Identifying metabolic determinants of drug resistance in pancreatic cancer"

JUNE 2023

Mitch Denning, PhD has received a Loyola Research Foundation Center award titled "The Role of SELENOF in Skin Cancer" (includes Dr. Irida Kastrati)

Nan Sethakorn, PhD has been awarded a Lung Cancer Research Foundation grant titled "Leveraging liquid biopsy to identify the optimal clinical niche for Trop2-targeting in NSCLC"

MAY 2023

Congratulations to Valerie Chai for her recent publication.

Xianzhong Ding, Rishi Kumar Kaiswal, Raymond Kostlan, Weihang (Valerie) ChaiDeficiency in Mammalian STN1 Promotes Colon Cancer Development Via Inhibiting DNA RepairSci Adv 2023 May 10;9(19):eadd8023. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.add8023. Epub 2023 May 10. Click to read more HERE.
PMID: 37163605

Congratulations to Manuel Diaz for his recent publication.

RNA binding induces an allosteric switch in Cyp33 to repress MLL1-mediated transcription.Sci Adv. 2023 Apr 21;9(16):eadf5330.doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adf5330.Epub 2023 Apr 19. Click to read more HERE.
PMID: 37075125PMCID: PMC10115415DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adf5330 

MARCH 2023

ON MARCH 1, we welcomed a new faculty member to our department, Ali Vaziri-Gohar, PhD, Assistant Professor. His research interests are in metabolism and pancreatic cancer.  Dr. Vaziri-Gohar joins us from Case Western Reserve University. We look forward to working with him.  

FEBRUARY 2023

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE THREE MINUTE THESIS COMPETITION WHICH WAS HELD YESTERDAY, February 21st at the Lake Shore Campus.  As usual, the Biomedical graduate students from the Health Sciences Campus performed admirably.  Tying for 3rd place were Kanak Joshi (Zhang lab, Biochemistry, Molecular and Cancer Biology Program) and Carolyn Judy (Langert lab, Neuroscience program).  First place was awarded to Hershey Kondeti (Langert lab, Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics program).  Hershey Kondeti also won the Audience Favorite award.

The Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center and Department of Cancer Biology hosted a Research Night and Poster Session to highlight cancer-focused research from across the Health Sciences Campus and spark new ideas, projects and collaborations amongst our faculty and students.

Congratulations to Dr. Valerie Chai on her new NIH NIGMS R01 grant award entitled “Molecular Basis of Coats Plus Disease.” 

Congratulations to Dr. Sean Fanning on his new NIH NCI R01 grant award entitled “Structural-Transcriptional Relationships that improve Y537S Estrogen Receptor Antagonism.”

JANUARY 2023

THE DEPARTMENT WELCOMES DR. DEREK WAINWRIGHT, who joined our faculty on January 2nd. Dr. Wainwright will serve as Scientific Director of Brain Tumor Research, Associate Professor and Program Leader for Cancer Biology and Therapeutics.  He joins us from Northwestern University where he lead an NIH-funded research program focused on Glioblastoma.   

August 2022

DEPARTMENT GATHERING AND NEW GRADUATE STUDENT MEET AND GREET

Graduate studentsGraduate students and faculty 

A combined departmental gathering and graduate student meet and greet was held at the Oak Park Conservatory in August. More Photos

JULY 25, 2022

LUC SUMMER INTERNSHIP

Group shot of LUC undergrads and their mentors

Faculty, students, staff and family attended the LUC Research Intern Symposium. This symposium was the culmination of a ten-week, full tme research internship between LUC Undergraduate science majors and the Department of Cancer Biology and the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center located on the Maywood campus. More Photos

MARCH 2022

CONGRADUATIONS TO SSOM DEPARTMENT OF CANCER BIOLOGY Assistant Professor Irida Kastrati who was awarded an internal Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion “JEDI” grant for her project titled  “SELENOF and Western Diet Promote Aggressive Breast Cancer Disease That Predominantly Affects African American Women.” This work will establish whether the loss of SELENOF, a newly identified tumor suppressor in breast cancer, together with the consumption of a Western diet will promote and exacerbate breast tumorigenesis. Loss of SELENOF disproportionately affects African American patients, therefore findings may help elucidate the underlying biological factors contributing to racial disparity in breast cancer.

FEBRUARY 2022

SEVEN STRITCH BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE STUDENTS, three from the Department of Cancer Biology participated in the 3-Minute Thesis Competition. 

Seven Stritch biomedical science students

Pictured are (left to right): Monika Evdokimova (MIIM PhD, 3rd Place), Jesus Zamora-Pineda (MIIM MD/PhD), Emily Ma (ICB MD/PhD, 1st Place), Austin Runde (CMO-MS) and Asra Habibullah (CMO-MS).  Not pictured:  Manuel Flores and Will Zhang (both PHAR-PhD). 1st-place winner Emily Ma will go on to represent Loyola at the Midwest Association of Graduate Schools regional 3-MT competition. 

Student Spotlight: Lola Badmus
PhD candidate Lola Badmus balances researching potentially life-saving leukemia therapies with promoting science and research to girls.

RECENT GRANT AWARDS

JULY 2022

PROFSESOR NANCY ZELEZNIK-LE HAS BEEN AWARDED A NIH GRANT TITLED, "AF9 (MLLT3) Function in Leukemia and Normal Hematopoiesis" 

JUNE 2022

PROFESSOR VALERIE CHAI HAS BEEN AWARDED A NIH GRANT TITLED "Identification of a Novel Tumor Suppressor of Melanoma and UV-Induced Genome.

MAY 2022

PROFESSOR JIWANG ZHANG HAS BEEN AWARDED A NIH GRANT TITLE "RIP1/RIP3-Calpain-Stat3 and NF-kappa B Pathways in AML Pathogenesis and Treatment"  

MARCH 2022

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IRIDA KASTRATI who was awarded an internal Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion “JEDI” grant for her project titled  “SELENOF and Western Diet Promote Aggressive Breast Cancer Disease That Predominantly Affects African American Women.”

DECEMBER 2023

Ali Vaziri-Gohar, PhD has been awarded a Pardee Foundation grant titled "Identifying metabolic vulnerabilities in metastatic pancreatic cancer microenvironment"

Ali Vaziri-Gohar, PhD has been awarded a Perritt Foundation grant titled "Identifying metabolic determinants of drug resistance in pancreatic cancer"

NOVEMBER 2023

Congratulations to Irida Kastrati for her recognition by the Institute for Translation Medicine and the VIDEO production describing her work.

Our goal in the Kastrati lab is to close the racial disparity gap in breast cancer. Black women are 40% more likely to die from breast cancer compared to White counterparts, and this is readily apparent in our Chicago community. First, we want to understand the underlying biological factors contributing to this disparity. We are funded by NIH/NCI to study a new tumor suppressor in breast cancer - the loss of it disproportionately affects Black patients and may drive aggressive disease and poor patient outcome. Second, we are harnessing this knowledge to identify new and better targets against deadly breast cancers. We have teamed up with a medicinal chemist to develop new drug-like inhibitors, which we are testing in breast cancer models derived from Black patients.

Watch VIDEO here!

Congratulations to Steve Kregel for his recognition by the Institute for Translation Medicine and the VIDEO production describing his work.

The Kregel lab’s goal is to study the mechanisms of prostate cancer development and therapeutic resistance, with a focus on racial disparities. In Chicago, black men die on average about a decade before their white counterparts, and black men are more likely to develop advanced prostate cancer. We are interested in how we can better target advanced prostate tumors, like the ones that are more likely to kill black patients, by harnessing the immune system by using newly FDA approved drugs that activate immune responses. We are studying how these therapies work together with the standard treatments that patients typically receive in hope that we can better treat advanced
tumors that are the most fatal.

Watch VIDEO here!

OCTOBER 2023

Derek Wainwright, PhD has been awarded an ABTA grant titled "Maladaptive Effects of the Aged Brain in Older Adults with Glioblastoma"

Clodia Osipo, PhD has been awarded a BCRF grant titled "Mechanistic Insight into Breast Cancer Stem Cell Survival and Resistance to Therapy: Cross-Regulation between Notch4 and DAXX" 

SEPTEMBER 2023

Irida Kastrati, PhD has been awarded  an NIH grant titled "SELENOF is a Novel Tumor Suppressor and a New Target to Overcome Racial Disparity in Breast Cancer"

Sean Fanning, PhD received a DOD Breast Cancer Research expansion award titled "Development of New Agents for Treatment of Hormone Receptor+/HER2+ Breast Cancer" (with University of Wisconsin-Madison)

AUGUST 2023

Derek Wainwright, PhD has been awarded an NIH grant titled "Extratumoral Biological Determinants that Decrease Survival in Older Adults with Glioblastoma"

JULY 2023

Ali Vaziri-Gohar, PhD has been awarded a Pardee Foundation grant titled "Identifying metabolic vulnerabilities in metastatic pancreatic cancer microenvironment"

Ali Vaziri-Gohar, PhD has been awarded a Perritt Foundation grant titled "Identifying metabolic determinants of drug resistance in pancreatic cancer"

JUNE 2023

Mitch Denning, PhD has received a Loyola Research Foundation Center award titled "The Role of SELENOF in Skin Cancer" (includes Dr. Irida Kastrati)

Nan Sethakorn, PhD has been awarded a Lung Cancer Research Foundation grant titled "Leveraging liquid biopsy to identify the optimal clinical niche for Trop2-targeting in NSCLC"

MAY 2023

Congratulations to Valerie Chai for her recent publication.

Xianzhong Ding, Rishi Kumar Kaiswal, Raymond Kostlan, Weihang (Valerie) ChaiDeficiency in Mammalian STN1 Promotes Colon Cancer Development Via Inhibiting DNA RepairSci Adv 2023 May 10;9(19):eadd8023. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.add8023. Epub 2023 May 10. Click to read more HERE.
PMID: 37163605

Congratulations to Manuel Diaz for his recent publication.

RNA binding induces an allosteric switch in Cyp33 to repress MLL1-mediated transcription.Sci Adv. 2023 Apr 21;9(16):eadf5330.doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adf5330.Epub 2023 Apr 19. Click to read more HERE.
PMID: 37075125PMCID: PMC10115415DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adf5330 

MARCH 2023

ON MARCH 1, we welcomed a new faculty member to our department, Ali Vaziri-Gohar, PhD, Assistant Professor. His research interests are in metabolism and pancreatic cancer.  Dr. Vaziri-Gohar joins us from Case Western Reserve University. We look forward to working with him.  

FEBRUARY 2023

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE THREE MINUTE THESIS COMPETITION WHICH WAS HELD YESTERDAY, February 21st at the Lake Shore Campus.  As usual, the Biomedical graduate students from the Health Sciences Campus performed admirably.  Tying for 3rd place were Kanak Joshi (Zhang lab, Biochemistry, Molecular and Cancer Biology Program) and Carolyn Judy (Langert lab, Neuroscience program).  First place was awarded to Hershey Kondeti (Langert lab, Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics program).  Hershey Kondeti also won the Audience Favorite award.

The Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center and Department of Cancer Biology hosted a Research Night and Poster Session to highlight cancer-focused research from across the Health Sciences Campus and spark new ideas, projects and collaborations amongst our faculty and students.

Congratulations to Dr. Valerie Chai on her new NIH NIGMS R01 grant award entitled “Molecular Basis of Coats Plus Disease.” 

Congratulations to Dr. Sean Fanning on his new NIH NCI R01 grant award entitled “Structural-Transcriptional Relationships that improve Y537S Estrogen Receptor Antagonism.”

JANUARY 2023

THE DEPARTMENT WELCOMES DR. DEREK WAINWRIGHT, who joined our faculty on January 2nd. Dr. Wainwright will serve as Scientific Director of Brain Tumor Research, Associate Professor and Program Leader for Cancer Biology and Therapeutics.  He joins us from Northwestern University where he lead an NIH-funded research program focused on Glioblastoma.   

August 2022

DEPARTMENT GATHERING AND NEW GRADUATE STUDENT MEET AND GREET

Graduate studentsGraduate students and faculty 

A combined departmental gathering and graduate student meet and greet was held at the Oak Park Conservatory in August. More Photos

JULY 25, 2022

LUC SUMMER INTERNSHIP

Group shot of LUC undergrads and their mentors

Faculty, students, staff and family attended the LUC Research Intern Symposium. This symposium was the culmination of a ten-week, full tme research internship between LUC Undergraduate science majors and the Department of Cancer Biology and the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center located on the Maywood campus. More Photos

MARCH 2022

CONGRADUATIONS TO SSOM DEPARTMENT OF CANCER BIOLOGY Assistant Professor Irida Kastrati who was awarded an internal Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion “JEDI” grant for her project titled  “SELENOF and Western Diet Promote Aggressive Breast Cancer Disease That Predominantly Affects African American Women.” This work will establish whether the loss of SELENOF, a newly identified tumor suppressor in breast cancer, together with the consumption of a Western diet will promote and exacerbate breast tumorigenesis. Loss of SELENOF disproportionately affects African American patients, therefore findings may help elucidate the underlying biological factors contributing to racial disparity in breast cancer.

FEBRUARY 2022

SEVEN STRITCH BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE STUDENTS, three from the Department of Cancer Biology participated in the 3-Minute Thesis Competition. 

Seven Stritch biomedical science students

Pictured are (left to right): Monika Evdokimova (MIIM PhD, 3rd Place), Jesus Zamora-Pineda (MIIM MD/PhD), Emily Ma (ICB MD/PhD, 1st Place), Austin Runde (CMO-MS) and Asra Habibullah (CMO-MS).  Not pictured:  Manuel Flores and Will Zhang (both PHAR-PhD). 1st-place winner Emily Ma will go on to represent Loyola at the Midwest Association of Graduate Schools regional 3-MT competition. 

Student Spotlight: Lola Badmus
PhD candidate Lola Badmus balances researching potentially life-saving leukemia therapies with promoting science and research to girls.

RECENT GRANT AWARDS

JULY 2022

PROFSESOR NANCY ZELEZNIK-LE HAS BEEN AWARDED A NIH GRANT TITLED, "AF9 (MLLT3) Function in Leukemia and Normal Hematopoiesis" 

JUNE 2022

PROFESSOR VALERIE CHAI HAS BEEN AWARDED A NIH GRANT TITLED "Identification of a Novel Tumor Suppressor of Melanoma and UV-Induced Genome.

MAY 2022

PROFESSOR JIWANG ZHANG HAS BEEN AWARDED A NIH GRANT TITLE "RIP1/RIP3-Calpain-Stat3 and NF-kappa B Pathways in AML Pathogenesis and Treatment"  

MARCH 2022

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IRIDA KASTRATI who was awarded an internal Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion “JEDI” grant for her project titled  “SELENOF and Western Diet Promote Aggressive Breast Cancer Disease That Predominantly Affects African American Women.”