Research Showcase fosters interdisciplinary cancer research

The UF Health Cancer Center’s annual Research Showcase on Feb. 12 at the Reitz Union Grand Ballroom drew a record 167 abstracts from cancer research trainees across the University of Florida. The event provided an outstanding opportunity to celebrate trainees’ work, recognize their mentors, and stimulate new collaborations to advance cancer research.

Collaborative research represented all four of the center’s research programs and spanned the cancer continuum, from prevention through survivorship. Research ranged from how aging cells can be an index of cancer therapy response, to the roles of a gene and transcriptional complex in driving an aggressive form of lung cancer.

Other researchers are harnessing glucose metabolism to enhance CAR T-cell immunotherapy and refining RNA nanoparticles to treat brain tumors. In population sciences, researchers are developing a virtual nutrition program for colorectal cancer prevention, honing patient education materials on HPV self-collection tests, and measuring psychosocial outcomes of cancer caregivers.

“I’m amazed by the spectrum of research work underway to address the cancer burden,” said Jonathan D. Licht, M.D., director of the UF Health Cancer center.

Patricia LoRusso, D.O., Ph.D. (hc), FAACR, president of the American Association for Cancer Research and a nationally recognized expert in developing new cancer drugs through clinical trials, gave the keynote lecture, titled “Bridging the ‘Valley of Death’ with Modern Clinical Drug Development.”

She traced seminal moments in phase 1 clinical trial development, starting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt signing legislation to establish the NCI in 1937 and continuing through the landmark National Cancer Act of 1971. LoRusso, a professor of medicine and chief of the early phase clinical trials program at Yale University, noted the remarkable progress since the War on Cancer was declared.

She expressed optimism that integrating novel technologies like proteomics in the development of new anti-cancer agents would enhance therapeutic outcomes.

“I can honestly tell you it’s way more exciting today; I only wish I was 25 again so I could start now because I think the future is going to be amazing,” LoRusso said.

Of the 167 trainee posters, 43 were precollegiate, undergraduate and postbaccalaureate trainees; 91 were graduate and predoctoral; 29 were postdoctoral, residents and clinical fellows; and four were from the UF Health Cancer Center’s Team-based Interdisciplinary Cancer Research Training program. In addition, there were 11 faculty and staff posters, six posters from various UF Health Cancer Center programs and the CaRE2 Health Equity Center, and 14 from its Shared Resources.

The showcase allowed trainees to discuss ideas for future collaborations with their peers, as well as receive valuable feedback from judges. Fifty faculty members and five Community Scientists served as judges.

“Presenting to judges really helped me practice my communication, as well as presenting academic research in lay terms,” said Ania Kelegama, one of the center’s University Scholars who works in the lab of Brian Law, Ph.D., in the Cancer Targeting and Therapeutics research program. “A good researcher is able to communicate a big idea to a big amount of people so they can understand what the research is about.”

Kelegama presented research on blocking a major cell signaling pathway involved in tumor progression by using a novel sulfur-containing small molecule, which was developed by UF chemists. The team found that the molecule may be a promising way to selectively target breast and colorectal cancer cells.

Emma Bryan, a clinical research coordinator in the Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics, said it was rewarding to see the range of work from others in the field. Her research, under the mentorship of Carma Bylund, Ph.D., in the Cancer Control and Population Sciences research program, focuses on understanding the tensions parents manage while caring for an adolescent or young adult diagnosed with a hematologic malignancy.

“I was really excited to be able to present qualitative research that has important implications for enhancing family-centered care and the development of an intervention for cancer patients and their family caregivers,” Bryan said.

For the second time, the showcase also included a daylong career explorations program for promising undergraduate students from across the country. Twenty-nine students from various fields of study were selected for the opportunity, which included cancer research highlights, information about Ph.D. pathways and a career panel.

Predoctoral Awards fund innovative projects

Through its Predoctoral Awards, the Cancer Center recognizes and supports standout UF predoctoral candidates who are conducting innovative cancer research. This year, six trainees were selected from a record number of exceptionally qualified applications. The awardees gave three-minute presentations at the showcase.

Since the program began in 2016, 40 UF trainees have received awards, which come with $8,000 for laboratory research costs and $2,000 for travel costs. The trainees have represented six UF colleges and 17 departments.

Tanzia Tithi, M.Pharm., a trainee in the cancer biology concentration of the UF Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences, will use the award to advance research on mismatch repair proteins in basal-like breast cancer. It’s the most aggressive subtype of breast cancer and it has high genomic instability. Working in the lab of Weizhou Zhang, Ph.D., in the Immuno-Oncology and Microbiome research program, she identified contrasting roles of two proteins, finding that MutSα promotes tumor progression.

“At the translational level, my project offers a novel therapeutic target,” said Tithi, who is also a UF Health Cancer Center Ambassador. “We have established a high-throughput screening platform and are screening thousands of small-molecule inhibitors to identify the first-in-class MutSα inhibitor, which can be a potential way to target basal-like breast cancer. The award has boosted my confidence and has inspired me to do more.”

For Christiano Marconi, also a student in the cancer biology concentration, the award provided validation of the importance of his work investigating how mRNA vaccines like the COVID-19 vaccine may enhance the effectiveness of immune checkpoint inhibitors.

The project came about after his mentor Elias Sayour, M.D., Ph.D., published groundbreaking results of a UF-developed mRNA vaccine for glioblastoma last May. The study sparked a collaboration with researchers at MD Anderson Cancer Center. When they reached out, Marconi was developing intramuscular vaccines for cancer and already had the sequence of a spike protein. That allowed the team to move forward with testing in mouse models of melanoma.

“This project came together so fast, so the fact that I got an award off this means so much to me,” Marconi said, adding that it would support him in attending a global cancer immunotherapy conference in Germany this year.

“The award shows me how impactful this work actually is,” he said.

Please help us congratulate our poster winners and Predoctoral Award recipients, listed below. Special thanks to our faculty and Community Scientist poster judges and to everyone who worked hard to make this event a great success.

Poster Winners

Pre-Collegiate, Undergraduate & Postbaccalaureate Student Category

Harold Bishop (UF Health Cancer Center University Scholars Program)
Mentor: Jennifer LeLaurin, Ph.D.
Project Title: “Relative advantage of mobile health smoking cessation treatments: An analysis of care team perspectives in a comparative effectiveness trial”

Fabiana Mastantuono
Mentor: Mei He, Ph.D.
Project Title: “Developing Collagen Type I Bio-Ink for 3D Bioprinting and Tumor Organoid Models in Cancer Research”

Jonel Reyes
Mentor: Ashley Smuder, Ph.D.
Project Title: “Acute and chronic effects of doxorubicin on diaphragm neuromuscular function and morphology”

Graduate & Predoctoral Student Category

Tomas Clavijo-Garcia
Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering; Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program
Mentor: Blanka Sharma, Ph.D.
Project Title: “Characterizing Uptake Mechanisms of Manganese Dioxide Nanoparticles in Natural Killer Cells”

Yisel Martinez Noa
College of Liberal Arts & Sciences; Chemistry Graduate Program
Mentor: Alberto Perez, Ph.D.
Project Title: “Designing cyclic peptides: a novel therapeutic avenue for targeting BET proteins in cancer”

Brittney Poole (UF Health Cancer Center Ambassador)
College of Medicine; Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program-Molecular Cell Biology
Mentor: Sarah M. Judge, Ph.D.
Project Title: Role of Ctgf in the Pancreatic Tumor Microenvironment with respect to Cachexia

Syeda Rida Rizvi
College of Medicine; Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program-Molecular Cell Biology
Mentor: Maria Zajac-Kaye, Ph.D.
Project Title: Integrated Proteomic Analysis Identifies TYMS-dependent AMPK-mTOR Signaling in Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors

Julian Tobon-Arosemena
College of Medicine; Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program-Cancer Biology
Mentor: Rene Opavsky, Ph.D.
Project Title: “An anti-apoptotic protein C17ORF58 is critical for the maintenance of human Peripheral T-cell lymphomas by suppressing BBC3-induced apoptosis”

Sara Tohme (UF Health Cancer Center Ambassador)
College of Medicine; Medical Sciences Graduate Program-Health Outcomes & Implementation Science
Mentor: Ramzi Salloum, Ph.D.
Project Title: “Refinement of Patient Education Material of HPV Self-Collection Tests: Focus Group Discussions with Socially Vulnerable Women”

Hsiao-Hsuan Wan
Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering; Chemical Engineering Graduate Program 
Mentor: Fan Ren, Ph.D.
Project Title: “Ultra-Sensitive Saliva-Based Biosensor for Early Detection of Breast Cancer and Oral Cancer”

Postdoctoral Trainee, Resident & Clinical Fellow Category

Qiaosi Tang, Ph.D.
College of Pharmacy; Department of Medicinal Chemistry
Mentor: Yanjun Li, Ph.D.
Project Title: MGMG: Cell Morphology-Guided Molecule Generation for Drug Discovery

Mu Yu, Ph.D. (previously in UF College of Medicine Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program, Cancer Biology)
College of Medicine; Dept. of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology
Mentor: Lizi Wu, Ph.D.
Project Title: Unraveling the Role and Mechanisms of INSL4 in LKB1-Inactivated Lung Cancer

Xin Zhou, Ph.D. (previously in UF College of Medicine Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program, Cancer Biology)
College of Medicine; Dept. of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology
Mentor: Lizi Wu, Ph.D.
Project Title: “Aberrant CRTC-CREB activation in LKB1-inactivated lung cancer”

UF Health Cancer Center Predoctoral Awardees

Nina Erwin, B.S. (UF Health Cancer Center Ambassador)
College of Pharmacy; Pharmaceutical Sciences Graduate Program-Pharmaceutics
Mentor: Mei He, Ph.D.

“Enhanced Extracellular Vesicle Loading and Functionalization for Oncological Therapeutic Development”

John (Jack) Figg, B.S.
College of Medicine; M.D.-Ph.D. Program; Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program-Cancer Biology
Mentor: Catherine Flores, Ph.D.

“The Role of Adoptive Cellular Therapy in Overcoming Glioma Immunosuppression”

Netanya Keil, B.S.
College of Medicine; Genetics & Genomics Graduate Program
Mentor: Rolf Renne, Ph.D.

“Alternative Splicing and Cellular Differentiation in KSHV-Infected Endothelial Cell”

Christiano Marconi, B.S.
College of Medicine; Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program-Cancer Biology
Mentor: Elias Sayour, M.D., Ph.D.

“Unraveling the Mechanisms of SARS CoV-2 mRNA Vaccine-Mediated Sensitization to Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors”

Tanzia Tithi, M.Pharm. (UF Health Cancer Center Ambassador)
College of Medicine; Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program-Cancer Biology
Mentor: Weizhou Zhang, Ph.D.

“Contrasting Roles of MutSα and MutLα in Basal-Like Breast Cancer”

Qingchen Yuan, MBBS, M.Sc.
College of Medicine; Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program-Pharmacology & Therapeutics
Mentor: Olga Guryanova, M.D., Ph.D.

“Role of Clonal Hematopoiesis-Derived Macrophages in Colitis-Associated Cancer”

Thank you to our poster judges!

Thanks to all who attended!