TICaRT Program Leadership

The program leadership supports an environment that fosters interdisciplinary and collaborative activity to synergize the learning environment for our trainees and faculty.

Director

Dietmar Siemann, Ph.D.

Dr. Siemann is a professor and the associate chair for research in the department of radiation oncology and the UF Health Cancer Center’s associate director for education and training. Dr. Siemann’s research emphasizes the pursuit of novel treatment strategies that will lead to improved cancer patient care, and his research has received NCI funding continuously since 1980. Dr. Siemann established the Cancer Biology Concentration in the College of Medicine’s Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences, which has become the 3rd largest concentration in the BMS. As the UFHCC Associate Director for Education and Training, Dr. Siemann leads the center’s Cancer Education and Training Program in its university-wide mission to enhance and integrate cancer education, research training and career development activities at all student, trainee and faculty levels. Dr. Siemann has mentored 36 graduate students and post-doctoral fellows and six early stage faculty, many of whom now hold successful faculty and leadership positions in academic and clinical institutes and pharmaceutical industry.

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Co-Director

Lizi Wu, Ph.D.

Dr. Wu, an associate professor in the department of molecular genetics and microbiology, studies the molecular mechanisms of cancer pathogenesis focusing on cancer cell signaling and transcriptional regulation with a goal to identify novel cancer diagnostic and therapeutic targets. Dr. Wu’s research is currently supported by an NCI R01 grant. She directs a graduate-level course on Cancer Metastasis and leads lectures and seminars on Cancer Genetics and Biotechnology. She has graduated three Ph.D. students and mentored eight post-doctoral fellows, and currently mentors one M.Sc. student, three Ph.D. students and one post-doctoral fellow.

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Co-Director

Andrew Judge, Ph.D.

Dr. Judge is an associate professor in the department of physical therapy, College of Public Health and Health Professions. His research is focused on the molecular mechanisms which initiate and sustain the development of cachexia in tumor-bearing hosts, a metabolic condition defined by the loss of muscle mass that significantly worsens quality of life and overall survival, for which there are no countermeasures to this devastating condition. His research is supported by a NIAMS R01 grant and a Florida Biomedical Research Program Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research grant. Dr. Judge is the Core Lead for the UF Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Cooperative Research Center Training Core (U54 AR052646) and serves as the Co-Director for the Interdisciplinary Training Program in Rehabilitation and Neuromuscular Plasticity (T32 HD043730). He has mentored five Ph.D. students, one M.D./Ph.D. student and six post-doctoral trainees.

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