The scientific mission of the Immuno-Oncology and Microbiome (IOM) research program at the University of Florida Health Cancer Center is to improve cancer outcomes through innovative therapeutic research on microbiome-immunotherapy interactions influencing epithelial and immune cell function, engaging clinicians and basic scientists to partner on innovative investigator-initiated trials (IITs).
The program develops and translates immunotherapy modalities, such as RNA-based vaccines, adoptive cellular therapies, genetically modified T cells and microbiome-based therapy, into first-in-human studies. The Comparative Oncology Initiative has allowed IOM investigators to validate new technologies in pet dog trials while a cadre of clinical trialists move these and other UF findings into human application. Through the I2T3, structured processes have been developed for translation of basic concepts into human studies. IOM thus advances preclinical through clinical evaluation of novel patient-specific therapies to address priority cancers of the catchment area, engaging the Office of Community Outreach and Engagement and members of the Community Advisory Board in the review and design of clinical trials.
Aims
The aims of the IOM program are to elucidate principles of cancer immunobiology relevant to developing or improving immuno-oncology therapeutics; define the microbiome contribution to cancer development, therapeutics and immunoactivity; and translate scientific discoveries into early-phase clinical trials.
Program Co-leaders
Learn more about Christian Jobin, Ph.D., and Elias Sayour, M.D., Ph.D.
Program Members
To request an update, please email ResearchDevelopment@cancer.ufl.edu.
| Name | myNCBI Link | Research Program | Title | Department | Lab Page | College | Research Interest Topics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ashley Ghiaseddin, MD | myNCBI | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Clinical Associate Professor | Neurosurgery | Medicine | Chemotherapy; Epidemiology; Health Disparities; Quality of Life Issues; Targeted Cancer Therapy |
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Bently Doonan, MD, MS | myNCBI | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Assistant Professor | Medicine | Medicine | Immunotherapy; Metastasis; Skin/Melanoma; Targeted Cancer Therapy | |
Bikash Sahay, BVSc & AH, MVSc, PhD | myNCBI | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Research Associate Professor | Infectious Diseases and Immunology | Veterinary Medicine | Gastro-Intestinal; Head & Neck; Immunoregulation & Suppression; Immunotherapy | |
Blanka Sharma, PhD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Associate Professor | Biomedical Engineering | Lab | Engineering | Bone & Soft Tissue Sarcomas; Breast; Gene Therapy; Metastasis; Nanotechnology; Plastic Surgery/Reconstruction; Stem Cell; Targeted Cancer Therapy | |
Brian Ramnaraign, MD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Clinical Assistant Professor | Medicine | Medicine | Gastro-Intestinal; Genital-Urinary/Prostate | ||
Carlos Rinaldi, PhD | myNCBI | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Professor | Chemical Engineering | Lab | Engineering | Nanotechnology; Targeted Cancer Therapy; Imaging; Immunotherapy; Gene Therapy; Drug Delivery; Brain; Breast; Head & Neck; Metastasis |
Catherine Flores, PhD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Associate Professor | Neurosurgery | Lab | Medicine | Immunotherapy | |
Christian Jobin, PhD | myNCBI | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Professor | Medicine | Lab | Medicine | Cancer Prevention; DNA Damage & Repair; Environment; Gastro-intestinal; Immunoregulation & Suppression; Immunotherapy; Microbiome; Host-Microbe Interaction |
Dominick Lemas, PhD | myNCBI | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Assistant Professor | Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics | Medicine | Bioinformatics; Breast; Cancer Prevention; Epidemiology; Gastro-Intestinal; Health Disparities; Immunoregulation & Suppression; MicroRNAs | |
Duane Mitchell, MD, PhD | myNCBI | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Professor | Neurosurgery | Lab | Medicine | Immunoregulation & Suppression; Immunotherapy; Nanotechnology; Neuro-Oncology; Tumor Virology/Virus-Host Interactions |
Elias Sayour, MD, PhD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Associate Professor | Neurosurgery | Lab | Medicine | Immunotherapy; Nanotechnology; Neuro-Oncology; Pediatric Oncology | |
Ellen Zimmermann, MD | myNCBI | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Professor | Medicine | Medicine | Gastro-Intestinal; Epigenetics & Gene Regulation; Immunoregulation & Suppression; Noninvasive Imaging/Tomography | |
Erin Dean, MD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Assistant Professor | Medicine | Medicine | Hematologic Malignancies/Blood & Marrow Transplant; Immunotherapy; Lymphoma; Noninvasive Imaging/Tomography | ||
Guy El Helou, MD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Clinical Assistant Professor | Medicine | Medicine | Infection Control; Stem Cell |
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Helen Moore, PhD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Associate Professor | Medicine | Medicine | Cell Signaling Pathways; Chemotherapy; Hematologic Malignancies/Blood & Marrow Transplant; Immunoregulation & Suppression; Immunotherapy; Skin/Melanoma | ||
Ilyas Sahin, MD | myNCBI | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Clinical Assistant Professor | Medicine | Medicine | Drug Resistance; Gastro-Intestinal; Immunotherapy | |
Jack Hsu, MD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Clinical Professor | Medicine | Medicine | Hematologic Malignancies/Blood & Marrow Transplant; Leukemia | ||
Jeffrey Harrison, PhD | myNCBI | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Professor | Pharmacology and Therapeutics | Medicine | Cell Signaling Pathways; Immunoregulation & Suppression; Immunotherapy; Neuro-Oncology; Targeted Cancer Therapy | |
Jianping Huang, MD, PhD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Research Associate Professor | Neurosurgery | Medicine | Gene Therapy; Immunoregulation & Suppression; Immunotherapy |
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John Fort, MD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Clinical Associate Professor | Pediatrics | Medicine | Hematologic Malignancies/Blood & Marrow Transplant; Leukemia | ||
John Hiemenz, MD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Clinical Professor | Medicine | Medicine | Hematologic Malignancies/Blood & Marrow Transplant; Leukemia | ||
John Ligon, MD | myNCBI | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Assistant Professor | Pediatrics | Medicine | Bone & Soft Tissue Sarcomas; Hematologic Malignancies/Blood & Marrow Transplant; Immunotherapy; Leukemia; Nanotechnology; Pediatric Oncology; Quality of Life Issues |
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Jonathan Chatzkel, MD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Clinical Assistant Professor | Medicine | Medicine | Chemotherapy; Genital-Urinary/Prostate; Immunotherapy; Kidney; Metastasis; Quality of Life Issues | ||
Jordan Milner, MD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Clinical Assistant Professor | Pediatrics | Medicine | Hematologic Malignancies/Blood & Marrow Transplant; Stem Cell | ||
Joseph Katz, DMD | myNCBI | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Professor | Oral and Maxillofacial Diagnostic Sciences | Dentistry | Epidemiology; Head & Neck; Hematologic Malignancies/Blood & Marrow Transplant | |
Laura Solt, PhD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Associate Professor | Scripps Biomedical Research | Medicine | Autoimmune Disease; Cancer Immunotherapy; Immunometabolism; Mucosal immunology; Neuroimmunology | ||
Lei Jin, PhD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Associate Professor | Medicine | Lab | Medicine | Cancer Susceptibility; Immunoregulation & Suppression; Immunotherapy; | |
Liang Zhou, MD, PhD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Professor | Infectious Diseases and Immunology | Veterinary Medicine | Epigenetics & Gene Regulation; Gastro-Intestinal; Immunoregulation & Suppression; Infection Control | ||
Loic Deleyrolle, PhD | myNCBI | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Assistant Professor | Neurosurgery | Medicine | Cancer Genetics; Cell Signaling Pathways; Immunoregulation & Suppression; Immunotherapy; Neuro-Oncology; Pediatric Oncology; Stem Cell; Targeted Cancer Therapy |
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Lynn El Haddad, PhD | myNCBI | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Assistant Professor | Medicine | Medicine | Gastro-Intestinal; Bioinformatics; Cancer Survivorship; Drug Resistance; Epidemiology; Hematologic Malignancies/Blood & Marrow Transplant; Immunotherapy; Infection Control; Quality of Life Issues | |
Mariola Ferraro, PhD | myNCBI | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Associate Professor | Microbiology & Cell Science | Agricultural and Life Sciences | Immunoregulation & Suppression; Infection Control | |
Maryam Rahman, MD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Associate Professor | Neurosurgery | Lab | Medicine | Cancer Genetics; Chemotherapy; Drug Resistance; Health Disparities; Immunotherapy; Neuro-Oncology; Stem Cell; Surgical Oncology; Targeted Cancer Therapy | |
Matthew J. Cascio, DO | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Assistant Professor | Pediatrics | Medicine | Immunotherapy; Bone & Soft Tissue Sarcoma | ||
Matthew Pipkin, PhD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Associate Professor | Scripps Biomedical Research | Medicine | CD8 T Cell; Chemical biology | ||
Michalina Janiszewska, PhD | myNCBI | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Assistant Professor | Scripps Biomedical Research | Medicine | Cancer Genetics; Epigenetics & Cancer; Epigenetics & Gene Regulation; Neuro-Oncology; Stem Cell | |
Paul Castillo Caro, MD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Assistant Professor | Pediatrics | Medicine | Immunotherapy; Hematologic Malignancies; Leukemia | ||
Paulo Vilar Saavedra, DVM, MS, PhD | myNCBI | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Clinical Associate Professor | Small Animal Clinical Sciences | Veterinary Medicine | Apoptosis & Cell Death Pathwats; Cancer Genetics; Cell Signaling Pathwats; Chemotherapy; Drug Design; Drug Resistance; Epidemiology; Genetic Determinants of Cancer; Immunotherapy; Lymphoma | |
Raad Z. Gharaibeh, PhD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Research Assistant Professor | Medicine | Medicine | Microbiome; Host-Microbe Interactio; Bioinformatics |
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Rowan Milner, BCVSc, MMedVet | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Professor | Small Animal Clinical Sciences | Veterinary Medicine | Immunotherapy; Bone & Soft Tissue Sarcoma; Radiation Oncology | ||
Roy Curtiss, PhD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Professor | Infectious Diseases and Immunology | Lab | Veterinary Medicine | Anti-Tumor Vaccines | |
Ryan Thomas, MD | myNCBI | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Associate Professor | Surgery | Medicine | Cancer Genetics; Cell Signaling Pathways; Drug Resistance; Surgical Oncology | |
Satya Narayan, PhD | myNCBI | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Professor | Anatomy and Cell Biology | Medicine | Cell Signaling Pathways; Chemotherapy; DNA Damage & Repair; Targeted Cancer Therapy | |
Sherise Rogers, MD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Clinical Assistant Professor | Medicine | Medicine | Gastro-Intestinal; Targeted Cancer Therapy; Cancer Genetics; Cancer Prevention; Cancer Surveillance; Cancer Survivorship; Liver | ||
Song Han, MD, PhD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Associate Scientist | Surgery | Medicine | Apoptosis & Cell Death Pathways; Bioinformatics; Cancer Communications; Cancer Genetics; Cell Signaling Pathways; Drug Resistance; Epigenetics & Cancer; Gastro-intestinal; Immunotherapy; Metastasis; MicroRNAs; Surgical Oncology; Targeted Cancer Therapy | ||
Stephen Staal, MD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Clinical Professor | Medicine | Medicine | Breast; Cell Signaling Pathways; Chemotherapy; Drug Design; Nutrition, Dietary Supplements & Cancer | ||
Steven Bruner, PhD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Professor | Chemistry | Lab | Liberal Arts and Sciences | Drug Design; Cell Signaling Pathways; | |
Steven Hughes, MD | myNCBI | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Professor | Surgery | Medicine | Apoptosis & Cell Death Pathways; Gastro-Intestinal; Immunoregulation & Suppression; Immunotherapy; MicroRNAs; Surgical Oncology; Targeted Cancer Therapy | |
Tung Wynn, MD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Clinical Associate Professor | Pediatrics | Medicine | Cancer Survivorship; Health Disparities; Integrative Medicine; Nutrition, Dietary Supplements & Cancer; Pediatric Oncology; Thyroid | ||
Weizhou Zhang, PhD | myNCBI | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Professor | Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine | Medicine | Angiogenesis; Breast; Immunoregulation & Suppression; Tumor Immunology & Immunotherapy | |
Zeina Al-Mansour, MD | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Clinical Associate Professor | Medicine | Medicine | Quality of Life Issues; Stem Cell; Cancer Survivorship; Health Disparities; Hematologic Malignancies/Blood & Marrow Transplant; Leukemia |
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Zhigang Li, PhD | myNCBI | Immuno-Oncology & Microbiome (IOM) | Associate Professor | Biostatistics | Lab | Public Health and Health Professions | Bioinformatics; Biostatistics; Cancer Survivorship; Environment; Epidemiology; Pain; Palliative Medicine; Quality of Life Issues; RNA Processing |
