Assistant Professor
Cell, Developmental & Cancer Biology
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CV 

Graduate Program Memberships

Professional Memeberships

Education

Marilynn Chow
Graduate Student

Education: B.S., Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz; M.S., Biology, University of the Pacific; currently Ph.D. candidate in PMCB/Cancer Biology program and training in Dr. Jeffrey Tyner’s laboratory. 

Scientific Interests: My Ph.D. thesis research focuses on elucidating the upstream regulatory and downstream signaling mechanisms of ROR1, a pseudokinase that is required for the survival of a subset of pre B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemias. This project allows me to expand my prior skillset in molecular and cellular biology and more importantly, address an increasing demand to better understand the essential biology that drives leukemia and other types of cancer. When I am away from the lab I enjoy trying new restaurants, baking, running, and binge-watching Netflix and Hulu.

Education:
Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry, Carleton College, Northfield, MN

Scientific interests:
I am interested in the intersection of research and clinical practice, prevalent in the Tyner Lab. I assist in processing patient samples for BeatAML and run drug panels to help identify potential treatments for clinical trial patients. Additionally, I am part of a small group implementing the CRISPR/Cas system into the lab in order to identify essential genes in AML and CLL patient samples. 

David Edwards
Graduate Student

Education: B.S. in Molecular Biosciences and Biotechnology, B.A. in Creative Writing, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ

Scientific Interests: Combining molecular and computational biology to identify the mechanism and functional importance of colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) in acute myeloid leukemia.

Fatma Eryildiz
Graduate Student

Education: M.S.(in progress), Institute of Environmental Health and Division of Environmental and Biomolecular Systems, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Track, Oregon Health and Science University; B.S., Molecular Biology and Genetics, Istanbul University, Istanbul.

Scientific Interests: My main research interest is functional studies on cellular signaling pathways, particularly tyrosine kinases. In order to understand their activation mechanisms and abnormalities in those, I study most frequent kinase vulnerabilities which we have detected in patient samples in cancer cell line models by silencing/inhibition kinases. I mostly use BeatAML data for that purpose. For analyzing and visualizing this valuable data-set, improving my skills on bioinformatics and computational genomics is also one of my research goals. 

Chelsea Jenkins 
Graduate Student

Education: University of Oregon, Research Assistant Dr. Maureen Hoatlin’s lab, OHSU: DNA repair mechanisms, OHSU PMCB Ph.D. Program.

Scientific Interests: The role of cell signaling in tumorigenesis and targeted therapy sensitivity. Specifically, establishing a functional connection between cell signaling and observed tyrosine kinase inhibitor sensitivity in a childhood leukemia called JMML. 

Tamilla Nechiporuk, Ph.D.
Senior Research Associate

Education
B.S. in Medical Cybernetics, Russian National Medical University, Moscow, Russia; M.S. in Biomathematics, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA; Ph.D. in Human Genetics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 

Scientific interests
Acute Myeloblastic Leukemia (AML) is a devastating disorder, predominantly in older adults, more rarely in children and young adults. Enormous progress has been made in treatment of this disorder using a personalized medicine approach developed in the laboratories  of Drs. Brian Druker and Jeff Tyner. But it still remains a disease with often short remission, especially for older patients. For these AML patients, new, highly effective drugs are being constantly developed. But unfortunately, emerging drug resistance is a major obstacle for new drugs to continue being effective after initial short-lived success. The future of AML treatment lies in combination therapies that can counteract the potential resistances by preventing or delaying drug de-sensitization. My main interest is to investigate mechanisms of drug resistances establishing a way for new combinatorial treatments, using genome wide CRISPR Cas9 approaches in a variety of genomic landscapes represented by patient derived cell lines and/or primary patient cells. When I am not in the lab, I am involved too much in my kids' education and activities all around Portland, and dreaming of a long and lazy vacation when I am walking my dog. 

Anna Reister
Research Assistant II

Education: Bachelors of Science in Cell and Molecular Biology, George Fox University 

Scientific Interests: I enjoy the convergence of scientific research and patient treatment. Being able to see lab work transition or translate into the clinic gives our work a deeper and personal purpose. It is so fascinating how we can discover single mutations in the lab in a patient’s genome, characterize and classify using common functional validation assays, identify a target/treatment and observe patient response through our ongoing clinical trials. It is truly an incredible and meaningful process.

Haijiao Zhang, MD
Postdoctoral Researcher 

Education: MD, Hannover Medical School; M. Med: First hospital of Jilin University, B. Med, Jilin University 

Scientific Interests: Our group is interested in identifying tumorigenic genetic lesions and exploring targeted therapies for each leukemia patient. I am particularly keen to elucidate the detailed underlying transformation mechanisms, namely the genetic mutations-aberrant signaling pathways-deregulated microRNAs/mRNAs circuits, each member of which might be a potential therapeutic target. A better understanding of this oncogenic network may allow us to develop multiple single or combined therapeutics which are more effective, more sensitive and may circumvent drug resistance. For this purpose, thorough genetic sequencing is used to identify specific genetic lesions followed by in vitro functional screening with libraries of siRNAs and small molecule inhibitors to unravel and verify the potential oncogenic circuits. Meanwhile, in vitro and in vivo validation studies are performed to select and optimize the potential therapeutics. These validation strategies include biochemical analyses to elucidate signaling crosstalk mechanisms. With these studies, we cumulatively aim to establish individually tailored therapy for cancer patients. Currently, I’m working on crenolanib resistance mechanisms based on exome sequencing analysis. In addition, we are characterizing the function and leukemogenic mechanisms of CSF3R cytoplasmic domain mutations in a variety of hematological malignances.