Assistant Professor
Cell, Developmental & Cancer Biology
Email Dr. Tyner 
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.

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. 

Nathalie Javidi-Sharifi
Graduate Student 

Education: B.A. Biochemistry at Technical University Munich, OHSU MD/PhD program

Scientific Interests: The role of the bone marrow microenvironment in promoting the development of resistance to targeted therapy in leukemia. Specifically, how FGF2 mediates resistance to imatinib in CML and Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor and to AC220 in FLT3 ITD AML. I am currently working on understanding how FGF2 regulates stromal cell function and promotes a protective phenotype.

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. 

Samuel Luty
Research Assistant II

Education: Bachelors of Science, Biology from the University of Portland, senior thesis on an animal model of lysosomal storage disease.

Scientific Interests: Modeling mutations found in patients’ leukemia with the hope of further validating tailored kinase inhibitor therapies.

Other Interests: Running, bouldering, playing board games with friends and family, Pathfinder, and watching the Ducks, Blazers, Timbers, and Seahawks.

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.

Angela Rofelty 
Research Assistant II

Education: B.S. Biology, with a focus in Cell & Molecular Biology, George Fox University.

Scientific Interests: My work in the Tyner Lab focuses on exploring the role of supportive cells in the bone marrow microenvironment, specifically in the context of Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Based on findings from our kinase inhibitor assay, I aim to characterize a distinct population of supportive cells that respond to inhibition of Colony Stimulating Factor 1 Receptor, thereby reducing tumor cell viability in a significant portion of our patient sample cohort. Additionally, I work with the Ion Torrent Next Generation Sequencing Platform to conduct targeting resequencing and mutation validation, in an effort to further study the roles of specific genes in the proliferation and survival of leukemia.

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.