Welcome
The overarching mission of the OHSU Department of Cell, Developmental & Cancer Biology is to advance the understanding of problems relevant to human health and disease. To accomplish this mission, research groups in the department have historically focused on questions regarding cell structure, organelles, life cycle, differentiation, and regulated communication between cells and extracellular signals and cues. An ultimate application of knowledge gained from these studies has been to understand important cell physiologic processes that effect human biology. These issues directly link to problems of interest to developmental biologists, including molecular and cellular mechanisms regulating tissue morphogenesis, tissue polarity and patterning. Read full welcome message here.
Featured Stories
Dr. Sanjay Malhotra co-organized the 2024 Stanford Drug Discovery Symposium, an annual event that Dr. Malhotra co-founded in 2016. Notable attendees were a Nobel laureate, the FDA commissioner and leaders of large pharmaceutical and biotech companies.
Dr. Teresa Zimmers successfully co-organized the recent Keystone Symposia Cachexia and Wasting Syndrome in Cancer and Chronic Diseases. It was held at the Buck Institute in Novato, CA from May 5-7. Congratulations on a successful symposia and for engaging many new labs and investigators!
Two CDCB members are recipients of 2024 OHSU Innovation Awards:
- Dr. Robert Eil, Assistant Professor jointly appointed in CDCB and Surgical Oncology, is the recipient of this year’s New Innovator of the Year for his work on a new approach to make CAR T-cell therapies useful to more patients.
- Dr. Alex Bartlett, postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Eil’s, is the recipient of this year’s Early Career Innovator for her work with Dr. Eil and co-founding the start-up company VertaBio, Inc.
Drs. Eil and Bartlett were honored at the ceremony held on March 14th, 2024. Read more here.
B-BRITE and STEM-Prep Interns joining us this summer
This is the 10th anniversary of the Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology Summer Research Internship, now known as the Biomedical & Bioinformatics Research Internship and Training Experience, or B-BRITE, to better reflect the breadth of experiences available to college students at the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute. Founded by Lisa Coussens and Melissa Wong, Chair and Co-Chair of the Department of Cell, Developmental & Cancer Biology, this summer internship has provided hands-on research experiences to 187 college undergraduates since it launched in 2014. The program is welcoming 27 interns this summer and 14 CDCB faculty are hosting B-BRITE interns in their research groups.
CDCB faculty are also hosting interns from other programs, such as the Ted R. Lilley CURE Program which offers hands-on research experiences to Portland-area high school students.
Overall, B-BRITE, STEM-Prep and CURE are hosting 47 high school and undergraduate interns in Knight labs this summer.
Recent Accolades & Funding
Dr. Megan Ruhland has received the V Scholar Grant from the V Foundation for her project "Tissue complexity impacts anti-tumor dendritic cell function in melanoma”.
Drs. Sud Anand and Megan Ruhland received a Knight Pilot Award for their project "Targeting the trifecta – Engineering a better DC vaccine for cancer”.
Nicole Giske, research assistant in the Wong lab, has been selected to present her work on the Bm1+ developmental stem cell at the FASEB meeting in September 2024.
Congratulations to our CDCB summer interns and their labs who won post awards at the August 16th intern poster symposium - read more on OHSU Now:
- STEMPrep winners:
- B-BRITE winners:
- Ashvin Nair, Brown University, Wong Lab
- Nmesoma Onyejekwe, North Central College (Illinois), Zimmers Lab
Congratulations to Luis Diaz, graduate student in the Brody lab, who has been awarded an F31 grant for his project, "Defining the role of the mitochondrial protein in pancreatic cancer metastasis and epigenetic dysregulation".
Trainees from the Maxson lab has received multiple awards this past month:
- Sarah Taylor received a NIH/NCI R01 Diversity Supplement for her project titled, "Aberrant STAT Function in CEBPA-mutant Acute Myeloid Leukemia"
- Dr. Samantha Tauchmann received a MRF Early Clinical Investigator Award for her project titled, "Understanding and treating mutant SETBP1 in myeloid malignancies"
- Amara Pang received and ASH Minority Hematology Graduate Award
Recent Publications
Congratulations to Jonathan Brody, PhD who published "The Pivotal Role of Germline BRCA2 Pathogenic Variants in “Apparently Sporadic” Pancreatic Cancer" in AACR's Cancer Research journal.
Dr. Naoki Oshimori and his lab have 2 publications to announce:
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"Cancer stem cells release interleukin-33 within large oncosomes to promote immunosuppressive differentiation of macrophage precursors" published in Immunity. In collaboration with the Dr. Sanjay Malhotra and his lab
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"Titration of RAS alters senescent state and influences tumour initiation" published in Nature. Publication with international collaborator Dr. Lars Zender.
Drs. Sushil Kumar (first author, Coussens' lab Research Assistant Professor), Sanjay Malhotra (sr. author), Lisa Coussens (sr. author), Shivaani Kummar, and Pepper Schedin along with members of the Malhotra and Coussens labs have recently published a study finding that new drug combinations could improve therapies for breast cancer and other aggressive cancers. The study was published in Cell Reports Medicine.
Congratulations to Ashley Anderson, graduate student in the Wong lab, who recently published, "Detection of neoplastic-immune hybrid cells with metastatic properties in uveal melanoma" in Biomarker Research in collaboration with Drs. Summer Gibbs, Alison Skalet, and Guanming Wu.
Congratulations to Ranish Patel, Michael Parappilly, and Brett Walker, members of the Wong lab, who recently published, "Exploratory analyses of circulating neoplastic-immune hybrid cells as prognostic biomarkers in advanced intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma" in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences with collaborators Drs. Young Hwan Chang, Adel Kardosh, Charlie Lopez, and Skye Mayo.
View all CDCB news and recognitions.
Respect For All Flowchart
CDCB labs recruiting
Careers with an emphasis on preclinical and translational science
CDCB welcomes
CDCB is excited to welcome Angelina Vaseva, Ph.D. who has joined OHSU as an Assistant Professor with a primary appointment in the Department of Pediatrics and a joint appointment with us in the Department of Cell, Developmental & Cancer Biology. Dr. Vaseva's research program will focus on targeting oncogenic RAS in pediatric cancers. Welcome, Dr. Vaseva!
CDCB is pleased to announce that Molly Thomas, M.D., Ph.D., will be joining us as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cell, Developmental & Cancer Biology, with a joint appointment in the Division of Gastroenterology. Dr. Thomas is an inflammatory bowel disease specialist and mucosal immunologist. Her lab will focus on understanding gastrointestinal and hepatic complications of immune checkpoint blockade and how these immune related adverse events inform our understanding of tissue-resident memory T cells in these organ systems. Welcome, Dr. Thomas!
CDCB is please to welcome Joshua Moreau, Ph.D., who will be joining us as a joint faculty along with the Division of Oncological Sciences, Department of Dermatology, and a member of CEDAR. He aims to explore the earliest interactions between cancer and the immune system, within the tissues where cancer cells arise. Welcome, Dr. Moreau!