People

    • Appointments and titles

      • Professor of Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology, School of Medicine
      • Hildegard Lamfrom Endowed Chair in Basic Science
      • Chair, Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology, School of Medicine
    • Additional associations

      • Cell and Developmental Biology Graduate Program, School of Medicine
      • Cancer Biology Graduate Program, School of Medicine
      • Program in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, School of Medicine
    • Areas of interest

      • cancer, inflammation, tumor immunology, preclinical mouse models

Graduate Program in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences

Cancer Biology

Cell and Developmental Biology

OHSU Center for Spatial Systems Biomedicine

1980 – Biology, B.A., San Francisco State University

1993 – Biological chemistry, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles 

Fellowship: Post doctoral fellow, Univ. of Calif., San Francisco; Lab of Douglas Hanahan, Ph.D.

1981-1988 – Research Associate, Molecular and  Developmental Biology, Genentech, Inc.

1997-1999 – Assistant Research biochemist, Hormone Research Institute, UCSF

1999-2004 – Assistant Professor (in residence), Department of Pathology and Cancer Res. Inst., UCSF

2004-2006 – Associate Professor (in residence), Department of Pathology and Cancer Res. Inst., UCSF

2006-2007 – Associate Professor, Department of Pathology and Cancer Research Institute, UCSF

2007-2012 – Professor, Department of Pathology and Cancer Research Institute, UCSF

2012-2015 – Adjunct Professor, University of California, San Francisco

2011-present – Professor and Chair of Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology, OHSU

2011-present – Associate Director for Basic Research, Knight Cancer Institute, OHSU

Other positions held concurrently

1989-1992 – Lecturer, Biology Department, Whittier College

1992 – Scientific Consultant, Department of Legal Affairs, Genentech, Inc.

2000-2012 – Co-director, Mouse Pathology Core, Hellen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center

2007-2009 – Senior and Deputy Editor, Tumor Microenvironment Section, Cancer Research

2009-2012 – Co-leader, Program in Cancer Immunity and Microenvironment, UCSF

2009-2012 – Deputy Editor, Breaking Advances, Cancer Research

2013-present – Senior Editor, General, Cancer Immunology Research

2012-present – Co-leader, Program in Cancer Biology, Knight Cancer Institute, OHSU

2017-present – Scientific Consultant, Antibody development, Cell Signaling Technologies

  • American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Gertrude B. Elion Award (2001)
  • AACR-Women in Cancer Research Charlotte Friend Memorial Lectureship (2012)
  • 13th Rosalind E. Franklin Award from the National Cancer Institute (2015)
  • Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina (2018)
  • 2th AACR-Princess Takamatsu Memorial Lectureship (2018)
  • Career Award from the European Academy of Tumor Immunology (2018)
  • 2018 Susan G. Komen Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction in Basic Science,
  • Elected as Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS; 2018)
  • Fellow of the AACR Academy (2019)

Coussens Lab

Konjit Betre

Konjit Betre, B.S.

Research Assistant 2

Education: B.S. in biochemistry, University of Minnesota, December 2006, B.S. in in genetics, cell biology and development, University of Minnesota, May 2002

Scientific interests: Immunotherapeutic treatments of cancer and identifying new biomarkers that could potentially improve cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment. 

Courtney Betts, Ph.D.

Courtney Betts, Ph.D.

Affiliate Assistant Professor

Education: Ph.D. in cell and developmental biology, Oregon Health & Science University; M.S. in cell biology and cancer research, Albany Medical College (2010); B.S. in biology, Hobart and William Smith Colleges (2007)

Scientific interests: Monitoring immune contexture of human cancers to advance the development and efficacy of immunotherapy. 

Wes Horton

Wes Horton

Computational Biologist 2

Elaine Huang

Elaine Huang, M.S.

Lab Manager

Education: MS, Immunology, University of Pennsylvania (2005); BS, Microbiology, University of Michigan (2002).

Scientific Interests: Immunology, cancer biology, mouse models of human disease.

Sokchea Khou

Sokchea Khou, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Scholar

Amanda Poissonnier, Ph.D.

Amanda Poissonnier, Ph.D.

Research Assistant Professor

Education: Ph.D., French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, Rennes, France. 2017

Scientific interests: I’m interested in many aspects of cancer biology, especially the complex relationship between immunity and tumor pathogenesis. It is a key point to understand why inflammation can be a hallmark of cancer progression and how we can foster anti-tumor responses by modulating the tumor microenvironment. My work is focused on new combination therapies in order to improve efficacy of chemotherapy treatments for TNBC patients.

Sam Sivagnanam, M.S.

Sam Sivagnanam, M.S.
Computational Biologist

Education: M.S. in bioinformatics and genomics, University of Oregon (2016); molecular bioscience, University of Kansas (2007).

Scientific interests: Fascinated by cancer biology, I aim to provide quantitative analysis, and develop automated image analysis pipelines for predictive models and biomarker discovery in cancer using biology, art and code to extract meaning from biological images.

Takahiro Tsujikawa, M.D., Ph.D.

Takahiro Tsujikawa, M.D., Ph.D.

Adjunct Assistant Professor



Education: M.D., Ph.D., Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Japan, 2013

Scientific interests: My research focus has been the cancer-microenvironment interactions for cancer development. My long-term goal is to develop therapeutic strategies targeting the immunological tumor microenvironment in head and neck cancer.

Honors and Awards: Recipient of the 2019 best young physician scientists in Japan, by the Otorhinolaryngological Society of Japan.

Austin Wright, Coussens lab

Austin Wright, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Scholar

Teresa Beechwood, B.S.
Eric Berens, Ph.D.
Gina Choe, B.S.
Tiziana Cotechini, Ph.D.
Femke Ehlers, M.S.
Patrick Flynn, B.S.
Charlie Gast, Ph.D.
Cecil Gomes, Ph.D.
Huanhuan (Mahsa) He, Ph.D.
Rie Kawashima D.D.S., Ph.D.
Nell Kirchberger, B.A.
Will Larson, B.S.
Kenna Leis, B.S.
Elaine Lin, M.D., Ph.D.
Marissa Lindaman, B.A.
Shannon Liudahl, Ph.D.
Lauren Maloney, B.S.
Zenette McCoy, B.S.
Terry Medler, Ph.D.
Padraic Robinson, B.S.
Brian Ruffell, Ph.D.
Justin Tibbitts, M.S., M.B.A.
Jennifer Wherley, M.D., M.S.
Jacklyn Woods, Ph.D.
Dhaarini Murugan, Ph.D.
Meghan Sul-Kyung Lavoie, B.S.
Giovanney Gonzalez, B.S.
Christian Huisman, Ph.D.
Ana Howells-Ferreira, M.S.
Michael McCane, B.S.
Nicky Beelen, PhD
Femke Ehlers, PhD
Eivind Egeland, PhD
Sushil Kumar, PhD
Bristol Ozturgut