Lisa M. Coussens, M.D. (h.c.), Ph.D., FAACR
Hildegard Lamfrom Endowed Chair in Basic Science
Professor and Chairwoman, Department of Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology
Deputy Director for Basic & Translational Research, Knight Cancer Institute

Email Dr. Coussens
PubMed search, Biosketch  and CV

Sushil Kumar, Ph.D. 
Research Assistant Professor

Education: Ph.D., Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Munich, Germany, 2007

Postdoctoral training: Institute of Molecular Cancer Research, University of Zurich, Switzerland, 2008 - 2011; Oregon Health & Science University 2012 - 2014

Scientific interests: My scientific interests are to understand the molecular basis of tumor related inflammation and translation of this knowledge into modern cancer therapy.

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. 

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.

Nicky Beelen
Visiting Ph.D. Student

Education: PhD student, Maastricht University, The Netherlands; M.S. in Biomedical Sciences, Maastricht University; B.S. in Health Sciences, Maastricht University.

Scientific interest: To better understand the communication between cancer cells and the environment, specifically with natural killer cells, and to apply this knowledge to improve immunotherapy

Eric Berens, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Scholar

Education: Postdoc at the University of California - San Francisco (with Zena Werb, 2018-2020); Ph.D. in Tumor Biology, Georgetown University (2018), M.S. in Integrated Biosciences, University of Minnesota (2012); B.A. in Biology, St. Olaf College (2008) 

Scientific Interests: Anything and everything related to tumor metastasis. Most recently, I'm intrigued by the phenomenon of breast cancer cells acquiring specific immune surface markers when they disseminate. My research is addressing the extent to which metastasis shares parallels with the physiologic trafficking of immune cells.

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. 

Eivind Valen Egelan, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Scholar

Education: Ph.D., Department of Tumor Biology, Oslo University Hospital, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, 2016

Scientific interests: I am interested in how macrophages and cancer cells communicate, and how this contributes to tumor progression. 

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, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Scholar

Nell Kirchberger, B.A.
Research Assistant 2

Education: B.A., Biology, NYU, 2019, minors in Chemistry and Bioethics.

Scientific Interests: My research interests involve how cancer metabolism shapes the tumor microenvironment, particularly its effect on immune cells, and how these interactions can provide insight into drug responsiveness.

Michael McCane, B.S.
Senior Research Assistant

Education: B.S. in Biology, Purdue University, 2016

Scientific interests: Changes in cell microenvironment due to tumor growth, changes in neuronal microenvironments during progression of demyelinating diseases, as well as bioremediation of environmental hazards especially pertaining to terraforming of alternative planets.

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.
Research Associate, Computational Biology

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.