Faculty at the Baruch S. Blumberg Institute
Adjunct Associate Professor
Research Interests: Development of urine DNA-based genetic tests that would provide early detection of new and recurrent cancers and be an effective tool for personalized medicine.
Faculty in the Department of Biology at Drexel University
Research Interests: Regulation of cell metabolism and its relevance in major human diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disorders and diabetes.
Adjunct Faculty at the Wistar Institute
Dario Altieri, MD *
Research Interests: The mechanisms that underlie how tumor cells survive and proliferate in cancer, in particular how tumor cells evade the normal processes that cause cells with genetic faults to self-destruct.
Alessandro Gardini, PhD
Research Interests: The epigenetic control of transcription during cell differentiation and oncogenesis.
Paul Lieberman, PhD
Research Interests: How certain viruses, including Epstein-Barr virus and Kaposi's sarcoma–associated herpesvirus, establish a long-term latent infection that can lead to cancer.
Luis Montaner, DVM, DPhil *
Research Interests: Mechanisms of disease in HIV-1 infection, and explores new ways to boost the natural function of the immune system in order to combat infection or viral-associated disease.
Maureen Murphy, PhD
Research Interests: The most frequently mutated gene in human cancer, the tumor suppressor protein p53, especially how genetic polymorphisms in the p53 tumor suppressor gene that are more common in African Americans affect the ability of this protein to induce apoptosis and growth arrest, and hence combat tumor development.
Yulia Nefedova, MD, PhD *
Research Interests: Her research focuses on understanding molecular mechanisms by which the bone marrow microenvironment promotes tumor survival and progression.
Joseph M. Salvino, PhD
Research Interests: Medicinal chemistry, lead optimization and drug development, organic synthesis, design and synthesis of chemical biology tools to assist in mechanistic studies.
Kavitha Sarma, PhD
Research Interests: Dr. Sarma studies the mechanisms of RNA-mediated epigenetic gene regulation to understand how the loss of chromatin modifier-RNA interactions impacts cellular function.
Zachary Schug, PhD
Research Interests: Dr. Schug is interested in investigating metabolic adaptation in cancer cells through the use of cell biology, biochemistry, and metabolomics.
David Speicher, PhD
Research Interests: The use of proteomics, computational methods and biophysical approaches to characterize the roles of normal and mutant proteins in cancers and other human diseases. One approach uses systems biology strategies to better understand tumor progression and resistance to cancer therapeutics.
Jessie Villanueva, PhD
Research Interests: Our lab studies the molecular pathways that become deregulated in melanoma aiming at identifying suitable targets for therapy, particularly for tumors with limited treatment options, such as those driven by oncogenic NRAS. Our research goals are to dissect the mechanisms mediating drug resistance and identifying new targets or vulnerabilities that can be therapeutically exploited to combat melanoma drug resistance.
Adjunct Faculty at Fox Chase Cancer Center
Research Interests: My laboratory seeks to understand how innate differences in DNA replication and/or repair impact two critical areas in precision oncology: (1) what underlies an individual’s cancer risk, and (2) how an individual will respond to cancer treatment.
Research Interests: DNA repair of mismatched bases and the cellular response to DNA damage. Identification of early genetic alterations in tumorigenesis.
Research Interests: Signal transduction by small G proteins and their effectors and the role of these proteins in regulating cytoskeletal structure, tumor invasion, and metastasis; regulation of insulin signaling.
Research Interests: Goal of our research is to discover ways to improve the treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer.
Research Interests: Tumor microenvironment; we study cancer-associated fibroblasts and self-derived extracellular matrices to understand their biochemical and mechanical effects on tumorigenesis and stromal activation.
Research Interests: Computational structural biology, including homology modeling, fold recognition, molecular dynamics simulations, statistical analysis of the PDB, and bioinformatics.
Research Interests: Integration of systems biology approaches with high throughput screening and targeted pathway analysis to improve the efficacy of preclinical and clinical cancer therapies.
Research Interests: The Johnson laboratory studies mechanisms of DNA damage detection, repair, and signaling that occur in BRCA1 mutation-containing organisms and cancers. We use a range of approaches, including cell biology, mouse genetics, and therapy resistance modeling, to understand basic biological processes and their implications for tumorigenesis and chemotherapy sensitivity.
Research Interests: The goal of the Karanicolas laboratory is to develop structure-based approaches for modulating protein function using small-molecules. We apply these new approaches to re-activate disabled tumor suppressors, inhibit cancer-driving RNA-binding proteins, disable key oncogenic kinases, and tune the activity of antibodies used in cancer immunotherapy.
Research Interests: Molecular chaperone correction of missense mutations; genetic defects of methionine metabolic enzymes and human disease.
Research Interests: Mechanisms of drug resistance in gastrointestinal stromal tumor.
Research Interests: The mechanisms that regulate genome stability and how these processes are disrupted in cancer cells; mechanisms in cancer cells that promote their survival in response to chemotherapy using hi-throughput siRNA and small molecule screens; development of assays including imaging and biochemical assays.
* Physician's practice is independent of Drexel Medicine and Drexel University.