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GSBS 2020 Commencement Program Flipbook PDF
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The University of Texas
MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
2020 Commencement Program
To the GSBS graduating Class of 2020: Twenty-twenty is often associated with clear vision after retrospection. We hope that you, as a member of the Class of 2020 of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS), can appreciate how you have persevered through extraordinary circumstances to successfully complete your MS, PhD, or MD/PhD degree. We could not be more proud of you! The COVID-19 pandemic is causing turmoil across the world. While this alters how we formally honor you and our newest graduating class with a commencement ceremony, it does not change the fact that we celebrate you and your achievements! By working with expert faculty members, collaborating with researchers across the Texas Medical Center, and building a reservoir of knowledge in the most significant areas of biomedical sciences, you have an arsenal of tools and a world-class education to tackle the world’s health care needs. You will undoubtedly encounter hurdles as you progress through your next steps in life, heading out into the world outside of the GSBS. But who will be better prepared than the Class of 2020 to overcome unforeseen challenges and major obstacles? After all, this graduating class trained through Hurricane Harvey and now an unprecedented world pandemic; you are prepared for anything to come! As you remember your graduate education with 20/20 vision, please take pride in your accomplishments and use the knowledge and invaluable experiences you gained to help humanity, advocate for science, and be an outstanding global citizen. We hope that you will join us next year to celebrate your graduation in a combined 2020/2021 GSBS Commencement Ceremony — the best ever! Once again, congratulations and we look forward to your future successes! Sincerely, Michelle C. Barton, PhD, and Michael R. Blackburn, PhD Deans, MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School #WeAreGSBS #AlwaysGSBS
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SYSTEM James B. Milliken, JD Chancellor John M. Zerwas, MD Executive Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs Steven Leslie, PhD Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
BOARD OF REGENTS Kevin P. Eltife Chairman
Christina Melton Crain Regent
Janiece Longoria Vice Chairman
R. Steven Hicks Regent
James C. “Rad” Weaver Vice Chairman
Jodie Lee Jiles Regent
Francie A. Frederick General Counsel
Nolan Perez Regent
Ernest Aliseda Regent
Kelcy L. Warren Regent
David J. Beck Regent
Daniel R. Dominguez Student Regent
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER AT HOUSTON Giuseppe N. Colasurdo, MD President Michael R. Blackburn, PhD Executive Vice President and Chief Academic Officer
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MD ANDERSON CANCER CENTER Peter WT Pisters, MD, MHCM President Giulio F. Draetta, MD, PhD Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer Diane C. Bodurka, MD, MPH Chief Education and Training Officer
GSBS ADMINISTRATION Michelle C. Barton, PhD Dean Michael R. Blackburn, PhD Dean Patricia Cruz Bruesch, MPA Associate Dean of Management William Mattox, PhD Associate Dean of Graduate Education Cherilynn R. Shadding, PhD Associate Dean of Diversity, Career Development and Alumni Affairs Eric C. Swindell, PhD Associate Dean of Graduate Education Diane C. Bodurka, MD, MPH Assistant Dean, MD Anderson Cancer Center Ellen R. Richie, PhD Assistant Dean, Science Park, MD Anderson Cancer Center
ABOUT THE GRADUATE SCHOOL Established in 1963, The University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) offers students the opportunity to prepare for careers in the biomedical sciences through programs leading to the Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees. The GSBS is a unique partnership between two institutions: The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). The combined strengths of these institutions provide our students with access to basic and translational scientific programs that are at the cutting edge of the fight to treat all major diseases. This is captured in our tag line, Synergy in Science®. Our Graduate Faculty has more than 600 members and currently there are more than 400 MS, PhD, and MD/PhD degree-seeking students. To date, 2,034 PhD and 1,130 MS degrees have been awarded by the GSBS, for a total of 3,164 degrees. With these graduates, the GSBS lives up to its commitment — to maintain an innovative and diverse environment that provides an unprecedented breadth of opportunities for outstanding graduate students to train with leading biomedical scientists at MD Anderson and UTHealth.
CANDIDATES FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE Caroline Suzanne Bertsch
Jennifer L. Czerwinski, MS, CGC The Course of Acute Stress Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Parents With Infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Genetic Counseling Scholarship
Wendi Nicole Betting
Meagan E. Choates, MS, CGC Factors that Impact Uptake of Carrier Screening by Male Reproductive Partners of Female Prenatal Patients Genetic Counseling Scholarship
Sarah Ashley Burke
Maureen E. Mork, MS, CGC Genetic Counselors’ Approaches to Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing for Hereditary Breast Cancer Genetic Counseling Scholarship Jacqueline T. Hecht Founding Director Scholarship
Scott Howard Casey
Ellen R. Richie, PhD Determination of Thymic Epithelial Cell Composition and Proliferation During the Perinatal to Adult Transition
Aranza Gonzalez Cendejas
Rebecca D. Carter, MS, CGC Implementation of Genetic Carrier Screening in the OB Population: Healthcare Cost Impact and Recommendation Adherence Genetic Counseling Scholarship
Kaavya Giridhar
Sean I. Savitz, MD MCP-1 Release Modulation Through Interaction of Pulmonary Endothelial Cells and Mesenchymal Stromal Cells
Shannon Elise Hartzell
Stephen F. Kry, PhD Quantifying Uncertainty in a Measurement-Based Assessment of Relative Biological Effectiveness in Carbon Ion Radiotherapy Edward Jackson Scholarship Robert J. Shalek, PhD, Fellowship
Jonathan Chuck Jaoude
Imad Shureiqi, MD Impact of EPA and DHA Supplementation and 15-LOX-1 Expression on Colitis and Colitis-Associated Colorectal Cancer
Addison Quinn Johnson
Sarah A. Bannon, MS, CGC Assessing Patient Attitudes Toward Genetic Testing for Hereditary Hematologic Malignancy Genetic Counseling Scholarship
Christopher John LaFargue
Anil K. Sood, MD Identifying and Targeting Adaptive Changes to BET Inhibition in Ovarian Cancer
Olivia Denise Lara
Anil K. Sood, MD Evaluating the Therapeutic Efficacy of GRB2 Inhibition in Ovarian Malignancies
Brandon Michael Luckett
Paige A. Taylor, MS Commissioning of Micro-Cube Thermoluminescent Dosimeters for Small Field Dosimetry Quality Assurance in Radiotherapy Edward Jackson Scholarship Robert J. Shalek, PhD, Fellowship
Mitra Nair
Balveen Kaur, PhD Effects of Penfluridol on Integrin-FAK Signaling and Tumor Cell Killing in Combination with Oncolytic HSV in Glioblastoma
Maliha Nusrat
E. Scott Kopetz, MD, PhD Modulation of P13K-AKT Pathway in Colorectal Cancer
Jose Ortiz-Vitali
Radbod Darabi, MD, PhD iPSC-Based Gene Correction and Disease Modeling of a New Class of LGMD Due to POGLUT1 Mutation
Sumedha Pareek
Jin Seon Im, MD, PhD Bilirubin Nanoparticle as an Anti-Inflammatory Therapy for Graft Versus Host Disease
Ky Dong Pham
M. James You, MD, PhD p53R245W Mutation Elicits Metastatic Phenotype in Pten-Deficient Prostate Cancer
Bradley Philip Power
Krista J. Qualmann, MS, CGC Investigating Medical Examiners’ Practices: Genetic Evaluation for Fatal Acute Aortic Dissection Jacqueline T. Hecht Founding Director Scholarship
Visweswaran Ravikumar
Arvind Rao, PhD Molecular Consequences of High TAZ Expression in Gliomas
Vivian Salama
Marina Konopleva, MD, PhD Preclinical Studies of a Novel 1DH1 Inhibitor in Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)
MennatAllah Shaheen
Giulio F. Draetta, MD, PhD Investigating the Role of CD109 in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Fulbright Foreign Student Scholarship
Emily Catherine Stiglich
Victoria F. Wagner, MS Genetic Counselors’ Experiences with and Approaches to Discordant Genotypic and Phenotypic Sex Detected via Non-invasive Prenatal Testing Genetic Counseling Scholarship
Janani Subramaniam
Shane R. Cunha, PhD Obscurin Mediates Ankyrin Complex Formation in the Heart Margolis, Phipps & Wright Charitable Foundation Presidential Scholarship
Sujanitha Umamaheswaran
Anil K. Sood, MD Effect of Sympathetic Nervous System Mediators on the Tumor Microenvironment via Small Extracellular Vesicles in Ovarian Cancer
Autumn Elizabeth Vara
David F. Rodriguez-Buritica, MD Frequency of Copy Number Variants Involving the Sex Chromosomes in a Clinical Setting Genetic Counseling Scholarship
Ruoyu Wang
Wenbo Li, PhD Dissecting the Roles of Human SMC Complexes in Transcription Regulation and Chromatin Organization Mercedes-Benz of the Woodlands Scholarship Eugene Vaughan Endowed Scholarship
Clinton Yam
Jeffrey T. Chang, PhD Role of c-MET and EGFR in Acquired Resistance to PARP Inhibitors in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
Jiah Yang
Seung-Hee Yoo, PhD, and Mark J. Burish, MD, PhD The GSK-3 b-FBXL21 Axis Regulates TCAP via Ubiquitin-Mediated Proteasomal Pathway in the Cytoplasm
CANDIDATES FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Marisa Janelle Lynne Aitken
Sean M. Post, PhD Heterogeneous Nuclear Ribonucleoprotein K (hnRNP K) Overexpression and Its Interaction with RUNX1 RNA in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Steve Lasher and Janiece Longoria Graduate Student Research Award in Cancer Biology Floyd Haar, MD, Endowed Memorial Research Award Dr. John J. Kopchick Fellowship
Ryan Michael Baumert
Pierre D. McCrea, PhD A Novel Switch-Like Function of Delta-Catenin in Dendrite Development Dee S. and Patricia Osborne Endowed Scholarship in the Neurosciences UTHealth NRC Graduate Student Brain Awareness Outreach Award
Naomi Bier-Reizes
Theresa M. Koehler, PhD The Influence of the PEP-PTS and Other Metabolic Systems on the Master Virulence Regulator AtxA and Toxin Gene Expression in Bacillus anthracis
Marimar de la Cruz Bonilla
Helen Piwnica-Worms, PhD, and Cullen M. Taniguchi, MD, PhD Fasting Reduces Intestinal Radiotoxicity Enabling Dose-Escalated Radiotherapy for Pancreatic Cancer Charlene Kopchick Fellowship AACR Scholar-in-Training Award NIH F31 Individual Fellowship Award
Sherille Denaé Bradley
Gregory A. Lizee, PhD Vestigial-Like 1 Is a Shared Targetable Cancer-Placenta Antigen Expressed by Pancreatic and Basal-Like Breast Cancers American Legion Auxiliary Fellowship in Cancer Research UTHealth Golf Tournament Scholarship
Margo Patricia Cain
Jichao Chen, PhD Understanding Intercellular Signaling During Lung-Injury Repair
Ryan Michael Cassidy
Qingchun Tong, PhD Hypothalamic Circuits Mediating Consumption and Anxiety Sam Taub and Beatrice Burton Endowed Fellowship in Vision Disease
Jessica Jie Chen
Darren F. Boehning, PhD DHHCS Regulates Beta-Adrenergic Signaling in the Heart Through Palmitoylation of G Alpha Proteins Deans Excellence Scholarship
Mei-Kuang Chen
Dihua Yu, MD, PhD, and Mien-Chie Hung, PhD Receptor Tyrosine Kinases-Mediated Acquired PARP Inhibitor Resistance in Breast Cancer Jesse B. Heath, Jr., Family Legacy Award Larry Deaven, PhD, Fellowship in Biomedical Sciences Scholarship for Excellence in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at MD Anderson Cancer Center
Scott Dale Collum
Harry Karmouty-Quintana, PhD Role of NUDT21-Mediated Alternative Polyadenylation and Hyaluronan in the Development of Pulmonary Hypertension
Blanca Barbara Diaz-Rohrer
Ilya Levental, PhD The Role of Membrane Domains in Protein and Lipid Sorting During Endocytic Traffic Antje Wuelfrath Gee and Harry Gee, Jr., Family Legacy Scholarship Dr. John J. Kopchick Fellowship UTHealth GSBS Outstanding Dissertation Award
George Allen Edwards III
Claudio Soto, PhD, and Ines Moreno-Gonzalez, PhD The Effect of Traumatic Brain Injury on tau Pathology by a Potential Seeding Mechanism Roberta M. and Jean M. Worsham Endowed Fellowship Award McGovern Medical School Dean’s Research Scholarship Award NIH F31 Individual Fellowship Award
Aimee Theresa Farria
Sharon Y. R. Dent, PhD GCN5 Loss Impacts MYC-Driven Cancer in Mice and Human Cells Andrew Sowell-Wade Huggins Professorship/Fellowship in Cancer Research Cure on the Colorado Fellowship
Grant Matthew Fischer
Michael A. Davies, MD, PhD Oxidative Phosphorylation: A Critical Feature and Novel Therapeutic Target in Melanoma Brain Metastases Presidents Research Scholarship Schissler Foundation Fellowship
Jennifer Brooke Goldstein
Andrew Futreal, PhD Tracking Treatment Response and Resistance to PARP Inhibition (Talazoparib) in Hereditary Pancreatic Cancer
Ayesha Khan
Cesar A. Arias, MD, PhD Molecular Mechanisms of Antibiotic Resistance in Multidrug Resistant Enterococci Presidents’ Scholarship Award McGovern Medical School Dean’s Scholarship Award IDWeek 2019 Distinguished Researcher Award by the Infectious Diseases Society of America
Junsuk Ko
Michael R. Blackburn, PhD Alternative Polyadenylation Modulates Expression of Pro-Fibrotic Proteins and Contributes to Lung Fibrosis George M. Stancel, PhD, Fellowship in Biomedical Sciences American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship American Thoracic Society Student Scholar Award
Estefania Labanca
Nora M. Navone, MD, PhD Relevance of FGFR1 and Its Isoforms in Prostate Cancer Bone Metastases TC Hsu Scholarship Floyd Haar, MD, Endowed Memorial Research Award in Memory of Freda Haar AACR Scholar-in-Training Award
Douglas Bryan Litwin
Vasanthi Jayaraman, PhD Investigations of the Structure-Function Relationship in Kainate Receptors Using Förster Resonance Energy Transfer
Jintan Liu
Giulio F. Draetta, MD, PhD Multiplexed CRISPR Libraries for Cancer Functional Genomics
Roxsan Manshouri
Don L. Gibbons, MD, PhD Uncovering the ZEB1 Interactome to Identify Novel Regulators of Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Dr. John J. Kopchick Fellowship
Joseph Gabriel Meier
Osama R. Mawlawi, PhD Assessment of New Innovations in PET/CT for Respiratory Motion Correction
Kimiya Memarzadeh
Andrew J. Bean, PhD Endocytic Trafficking and Exosomal Secretion of EGFRvIII Marilyn and Fredrick Lummis Fellowship in Biomedical Sciences Dee S. and Patricia Osborne Endowed Scholarship in Neuroscience Roberta M. and Jean M. Worsham Endowed Scholarship
Drew Palmer Mitchell
David T. A. Fuentes, PhD An Information Theory Model for Optimizing Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging Acquisitions Howard Hughes Medical Institute Med-Into-Grad Fellowship
Mark Andrew Newpower
Radhe Mohan, PhD Modeling Proton Relative Biological Effectiveness Using Monte Carlo Simulations of Microdosimetry
Devin Erin Plote
Kimberly S. Schluns, PhD Inhibition of Urothelial Carcinoma by Type I Interferon Activation of the Innate and Adaptive Immune Response The University of Texas Graduate Archer Fellowship
Jonika Tannous
Jair C. Soares, MD, PhD An Exploration of Neuroanatomical Signatures of Pediatric Bipolar Disorder Using Structural Neuroimaging Roberta M. and Jean M. Worsham Endowed Fellowship Dee S. and Patricia Osborne Endowed Scholarship in the Neurosciences
Jena Leigh Tavormina
Raghu Kalluri, MD, PhD Identification and Molecular Analysis of DNA in Exosomes Tzu-Chi Scholarship Award for Excellence T. C. Hsu Memorial Scholarship Linda M. Wells GSBS Outreach Award
Burak Uzunparmak
Curtis R. Pickering, PhD Loss of Caspase-8 Function in Combination with SMAC Mimetic Treatment Sensitizes Head and Neck Squamous Carcinoma to Radiation Through Induction of Necroptosis
Christopher Paul Walker
Raymond Y. Cho, MD The Role of Gamma Oscillations and Cortical Inhibition in the Development of Working Memory in Adolescence
Robert Bryan Williams
Michael C. Lorenz, PhD Alternative Carbon Utilization as a Virulence Determinant for Candida albicans
Fang Xia, MS
Xuelin Huang, PhD A Signature Enrichment Design with Bayesian Adaptive Randomization for Cancer Clinical Trials Jesse B. Heath, Jr., Family Legacy Scholarship
Zhenna Xiao
Li Ma, PhD Deubiquitinating Enzymes Promote Cancer Progression and Metastasis via Regulating Protein Stability Rosalie B. Hite Graduate Fellowship in Cancer Research Gigli Family Endowed Scholarship Scholarships for Excellence in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Jie Yang
Erik P. Sulman, MD, PhD Deconvolute Brain Tumor Genomic Alterations Based on DNA Methylation
Ruoji Zhou
Dung-Fang Lee, PhD Modeling Cancer Using Li-Fraumeni Syndrome Patient-Derived Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Andrew Sowell-Wade Huggins Scholarship in Cancer Research Wei Yu Family Endowed Scholarship McGovern Medical School Dean’s Scholarship Award
Yanhong Zhou
J. Jack Lee, DDS, PhD Bayesian Adaptive Designs and Versatile Software Platform for Early Phase Clinical Trials Investing in Student Futures Fellowship