CDI / Georgetown – Postdoctoral Seminar Series

Architectural detail of Med-Dent Building

About the Series

Launched in 2020, this consortium-wide seminar series highlights research by our postdoctoral and clinical fellows.

2024-2025 Speakers

Friday, December 20, 2024
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

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Elham Mohebbi, PhD

Mentor: Laura Rozek, PhD

Title: “Post-Diagnosis Smoking Cessation and Survival Outcomes of Head and Neck Cancer Patients”

Wei He, PhD

Mentor: Robert Beckman, MD

Title: “Personalized Cancer Treatment Strategies Incorporating Irreversible and Reversible Drug Resistance Mechanisms”

Wednesday, December 4, 2024
3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

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Ashley Varkey, DO

Dr. Johannes Zakrzewski Lab

Title: “Immunotherapy of Acute Myeloid Leukemia Enabled By Targeting of Pan-Cancer Molecular Patterns with a Novel Trispecific T Cell Engager”

Chen-Yu Tsai, PhD

Dr. Martin Gengenbacher Lab

Title: “Splenic Marginal Zone B Cells Restrict Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection by Shaping the Cytokine Pattern and Cell-Mediated Immunity”

Past Speakers

Thursday, May 16, 2024
3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Raju Shivarathri

Raju Shivarathri, PhD
Dr. Jigar Desai Lab
Title: “Complement C3 Promotes Sterilizing Pulmonary Antifungal Immunity”

Alireza Labani Motlagh

Alireza Labani Motlagh, PhD
Dr. Binfeng Lu Lab
Title: “Mutant p53 Renders Resistance to Checkpoint Inhibitor-Based Tumor Immunotherapy Through Inducing Autophagy”

Thursday, December 7, 2023
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Yuanyuan Tian

Yuanyuan Tian, PhD
Mentor: Dr. Yi Zhang
Title: “PDL1 and IFNa: Prediction and Prevention for GVHD”

Hariprasad Thangavel

Hariprasad Thangavel, PhD
Mentor: Dr. Jyothi Nagajyothi
“Adipomes: Key Orchestrators of the Breast Tumor Microenvironment”

Thursday, June 8, 2023
3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Emre Deniz

Emre Deniz, PhD
Mentor: Aykut Uren, MD
Title: “Ezrin Asserts its Roles on Osteosarcoma Metastasis Through Interacting with RNAs”

Thursday, May 25, 2023
3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Hariprasad Thangavel

Hariprasad Thangavel, PhD
Mentor: Dr. Jyothi Nagajyothi
Title: “Adipocyte-tumor Cell Crosstalk in Breast Cancer Pathogenesis”

Jia Liu

Jia Liu, PhD
Dr. Hai-Hui Xue Lab
Title: “CTCF Mediates Effector CD8+ T cell Differentiation Through Genomic Reorganization”

December 15, 2022
3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Todd Young

Todd Young, PhD
Mentor: Rebecca Riggins, PhD
Title: “Expression of Amino Acid Transporters and Metabolic Enzymes in Invasive Lobular Breast Cancer”

Susree Modepalli

Susree Modepalli, PhD
Mentor: Gary Kupfer, MD
Title: “Elucidating the Role of Codanin-1 in Erythroid Differentiation”

December 1, 2022
3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Yasmine Hassoun

Yasmine Hassoun, PhD
Dr. David Perlin Lab
Title: “Mutations in a Fatty Acid Elongase Evolve During Antifungal Drug Treatment in Candida glabrata Colonizing the Gut and Contribute to Drug Tolerance In Vivo”

Wassihun Aragaw

Wassihun Aragaw, PhD
Dr. Thomas Dick Lab
Title: “Pyrazinoic Acid Analogs as Inhibitors of Mycobacterial Aspartate Decarboxylase”

June 9, 2022
3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Jennifer Marks

Jennifer Marks, MD
Mentor: Stephen V. Liu, MD
Title: “MET Exon 14 Skipping Mutation in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) by Specific Mutation, Histology, and Smoking History”

Juntae Kwon

Juntae Kwon, PhD
Mentor: Cecil Han, PhD
Title: “USP13 Overexpression Drives Lineage Plasticity in Lung Cancer Via Stabilizing MYC Protein”

May 26, 2022
3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Amir Arastehfar

Amir Arastehfar, PhD
Dr. David Perlin Lab
Title: “The Impact of Antifungal Drugs on the Intracellular Pathogenic Fungus Candida glabrata and the Influence of Drug Resistance on The Macrophage-Fungus Interaction”

Pradeep Ramalingam

Pradeep Ramalingam, PhD
Dr. Jason Butler Lab
Title: “Reactivation of DNA Damage Response Restores Blood Stem Cell Fitness During Aging”

December 2, 2021
3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Michael Serzan

Michael T. Serzan, MD
Mentor: Michael B. Atkins, MD
Title: “Renal Cell Carcinoma: Striking at the Root”

Guannan Wang

Guannan Wang, MD
Mentor: Nanette Bishopric, MD
Title: “The APOE4 Allele Aggravates Doxorubicin Cardiotoxicity in Mice”

November 16, 2021
3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Manpreet Bariana

Manpreet Bariana, PhD
Dr. Johannes Zakrzewski Lab
Title: “Targeting NF-κB in multiple myeloma with a small molecule inhibitor”

Jickky Sarathy

Jickky Sarathy, PhD
Dr. Thomas Dick Lab
Title: “Targeted protein degradation in mycobacteria”

October 27, 2020

Megan Mitchell headshot

Megan Mitchell, PhD
Dr. Olivier Loudig Lab
Title: “Optimization of a versatile, high-purity exosome purification assay for biomarker discovery”

Dereje A. Negatu in the lab

Dereje A. Negatu, PhD
Dr. Thomas Dick Lab
Title: “Human gut microbiota metabolite targets amino acid biosynthesis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

April 27, 2021

Kelly O'Neill headshot

Kelly O’Neill, PhD
Dr. David Perlin Lab
Title: “Elucidating Molecular Heterogeneity Within the Glioblastoma Multiforme Tumor Microenvironment Using Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization (MALDI) Mass Spectrometry Imaging (MSI)”

Uday Ganapathy headshot

Uday Ganapathy, PhD
Dr. Thomas Dick Lab
Title: “A Leucyl-tRNA Synthetase Inhibitor with Broad-Spectrum Anti-Mycobacterial Activity”

May 12, 2021

Randi Williams headshot

Randi Williams, PhD
Mentor: Kathryn Taylor, Ph.D. and Lucile Adams-Campbell, Ph.D.
Title: ”Multilevel Approaches to Address Cancer Disparities in the Clinical Context”

Shaymaa Bahnassy headshot

Shaymaa Bahnassy, PhD
Mentor: Rebecca B. Riggins, Ph.D.
Title: ”Subclonal Hypermutation as a Potential Mechanism of Drug Resistance in HER2+/ER+ Breast Cancer”