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.

2022-2023 Speakers

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

Emre Deniz, PhD

Mentor: Aykut Uren, MD

Title: “Ezrin Asserts its Roles on Osteosarcoma Metastasis Through Interacting with RNAs”

Chandra Char, PhD

Mentors: Suzanne O’Neill, PhD, and Marc Schwartz, PhD

Title: “Hearing Loss & Cancer: Assessing the moderation of race using the NIH All of Us Data Set”

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

Hariprasad Thangavel, PhD

Dr. Jyothi Nagajyothi Lab

Title: “Adipocyte-tumor Cell Crosstalk in Breast Cancer Pathogenesis”

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, PhD

Mentor: Rebecca Riggins, PhD



Title: “Expression of Amino Acid Transporters and Metabolic Enzymes in Invasive Lobular Breast Cancer”

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, 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, PhD

Dr. Thomas Dick Lab



Title: “Pyrazinoic Acid Analogs as Inhibitors of Mycobacterial Aspartate Decarboxylase”


Past Speakers

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”