My laboratory is focused on developing novel clinical models of glioma and identifying druggable targets to facilitate early phase clinical trials. Gliomas are intensely heterogenous tumors that not only contain numerous cell types, but also demonstrate the ability to transition…
Dr. Altschuler's laboratory studies mechanisms of signal transduction by the second messenger cAMP in cell proliferation. cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) and Exchange protein activated by cAMP (Epac) represent the main effectors of cAMP action. Both pathways converge at the level…
Dr. Barry is interested in breast and gynecologic cancer research specifically related to preoperative and salvage radiation therapies. Dr. Barry is a board-certified radiation oncologist and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital.
Research in my laboratory is focused on cytochrome P450 enzymes (P450), their role in human health and disease, and their potential as drug targets. While most studies focus on steroidogenic P450 enzymes as drug targets for prostate and breast cancer…
Dr. Brufsky’s research interests include novel clinical therapeutics for breast cancer, bone-breast cancer interactions and therapeutics, molecular biology of metastatic breast cancer, and novel management strategies for metastatic breast cancer. Dr. Brufsky manages approximately 30 clinical trials investigating various aspects…
Dr. Bukowinski is an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He cares for patients with a variety of oncologic diagnoses covering the spectrum of solid tumors, leukemia, and neuro-oncology. He serves as the UPMC Children's Hospital of…
My research is focused on clinical and translational studies of soft tissue and bone sarcomas. Currently, I am investigating an immunotherapy utilizing an anti-PD1 inhibitor for patients with advanced sarcomas. In the future, I plan to further study novel immunotherapeutic…
Yu-Chiao (Chris) Chiu, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Chiu’s research interests include bioinformatics, machine learning, cancer genomics, and pharmacogenomics. The goal of his laboratory is to systematically…
The Deiters Lab works in the areas of Chemical Biology and Synthetic Biology, with the goal of developing novel approaches toward a better understanding of human health and disease. This includes 1) the discovery of small organic molecules that inhibit…
Dr. Dorritie was previously involved in laboratory research focused on the development of novel therapeutic agents for acute myeloid leukemia. More recently, she has shifted her focus to early phase clinical trials in hematologic malignancies, specifically immune therapies for lymphoma…
My research is directed towards the development of new therapies for primary and secondary brain tumors using targeted drugs, inhibitors of angiogenesis, and immunotherapies. I am also interested in the identification of molecular markers of prognosis in patients with malignant…
My clinical and research interests are in the study of improved diagnostics and treatments for patients afflicted with pancreatic cancer. Specifically, in collaboration with researchers at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and at the University of Pittsburgh, I am active in…
My primary research interests are investigating the effects of external beam radiation therapy on immune status and developing novel radiation therapy techniques for gastrointestinal cancers. Currently, I am working on developing methods for calculating radiation dosimetry to the immune system during external…
The research in the laboratory of Dr. Fernandez focuses on improving cancer treatment and patient outcomes through various areas: Investigating drug-induced immunogenicity and liver injury. Developing targeted agents for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Preventing capecitabine-induced hand-foot syndrome. Studying the role of the…
Our research is directed toward developing fundamentally new transformations and highlighting their utility for complex molecule synthesis.
As a clinician investigator, I am interested in the development of novel, biologically-informed therapies for relapsed/refractory high grade lymphoma. In particular, my clinical research is focused on understanding the molecular genomic profile of each tumor in order to match it…
Dr. Geyer’s research interests include the design, implementation, and analyses of phase III clinical trials in early breast cancer that evaluate new therapeutics and diagnostics with potential for changing existing standards of care. More broadly, his focuses include immunology and…
My research as a neurosurgeon-scientist has focused on the translation of new therapies and intraoperative visualization of glioblastoma (GBM). I direct the Brain Tumor Nanotechnology Laboratory in the Hillman Cancer Center studying the use of magnetic iron-oxide nanoparticles (MIONPs) for the targeted…
Dr. Ikeda’s research interests focus on furthering the understanding of the various cellular mechanisms that regulate urinary bladder contractile and storage functions, as well as determining the consequences of neurogenic injury, chemical cystitis and ionizing radiation exposure to the lower…
1) Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in older patients: My research focuses on developing strategies to improve treatment outcomes for older patients with AML. I oversee clinical trials that are focused in older AML. 2) Chronic graft-versus host disease (GVHD): Another…
Dr. Johnston has over two decades of drug discovery experience in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and academic sectors. Since joining the University of Pittsburgh Department of Pharmacology & Chemical Biology in 2005 to help design and build the infrastructure for a…
I am PhD investigator and medical physicist with expertise in radiopharmaceutical dosimetry and modelling as well as PET- and SPECT-imaged based dosimetry. During my PhD studies, I developed small scale/micro dosimetry models for the thyroid gland to calculate the radiation absorbed doses…
My lab’s cancer research, based on our NCI R01, is to determine if radioprotectants instilled in the urinary bladder prior to irradiation of pelvic or prostate tumors can protect against radiation cystitis without dampening treatment efficacy. We utilize a mouse…
As an assistant director of outcomes research, my mission is to assess the value(s) of various treatments and clinical outcomes for cancer care via these tasks below: 1. Establish the infrastructure by collaborating with multi departments for outcomes analyses for…
We are currently studying FR901464, a natural product that regulates cancer-related genes by novel mechanisms. This compound inhibits cancer proliferation at concentrations as low as 1 nM. To study FR901464, we completed a chemical total synthesis of this natural product.…
My broad areas of expertise include human hematopoietic and leukemia stem cell biology. My research is focused on (1) understanding miRNA control of the molecular and signaling pathways that direct the cellular fate of normal and malignant human hematopoietic stem…
Dr. Li has broad knowledge in medicine, biology, and drug and gene delivery and has established a strong research program centered at the interface of biology and biotechnology. His lab has developed several novel delivery systems that are aimed to solve…
Dr. McAuliffe focuses on the surgical treatment of all breast diseases, with special interest and research emphasis on invasive lobular breast cancer, de-implementing low-value breast surgical care, pre-invasive neoplasms such as DCIS and LCIS, premenopausal and elderly breast cancer, breast…
I am a physician scientist in radiation oncology with a focus on identifying targetable mechanisms of pancreatic cancer resistance in the laboratory, and dose escalated hypofractionated radiation therapy in the clinic. Over the course of my education and training, I…
I am an assistant professor of radiology and the co-director of the preclinical in vivo imaging facility (IVIF) at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. I have expertise in molecular imaging (PET, SPECT, optical), organic synthesis, peptide synthesis, conjugation and radiochemistry, targeted…
I am a clinical scientist in the department of Radiation Oncology whose academic career is focused on the rational use of radiation therapy in the context of multidisciplinary cancer therapeutics, specifically focusing on the role of radiation therapy with immunotherapy.…
Glioblastomas are highly invasive primary tumors with poor prognosis despite current therapies. Individual targeted therapies have failed to offer long-term survival benefits, although combinations of rationally selected inhibitors may have significant therapeutic applicability for these tumors. Studies by our group…
Dr. Saeed’s research efforts are focused on immune modulatory approaches in patients with gastric & esophageal cancer, colon cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma as well as chemoprevention/ immunoprevention in the high-risk GI population. She has published more than 150 peer reviewed…
I am a clinical investigator who designs clinical trials in the space of colorectal cancer for drug development. My clinical research interests are targeted therapeutics and immunotherapy. I also collaborate with translational scientists to conduct correlative sciences. My translational research interests include understanding resistance…
My research interests center on applying a Quantitative Systems Pharmacology (QSP) approach that integrates experimental and computational analyses to understand disease and drug mechanisms, which will lead to developing more effective therapeutic strategies.
My research has focused predominantly in the pathobiology of lung cancer and how the tumor microenvironment affects the natural biology and response to treatment. Working in collaboration with colleagues from the department of medical oncology we have discovered multiple possible…
I am an Assistant Professor of Health Informatics in the Department of Health Information Management within the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, with a secondary appointment at the Intelligent Systems Program (ISP). I am also leading…
My research has been rooted in developing and applying new technologies involving “high content” imaging methods to biomedical challenges. We have been applying quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP) to multiple disease areas including liver diseases and solid tumor cancers. My interests…
Dr. Taylor’s research interests include targeted and novel treatments of gynecologic cancer, correlated biomarker development for defining personalized cancer therapy, and screening and early detection of gynecologic cancers, particularly in individuals with hereditary predisposition to cancer. Her collaborations extend to…
Dr. Tyagi’s research interests include application of intravesical drug delivery techniques and urinary biomarkers to advance the diagnosis and care of bladder cancer, prostate cancer, benign prostatic hyperplasia and interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome.
Dr. Liza C. Villaruz is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and Co-Leader of the Immunotherapy and Drug Development Center at Hillman. She is a clinical and translational investigator in lung…
My major research interests center around the discovery of small molecules with phenotypic assays in clinically relevant cellular and whole organism models. It is becoming increasingly clear that better models of the in vivo milieu are needed to improve the…
The Wipf group develops tools of synthetic organic chemistry in the search for innovative new therapies and therapeutics. We identify original synthetic methods, strategies and molecular mechanisms, and we apply them in medicinal chemistry and chemical biology, total synthesis, and…
Norman Wolmark, MD, has spent decades conducting groundbreaking research and early clinical trials in the treatment of breast and bowel cancers. Many of his early studies were conducted at the University of Pittsburgh alongside the late Dr. Bernard Fisher. Dr.…
The research focus of Dr. Xie’s laboratory is nuclear receptor-mediated transcriptional regulation of genes that encode drug metabolizing enzymes and drug transporters. In addition to metabolizing drugs, the same enzyme and transporter systems are responsible for the homeostasis of endogenous…
About one-third of the patients treated for prostate cancer opts for surgical removal of their tumors, with the remaining undergoing external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) or brachytherapy, along with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT; e.g., Leuprolide). While irradiation destroys the majority…
The main research focuses of my lab are: 1. establishing new immunocompetent mouse models for lung cancer and utilizing them to study the therapeutic efficacy and mechanisms of novel combination of targeted therapy with immunotherapy 2. identifying new therapeutic vulnerabilities to…
Amer H. Zureikat, MD, is chief of the Division of Gastrointestinal (GI) Surgical Oncology at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, co-director of the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Pancreatic Cancer Program, and associate professor of surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School…
