At UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, we are honored to continue our collaboration with the Henry L. Hillman Foundation to decrease the cancer burden throughout western Pennsylvania and beyond. To accomplish this task, we invested the generous gift bestowed by the Henry L. Hillman Foundation to support innovative research and education through faculty recruitment and retention, pilot projects, and trainee programs.
2025-2026 Hillman Fellows for Innovative Cancer Research Program
The Hillman Fellows for Innovative Cancer Research for the award period of July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026 are as follows:
Steven Chinn, MD, MPH, FACS is an Associate Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology, with a clinical focus on Head and Neck Surgical Oncology. Dr. Chinn will serve as co-leader of the Head and Neck Surgery Program and as Cancer Center Research Lead at the Computational Pathology & AI Center of Excellence (CPACE). His research centers on improving cancer care through translational science, focusing on tumor microenvironment, cancer stemness, and therapy resistance in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. He integrates digital pathology, AI, and advanced sequencing to develop predictive biomarkers and guide response-adapted treatment strategies. He currently is a co-PI on a U01 NIH grant to develop on- slide and optical biopsy tools for the earliest detection of high-risk pre-malignant oral cavity lesions.
Hillman Early-Career Fellows for Innovative Cancer Research
Curtis McCloskey, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computation and System Biology. Dr. McCloskey’s research seeks to advance understanding of ovarian and breast cancers by identifying novel therapeutic vulnerabilities and developing essential model systems for therapeutic discovery. His work is guided by a focus on cancer prevention and integrates both functional and computational approaches.
Dayana Rivadeneira, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Immunology where she seeks to determine how T cells respond to DNA damage and how this influences T cell fate and anti-tumor immune response.She was recently awarded her first NIH grant as an independent investigator to study how mitigating oxidative stress at telomeres, found at the end of chromosomes, can improve T cell function in an adoptive cell therapy model.
Hillman Career Acceleration Fellows for Innovative Cancer Research
Riyue Bao, PhD is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Malignant Hematology and Medical Oncology, Co-Director of the Bioinformatics Facility, and a member of the Cancer Biology Research Program. Her research integrates multi-omics data, machine learning, and computer vision-assisted pathology image recognition to uncover resistance mechanisms to cancer immunotherapy. Her lab has made key discoveries, including WNT/ß-catenin signaling as a driver of immune exclusion, the role of the microbiome in anti-PD1 response, and oncogenic pathways linked to poor immune infiltration in solid tumors—findings that have informed new clinical trials combining targeted therapies with immunotherapy. Dr. Bao also co-leads bioinformatics and biostatistics efforts in the Melanoma, Ovarian, and Head & Neck Cancer SPOREs and serves on the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Informatics Committee, advising on data infrastructure and integration for translational research. Her work is supported in part by an NIH R01 grant and has contributed to 58 publications since her arrival at Pitt in 2019.
Greg Delgoffe, PhD, a Professor in the Department of Immunology, serves as a Program Leader of the Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Research Program and a Chair of the Tumor Immunity and Microenvironment Strategic Planning Subcommittee for UPMC Hillman. In addition, he directs the Graduate Program in Microbiology and Immunology (PMI) leads its Admissions Committee. A recognized authority in tumor immunology, Dr. Delgoffe pioneering research, currently supported by two NIH R01 grants, explores how tumor cells promote an immunosuppressive environment through the modulation of metabolism. His work has earned him a strong publication record of over 100 peer-reviewed articles, featured in top-tiered journals such as Nature Cell Biology, Nature Immunology, and Journal of Experimental Medicine. He has received multiple awards in recognition of his scientific contributions, including the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research Emerging Leader Award, the AACR NextGen Star award, and the Cancer Research Institute’s Lloyd J Old STAR Award.
Dr. Wei Du, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Malignant Hematology and Medical Oncology and a member of the Genome Stability Research Program at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. Since joining UPMC Hillman and the University of Pittsburgh in 2021, she has rapidly advanced her research program, which focuses on the pathophysiology of leukemia. Dr. Du currently holds an NIH R01 grant to investigate the molecular mechanisms by which leukemia-associated macrophages drive leukemogenesis, as well as an NIH R56 grant exploring the interplay between DNA damage and immune responses in aging hematopoiesis. Her innovative work was recently recognized with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Career Development Program Scholar Award, which supports emerging leaders in blood cancer research. Dr. Du is also active in the Oncology Graduate Program.
Dennis Hsu, MD is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Malignant Hematology and Medical Oncology and a member of the Cancer Biology Research Program. Dr. Hsu investigates the molecular mechanisms driving oncogenesis and cancer cell fitness, with a focus on how nutrient availability in the tumor microenvironment influences gene expression and genome evolution. Using a combination of computational modeling and wet-lab techniques—including cancer cell starvation assays, RNA sequencing, metabolite and proteomic profiling—he is currently exploring the role of transfer RNAs in helping cancer cells adapt to nutritional stress. Since joining the UPMC Hillman in 2021, he has coauthored eight papers, including several in high impact journals such as Nature Cancer and Molecular Cell. Dr. Hsu also maintains an active clinical practice specializing in gastrointestinal cancers and teaches a lecture on colon cancer in the Oncology Graduate Program.
Dr. Abigail Overacre-Delgoffe, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Immunology and a member of the Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Research Program at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. Her research focuses on the dynamic interplay between the microbiota and the immune system, and how this relationship influences anti-tumor immunity and the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapy. Notably, her recent work revealed that artificial sweeteners may disrupt the efficacy of immunotherapy—a finding that has garnered significant attention.Dr. Overacre-Delgoffe’s innovative research has earned her multiple awards and publications, including the prestigious NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, which recognizes early-career investigators with exceptional creativity and potential to transform their field. Dr. Overacre-Delgoffe also participates in the Oncology Graduate Program and serves as a Co-Chair for the Women’s Initiatives Task Force.
Hillman Fellows for Innovative Developmental Cancer Research
Rieko Ishima, PhD: Development of NMR-based Screening to Identify Cancer-Related Molecular Interactions
Kinases are an important class of cellular signaling proteins and drug targets in cancer. Most clinically useful kinase inhibitor drugs bind to a region of the kinase protein known as the active site to block their function. However, tumor cells can evolve with active site mutations that render the kinase resistant to the drug, leading to relapse. Dr. Ishima and colleagues developed a novel nuclear magnetic resonance system to discover a new class of kinase inhibitors that enhance natural mechanisms of kinase regulation. These so-called “allosteric” inhibitors are anticipated to suppress emergence of resistant tumor cells when combined with existing kinase inhibitor drugs. This project will study the interaction between newly identified inhibitors and Src kinases.
Carissa Low, PhD: Digital Remote Patient Monitoring and Triage during Cancer Immunotherapy
Cancer immunotherapy can cause unpredictable side effects that are challenging for clinicians to manage and that can cause patients to stop treatment early. This project will use common and inexpensive mobile technology to collect patient-reported symptom reports as well as information from wearable devices to monitor melanoma patients during immunotherapy. They will assess whether patients and providers use and like the remote monitoring tool and explore whether monitoring patient symptoms, behavior, and physiology between immunotherapy treatments might lead to better outcomes for patients.
Jinhua Luo, PhD: Positron Emission Tomography Imaging Through Radio-Labeled Humanized Anti-PDGFRA Ectopic pY118/pY120 Antibody to Detect Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Liver cancer is among the most lethal human malignancies, and early diagnosis and treatment are critical to reducing mortality. However, conventional imaging techniques often lack the sensitivity needed for early detection, making timely intervention challenging. Recently, Dr. Luo and colleagues discovered that most liver cancers produce a chimera protein resulting from a fusion gene known as MAN2A1-FER. This chimera acts as a protein kinase, adding phosphate groups to membrane proteins on the surface of cancer cells. Importantly, normal cells do not express this chimera protein and therefore lack these specific phosphate modifications. One such modification occurs at tyrosine 118/120 of the PDGFRA growth factor receptor. The team has developed a humanized antibody that specifically recognizes this phosphorylated motif, allowing it to target only cancer cells while sparing normal tissue. In their proposal, they plan to use this antibody labeled with a low-energy isotope to detect early-stage liver cancer, which is often missed by standard radiological methods. Additionally, they aim to use the same antibody, labeled with a therapeutic isotope, to prevent and treat early-stage liver cancer.
Wayne Stallaert, PhD: Decoding the Impact of the Bladder Tumor Microenvironment on Proliferation and Dormancy
Bladder cancers are subdivided into different classes based on their histology – the appearance and spatial organization of cells within the tumor. Dr. Stallaert and his team want to understand how these distinct “tumor microenvironments” influence the speed at which tumors grow. By studying a large collection of bladder cancer samples using advanced microscopy and artificial intelligence, they will identify the molecules and cell types in the environment that control the growth of various bladder cancer types. This research could reveal new ways to target bladder cancer and improve patient outcomes.
