Prominent Researchers Join OSUCCC – James Team
In 2018, nearly 40 researchers were recruited to Ohio State’s cancer program. The newcomers, who represent four colleges at the university, include six professors, six associate professors, 25 assistant professors and two hospitalists. Here are some of the recent recruits:
Allan Tsung, MD, was recruited from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) to become director of the Division of Surgical Oncology in the Department of Surgery at Ohio State’s College of Medicine. Tsung was the Raizman-Haney Endowed Chair and a professor in the Department of Surgery at UPMC. He also directed the Liver Cancer Program at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, led the UPMC Regional Therapy Program for primary and metastatic liver cancers, and directed the Biospecimen Repository and Processing Core of the Pittsburgh Liver Research Center. He recently was elected as a member of the Society of Clinical Surgery, a prestigious organization dedicated to the advancement of surgery.
Philip Tsichlis, MD, was recruited to Ohio State as a professor in the College of Medicine, Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, and as co-leader of the Molecular Biology and Cancer Genetics Program at the OSUCCC – James. Tsichlis came to Ohio State from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, where he also served as executive director of the Molecular Oncology Research Institute. His lab focuses on using insertional mutagenesis and other genetic strategies to identify genes involved in causing cancer or regulating phenotypic changes in tumor cells. Tsichlis and colleagues have identified and exploited a number of genes implicated in oncogenesis.
Jing “Jenny” Wang, PhD, who studies molecular mechanisms and therapeutic targets of colon cancer metastasis and drug resistance, joined the faculty at Ohio State as a professor in the College of Medicine, Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics. She is a member of the Molecular Biology and Cancer Genetics Program in the OSUCCC – James. Wang was recruited from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where she was a professor in the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases. The long-term goal of her research is to develop effective therapies for patients with advanced colon cancer.
Nicole Grieselhuber, MD, PhD, is an assistant professor in the College of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology and Division of Medical Oncology, where she studies acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Her research interests include molecular mechanisms of leukemogenesis, pharmacology of targeted inhibitors and applying genomic technologies to patient care.
Brad Blaser, MD, PhD, is an assistant professor in the College of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology, and a member of the Leukemia Research Program at the OSUCCC – James. Blaser’s research involves identifying factors in the hematopoietic niche that promote the development of myeloid neoplasia.
Amanda Hummon, PhD, is an associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Her research interests involve analytical chemistry and chemical biology, with a focus on cancer biology. Her team develops analytical methods to evaluate the transcriptome and the proteome in cancer cells while exploring deregulation in cancer-associated signal transduction pathways.
Zachary Schultz, PhD, is an associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. His team focuses on developing tools for identifying molecules relevant to biomedical diagnostics and other applications. To do this, the team builds and develops instrumentation that takes advantage of chemical properties to characterize complex biologic samples.
Gina Sizemore, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology and member of the OSUCCC – James Molecular Biology and Cancer Genetics Program. Her research integrates in vitro and in vivo modeling of the brain metastatic tumor microenvironment (TME) to provide mechanistic insight into how the brain metastatic TME contributes to breast cancer metastatic progression. Current studies aim to elucidate whether platelet-derived growth factor beta (PDGFRβ) signaling is a promising pathway for diagnostic and/or therapeutic purposes for metastatic breast cancer patients.
Steven Sizemore, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology and member of the OSUCCC – James Molecular Biology and Cancer Genetics Program. His research focuses on elucidating the mechanisms of cancer metastasis and developing therapies to improve outcomes for patients with metastatic disease. Metastatic breast cancer and metastatic soft tissue sarcoma are his areas of concentration.