2019 Fall Graduate Student Pelotonia Scholars
Eric Eisenmann
Project – Intentional Modulation of Ibrutinib Pharmacokinetics Through CYP3A Inhibition
Summary – Ibrutinib is a highly effective drug that has improved survival and transformed the treatment of certain blood cancers. Its use, however, is limited by the development of severe side effects (bleeding, arrhythmias) or resistance. This is likely related to the substantial variability in ibrutinib exposure among patients given the same dose. My project seeks to characterize a strategy to mitigate this variability. We want to administer a lower dose of ibrutinib with an agent that inhibits the enzyme responsible for ibrutinib metabolism. This strategy could increase levels of ibrutinib to effective, less variable levels; more consistent levels of ibrutinib could decrease the number of patients that have side effects or treatment failure.
2020 Pelotonia Participant – Rider: 100 miles
Mariah Johnson
Project – The Role of TP53 in AML Differentiation and Harnessing Its Power in a Dual-Inhibition Strategy
Summary – My project examines how changes in the key cancer gene TP53 might impact response and resistance to leukemia cells, and how TP53’s role may be better channeled to improve the efficacy of cancer drugs that drive the maturation of leukemia cells. Our goal is to better understand the details of how a promising new class of drugs is able to differentiate AML cells, as well as to use that knowledge to develop a new treatment strategy for AML patients.
Matthew Lordo
Project – Group 1 Innate Lymphoid Cell Dysregulation in Acute Myeloid Leukemia
Summary – My project focuses on Acute Myeloid leukemia (AML), an aggressive form of cancer caused by uncontrolled growth of abnormal white blood cells. By studying ways to restore the function of natural killer (NK) cells, which normally kill cancer cells but can be inhibited by AML cells, we will be better equipped to design new therapies that restore the normal function of NK cells and improve outcomes for patients.
2020 Pelotonia Participant – Rider: 25 miles
Avinash Persaud
Project – Understanding the Role of CNT1 on Pancreatic Cancer Tumorigenicity and Chemotherapy
Summary – My project focuses on understanding CNT1’s role in gemcitabine chemoresistance and establishing the groundwork to create new treatment strategies to re-sensitize resistant pancreatic cancer tumors in patients suffering from this deadly disease. Changes in the amount of CNT1, a concentrative nucleoside transporter, in pancreatic cancer tumors influence the ability of the chemotherapy drug, gemcitabine, to kill cancer cells in vitro and in vivo.
2020 Pelotonia Participant – Rider: 25 miles
2019 Spring Graduate Student Pelotonia Scholars
Russell Bonneville
Project – Assessment of Microsatellite Instability Across the Landscape of Human Cancer
Summary – Investigate whether next-generation sequencing data may be leveraged for computational microsatellite instability (MSI) detection within a wide variety of cancer types by assessing the prevalence of MSI across a large spectrum of human cancers and elucidating potential mechanisms of MSI within some diffuse large B-cell lymphomas.
Swagata Goswami
Project – Protein Phosphatase 2A in Cell Fate Decisions of Acute Myeloid Leukemia
Summary – Establish the role of cell cycle regulators like p21, Retinoblastoma protein and transcription factors like c-Myc in mediating Protein Phosphatase 2A (PP2A)-driven cell fate changes, as well as validate in vivo therapeutic efficacy of OSU-2S using genetic overexpression and knockdown systems, single-cell analysis using mass cytometry, CHIP-Seq, biochemical assays and murine models.
2019 Pelotonia Participant – Rider: 25 miles
Stephen Lo
Project – A Pilot Study to Test a Cognitive Behavioral Model for Dyspnea in Patients With Lung Cancer
Summary – Determine the relevancy of a disease- and symptom-specific cognitive behavioral model of dyspnea in patients with lung cancer in order to advance treatments and improve a patient’s quality of life and functional status.
2019 Pelotonia Participant – Rider: 45 miles
Watch Stephen's inspiring presentation
Watch as Stephen shares more details about his research project.
Matias Montes
Project – miR-29b: A New Player in MDM2 Alternative Splicing in Rhabdomyosarcoma
Summary – Test the hypothesis that miR-29b binds the MDM2 pre-mRNA with in vitro FRET assays and miRNA pull-downs, and that it acts as a novel trans-acting splicing regulator involved in the alternative splicing of MDM2.
2019 Pelotonia Participant – Rider: 25 miles
Duc Phan
Project – Investigating RNase P-Mediated 3′-Maturation of MALAT1 and NEAT1, Two lncRNAs Up-Regulated in Cancer
Summary – Uncover molecular determinants for the processing of precursor-tRNAs (pre-tRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) by RNase P and build the foundation for a therapeutic strategy designed to inhibit 3′-maturation of lncRNAs without affecting tRNA 5′-biogenesis.
2019 Pelotonia Participant – Rider: 25 miles
Sanjana Rajan
Project – Autocrine IL6 Signaling Enables Chemoresistance in Osteosarcoma
Summary – Determine if IL-6 dependent autocrine signaling in a pre-existing clonal subset of osteosarcoma cells enables chemotherapeutic resistance by facilitating the adoption of a protective hypoproliferative senescence-associated stem-like phenotype.
2019 Pelotonia Participant – Rider: 45 miles
Kyle Sullivan
Project – Circadian Disruption of Cognition and Immunity by Chemotherapy
Summary – Examine the extent to which paclitaxel chemotherapy changes circadian rhythms in cognition and gene transcription in the brain, as well as determine the effects of chemotherapy on rhythmicity in circulating leukocytes and cytokines.
2019 Pelotonia Participant – Rider: 45 miles
Watch as Kyle shares more details about his research project.
Zechariah Thompson
Project – Utilizing Dendrimeric Metallopeptides as Anti-Metastatic Drugs Against Cancer-Specific Antigens
Summary – Investigate catalytic metallopeptides as anti-metastasis inhibitors by coupling previously reported dendrimeric peptides with an appended catalytic amino-terminal copper and nickel (ATCUN) metal-binding motif. In doing so, we combine the antigenic binding capacity of the peptide with the ability to perform glycosidase chemistry on the target carbohydrate moiety of interest through the metal-binding domain.
2019 Pelotonia Participant – Rider: 100 miles
Clarissa Wormsbaecher
Project – Determining the Mechanism by Which In Utero BPA Exposure Increases Susceptibility to Breast Cancer
Summary – A study to examine whether Bisphenol A (BPA) induces cell-type-specific epigenetic histone modifications, which drive a deregulated stromal compartment of the mammary gland to increase its susceptibility to breast cancer.
2019 Pelotonia Participant – Rider: 25 miles
Max Yano
Project – Targeting Leukemia-Expressed CTLA4 to Reverse CLL-Induced Immune Dysfunction
Summary – We hypothesize that Cytotoxic T Lymphocyte Antigen 4 (CTLA4) contributes significantly to the immune dysfunction seen in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients. Therefore, blocking it with antibodies or suppressing its expression pharmacologically will restore immune function, thereby decreasing the risk of infections and secondary cancers in these patients while stimulating a potentially curative anti-leukemia immune reaction.
2019 Pelotonia Participant – Rider: 100 miles
Zhongxia Yi
Project – Characterizing the UPF3B-Independent Nonsense-Mediated mRNA Decay, a Target for Cancer Therapy
Summary – The goal of this proposal is to understand what subsets of mRNAs are targeted by UPF3B-dependent and -independent nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) branches and how NMD occurs without UPF3B.
2019 Pelotonia Participant – Rider: 25 miles