Translational Bridge Program
The Translational Bridge Program was established to foster innovative, high-impact research and to support translation of this research into clinical advancements. To achieve this goal, teams are made up of a trainee researcher paired with a basic researcher, a clinical investigator, and/or a population scientist. The teams meet monthly to discuss research progress. Monthly curriculum is offered to guide the teams in their efforts toward translation. An annual Translational Bridge Symposium brings in external speakers to foster innovation and collaboration. The program has successfully resulted in clinical trials, grants, patents, manuscripts, and more.
Translational Bridge Awardees
The translational research teams and focal points of their research projects are:
Bladder
HSP90 inhibitors for bladder cancer
Brian Blagg, PhD
Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Notre Dame
David Vanderweele, MD, PhD
Medicine (Hematology and Oncology), Northwestern University
Sanket Mishra, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Notre Dame
Brain
Aging induced immunoregulation in subjects with gliobastoma
Derek Wainwright, PhD
Neurological Surgery, Medicine (Hematology and Oncology) and Microbiology-Immunology
Rimas Lukas, MD
Neurology (Neuro-oncology)
Erik Ladomerksy, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Genetically engineered T cells for GBM immunotherapy
Irina Balyasnikova, PhD
Neurological Surgery
Maciej (Matt) Lesniak, MD
Neurological Surgery and Neurology
Katarzyna Pituch, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Markella Zannikou, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
ATO nanobins in brain PDX
Thomas O’Halloran, PhD
Chemistry, Molecular Biosciences, Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)
Jeffrey Raizer, MD
Neurology
Elden Swindell, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Enhancing the activity of temozolomide in gliobastoma through intra-carotid artery administration
Craig Horbinski, MD, PhD
Pathology/Neurological Surgery and Pathology
Roger Stupp, MD
Neurological Surgery, Medicine (Hematology and Oncology) and Neurology
Anh Nhat Tran, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Neurological Surgery
Production of B-cell vaccination for a first-in human clinical trial for newly diagnosed glioblastoma
Catalina Lee-Chang, PhD
Neurological Surgery
Maciej Lesniak, MD
Neurological Surgery
Roger Stupp, MD
Neurological Surgery, Neuro-Oncology, Hematology and Oncology
Gustavo Ignacio Vasquez-Cervantes, PhD
Post-doctoral Fellow
Breast
SIRT3 in endocrine resistance
David Gius, MD, PhD
Radiation Oncology, Pharmacology
Cesar Santa-Maria, MD
Hematology/Oncology
Massimo Cristofanilli, MD
Hematology/Oncology
Yueming Zhu, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Tissue Regeneration after mastectomy
Samuel Stupp, PhD
Endocrinology
Seema Khan, MD
Breast Surgery
Kohei Sato, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
PIMK and PI3K inhibition in TNBC
Dai Horiuchi, PhD
Pharmacology
Massimo Cristofanilli, MD
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)
Ratika Kunder, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
New generation Selective Progesterone Receptor Modulators (SPRMs) efficacy in benign breast and breast cancer
Julie Kim, PhD
Obstetrics and Gynecology
Seema Khan MD,
Breast Surgery
Batzaya Davaadelger, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Breast cancer microenvironment in aging and obesity
Pinar Zorlutuna, PhD
Engineering, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Notre Dame
Massimo Cristofanilli, MD
Medicine (Hematology and Oncology)
Ami Shah, MD
Medicine (Hematology and Oncology)
Gokhan Bahcecioglu, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Notre Dame
Establishing preclinical efficacy of licochalcone A for primary prevention of invasive breast cancer
Seema Khan, MD
Breast Surgery, Cancer Prevention
Marcelo Bonini, PhD
Medicine (Hematology and Oncology)
Atieh Hajirahimkhan, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
The Role of CXCR2 in Breast Cancer Metastasis to Bone
Laurie Littlepage, PhD
Biochemistry, Notre Dame
Swati Kulkarni, MD
Breast Surgery
Madeline Sheeley, PhD
Post-doctoral Fellow
Cancer Prevention
Managing Stressful Burden to Attain Both Healthful Lifestyle and Medical Regimen Adherence by Cancer Survivors
Bonnie Spring, PhD
Preventative Medicine, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
June Robinson, MD
Dermatology
Tammy Stump, PhD
Preventive Medicine
Cancer Toxicities
Cachexia and Cancer
Theresa Walunas, PhD
Medicine (General Internal Medicine), Microbiology-Immunology and Preventive Medicine (Health and Biomedical Informatics)
Ishan Roy, MD, PhD
Physical Rehabilitation and Medicine
Noah Forrest
MSTP Graduate Student, Health Sciences Integrated Program
Cell and Developmental Biology/ Autophagy
The metabolic mechanism of the autophagy protein Becn1 in tumor suppression
Congcong He, PhD
Cell and Developmental Biology
Ankit Bharat, MBBS
Surgery (Thoracic Surgery) and Medicine (Pulmonary and Critical Care)
Kenta Kuramoto, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Cervical Cancer
Racial disparities in cervical cancer
Laimonis A Laimins, PhD
Microbiology-Immunlogy
Kruti Maniar, MD
Pathology
JJ Wei, MD
Pathology and Obstetrics and Gynecology
Elona Gusho, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Esophageal
Role of the modulation of immune checkpoints in the treatment of esphageal cancer
Marie-Pier Tetreault, PhD
Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Victoria Villaflor, MD
Hematology/Oncology
Devalingam Mahalingam, MD, PhD
Medicine
Kelsey Wiles
Graduate Student, Cellular and Molecular Basis of Disease Training Program
New strategies to overcome immunotherapy resistance in advanced esophageal cancer
Bin Zhang, MD, PhD
Medicine (Hematology and Oncology) and Microbiology-Immunology
Jeffrey Sosman, MD
Medicine (Hematology and Oncology)
Meejeon Roh, PhD
Medicine (Hematology and Oncology)
Siqi Chen, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Head & Neck Cancer
Crosstalk between BET and eIF4E in Thyroid cancer
Hidayatullah Munshi, MD
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)
Maria Matsangou, MBChB
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)
Thao Pham, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Targeting NSD1 histone methyltransferase in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma
Gary Schiltz, PhD
Pharmacology
Yanis Boumber, MD, PhD
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)
Iuliia Topchu
Graduate Student, Driskill Graduate Program
Development of a spheric nucleic acid (SNA) based nanoparticle vaccine for the treatment of HPV associated malignancy
Chad Mirkin, PhD
Chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering, and (by courtesy) Chemical and Biological Engineering and Biomedical Engineering
Jochen Lorch, MD
Medicine (Hematology and Oncology)
Jeongmin Hwang, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Liver
Treating Liver Cancer with Cancer Killing siRNA-Lipopolyplexes
Marcus Peter, PhD
Cancer Metabolism, Medicine (Hematology and Oncology), and Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Dong-Hyun Kim, PhD
Radiology (Basic and Translational Radiology Research)
Min Jun Ko, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Lymphoma
MLL4 mutations in lymphoma
Ali Shilatifard, PhD
Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Jane Winter, MD
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)
Deqing Hu, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Zibo Zhao, PHD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Targetable signaling pathways in cutaneous T cell lymphoma
Jaehyuk Choi, MD, PhD
Dermatology, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Barbara Pro, MD
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)
Joonhee Park, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Enhancing apoptosis and immunotherapy efficacy with CpG coated hollow gold nanoshells for aggressive B cell lymphoma
Dong-Hyun Kim, PhD
Radiology
Leo Gordon, MD
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)
Taehoon Sim, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Adam Yun Lin, MD, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Exploring circadian disruption as a putative mechanism of accelerated aging in lymphoma
Rina Fox, MD, MPH
Medical Social Sciences (Project PI)
Faiza Kalam, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow (Project Director)
Kristen L. Knutson, PhD
Neurology, Preventive Medicine, and Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
Fernanda Heitor, MD
Medicine (General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics)
Whitney Welch, PhD
Preventive Medicine
Reem Karmali, MD, MS
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)
Elizabeth Hibler, PhD, MPH
Preventive Medicine (Epidemiology) and Preventive Medicine (Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention)
Elucidating mechanisms underlying primary cutaneous aggressive epidermotropic cytotoxic T-cell lymphoma
Jaehyuk Choi, MD, PhD
Dermatology (Medical Dermatology) and Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Booki Min, PhD
Microbiology-Immunology
Julia Yescas
Graduate Student, Driskill Graduate Program
Lung
Total synthesis and development of cruentaren A analogs for anti-cancer treatment
Brian Blagg, PhD
Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Notre Dame
Yanis Boumber, MD, PhD
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)
Ziaozheng Dou, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Notre Dame
Inducing DISE in lung cancer
Marcus Peter, PhD
Cancer Metabolism, Medicine (Hematology and Oncology), and Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Nisha Mohindra, MD
Medicine (Hematology and Oncology)
Andrea Murmann, PhD
Medicine (Hematology and Oncology)
Therapeutic approaches to treating LKB1-mutant Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
Lillian Eichner, PhD
Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Jyoti Patel, MD
Medicine (Hematology and Oncology)
Ambryn Meehan
Research Technician
Melanoma
Desmoglein 1 in malignant melanoma
Kathleen Green, PhD
Pathology and Dermatology
Sunandana Chandra, MD/MS
Hematology/Oncology
Christopher Arnette, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Induced Colitis
Jennifer Wu, PhD
Urology, Microbiology-Immunology
Jeffrey Sosman, MD
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)
Si Qin, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Myelodysplastic Syndromes
Dysregulation of innate immune signaling in MDS
Peng Ji, MD, PhD
Pathology
Olga Frankfurt, MD
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)
Anaadriana Zakarijia, MD
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)
Yang Mei, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Targeting the innate immune signaling to treat myelodysplastic syndromes
Peng Ji, MD, PhD
Pathology
Yasmin Abaza, MD
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)
Kehan Ren, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Myeloproliferative Neoplasms (MPN)
Novel cytokine targets for P. Vera
Leonidas Platanias, MD, PhD
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology), Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Brady Stein, MD
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)
Diana Saleiro, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Oncofertility
Mechanism and Mitigation of Reproductive Loss
Teresa Woodruff, PhD
Obstetrics & Gynecology
Kehinde Adekola, MBBS
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)
Hideyuki Iwahata, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ovarian
Epi-transcriptomics in ovarian cancer stem cells
Daniela Matei, MD
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology), Gynecologic Oncology
Emma Barber, MD
Gynecologic Oncology
Hao Huang, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Nanocytology for ovarian cancer screening
Vadim Backman, PhD
Biomedical Engineering
Shohreh Shahabi, MD
Gynecologic Oncology
Greta Bauer
Predoctoral Fellow
Lusik Cherkezyan, PhD
Research Associate in Biomedical Engineering
New strategies to combine epigenetic modulation and immune checkpoint blockade in ovarian cancer: from preclinical models to the clinic
Bin Zhang, MD, PhD
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology), Microbiology-Immunology
Daniela Matei, MD
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology), GynecologicOncology
Ping Xie, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Transcriptomic signatures of platinum resistant ovarian cancer
Daniela Matei, MD
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology), Gynecologic Oncology
Young Kwang Chae, MD, MPH, MBA
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)
Russell Keathley
Graduate Student, Driskill Graduate Program
Pancreatic
Enhancing efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade in pancreatic cancer
Hidayatullah G Munshi, MD
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)
Al B Benson, MD
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)
Mahmoud Khalafalla, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Trastuzumab antibody analogues
Milan Mrksich, PhD
Cell & Molecular Biology
Aparna Kalyan, MBBS
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)
Justin Modica, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Overcoming Resistance to Oncolytic Virotherapy and PD-1 Blockade in Advanced Pancreatic Cancer
Bin Zhang, PhD
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology), Microbiology-Immunology
Devalingam Mahalingham, MBBChBAO
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)
Masato Ikeda, PhD
Medicine (Hematology and Oncology)
Population Sciences / Genitourinary
Understanding prostate cancer in men with inflammatory bowel disease
Shilajit D. Kundu, MD
Urology
Jennifer Wu, PhD
Urology
William J. Catalona, MD
Urology
Sarki Abdulkadir, MD, PhD
Urology
Zhe Ji, PhD
Pharmacology
Vinay Sagar, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Prostate
Functional Chemical-genomic Analysis of the MYC Pathway for Cancer Therapy
Sarki Abdulkadir
Urology and Pathology
Maha Hussain
Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)
William Yang
Graduate Student, Driskill Graduate Program