Ruffell Lab
Brian Ruffell, PhD - Assistant Member
Dr. Ruffell is in the Department of Immunology at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida, with secondary/courtesy appointments in the Department of Breast Oncology and the University of South Florida. Dr. Ruffell received his Ph.D. in Immunology at the University of British Columbia in 2008, and completed his postdoctoral studies investigating the impact of macrophages on response to therapeutic intervention at the University of California, San Francisco and Oregon Health and Science University. Since 2015 the Ruffell lab has been focused on the regulation and roles of dendritic cells in controlling the development of breast cancer, and in dictating the efficacy of chemotherapy and targeted therapeutics.
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Kay Hänggi, PhD - Postdoctoral Scholar
Kay Hänggi recieved his Ph.D from the Institute of Experimental Immunology at the University of Zurich in 2016 in the field of cell death and inflammation in cancer. From there, he proceeded as a postdoc in the lab of Dr. Brian Ruffell with a main interest in programmed necrosis (necroptosis) and its role in cancer immunity.
Asmaa El-Kenawi, PhD - Research Scientist
Asmaa has a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Mansoura University, Egypt. She studies how tumor cells are shaping macrophage phenotype with an emphasis on identifying novel regulatory pathways involved in T cell anergy, immune evasion and therapeutic resistance in prostate cancer.
Alycia Gardner, BS - Doctoral Candidate
Alycia Gardner is a PhD candidate in the Cancer Biology PhD program at the University of South Florida and Moffitt Cancer Center. Alycia received a Bachelor of Science in biology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2015, during which she completed an undergraduate research project examining DNA repair mechanisms in the lab of Dr. Leona Samson. Her current project focuses on the role of intratumoral dendritic cells in the anti-tumor immune response to solid tumors treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors.
Former Lab Members
2015-2019: Alvaro de Mingo Pulido - Postdoctoral Scholar - Contact
2018-2019: Leenil Noel, BS - Research Associate
2017-2018: Vivian Lee, BS - Research Associate
2016-2017: Tomohiro Yonezawa, DVM, PhD - Visiting Professor
2015-2017: Shandi Heibler, BS - Research Associate