19 November
Sharon received a Carl Storm Underrepresented Minority Fellowship to support her participation in the 2025 Gordon Research Conference on Glycobiology. Congrats, Sharon!
30 October
Neel defended his PhD thesis work. Many congratulations, Neel!
And thank you to Neel's committee: Keiran Smalley, Gina DeNicola, Karen Mann, and Elsa Flores. A special thanks also to the external defense chair, Jonathan Coloff (on screen) from UIC.
29 October
Neels study describing PHGDH as a critical driver and vulnerability of melanoma was officially accepted by Cancer Research. Congratulations, Neel!
9-13 October
Florian and Xiaonan attended the Society for Melanoma Research annual congress in New Orleans. Xiaonan gave an oral presentation on our uveal melanoma mouse models. Florian also attended the DoD Melanoma Academy workshop, with fantastic presentations given by DoD MRP grantees.
6 September
We posted Olga's study describing MAFG as a potent driver of melanoma formation to bioRxiv. MAFG promotes a phenotype switch in melanoma cells by binding to and impacting the transcriptional output of MITF. This was a team effort: many in the lab contributed to this work, especially Michael, Zulaida, Kai, and Xiaonan.
6 September
Florian was invited to give a talk at the University of Illinois in Chicago. He presented our work on PHGDH as a melanoma vulnerability and the role of a PTEN/FRA1 axis in melanoma metastasis.
13-17 August
Zulaida and Florian attended that Mechanisms & Models of Cancer meeting at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories. Zulaida presented a poster on the effects of MAFG depletion, while Florian gave a talk on MAFG as a driver of melanomagenesis.
30 July
Florian traveled to St. Louis, MO, to give a talk at Washington University on our work on non-mutational drivers of melanoma progression. It was an honor to have been invited by the students and postdocs of the T32 Cancer Biology training grant.
23 July
Harini gave a presentation to her program to defend her work and fulfill the requirements for graduation. Congratulations, Harini. Harini will stay in the lab as a Research Associate.
8 July
Shaaron Ochoa Rios joins the lab as a postdoctoral fellow. Shaaron received PhD training in glycobiology at the Medical University of South Carolina and will study glyco-RNAs in the lab.
1 July
Xiaonan applied for and was selected to a Moffitt Research Instructor. This highly coveted and competitive position will provide Xiaonan with extra support to develop his ideas for his independent research program. Congratulations, Xiaonan!
14 June
We bid farewell to Crystal, who is leaving the lab to pursue training in Medical School at Howard University. Congratulations for being admitted to med school, and good luck!
17 May
Nicol's gave an oral presentation at the Regulatory & Non-coding RNAs meeting at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories on her work on circRNAs in melanoma. Manon presented a poster on the role of antisense RNA-mediated regulation of protein-coding sense RNAs.
14 May
Harini Murikipudi joins the lab as a Master's student. She is in the Biotechnology Program at the USF Morsani College of Medicine. Welcome, Harini!
2 May
Florian visited Philadelphia to give a talk at the Wistar Institute. He presented our work on non-mutational drivers of melanoma progression, specifically on MAFG (Olga) and MYBL2 (Kai).
1 May
We received word that a Diversity Supplement on our ceRNA R01 award was approved by NCI. This will support Zulaida and her work for up to two years.
15 April
We posted Neel's study on PHGDH on bioRxiv. Neel showed that PHGDH is required for melanoma formation, that it is regulated by MAPK signaling during steady state and serine-starved condition, and that PHGDH is a vulnerability of melanoma that can be exploited via combination of mutant BRAF inhibition and dietary serine restriction.
April 5-10
Florian attended the AACR Annual Meeting in San Diego and presented a poster on MAFG in melanoma. This work was led by Olga, with significant help from Michael, Zulaida, and many others in the lab.
4 April
We were informed by the NCI that our R21 grant application on exploring the PHGDH metabolic vulnerability in melanoma therapy was selected for funding. This will continue Neel's work.
27 March
Florian visited the University of Virginia to give a presentation on Non-mutational drivers of melanoma progression as part of the Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology Department seminar series.
15 March
Florian presented a virtual talk as part of the Dana Farber/Brigham Melanoma Lecture Series on Non-mutational drivers of melanoma progression.
3 March
Manon and Nicol were honored with best presentation awards for the Molecular Oncology Department Research in Progress seminar series Fall Cycle. Manon took first place in the postdoc category, while Nicol placed second in the student category. Congratulations, Manon and Nicol!
9 February
The lab was informed that our Mid-Career Accelerator Award from the Department of Defense Melanoma Research Program was selected for funding. This will be a huge support to further develop and characterize novel mouse models for human uveal melanoma.
29 January
We said Farewell to Michael who has been driving our MAFG project for the last year, getting it almost ready for publication. We wish him all the best for his career in medicine!
11 January
The lab was notified that we will be awarded a Bridge Grant from the Florida Department of Health Bankhead Coley mechanism. This will support our work on MYBL2 and facilitate applications for larger, multi-year grants.