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Department of Cancer Biology
Stritch School of Medicine
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Our Faculty

Our Faculty

Nancy Zeleznik-Le, PhD headshot

Nancy Zeleznik-Le, PhD

Chair; Professor

Cancer Biology; Medicine

Research Interests:

  • MLL leukemias
  • Hematopoiesis
  • Chromatin-mediated gene regulation and epigenetics

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Maurizio Bocchetta, PhD

Associate Professor

Cancer Biology

Research Interests:

  • OTUD6B deubiquitinase
  • MYC oncogene
  • Lung adenocarcinoma

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Mitchell F. Denning, PhD

Associate Dean for Graduate Education;

Professor Cancer Biology;

Molecular Pharmacology & Neuroscience

Research Interests:

  • Keratinocyte and melanocyte biology
  • Ultraviolet radiation induced skin carcinogenesis
  • Protein kinase C signaling

Sean W. Fanning, PhD

Assistant Professor

Cancer Biology

Research Interests:

  • Breast cancer
  • Nuclear receptors
  • Drug resistance
  • Structure-based drug discovery

Irida Kastrati, PhD

Associate Professor, Cancer Biology
Research Interests:

  • Breast cancer
  • Selenoproteins
  • Racial disparity
  • Therapy targets in therapy resistance and recurrence
  • Drug development

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Steven Kregel, PhD

Assistant Professor

Cancer Biology

Research Interests:

  • Prostate cancer and urologic research
  • Androgen receptor signaling
  • Hormone therapies and resistance
  • Tumor immune microenvironment

Man with short gray hair wearing a collared shirt, smiling in a professional headshot against a light background

Phong T. Le, PhD

Professor

Microbiology & Immunology; Cancer Biology

Research Interests:

  • T-cell Development
  • Thymic epithelial cell biology
  • Exosomes

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Michael Nishimura, PhD

Professor, Surgical Research; Cancer Biology

Associate Director, Cancer Center Translational Research

Program Director, Immunologic Therapeutics

Research Interests:

  • Cancer immunology
  • T cell receptor genetics, structure and function
  • Chimeric antigen receptor functions

Clodia Osipo, PhD

Professor

Cancer Biology; Microbiology & Immunology

Research Interests:

  • Breast cancer
  • Cancer stem cells
  • Notch signaling

Wei Qiu, PhD

Professor

Cancer Biology; Surgical Research

Research Interests:

  • Hepatocellular carcinoma
  • Tumor cell signaling pathways
  • Mechanisms of therapeutic resistance in HCC
  • Alcoholic liver disease

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Jonathan Rennhack, PhD

Assistant Professor

Cancer Biology

Research Interests:

  • Tumor Metastasis
  • Tumor Microenvironment
  • Early Onset Disease

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Nan Sethakorn, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor

Hematology/Oncology; Cancer Biology

Research Interests:

  • Non-small cell lung cancer
  • Bone metastases
  • Tumor microenvironment
  • Resistance to targeted therapies

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Ali Vaziri-Gohar, PhD

Assistant Professor

Cancer Biology; Surgical Research

Co-leader of Gastrointestinal Oncology Program

Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center

Research Interests:

  • Pancreatic cancer
  • Metabolic vulnerabilities in tumor microenvironment
  • Metabolic regulation of redox homeostasis
  • Metabolic dependencies of gene regulation
  • Development of novel targeted therapies
  • Drug resistance

Man wearing a suit and tie smiling in a professional headshot against a light background

Derek Wainwright, PhD

Associate Professor, Depts. of Cancer Biology (Primary) and Neurological Surgery (Adjunct)

Scientific Director, Brain Tumor Research

Program Leader, Cancer Biology & Therapeutics, Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center

Research Interests:

  • Glioblastoma
  • Cancer immunology and immunotherapy
  • Aging and cancer
  • Neuroimmunology
  • Mechanisms of resistance to therapy for cancer

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Jiwang Zhang, MD, PhD

Professor

Cancer Biology: Radiation Oncology

Research Interests:

  • Hematopoiesis
  • Stem cell self-renewal
  • Bone marrow microenvironment
  • Cell signaling

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Manuel Diaz MD

Professor Emeritus

Cancer Biology

Research Interests:

  • MLL and MLL fusion proteins
  • Leukemogenesis