Faculty Mentors

Dennis Carson, MD

Professor Emeritus, Medicine
Director, UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center
dcarson@ucsd.edu

Research

Autoimmune Disease, Cancers of the lymphoid tissues

My laboratory studies autoimmune diseases and cancers of the lymphoid system. We aim to delineate molecular differences between pathologic and normal tissues that can serve as targets for therapy. We have discovered two new targets during the last year.

Seth Cohen, PhD

Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
scohen@ucsd.edu

Research

Professor Cohen's group works on the design, synthesis, characterization, and evaluation of new metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). MOFs are an up-and-coming class of materials that combine organic ligands and metal ions to generate porous materials with defined topologies. His group works in collaboration with the Moores Cancer Center developing MOFs for drugs delivery since these particles are so small that they might readily diffuse into tumors. Of the five PhD students that have graduated from his lab, two were men and three were women. One of the men was also an URM student (Hispanic). Dr. Cohen has mentored several students through the UC San Diego STARS program, a summer research program supporting URM students. In coordination with student/outreach affairs, Dr. Cohen has been a liaison for UC San Diego to campuses with large number of URM students, including San Diego State University and the University of Puerto Rico, Rio.

Michael J. Heller, PhD

Professor, NanoEngineering and Bioengineering
mheller@bioeng.ucsd.edu.

Research

Professor Heller's research is directed at the development of new molecular diagnostic devices and systems for cancer and other diseases. More specifically, his research involves the development of novel dielectrophoretic systems for the isolation and detection of rare cancer cells, DNA nanoparticulate biomarkers and drug delivery nanovesicles directly in blood and plasma. Dr. Heller is an internationally renowned expert in molecular and DNA genotyping diagnostics and has over 40 US patents in the area, has published a considerable number of papers, given more than sixty invited presentations at conferences and meetings and has started several high tech companies in the area. Dr. Heller has several minority students and one female postdoctoral fellow. Dr. Heller has provided opportunities for undergraduate students to carry out summer research work in his lab before entering their PhD programs.

Thomas Kipps, MD, PhD

Professor, Medicine
Contact by Email

Research

Oncology, Translation, Translational Oncology

Research interests include immunology, gene therapy, lymphoma, leukemia, neoplasia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, arthritis, and AIDS-associated lymphoma. Special Capabilities: Molecular biology, gene therapy, immunobiology.

Andrew Kummel, PhD

Professor, Chemistry & Biochemistry
akummel@ucsd.edu

Research

Array Detectors, Breast Cancer, Cancer, Microfabrication Tools, Nanotechnology

We investigate the chemistry of microelectronics processing using both room temperature (RT) and low temperature (LT) scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS), molecular beams, laser spectroscopy, impedance spectroscopy and density functional theory (DFT) calculations.

Dwayne Stupack

Professor, Pathology
Director of the BMS Undergraduate Core Course
Director, Basic and Translational Research Rounds, Moores Cancer Center
dstupack@ucsd.edu

Research

Professor Stupack's research is directed at understanding how cells survive during metastasis, interacting with their immediate microenvironment. Dr. Stupack is interested in applying the interaction of metastatic and stromal elements as a modality to detect, and possibly treat, metastasis. Professor Stupack has participated as a mentor in UC San Diego programs directed at minority education, including community outreach programs to underrepresented high schools, and currently is mentor to two underrepresented students and co-mentor to a minority fellow. Professor Stupack is a Director of an imaging project on the ICMIC grant at UC San Diego and a member of the CCNE, and has worked to apply emerging technologies to the study of cell biology and cancer.

William Trogler, PhD

Professor, Chemistry & Biochemistry
wtrogler@ucsd.edu

Research

Antibody Arrays, Array, Fabrication, Nanomaterials, Sensors

Our research focuses on new nanostructured materials for gene and drug delivery, as well as surface functional reagents for cell patterning. New aqueous and air stable reagents have been prepared for attaching cell specific antibodies or proteins on elemental oxide surfaces. Methods for attaching nonbiofouling surface reagents have also been developed. These studies for new analytical approaches to cancer cell detection are being done in collaboration with the research groups of Drs. Blair and Kummel.

Judith Varner, PhD

Professor, Medicine
jvarner@ucsd.edu

Research

Angiogenesis, Metastasis

Tumor angiogenesis depends on growth factors and on cell adhesion receptors called integrins that interact with matrix proteins such as fibronectin, fibrinogen and proteolytically cleaved collagen. Endothelial cell migration and angiogenesis depend upon the interaction of these matrix proteins with a subset of integrin receptors, such as a5b1 and avb3. This interaction is required to suppress activation of protein kinase A, which, when activated, blocks endothelial cell migration, induces endothelial cell apoptosis and inhabits angiogenesis. Protein kinase A activation perturbs normal cycling of small GTPases Rho and Rac and blocks activation of critical focal adhesion regulatory proteins such as FAK and paxillin, leading to inhibition of cell migration. Activation of protein kinase A can also inhibit tumor cell migration and metastasis. Based on these observations, we are investigating the potential of gene therapy as novel therapies for cancer and other diseases.

Jean Wang, PhD

Professor, Medicine / Biological Sciences
jwang@ucsd.edu

Research

Cancer, Growth Control, Molecular Pharmacology, Pharmacology, Responses to Extracellular Stimuli and Stress, Stress, Urologic Cancer.

Projects include:

• Identification of a DNA damage activated signaling pathway through the mismatch repair protein to c-Abl to p73, leading to the activation of apoptosis. Defect in this apoptosis pathway accounts for the drug resistance of mismatch repair-deficient tumors.
• Identification of a nuclear export signal in c-Abl, demonstrating those c-Abl shuttles between the cytoplasmic and nuclear compartments.
• Identification of a novel function for the retinoblastoma protein in the inhibition of DNA replication. Identification of DNA damage-activated RB dephosphorylation in S-phase cells. Demonstration that RB is required for an intra-S arrest in response to DNA damage.
• Identification of a differentiation-programmed activation of p38 MAP kinase. Identification of a defect in this pathway in human Rhabdomyosarcoma. Demonstration that the enforced activation of p38 MAP kinase can rescue the differentiation defect of Rhabdomyosarcoma to induce terminal growth arrest.

Joseph Wang, PhD

Professor, NanoEngineering
jow014@ucsd.edu

Research

Our research interests include nanobiotechnology, nanobioelectronics, nanomaterials-based sensors, nanomotors and nanoactuators, design of nanostructures and novel interfaces, synthesis and applications of novel nanowires, carbon-nanotubes for enhanced sensing and fuel cell applications, nanoparticle tags for amplified/multiplexed biodetection, nanoscale barcodes, nanomedicine, DNA and proteins diagnostics, remote sensors, and nanosensors for biomedical, environmental and security applications.

Liangfang Zhang, PhD

Professor, NanoEngineering
zhang@ucsd.edu

Research

Bioimaging, Diagnostics, Drug Delivery Systems, Nanotechnology, Nanoparticles

Our laboratory focuses on the development of nanoparticle-based delivery systems that are capable of simultaneously delivering multiple kinds of therapeutic molecules and/or imaging agents to the same targeted cancer cells.