DCP Early Career Scientist Spotlight Research Seminar Series (Upcoming Research Talks)

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Mary Luz Rol, PhD
Scientist, Early Detection, Prevention & Infections Branch, IARC-WHO

I am Dr. Mary Luz ROL. In 2017, I joined the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC-WHO), motivated to improve equal access to high-quality healthcare for everyone. Currently, I lead an IARC team dedicated to eliminating cervical cancer as a public health priority in accordance with WHO targets. I manage the EASTER project, which tests novel, low-cost AI-based screening, triage, and treatment methods for cervical cancer and precancer in low- and middle-income countries.

Furthermore, I coordinate the "Cancer Screening in Five Continents" (CanScreen5) training effort in 27 countries, including 17 francophone African countries and 10 Asian countries. CanScreen5 aims to help countries collect and use cancer screening data in order to assess and improve the quality of national screening programs.

Previously, I oversaw the ESTAMPA clinical trial. ESTAMPA evaluated several approaches for implementing primary HPV screening and triage of HPV-positive women throughout nine Latin American countries.

Abstract:
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Survivorship in Patients with Multiple Myeloma Treated with Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Therapy
Laura Oswald, PhD
Assistant Member, Department of Health Outcomes and Behavior, Moffitt Cancer Center

Dr. Laura Oswald is a tenure-track Assistant Member in the Department of Health Outcomes and Behavior at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL. She earned a PhD in Clinical Health Psychology from the University of Miami and completed an NCI-funded T32 postdoctoral fellowship in Cancer Prevention and Control at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. At Moffitt, Dr. Oswald leads a research program in behavioral oncology with the overarching goals of understanding and improving cancer survivorship outcomes, such as symptom burden, among novel and underrepresented populations. Her accomplishments to date include almost 100 peer-reviewed publications, several national awards and recognitions, and she was recently awarded her first NCI R01 as Principal Investigator.

Abstract:
Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (CAR-T) is a revolutionary treatment that harnesses a patient’s immune system to kill cancer. Since 2021, two CAR-Ts were FDA-approved for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM). However, real-world data about how CAR-T affects patient-reported outcomes (PROs), such as symptom burden, is limited. Our team conducted the first study of longitudinal PROs among real-world RRMM CAR-T recipients, starting pre-CAR-T and through 90 days post-infusion (a key clinical endpoint). Subsequently, we explored relationships between PROs, immune activation, and common clinician-graded CAR-T toxicities, including cytokine release syndrome and neurotoxicity. In an R01-funded study and guided by a psychoneuroimmunology framework, we are prospectively investigating the dynamics of psychosocial and immune-related factors in relation to key survivorship outcomes in a large cohort of real-world RRMM CAR-T recipients over one year. Findings will elucidate targets and critical times for implementing evidence-based behavioral supportive care interventions to improve outcomes and modify immune-related factors.

Engineering Orthogonal Breath Biomarkers for Multiplexed Cancer Diagnostics
Shih-Ting "Christine" Wang, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Material Science and Engineering, Northwestern University

Dr. Christine Wang is a biomaterials engineer specializing in bioactive materials for medical applications. As a postdoctoral fellow at the Koch Institute of MIT, she develops multiplexed nanosensors for non-invasive detection of lung cancer through exhaled breath. In January 2025, she will begin her independent research program as an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University, continuing to integrate engineering and medicine to tackle critical health challenges.

Previously, Dr. Wang was a research associate at Brookhaven National Laboratory, where she designed novel 3D protein architectures using DNA nanotechnology. She earned her Ph.D. from Imperial College London, focusing on biosensing technologies and understanding amyloid fibrillation in diabetes. Additionally, she collaborated with the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on peptidomimetics and liquid-cell electron microscopy to visualize bio-nano interactions in situ to deepen understanding of materials dynamics relevant to medical applications.

Abstract:
Breath biopsy is emerging as a rapid and non-invasive diagnostic tool that links exhaled chemical signatures with specific medical conditions. Despite its potential, clinical translation remains limited by the challenge of reliably detecting endogenous, disease-specific biomarkers in breath. Synthetic biomarkers present an emerging paradigm for precision diagnostics by amplifying biochemical signals in the diseased microenvironments. However, their adaptation to breath biopsy has been constrained by the limited availability of volatile reporters that are detectable and distinguishable in exhaled breath. In this talk, I will describe how we address this limitation by engineering multiplexed breath biomarkers that couple aberrant protease activities to exogenous volatile reporters. We designed novel intramolecular reactions to sense a broad spectrum of proteases, each releasing a unique reporter in breath. This approach was validated in a mouse model of influenza to establish baseline sensitivity and specificity in a controlled inflammatory setting and subsequently applied to diagnose lung cancer using an autochthonous Alk-mutant model. We show that combining multiplexed reporter signals with machine learning algorithms enables assessment of tumor progression, treatment response, and relapse within 30 min. This multiplexed breath biopsy platform highlights a promising avenue for rapid, point-of-care diagnostics across diverse disease states. Beyond this work, I will also describe new directions of developments of diagnostic platforms for improving the quality of human health.

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Alexandra Harris, PhD, MPH
Cancer Prevention Fellow, NCI, NIH

A basic scientist by training, Dr. Alexandra Harris earned her B.S. in Biochemistry and Cell Biology and her M.S. in Biology from the University of California, San Diego. She completed her Ph.D. in Experimental Pathology from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in the Biomedical Engineering department. Dr. Harris went on to receive her M.P.H. in Quantitative Methods from Harvard School of Public Health, with a concentration in Epidemiology and Biostatistics. As a Cancer Prevention Fellow at NCI, she has a dual appointment between the Division of Cancer Epidemiology under the mentorship of Dr. Gretchen Gierach and the Center for Cancer Research with Dr. Stefan Ambs. Her research program integrates basic and population science to study how social, environmental, and genetic factors modulate breast tissue and its microenvironment in ways that can contribute to disparities in breast cancer risk and outcomes in women of African descent.

Abstract:
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Reprogramming lipogenic metabolism and inflammation in high-risk breast with licochalcone A: a novel path to cancer prevention
Atieh Hajirahimkhan, PhD
NCI NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Surgery, Lurie Cancer Center Translational Bridge Fellow, Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University

I am a medicinal chemist with extensive experience in natural products pharmacology and drug discovery. I completed my PhD at the University of Illinois Chicago followed by an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellowship (2018-2022), a current NCI-NRSA postdoctoral fellowship (2023-2025), and a Lurie Cancer Center Translational Bridge fellowship (2022-2024) in Dr. Seema Khan’s laboratory at Northwestern University. The presently available endocrine therapies used for breast cancer prevention have adverse side effects which has led to minimal acceptance and impact. My research interest is interventional breast cancer risk reduction through reversing oncogenic metabolism and inflammation in high-risk breast with minimal adverse effects. I am developing a promising candidate agent, L13, based on licochalcone A, with demonstrated efficacy against HR+ and HR- breast cancer subtypes, and a promising oral pharmacokinetics. My career goal is to establish independent academic research in the medicinal prevention of cancer.

Abstract:
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Rina S. Fox, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor, University of Arizona College of Nursing

Dr. Rina S. Fox is an Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona College of Nursing, as well as a member of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program and the Co-Director of the Behavioral Measurement and Interventions Shared Resource at the University of Arizona Cancer Center. As a licensed clinical psychologist, her research focuses on understanding how psychosocial processes impact cancer survivorship and developing behavioral interventions to decrease symptom burden and improve health-related quality of life. Currently she is leading projects focused on 1) understanding and improving sleep health in cancer and 2) addressing the unique psychosocial needs of adolescent and young adult cancer survivors. Dr. Fox received a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the San Diego State University/University of California, San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology and completed a NCI T32-funded postdoctoral fellowship in Cancer Prevention and Control at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Abstract:
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Xiaoshuang Feng, PhD
Scientist, Cancer Epidemiology Branch, IARC-WHO

I am an early-career scientist working in the Risk Assessment and Early Detection (RED) team at the International Agency for Research on Cancer. My work aims to optimize cancer screening strategies, with specific topics including multi-cancer detection and lung cancer risk prediction models and biomarkers.

In the area of multi-cancer detection, our work showed that the suitability of stage-based endpoints to replace the endpoint of cancer mortality varies by cancer type, which poses a challenge for multi-cancer screening trials (JAMA 2024). Working in the Lung Cancer Cohort Consortium (LC3), we evaluated the performance of ten lung cancer risk models in Europe (Lancet Digit Health 2024), and across US racial/ethnic groups (in preparation). Also in the LC3, using high-throughput proteomics, we identified 36 proteins for early lung cancer detection (Nat Commun 2023). Integrating proteins with smoking information improved risk discrimination, especially for those are ineligible by current screening criteria (JNCI 2023).

Abstract:
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Doratha "Armen" Byrd, PhD, MPH
Assistant Member, Departments of Cancer Epidemiology Program and Gastrointestinal Oncology, Moffitt Cancer Center

Dr. Byrd received a B.S. in biology and an M.P.H. in epidemiology from the University of Florida. She completed her Ph.D. in epidemiology at Emory University, where her dissertation research focused on the development and validation of novel, inflammation biomarker panel-weighted dietary and lifestyle inflammation scores, and their associations with colorectal neoplasms. In January 2019, she joined the National Cancer Institute Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics as a postdoctoral fellow. During her time there, she conducted methodologic microbiota studies and investigated associations of the microbiota with cancer risk and of diet with the gut metabolome. In January 2021, she joined Moffitt Cancer Center as an Assistant Member in the Department of Cancer Epidemiology, where she continues to contribute to the reduction of cancer disparities using an integrative, interdisciplinary approach to study lifestyle- and microbiome-mediated mechanisms for cancer risk among diverse populations.

Abstract:
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Targeting Aging Biology to Optimize the Long-Term Health of Cancer Survivors
Mina Sedrak, MD, MS
Associate Professor of Medicine, Director of Cancer and Aging Program, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA

Dr. Mina Sedrak is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Cancer and Aging Program at UCLA. His research investigates the mechanisms behind cancer treatment-induced accelerated aging and aims to develop innovative therapies to prevent or reverse this process. Dr. Sedrak’s work, recognized by the NIA with the Paul B. Beeson Career Development Award, bridges cancer and aging to improve outcomes for older adults with cancer. Passionate about inclusivity, he advocates for greater representation of older, frail adults in clinical trials. In addition to his research, he holds key leadership positions, including Vice Chair of the Alliance NCORP Cancer in Older Adults Committee and Chair-Elect of the Research Committee for the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Abstract:
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