In conjunction with being selected to present her meritorious first-author abstract, “Understanding the role of dNTP pool on double-strand break and resistance to therapy in quiescent hypoxic glioblastoma,” at the 2024 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, Edidiong Usoro, graduate student in Dr. Waaqo Daddacha’s lab, has been awarded an AACR “Women in Cancer Research Scholar” Award. She is one of only 5 graduate students to receive this honor among 12 total awardees, including postdoctoral fellows, from across the globe.
Edidiong Usoro, a graduate student in Dr. Waaqo Daddacha’s lab, received the Georgia Cancer Center Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Research in Cancer. Her poster presentation was entitled “Enhancing Double-Strand Break Induction in Hypoxic Glioblastoma Cells Through dNTP Modulation and its Potential Therapeutic Implications.”
Ogacheko Okoko, a graduate student in Dr. Gang Zhou’s lab, received the Award for Excellence in Research in Molecular Medicine. His poster presentation was entitled “Molecular and Epigenetic Mechanisms by which STAT5 Regulates Polyfunctionality in Antitumor CD4+ T Cells.”
Dr. Kunj Gupta, a post-doctoral fellow working in Dr. Bal Lokeshwar's lab, received third place in the “Award of Excellence in Research" in the Postdoctoral Fellow category. His poster presentation was entitled "A chemical hybrid of Ursolic Acid as a novel treatment for chemotherapy-resistant bladder cancer".
Name
Location/Title
Abstract Title
Hannah E. Withers
GCC , Undergraduate Student
Biochemical Analysis of Co-Chaperone UNC45A
Ogacheko Okoko
GCC , Graduate Student
Dissecting the novel mechanisms by which indomethacin elicits antitumor immune responses to augment the efficacy of chemotherapy
Elayne Benson
GCC , Graduate Student
Myeloid Olfactory Receptors Sniff Out Cancer Cells
Hitomi Nakasako
UGA , Graduate Student
Modeling of cellular communication and spatial organization to understand the tumor-immune environment
Bill Bastian
UGA , Graduate Student
INVESTIGATING THE SUBTYPE-SPECIFIC PATHOGENIC MECHANISMS OF PEDIATRIC BRAIN TUMOR USING A HUMAN EMBRYONIC STEM CELL MODEL
Karina Vazquez-Arreguin
GCC , Post Doctoral Fellow
Expression of factor inhibiting HIF (FIH1) enhances the anti-tumor efficacy of oncolytic HSV in GBM
Yeashin Gazi
GCC , Post Doctoral Fellow
ADT030 is a novel dual-acting RAS/β-catenin inhibitor and possesses potent immunopotentiating activities
Amrita Basu
UGA
TFCP2 is a novel transcriptional regulator of growth factor binding to 6-O sulfated heparan sulfate in human melanoma cells
Kalyani Ballur
GCC, Medical Student
The Clinical Relevance of LTBP3-Related Gene Signature in Colorectal Cancer
Shreya Desai
GCC, Resident or Fellow
Improving Clinical Outcomes in APL: Weight Maintenance Strategies to Reduce Complications during Induction Therapy
Shreya Desai
GCC, Resident or Fellow
Eliminating Racial Disparities Among Transplant Patients in Multiple Myeloma after Referral to a Tertiary Center
Dr. Asif Elahi (Dr. Ahmed Chadli's Postdoc) received the First Place Award of Excellence in Research from the AU Graduate School.
Congratulations, Dr. Elahi!
A number of graduate students, as well as a postdoctoral fellow, working in Georgia Cancer Center labs received awards during Augusta University's Graduate Research Day 2022. Here is a full list of awardees and the principal investigator they are currently working with.
From the Molecular Medicine Graduate Program, Caryn Bird (Dr. Theodore Johnson’s laboratory) and Dr. Mohamed S. Hussein (Dr. Yukai He’s laboratory) have been selected to present posters at the IMMUNOLOGY2022, which will be held May 6-10, 2022 in Portland, Oregon. The posters feature Bird's work on “The role of complement-mediated signaling during antigen presentation” and Hussein's work on “TCR-T cells engineered to overexpress c-Jun have better functionality with improved tumor infiltration and persistence for treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma.”
On April 19, 2022, Hussein successfully defended his thesis, “The role of c-Jun in
enhancing TCR-T function in treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma” to earn his PhD.
Congratulations, Dr. Hussein!
On March 30, 2022, Dhruvi Paladiya received the Best Presentation Award from the Undergraduate
Research and Fine Arts Conference hosted by Augusta University's Center for Undergraduate
Research and Scholarship (CURS).
Dhruvi is an undergraduate student working in Dr. Ahmed Chadli's laboratory at the
Georgia Cancer Center. Dr. Chadli’s lab focuses on understanding the role of molecular
chaperones in tumorigenesis. The stress protein Hsp90, a molecular chaperone, promotes
various hallmarks of cancer such as sustained proliferative signaling, replicative
immortality, and resistance to cell death. Due to Hsp90’s role in promoting the hallmarks
of cancer, finding efficient inhibitors of Hsp90 is an essential step in treating
cancer. The objective of my Honors Thesis project is to characterize AD05 as a novel
inhibitor of the Hsp90 chaperoning machine. It primarily focuses on determining the
mechanism used by this promising inhibitor to trigger cancer cell death.
Congratulations, Dhruvi, on your award!
As part of the 2021 Graduate Research Day event, Hesam Khodadadi (Dr. Babak Baban’s lab) was selected to receive the Award for Excellence in Research – Molecular Medicine, and Mohamed Hussein (Dr. Yukai He’s lab) was presented the Georgia Cancer Center Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Research in Cancer. Both Mohamed and Hesam are graduate students in the Molecular Medicine PhD graduate program. Congratulations, Hesam and Mohamed!
In conjunction with being selected to give an oral presentation at the May 10-15,
2021 American Association for Immunologists (AAI) meeting, Mohamed Hussein, a Molecular
Medicine graduate student in Dr. Yukai He’s laboratory, has been awarded a very competitive
2021 AAI Trainee Abstract Award. The annual AAI meeting is the largest meeting in
the field of immunology research, and to be selected as a Trainee Abstract Awardee
is a great honor. Congratulations, Mohamed, for this recognition of your high-quality
research!
Congratulations to Caryn Bird for reaching the Three Minute Thesis Semi-Finals and to Mohamed Hussein for winning the Molecular Medicine Award - 2019 Graduate Research Day.
