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Dr. Bocchetta graduated in Biology in 1991 at the University of Rome (Italy) "La Sapienza". After a fellowship at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation (Palo Alto, CA), he received his Ph.D. in human molecular biology at the University of Rome (Italy)"La Sapienza" in 1996. Dr Bocchetta was a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Medicinal Chemistry of the University of Illinois at Chicago (1996-1998) working under the mentorship of Dr. Alexander S. Mankin. During these years Dr. Bocchetta studied the structure and function of the peptidyl-transferase center of the E.colilarge ribosomal sub-unit. In 1998 he joined the Loyola University Chicago Medical Center as a Research Assistant Professor.
Dr Bocchetta's
primary research interests involve the study of the role of Notch
signaling in thoracic malignancies. This investigation is aimed at
finding novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of lung cancer
and mesothelioma. Dr Bocchetta's finding have been published in high quality scientific journals, including Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, Cancer Res, Oncogene and others.
Representative Publications
Dr. Cui received his M.D. and Ph.D. from China. He practiced several
years of clinical medicine as a Gastroenterologist in China. Dr. Cui's
postdoctoral work was primarily conducted in Dr. David E Fishers lab in
the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, from 2004 to
2007, where he studied the pigment molecular signaling pathways after
UVB irradiation in the epidermis. In 2007, he was appointed as an
Instructor of Pediatrics, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Childrens
Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School. Representative publications
Dr. Denning received his Ph.D. (Human Cancer Biology) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1991 in the laboratory of Dr. Ajit K. Verma. He continued his training as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute (NIH) in the Laboratory of Cellular Carcinogenesis and Tumor Promotion under the guidance of Dr. Stuart Yuspa. In 1995, Dr. Denning became a Research Associate in the laboratory of Dr. Kathleen Green at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, and in 1997 joined the faculty of Loyola University Medical Center in the Skin Cancer Research Program as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Denning holds a primary appointment in the Department of Pathology, and has adjunct appointments in two graduate programs, the Molecular Biology Program and the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry. In 2003, Dr. Denning was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure His primary research interest is the role of protein kinase C signal transduction in the regulation of keratinocyte growth, differentiation and apoptosis. Dr. Denning has focused on UV carcinogenesis as the primary etiological agent for human skin cancers. Dr. Denning is also exploring protein kinase C as a therapeutic target for malignant melanoma. Dr. Denning’s novel findings include discovering that UV radiation selectively activates the delta isoform of protein kinase C in human keratinocytes, and how inactivation of protein kinase C delta by the ras oncogene may lead to skin cancer formation. His laboratory is also interested in understanding basic epidermal homeostatic mechanism that control normal keratinocyte cell cycle withdrawal. Dr. Denning is the author of over 40 publications, and is active in teaching and research training of both graduate and medical students. His research is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the American Cancer Society.
Representative Publications
Dr. Manuel O. Diaz received his M.D. from the University of the Republic, Montevideo, Uruguay. He trained in cytogenetics and molecular cytology at the Biological Sciences Institute in Uruguay, later at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and at Yale University, in the USA. In 1982 he became an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago, and later was promoted to Associate Professor of Medicine. He is presently a Professor of Medicine and of Microbiology and Immunology at Loyola University Chicago, where he is the Director of the Hematologic Malignancy Program at the Oncology Institute, and the Director of the Molecular Biology Graduate Program. His research interests include the study of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes associated with leukemia and lymphoma, and the regulation of gene expression during hematopoiesis. He described the MLL gene, and its involvement in translocations associated with leukemia, and its homologue, MLL2. The role of MLL and one of its interacting proteins, Cyp33 in leukemogenesis, is the main focus of his research. He also described the big deletions of human chromosome 9 that include the p16 gene, and the interferon genes that are associated with leukemia, melanoma, lung-cancer and brain tumors. He described the genomic structure of the human type I interferon gene cluster, and rationalized the nomenclature of the human interferon genes. He is at present also studying the chromatin structure of the p16 gene promoter, and its regulation during senescence and immortalization in T lymphocytes and in keratinocytes. Dr Diaz is the author of over 100 original publications and several book chapters. He is a member of the Latino-American Academy of Sciences. He has served as a member on the Pathology B study section of NIH/NCI for four years and on the Subcommittee C for Basic and Preclinical Studies of NIH/NCI for four years. He is a member of the editorial board of the journal Cancer Genetics and Cytogenetics.
Representative Publications
Andrew Dingwall, PhD.
Associate Professor
Phone: 708-327-3141
Dr. Dingwall earned
his BS and MS degrees in Microbiology from the University of Wyoming
(1984) and his PhD in Molecular Genetics (1989) with Dr. Lucy Shapiro at
the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Columbia University College
of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. Dr. Dingwall was the recipient
of a Helen Hay Whitney Fellowship and was an HHMI Research Fellow as a
postdoc in the Departments of Developmental Biology and Genetics and the
HHMI at Stanford University School of Medicine with Dr. Matthew Scott.
Dr. Dingwall joined
the faculty of Syracuse University (New York) as an Assistant Professor
in the Departments of Biology and Chemistry with an adjunct appointment
in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at the SUNY
Upstate Medical University (1997). During that time, he assumed
co-directorship of the Biochemistry (BS) Program and was appointed as a
permanent member of the Health Professions Advisory Program at Syracuse
University. In 2004, Dr. Dingwall moved to the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer
Center and Department of Pathology at Loyola University Stritch School
of Medicine as an Associate Professor and member of the Graduate
Programs in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry.
In most living
cells, chromosomes are formed from highly condensed DNA and basic
proteins that function to compact the chromosomes into a structure
called chromatin. Dr. Dingwall’s research is focused on understanding
the multitude of critically important roles chromatin structure plays in
normal development and disease. In particular, his lab studies a highly
conserved group of proteins that form a complex whose main function is
to regulate gene expression through direct effects on chromatin
structure. As this complex is quite large and composed of at least eight
different proteins, research efforts are targeted at understanding how
each subunit contributes to the various intricate functions of the
complex in regulating tissue-specific gene expression during organismal
development, as well as tumor cells. For example, when individual
components of this complex are missing or mutated, certain cells lose
the ability to properly control their fates and growth, leading to a
variety of diseases including aggressive cancers. As part of the
Hematologic Malignancies Program within the Oncology Institute, the
Dingwall lab is focused on understanding the molecular, genetic and
epigenetic mechanisms involving chromatin remodeling that govern normal
animal development, as well as several types of leukemia, lymphoma and
aggressive soft-tissue cancers. Investigative approaches utilize a
systems biology perspective, incorporating model organism (Drosophila
melanogaster) genetics and biochemistry, cell biology, fly and
mammalian cell culture, as well as microarray-based gene expression
profiling technologies.
Dr. Dingwall has
published numerous peer-reviewed research papers in high-profile
journals. Among these publications was the first biochemical description
of the SWI/SNF ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling complex that today
serves as a cornerstone of significant and expanding international
research efforts to understand chromatin-based disease. In support of
these efforts, Dr. Dingwall has been awarded research grants from the
March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation and the National Science
Foundation.
Representative Publications
Associate Professor Phone: 708-327-3320
Dr. Foreman received her Ph.D. (Pathology/Immunology) from the
University of Cincinnati and completed two post-doctoral fellowships at
the University of Michigan. In 1996, she joined the faculty of Loyola
University Chicago Medical Center as an Assistant Professor of Pathology
and Member of the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center. Dr. Foreman was
promoted to Associate Professor in 2001.
Representative Publications Charles Hemenway, MD, PhD Ronald McDonald House Charities Phone: 708-327-3130
Dr. Hemenway received his medical degree from the University of
Massachusetts Medical School. He completed a combined residency in
Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Florida in
Gainesville after which he began fellowship training in Pediatric
Hematology/Oncology at Duke University. During the course of fellowship
training, he developed an active interest in basic research and remained
at Duke for five years where he received a Ph.D. in Genetics. Representative Publications Ameet Kini, MD, PhD
Associate Professor Phone: 708-327-3175
Dr. Kini’s laboratory examines a novel role for angiogenesis in leukemia and lymphoma. While the field of solid tumor angiogenesis has seen considerable progress in the last few decades, there has been a relative paucity of studies examining angiogenesis in hematologic malignancies. It now increasingly apparent that angiogenesis is important in “liquid tumors” as well, and the field has made considerable progress in the last five years. These studies have important clinical implications and may result in the use of novel anti-angiogenic therapies for the treatment of hematopoietic malignancies. Dr. Kini has published pioneering studies (in the journals Blood and Leukemia) that demonstrated dysregulated angiogenesis in acute and chronic leukemias. He is a reviewer for journals such as Blood, Leukemia, Modern Pathology and Cytometry, and presented his research in platform presentations at national meetings. Dr. Kini has also been invited to write review articles on hematopoietic angiogenesis for Cancer Treatment and Research and Blood. Representative Publications Laboratory Page Hematologic Malignancy Program
Autoimmune recognition of melanocytes in vitiligo remains a primary research interest of Dr. Le Poole, as well as dendritic cell effector functions and immune recognition of tumor cells. The progressive loss of skin color as observed in vitiligo is considered a positive prognostic factor in patients with malignant melanoma, where the immune response all to often fails to clear patients of their tumor. By studying effective recognition of melanocytic cells in vitiligo, Dr. Le Poole aims to contribute to the development of new anti-melanoma vaccines. Dr. Le Poole has authored 50 book chapters and publications in peer reviewed scientific journals. She was elected secretary of the Chicago Association of Immunologists (2000-2002), and her current activities include the Directorship of the Immune Monitoring Core in the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, where patient immune responses to experimental vaccines are characterized and quantified.
Representative Publications
Dr. Miele received his M.D. (cum laude) from the University of Naples, "Federico II" in Naples, Italy in March 1982. After his internship in internal medicine and training in clinical pathology, Dr. Miele won a national scholarship for a Ph.D. program in Biochemistry. His Ph.D. work was conducted at the Max-Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, Germany, where he studied the molecular basis of antibiotic resistance. After completing his Ph.D. thesis, Dr. Miele accepted a fellowship in Human Genetics from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Bethesda, MD, under Dr. Anil Mukherjee. He remained at NIH for 8 years, moving up through the ranks to Visiting Associate (equivalent to a Research Assistant Professor). There he worked on the molecular basis of inflammation, publishing numerous papers and developing a recombinant immunomodulatory protein (rhCC10), which is now in clinical trials. From NICHD Dr. Miele moved to the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at FDA, still in the Bethesda NIH campus, as a tenure-track investigator. At CBER he began his work on Notch signaling in cancer and the immune system which continues today. He remained at CBER until May 1998, reaching the rank of Acting Lab Chief in the Division of Monoclonal Antibodies. At CBER he was involved in the review of anti-cancer monoclonal antibodies and of clinical trials for anti-cancer biologics, and he chaired the re-writing of the FDA Points to Consider on Monoclonal Antibodies for Clinical Use, which is currently in effect. From CBER he was recruited to the Loyola University Medical Center's Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, as a member of the Cancer Immunology Program, and made considerable progress in the understanding of Notch signaling in cancer apoptosis. He also contributed in the establishment of the Molecular Pathology Core facility for the Department of Pathology. In 2001 he moved to the University of Illinois at Chicago as a tenured Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Molecular Genetics and as Director of the Molecular Pathogenesis Program. In 2005 he returned to Loyola as the Director of the Breast Cancer Basic Science Program. Dr. Miele has made significant contributions to molecular pharmacology, deciphering the basis for plasmid-mediated multi-antibiotic resistance in Gram-negative bacteria as a Ph.D. student, then developing a class of potent immunomodulatory biologics as a fellow at NIH. As a principal investigator, he has developed several Notch-inhibitory agents, both biological and traditional pharmaceutics, which have remarkable anti-cancer activity in vitro and in vivo, and is developing clinical applications for the use of Notch inhibitors. He has authored more than 90 publications in molecular pharmacology.
Dr. Miele is a chartered member of the Drug Discovery and Molecular
Pharmacology Study Section of NIH, as well as the DOD Breast Cancer Cell
Biology Study Section, and frequently participates in or chairs NIH
Special Emphasis Panels in cancer therapeutics and biomarkers.
He is Executive Editor for the Americas of the Journal of Experimental
and Clinical Cancer Research, Assistant Editor of Women’s Oncology
Reviews, and sits on the Editorial Board of J. Cell Biochem. He
routinely referees manuscripts for such journals as the Journal of
Clinical Investigation, Cancer Research, Cancer Cell, the Journal of
Immunology, Biochemistry, the Biochemical Journal and many others.
Dr. Nickoloff received his M.D. and Ph.D. (Biochemistry) from Wayne State University, and completed an internship in Internal Medicine at Harbor General – UCLA Hospital in 1980. Following completion of his Pathology residency at The Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School in 1983, he began a Dermatopathology Fellowship in the Department of Dermatology at Stanford University Medical Center. In 1984 he was appointed as the Director of Dermatopathology and Assistant Professor of Dermatology at Stanford working with Dr. Eugene Farber. In 1987, he relocated his practice and laboratory to the University of Michigan, and became an Associate Professor(with Tenure) of Pathology and Dermatology in 1990. Dr. Nickoloff became Director of the Skin Disease Research Laboratory at Loyola University of Chicago Medical Center in 1996 and is a Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology at Loyola. In 2003, he became the Director of the Oncology Institute, and Deputy Director of the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center. His primary research interests involve the following: Immunobiology of Psoriasis; Defining Death Pathways in Normal and Diseased Skin; Developing Dendritic Cell-Based Vaccination for Advanced Melanoma; as well as Identifying New Therapeutic Agents Interfering with Notch Signaling in Skin Cancers-Including Melanoma. Dr. Nickoloff has made several original observations that have been translated into therapies for psoriatic patients including the discovery of the role of LFA:ICAM-1 in T cell-mediated dermatoses, and identification of alternate B7 costimulatory family members; as well as defining the Cytokine Network in Psoriasis. He developed and validated a novel animal model for psoriasis using SCID mice. In 2003, he received the American Skin Association Award for his research accomplishments in Psoriasis, and has received numerous NIH grants. Dr. Nickoloff is the author of over 300 publications and 40 book chapters. In addition to his bench activities, he holds an IND for the FDA for the Phase I DC-based Vaccine Study of Metastatic Melanoma, and maintains a Dermatopathology Practice in Chicago. He is currently active on the editorial board of numerous journals including American Journal of Pathology, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Journal of Investigative Dermatology, and International Journal of Cancer.
Representative Publications
Dr. Clodia Osipo received her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry from Loyola University in 2002 while working under Dr. Allen Frankfater. Thereafter, Dr. Osipo did her post-doctoral fellowship at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. Dr. V. Craig Jordan, the principal developer of adjuvant tamoxifen therapy for estrogen receptor positive breast cancer, was her mentor. Dr. Osipo’s research under Dr. Jordan focused on investigating the role of HER2/neu, the second member of the epidermal growth factor receptor family, in breast tumors that had acquired resistance to tamoxifen in vivo. During this time, Dr. Osipo has published numerous articles, reviews, and book chapters on tamoxifen and other selective estrogen receptor modulators and downregulators. Dr. Osipo joined Dr. Lucio Miele’s breast cancer program as an Assistant professor in September of 2005. Dr. Osipo's research focuses on:
1.) Elucidating the
role of the IGF-1 signaling pathway in breast tumors that do and not
respond to trastuzumab (Herceptin®).
Dr. Qin received his M.D. and Ph.D. in Investigative Dermatology from Beijing Medical University, People’s Republic of China in 1993. Dr. Qin was trained in the Dermatology Department at the University Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland for cutaneous T cell lymphoma research. In 1998 he was recruited as Research Associate to Skin Cancer Program of the Oncology Institute at Loyola University of Chicago, and was appointed Research Assistant Professor in 2002. Dr. Qin’s research is in the area of defining targets for molecular therapy of skin cancer. His past research has elucidated the abnormalities of several transcription factors (AP-1, cMyc and STAT) in cutaneous T cell lymphoma and dissected the role of NFkB and p53 in keratinocyte apoptosis induced by death receptor ligation and UV irradiation. His ongoing study is focused on understanding the signals governing the drug resistance of human melanoma and exploring new targets for novel therapies. He has documented that targeting Notch pathway by gamma secretase inhibitor (GSI) and interrupting proteasome function by proteasome inhibitors can selectively kill tumor cell with specific induction of NOXA, a BH3-only proapoptotic protein. These studies may promise new therapeutic approaches for human melanoma.
Representative Publications
Dr. Rizzo graduated in Biology in 1989 at the University Federico II of Naples (Italy). From 1989 to 1993 Dr. Rizzo was a Visiting Fellow at the National Institutes of Health in the Laboratory of Chemical Biology investigating protein folding /protein –protein interaction and in particular the interaction between antigen and antibody under the mentorship of Dr. Hiroshi Taniuchi. In 1993 she joined the group of Dr. Michele Carbone at Loyola University Medical Center to study SV40 infection in human and the role of this virus in the pathogenesis of mesothelioma. In 2002 she moved to the University of Illinois at Chicago in the laboratory of Dr. Lucio Miele to investigate the role of the Notch proteins in human breast cancer development. She received a Doctorate in Biomedical and Endocrinological Sciences in 2004 at the University of Ferrara. In April 2005, she was recruited as a Research Assistant Professor at Loyola University Chicago Medical Center. Dr. Rizzo’s research focuses on the functional relationship between the estrogen receptor and the Notch pathway in human breast cancer. Her work has shown that estradiol but not tamoxifen strongly downregulates Notch activity in human cancer cell lines. These data may lead to the development of new therapies for the treatment of human breast cancer. Breast Cancer Basic Science Program
Presently Dr. Sitailo works with Dr. Mitchell Denning and is studying the signal transduction pathway of UV induced apoptosis in human keratinocytes. UV-B from sunlight is a major factor for initiation of skin carcinogenesis and apoptosis is the major mechanism responsible for removing premalignant keratinocytes from the skin. Dr Sitailo has showed that the intrinsic or mitochondrial pathway is the main route of UV induced apoptosis response in keratinocytes. Understanding very early events of apoptosis induction led to identification of the significance of Bcl-2 family members: Bax, Bak, Bcl-XL and Mcl-1. Dr Sitailo continues to work on the anti-apoptotic protein Mcl-1, as the main anti-apoptotic protein protecting keratinocytes from apoptosis. A better understanding of the molecular pathway of UV induced skin carcinogenesis will have potential benefit for clinical intervention.
Dr. Zeleznik-Le received her Ph.D. (Cellular and Molecular Biology/Immunology) from Duke University in 1988. She continued her training as a postdoctoral fellow at the Lineberger Cancer Center, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in the laboratory of Dr. Jenny Ting, working on MHC Class II gene regulation. In 1991, Dr. Zeleznik-Le became a Research Associate (Instructor) and then in 1993, a Research Associate (Assistant Professor) at the University of Chicago, working with Dr. Janet Rowley. She started her work on the Mixed Lineage Leukemia (MLL) gene and protein while at the University of Chicago. In 1999, she joined the faculty at Loyola University Medical Center as an Assistant Professor in the Hematological Malignancies Program. Dr. Zeleznik-Le holds a primary appointment in the Department of Medicine, and has adjunct appointments in two graduate programs, the Molecular Biology Program and the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry. In 2003, Dr. Zeleznik-Le was promoted to Associate Professor. Dr. Zeleznik-Le’s research interest is focused on the MLL protein, and on MLL fusion proteins that cause leukemia. MLL is involved in the proper maintenance of expression of downstream target genes, including genes of the HOX cluster. How MLL functions to help maintain proper expression of target genes is not well understood, but it is thought to involve epigenetic mechanisms acting at the level of chromatin. One focus of her work is to identify chromatin changes that are mediated by MLL and MLL fusion proteins. This also includes studies to understand how proteins that interact with MLL compete and /or synergize to mediate these effects, and the role of post-translational modifications of MLL on its function. Another main focus of her research utilizes in vitro and in vivo murine models of MLL leukemia to dissect critical functions required for immortalization and leukemogenesis. Questions addressed concern hematopoietic cell lineage commitment, and specificity of MLL and partner gene functional domains for immortalization capability. Dr. Zeleznik-Le has been involved in the cloning of several MLL fusion genes from patient leukemia samples, including the MLL-CBP fusion. She has developed murine models of MLL leukemia that recapitulate the human disease. Her laboratory has identified proteins that interact with MLL, including those with chromatin modifying capability. Dr. Zeleznik-Le is the author of over 40 publications. She is active in training graduate students, both as a teacher and as a research mentor. Her research is supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health.
Representative Publications
Dr. Zhang received his M.D. degree in 1985 from Lanzhou Medical College, People’s Republic of China. He practiced 8 years of clinical medicine as a hematologist in the Hematology Department of the First Teaching Hospital of Lanzhou Medical College. Dr. Zhang got his Ph.D. degree in Molecular & Cellular Biology from Shanghai Second Medical University in 2000. His postdoctoral work was conducted at Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, USA (2000-2006), where he studied the hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) niche and HSC regulation. In February 2006, he joined the Hematologic Malignancy Program at the Oncology Institute with an appointment of Assistant Professor of Pathology at Loyola University, with a focus in HSC regulation and leukemia research. HSCs are a key subset of cells in the body that function as ancestor cells to produce all types of functionally mature blood and lymphoid cells, thus play essential roles in maintenance and regeneration of blood and immune systems. The processes of self-renewal, proliferation and multipotent differentiation of HSCs are precisely controlled by intrinsic genetic pathways that are subject to regulation by extrinsic signals from the microenvironment (niche) in which stem cells reside. Breaking this balance tends to lead to either lack of, or uncontrolled cell growth, and thereby develop into a variety of hematopoietic diseases including anemia, leukemia and lymphoma. Leukemia stem cells (LSCs) are a small subset of malignant cells in leukemia patients, yet are the initiators of leukemia development and the resources of leukemia relapse. Like normal stem cells, LSCs have self-renewal capacity. LSCs are derived either from normal HSCs that obtained malignant properties without losing self-renewal ability or mutant progenitors which gained the self-renewal feature. Therefore, LSCs are the key targets for clinical leukemia therapy.The overall objectives of Dr. Zhang’s research are: 1. to explore the bone marrow HSC microenvironment (niche) formation and maturation during the embryonic and fetal development, and the interaction between stem cells and their niche in stem cell regulation; 2. to investigate the cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate bone marrow HSC self-renewal, proliferation and differentiation; 3. to investigate the LSCs and leukemia development by using genetically modulated mouse models. These studies are important to enhance our understanding of the nature of stem cells and leukemia development. It will help to identify cellular and molecular components that are important for in vitro HSC expansion, and which could be used for clinical therapies. Additionally, it will provide insights into the difference in molecular regulations of LSC and normal HSC, which would lead to the discovery of specific targets for destroying the LSCs without affecting the normal HSCs. Hematologic Malignancy Program
DOCS - The following physician scientists have dedicated active translational research collaboration with the basic science faculty in the Oncology Institute.
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