Mentors and Their Research

 

Ashley Felix, PhD, MPH. Focus: Molecular epidemiology of gynecologic malignancies, with an emphasis on obesity, and is a URM. Dr. Felix is an Associate Professor in the Division of Epidemiology (College of Public Health). She is a member of the OSUCCC Cancer Control Program. Dr. Felix’s research activities include refining risk factor associations for heterogeneous endometrial cancer subtypes, investigating the molecular mechanisms that underlie these relationships, and identifying modifiable factors that can improve prognosis. Her work has specifically focused on women diagnosed with clinically aggressive endometrial tumors, characterized by racial disparities. Dr. Felix has recently received an impact score in the 3rd percentile for an NCI R01.

Amy Ferketich, PhD. Focus: Tobacco control, epidemiology, specifically in the areas of smoking cessation and tobacco use surveillance. Dr. Ferketich is a Professor in the Division of Epidemiology (College of Public Health). She is a member of the OSUCCC Cancer Control Program. Dr. Ferketich studies smoking cessation, tobacco use surveillance, policy, and tobacco regulatory science. Dr. Ferketich is currently funded to study the impact of warning labels on waterpipes (R01CA229306). She was the mentor of Dr. Joanne Patterson, who completed her T32 training and is now an Assistant Professor on tenure track in the College of Public Health, and funded by the NCI.

Cynthia Gerhardt, PhD. Focus: Risk and resilience factors associated with family adjustment to bereavement and childhood cancer. Dr. Gerhardt is a Professor of Pediatrics (College of Medicine) and is in the Division of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at NCH. She is a member of the OSUCCC Cancer Control Program. Dr. Gerhardt studies parent-child communication about childhood cancers, long-term adjustment by families with a pediatric brain tumor survivor and quality of life issues affected by pediatric cancer. Dr. Gerhardt is currently funded to study the psychological risks for physical and neurocognitive late effects of young cancer survivors (R01CA248103). She is the mentor of Dr. Anna Olsavsky who is in her first year of the T32 fellowship.

Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, PhD. Focus: Biobehavioral influences on cancer in humans. Dr. Kiecolt-Glaser is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Psychiatry (College of Medicine). She is a member of the OSUCCC Cancer Control Program. Dr. Kiecolt-Glaser is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. Her lab has demonstrated that stress and depression diminish the strength of immune responses and increase susceptibility to cancer. A total of 12 postdoctoral fellows have completed or are completing training in her lab. She is currently funded to study the biological basis for the adverse health impacts of marital quality (R01AG057032). Dr. Kiecolt-Glaser was the mentor of Megan Renna, who completed her T32 training and is now an Assistant Professor on tenure track at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Elizabeth Klein, PhD. Focus: Behavioral epidemiology for tobacco control. Dr. Klein is Professor and Director of the Division of Health Behaviors (College of Public Health). She is a member of the OSUCCC Cancer Control Program. Dr. Klein she studies multi-level, social-ecologic approaches to the reduction of tobacco use, with a particular interest in understanding the role of policy, systems and environmental change for low-income and underserved rural populations. Dr. Klein is currently funded to study the impact of flavored tobacco products on uptake (R01DA048529).

Darren Mays, MPH, PhD. Focus: Communication science for tobacco use behavior and policy. Dr Mays is an Associate Professor in the Division of Medical Oncology (College of Medicine). He is a member of the OSUCCC Cancer Control Program. Dr. Mays is a behavioral scientist who uses communication science to develop messaging (e.g., mass media campaigns and marketing) to reduce the uptake and progression of tobacco use among young people. Dr. Mays is currently funded to study hookah public education and package messaging (R01CA217861).

Michelle Naughton, PhD. Focus: Lifestyle and psychological factors that influence breast cancer outcomes in young breast cancer survivors. Dr. Naughton is a Professor in the Division of Cancer Prevention (College of Medicine). She is a member of the OSUCCC Cancer Control Program. Her research program studies how cancer impacts the quality of life, especially breast cancer. Dr. Naughton is currently funded to develop a web-based patient-reported symptom monitoring and self-management portal for adolescent and young adult breast cancer survivors (U01CA246648). Dr. Naughton is the mentor of Dr. Yesol Yang, who is in the second year of her T32 fellowship.

Electra Paskett, PhD. Focus: Cancer health disparities, epidemiology and behavioral interventions. Dr. Paskett is a Professor and Chief of the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control (College of Medicine). Dr. Paskett’s research has focused on developing and testing interventions to eliminate cancer health disparities. She has won numerous awards for her cancer control research among populations that are underserved.  Dr. Paskett is currently funded to study life and longevity in women cancer survivors (U01CA173642) and enhancing colon cancer screening in rural communities (UH3CA233282). She is the mentor of first year trainee Dr. Erika Biederman.

Kevin Sweet, MS. Focus: Genetics counseling for cancer risk. Mr. Sweet is a Professor in the Division of Human Genetics, Department of Internal Medicine (College of Medicine). He is a member of the OSUCCC Molecular Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program. Mr. Sweet studies alternative models of genetic counseling that capitalize on new technologies with a patient-driven focus for precision medicine. He is currently NCI funded to conduct a randomized trial of genetic counseling for high risk breast cancer patients using traditional counseling versus counseling through the electronic health record (R01CA248739).

Theodore Wagener, PhD. Focus: Tobacco use behavior and exposures. Dr. Wagener is an associate professor in the Division of Medical Oncology (College of Medicine). He is the co-Program Leader of the OSUCCC Cancer Control Program and the Director of the OSUCCC Center for Tobacco Research. Dr. Wagener’s research evaluates the behavioral, pharmacological and toxicological effects of cigarette and non-cigarette tobacco products, such as electronic cigarettes and hookah. Dr. Wagener is currently funded to develop smoking machine methods for tobacco products (UC2FD007229) and to study waterpipe tobacco additives on use behavior and toxicity (R01CA255563), as well as for electronic cigarettes (R01CA204891 and U01DA045537).

Marielle Brinkman, BS, Focus: Human tobacco product exposure assessment (wet/dry-lab researcher). Ms. Brinkman is a Professor in the Division of Epidemiology (College of Public Health). She is a member of the OSUCCC Cancer Control Program. Ms. Brinkman is a multi-R01 funded investigator whose laboratory research studies tobacco product design, chemical additives, and human cancer risk. She also studies nicotine dependency, subjective effects and psychometric data to determine relationships among addiction, product liking and harm. She currently funded by NCI to evaluate optimal placement and content of health warning labels (R01CA229306) and to quantify the effect of waterpipe tobacco ingredients on human puffing, exposures and appeal (R01CA255563), and by the FDA to measure the harmful and potentially harmful constituent content of waterpipe tobacco-use waste products (UC2FD007229).

Christin Burd, PhD. Focus: Aging of the immune system influencing immunotherapy response and toxicity as it impacts patient outcomes. Dr. Burd is an Associate Professor in the Department Molecular Genetics (College of Arts and Sciences). She is a member of the OSUCCC Molecular Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program. Her basic science research identifies and dissects the genetic mechanisms involved in cancer and aging to promote healthy aging and aid in the prevention and early detection of melanoma. She is currently funded to study mechanisms of UV-mediated melanoma development (R01CA237213).

Craig Burd, PhD. Focus: Molecular mechanisms controlling the estrogen receptor’s activity to influence breast cancer and prostate cancer risk and therapeutic relapse. Dr. Burd is an Associate Professor in the Department Molecular Genetics (College of Arts and Sciences). He is a member of the OSUCCC Molecular Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program. Dr. Burd studies steroid hormones signaling for carcinogenesis and the initiation of events leading to the activation or repression of target genes. He is currently funded to study estrogen receptor beta signaling as a melanoma tumor suppressor gene (R01CA255158) and the in utero role of estrogenic endocrine disruption on mammary gland stiffness and breast cancer risk (R01CA255158).

David Carbone, MD PhD. Focus: Lung cancer immune-related and genetic biomarkers for cancer development, progression and response (wet/dry lab researcher). Dr. Carbone is Professor of Medicine (College of Medicine), and Director of the James Thoracic Oncology Center. He also is the Program Leader for the Translational Therapeutics Program. As a physician-scientist who is internationally recognized for his research in lung cancer that includes the spectrum of preneoplasia and the development of lung cancer to treatment of metastatic disease. Dr. Carbone’s specific research has been focused on the genetics, proteomics, immunology and clinically useful biomarker development in lung cancer. Dr. Carbone is the PI of an NCI U01 consortium (10 institutions) focused on lung cancer biomarker development (UG1CA233259).

Steven Clinton, MD PhD. Focus: Diet, nutrition, and cancer through an integration of studies in epidemiology, clinical trials, experimental models and molecular and cell biology (wet/dry-lab researcher). Dr. Clinton is a Professor of Medical Oncology (College of Medicine). He also is the OSUCCC Program Leader of the Molecular Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program. His research focuses on genitourinary malignancies, with a primary effort in mechanisms of carcinogenesis and the prevention of cancer by diet and nutritional strategies. Dr. Clinton has mentored 18 post-doctoral trainees and has served as primary mentor for 7 fellows in medical oncology. He is currently funded to study the genetics of aggressive prostate cancer (R01CA200853) and combined breast MRI and biomarker strategies to identify tumor aggressiveness (U01CA189283).

Zobeida Cruz-Monserrate, PhD. Focus: Early markers for pancreatic cancer detection and progression, including novel imaging probes, and is a URM. Dr. Cruz- Monserrate is an assistant professor in the division of Gastroenterology (College of Medicine). She is a member of the Molecular Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program. Her research program is focused on developing new prevention and early detection strategies of pancreatic cancer, and also studies the prevention of obesity-associated tumor development. Dr. Cruz-Monserrate is currently funded to study mediators for cachexia in pancreatic cancer patients (R21CA256409) and how the tumor microenvironment and inflammation support the development of pancreatic cancer (R01CA223204).

Richard Fishel, PhD. Focus: DNA repair and chromosome instability for carcinogenesis and cancer progression. Dr. Fishel is a Professor in the Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics (College of Medicine). He is Program co-Leader for the Molecular Carcinogenesis Program. His research examines aspects of DNA repair and carcinogenesis, focusing on two major pathways that have been implicated in cancer development: mismatch repair (MMR) and homologous recombination (HR). His work has provided a fundamental foundation for the now-widespread concept that genome instability is a major driver of tumorigenesis. He is currently funded to study MMR defects for promoting carcinogenesis using molecular imaging at the single cell level (R01CA067007 and R01CA067007).

Susan Mallery, PhD. Focus: Chemoprevention for oral cavity cancer. Dr. Mallery is a Professor and Chair of the Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology (College of Dentistry). She is a member of the OSUCCC Molecular Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program. Dr. Mallery studies chemoprevention of oral cancer by natural products, using cell and animal models, and human clinical trials to provide mechanistic insights and determine chemopreventive efficacy. Dr. Mallery is currently funded to study the effects of chemoprevention using on oral patch and control of premalignant oral epithelial lesions (R01CA227273, R01CA258757, and R01ACA211611).

Maria Mihaylova, PhD. Focus: Metabolic deregulation for age-related cancer predisposition. Dr. Mihaylova is an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Chemistry and Pharmacology (College of Medicine). She is a member of the OSUCCC Molecular Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program. The goal of her research is to understand how metabolic deregulation can predispose to or accelerate age-associated cancer thorough nutrient sensing and nutrient utilization in the intestine and liver, and determine how these processes are influenced by diet, age and the microbiota. Dr. Mihaylova is currently funded to study the age-dependent metabolic changes in the tumor microenvironment (DP2CA271361). She is the mentor of James Sledziona who is in his first year of the T32 fellowship.

Bhuvaneswari Ramaswamy, MD. Focus: Parity and breast feeding for breast cancer risk and progression. Dr. Ramaswamy is a breast cancer medical oncologist and Professor in the Division of Medical Oncology (College of Medicine). She is a member of the OSUCCC Translational Therapeutics Program. Her research program includes conducting therapeutic and non-therapeutic trials for breast cancer patients. Her laboratory investigates the biology of breast tumors to identify characteristics of tumors that reflect cancer disparities, particularly the relationship between breastfeeding and triple-negative breast cancer (R01CA231857).