University of Southern California

Program Leadership


ProgramLeader(s)
Molecular GeneticsMichael Lieber, M.D., Ph.D.
Epigenetics and Regulation Peter Laird, Ph.D.
Michael Stallcup, Ph.D.
Tumor MicroenvironmentYves DeClerck, M.D.
Martin Kast, Ph.D.
Cancer Epidemiology Graham Casey, Ph.D.
James Gauderman, Ph.D.
Cancer Control Research Maryann Pentz, Ph.D.
Anna Wu, Ph.D.
Developmental TherapeuticsDavid Quinn, M.D.
Robert Seeger, M.D.
Genitourinary Cancers Gerhard Coetzee, Ph.D
Jacek Pinski, M.D., Ph.D.
Gastrointestinal Cancers Michael S. Kahn, Ph.D.
Heinz-Josef Lenz, M.D.
Women’s CancersMichael Press, M.D., Ph.D.
Debasish Tripathy, M.D.
Leukemia and LymphomaP. Chaudhary, M.D., Ph.D.
Markus Müschen, M.D.


MOLECULAR GENETICS PROGRAM:

Michael Lieber, M.D., Ph.D. is professor of pathology, biochemistry and molecular biology, molecular microbiology and biological sciences. He is the program leader of the Molecular Genetics Program. Dr. Lieber is currently conducting four research projects in chromosomal translocation development in human cells. His grant-funded projects include: • A National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)-funded study of the mechanism of V(D)J recombination, and mistakes in this pathway result in many lymphoid translocations, as in T cell leukemias and lymphomas. • A NIGMS-funded study of the mechanism of class switch recombination, and mistakes in this pathway result in lymphoid translocations such as Burkitt's lymphoma. • A National Cancer Institute (NCI) Merit grant-funded study into additional causes of translocation in human malignancies. • An NCI grant to study how broken DNA ends are rejoined in a pathway called nonhomologous DNA end joining (NHEJ).

EPIGENETICS AND REGULATION PROGRAM:

Peter Laird, Ph.D., earned his B.S. and his M.S., Cum Laude, from the University of Leiden, the Netherlands. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam with Dr. Piet Borst, and postdoctoral training from Dr. Anton Berns at the Netherlands Cancer Institute and Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch at the Whitehead Institute at MIT. He pioneered the use of mouse models to investigate the causal contribution of DNA methylation to cancer (Laird et al. 1995, Cell 81, 197), and invented two DNA methylation assays, COBRA (Xiong and Laird 1997, Nucleic Acids Res 25, 2532) and MethyLight (Eads et al. 2000, Nucleic Acids Res 28, E32), which has been issued a U.S. patent. Dr. Laird is currently an associate professor of surgery, biochemistry and molecular biology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, and is principal investigator on three NCI R01 grants. He is director of basic research for surgery, and co-leader with Dr. Michael Stallcup of the Epigenetics and Regulation Program at the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. He serves on various editorial and scientific advisory boards and is co-founder of ORCA Biosciences, currently Epigenomics, AG, and of TherEpi Corporation.

Michael R. Stallcup, Ph.D. received his B.A. at Yale University, his Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley, and did his postdoctoral training at the University of California at San Francisco. He began his career on the faculty at the University of South Carolina, joining USC in 1985 where he is a professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He serves as co-leader with Dr. Peter Laird of the Epigenetics and Regulation Program. In his studies on transcriptional regulation by steroid hormone receptions, he is one of the leading researchers in discovering and characterizing coactivators. Specifically his research focuses on coactivators that help steroid receptors alter chromatin structure and recruit RNA polymerase to the target genes that are regulated by steroid hormones and their receptors.

His lab discovered the first histone methyltransferase and was the first to demonstrate a role for histone methylation in transcriptional regulation.

TUMOR MICROENVIRONMENT PROGRAM:

Yves De Clerck, M.D. is the director of the Saban Research Institute of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and a professor of pediatrics, biochemistry and molecular biology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. He is also co-leader of the Tumor Microenvironment Program. Dr. Clerck is currently leading an NIH-funded research study on the mechanisms of tumor invasion and metastasis with a primary focus on neuroblastoma—the second most common solid tumor in children—and melanoma. He has been a researcher studying the role of the tumor microenvironment and cancer progression for more than 25 years. A native of Brussels, Belgium, he earned his bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from Notre Dame University in Belgium, and his medical degree, summa cum laude, from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. He is a permanent member of the NIH Study Section of Tumor Progression and Metastasis, and serves on the Tumor Microenvironment Study Section in addition to other advisory boards at the NIH. He is currently on the editorial board of several scientific journals including Cancer Research, Clinical Cancer Research, Cancer Microenvironment, and the Journal of Cell Physiology. He has been an active participant in the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Scientist-Survivor Program for many years and has chaired two AACR sponsored conferences. Professional memberships include the AACR where he was the chair of the Local Liaison Committee for the 2005 Annual Meeting, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Society of Cell Biology. He is funded by three research grants from the NIH and has authored and co-authored more than 100 papers.

W. Martin Kast, PhD is a Professor of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology and Obstetrics & Gynecology at the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA. He currently holds the Walter A. Richter Cancer Research Chair. A native of the Netherlands, he earned his BS, MS, and PhD cum laude, from the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He has and is serving on multiple Study Sections and other advisory boards at NIH. His research involves the design of therapeutic cancer vaccines directed against human papilloma virus (HPV) and prostate cancer. Several of his therapeutic HPV vaccines have or are currently been tried out in clinical trials. He also studies the interaction of HPV with the human immune system to find out how HPV escapes immune detection and how to reverse that. He has published over 220 articles and is the inventor on 14 patents. His research is supported by 2 NIH grants, one of which is a GO grant. He is a recipient of the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek award, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences award and the IRPC Eminent Scientist of the year Award for the USA for the year 2009. He is an associate editor for Cancer Research, the Journal of Translational Medicine, International Reviews of Immunology and HPV Today. He currently serves on the advisory board of 9 biotechnology companies.

CANCER EPIDEMIOLOGY PROGRAM:

Graham Casey, Ph.D. is a professor of preventive medicine and co-director of the Cancer Epidemiology Program. Formerly at the Cleveland Clinic in the Department of Cancer Biology, he joined the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center in 2008. Dr. Casey studies breast, prostate and colorectal cancer to understand how altered gene function, whether by mutation or regulation, affects risk and progression of cancer, specifically as determinants of aggressive forms of cancer.

James Gauderman, Ph.D. is a professor of preventive medicine and co-leader of the Cancer Epidemiology Program. He has a strong research track record in both environmental and genetic epidemiology. Dr. Gauderman has collaborated with other USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center members on specific disease-based projects and has developed crosscutting methods for the design and analysis of epidemiological studies.

CANCER CONTROL RESEARCH PROGRAM:

Maryann Pentz, Ph.D. is professor of preventive medicine and director of the Institute for Prevention Research. For over a decade, Dr. Pentz’s research has focused on community and policy approaches to tobacco, alcohol and drug abuse prevention in youth. She has published widely in psychology, public health and medical journals on the use of multi-component approaches to community-based prevention including those in the mass media. Her findings from longitudinal prevention trials contributed to the formulation of government regulation, including how funds are appropriated for prevention programs under the Safe and Drug Free Schools Act. Dr. Pentz has chaired the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s Epidemiology and Prevention study section, and has served on the evaluation advisory boards for CSAP’s Community Partnership grants program and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Fighting Back Initiative. She also served on the Office of National Drug Control Policy’s Campaign Design Expert panel to design the new anti-drug abuse media campaign that Congress has just approved. She received her baccalaureate in Psychology from Hamilton College and her doctorate in Psychology from Syracuse University in 1978.

Anna Wu, Ph.D. is professor of preventive medicine and co-leader of the Cancer Control Research Program. Dr. Wu’s research focuses on the epidemiology of cancer specifically the growing incidence of specific cancers (e.g., breast, ovarian, prostate, colon) among Asian migrants to the United States. She also studies tobacco-related cancers (e.g., lung, stomach/esophagus) and how genes may be important in the metabolism of tobacco constituents.

DEVELOPMENTAL THERAPEUTICS PROGRAM:

David Ian Quinn M.B.B.S., Ph.D., F.R.A.C.P., is the medical director of the Norris Cancer Hospital,; co-leader of the Genitourinary Cancer Program for the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center; head, section of Genitourinary Medical Oncology; and associate professor of Medicine in the Division of Cancer Medicine and Blood Diseases, Keck School of Medicine. He is a graduate of the University of New South Wales Medical School in Sydney, Australia, where he graduated with bachelor of medicine, bachelor surgery with first class honors (M.D. cum laude equivalent) and the Foundation Year Graduates Medal for Leadership and Fellowship by a Graduating Student During the Medical Course. He took residency and fellowship training for the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in internal medicine, medical oncology and clinical pharmacology at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, Australia. He then moved to the Garvan Institute of Medical Research where he completed a doctoral thesis on oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes as biomarkers of outcome in prostate cancer. In 2000 he moved to the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center where his focus is on the management of genitourinary cancers. Dr. Quinn’s research interest is in the integration of molecular factors into disease outcome and response to therapy. In this area of study he has recently published in the journals Cancer Research, Clinical Cancer Research, Oncogene, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Journal of the National Cancer Institute and Journal of Clinical Oncology.

GENITOURINARY CANCERS PROGRAM:

Dr. Gerhard (Gerry) Coetzee, Ph.D. is professor of Urology, Preventive Medicine and Microbiology at USC with 30 years of molecular biology experience. He is the co-leader of the Genitourinary Cancers program. Dr. Coetzee is currently leading an NIH-funded research study on the role of the steroid receptors in prostate and breast cancer predisposition and progression. Major findings during the past decade include the role of polymorphisms in the androgen receptor (AR) gene and prostate cancer predisposition, the role of AR signaling in ablation-resistant prostate cancer, and more recently genome-wide AR occupancy, including associated modified histone signatures. He is currently using these techniques to identify regulatory sequences at loci affecting prostate cancer predisposition (risk). Recently his lab discovered the first androgen-dependent enhancers at 8q24 that affected transcriptional regulation related to prostate cancer risk.

GASTROINTESTINAL CANCERS PROGRAM:

Michael Kahn, Ph.D., is the first Provost’s Professor of Medicine and Pharmacy at the University of Southern California with a joint appointment in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Keck School of Medicine and the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences in the School of Pharmacy. He is co-leader of the Developmental Therapeutics Program. Prior to joining USC, Dr. Kahn was the scientific director at the Institute for Chemical Genomics and a professor at the University of Washington. He was the scientific founder of Molecumetics, a drug discovery company that developed small molecule mimics of large proteins. Dr. Kahn’s lab has emerged as a leader in the study of chemical genomics, which uses small molecules to dissect complex signaling pathways.

He obtained his B.A. at Columbia University in chemistry, his Ph.D. at Yale University in organic synthesis and was an National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University with Professor Gilbert Stork. Dr. Kahn’s lab has been working in the area of Wnt signaling for the past eight years. Recently, his lab’s efforts have focused on Wnt signaling in development, cancer and cancer stem cells. For the past three years, his lab has been particularly involved in the role of Wnt signaling in ES cells and the maintenance of pluripotency versus the initiation of differentiation. He has published over 75 papers and more than 20 U.S. patent applications.

Heinz-Josef Lenz, MD, FACP, is professor of medicine and of preventive medicine in the Division of Medical Oncology at Keck School of Medicine. He is co-director of the Colorectal Center and the GI Oncology Program as well as scientific director of the Cancer Geriatrics Unit at USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center in Los Angeles, California. He also serves as associate director of clinical research for the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Lenz received his medical degree from Johannes-Gutenberg Universität in Mainz, Germany in 1985. He completed a residency in hematology and oncology at the University Hospital Tübingen in Germany, a clerkship in oncology at George Washington University in Washington, DC, and a clerkship in hematology at Beth Israel Hospital of Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. He served subsequent fellowships in biochemistry and molecular biology at the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. An active researcher, Dr. Lenz focuses include: the regulation of gene expression involved in drug resistance; patients at high risk of developing colorectal cancer; determination of carcinogenesis; methods of early detection; and better surveillance of these cancers. He is a member of several professional societies, including the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Gastroenterology Association, and the National Society of Genetic Counselors. He also serves on the National Advisory Board of a number of professional organizations. Dr. Lenz is the author of numerous peer-reviewed publications and invited papers, reviews and editorials. In addition to having an NCI-funded laboratory, he is a recipient of the ASCO Young Investigator Award, the ASCO Career Development Award, and the STOP Cancer Career Development Award. He has been listed in the Best Doctors’ database (www.bestdoctors.com) since 2003.

WOMEN’S CANCERS PROGRAM:

Michael F. Press, M.D., Ph.D. is a professor in the Department of Pathology and co-leader of the Women’s Cancers Program. He received his M.D., Ph.D. and residency training at the University of Chicago. He was a member of the University of Chicago faculty for seven years before joining the faculty of the University of Southern California in 1988. Dr. Press is currently the director for the Breast Cancer International Research Group Central Laboratory, the coordinator of the Breast Cancer Program at USC/Norris Cancer Center and holds the Harold E. Lee Chair in Cancer Research in the USC/Norris Cancer Center. His research interests are molecular genetic alterations in breast and gynecologic cancers.

Debu Tripathy, MD is Professor of Medicine and Co-Leader of the Women’s Cancer Program and he holds the Priscilla and Art Chair in Women’s Cancer. He received his medical degree and internal medicine residency at Duke University and Hematology/Oncology Fellowship at the University of California at San Francisco. His area of clinical research interest is novel therapeutics in breast cancer, specifically, growth factor receptor pathway targeting as well as biomarkers that predict sensitivity and resistance. Elucidation of specific mechanisms of resistance and synthetic lethal combinatorial strategies from the laboratory are being applied for early phase therapeutic applications. Similarly, human tissue studies from patients receiving conventional and targeted therapies are being analyzed toward the discovery of novel targets. Dr. Tripathy is also part of a multi-disciplinary team of breast cancer specialists dedicated to patient-centered state-of-the-art and personalized approaches to care, with an emphasis on clinical trials that interface with the basic scientific strengths at USC. Dr. Tripathy has published numerous original laboratory and clinical research articles in the area of breast cancer and serves on several editorial boards, study sections and societies. He has served as the President of the American Society of Breast Disease and the Society of Integrative Oncology.

LEUKEMIA AND LYMPHOMA PROGRAM:

Preet M. Chaudhary, M.D., Ph.D. is chief of the Jane Anne Nohl Division of Hematology and Center for the Study of Blood Diseases in the Department of Medicine and Associate Director for Translational Research and coleader of the leukemia-lymphoma program at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Hospital. Dr. Chaudhary comes to USC from the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, where he is professor of medicine, director for translational research, leader of the hematologic malignancies program and co-leader of the cancer stem cell program. As a physician-scientist dedicated to hematologic oncology, Dr. Chaudhary has research interests in several areas of cancer, including AIDS-associated cancers, cancer drug resistance, biology of normal and leukemic hematopoietic stem cells, programmed cell death and cellular signaling. Dr. Chaudhary holds six U.S. patents and has published in some of the top scientific journals, including Cell, Immunity, JNCI, PNAS and Blood. He has served as a peer-reviewer for several national and international cancer research funding agencies and has been elected to the prestigious American Society for Clinical Investigations, an honor society of the top physician-scientists in the country.

Markus Müschen, M.D., joined the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center as leader of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Program in January 2007. He is an associate professor of pediatrics, biochemistry and molecular biology and also the director of the Leukemia Research Program at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. In 1999 he completed his doctoral thesis in biochemistry and after postdoctoral training under Klaus Rajewsky, Volker Diehl, Janet D Rowley and Martin Krönke. He was appointed as an assistant professor of immunology at the University of Cologne, Germany in 2002. In 2004, he was recruited as a tenured professor of stem cell biology to the University of Düsseldorf, Germany. His main research interests include genetic instability and oncogenic signaling pathways in B cell lineage acte lymphoblastic leukemias and signal transduction pathways during normal early B cell development.

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