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News

2023

• Gabriel Harris joins our lab in the Fall as a BMS PhD Student, co-mentored by Kurt Ristroph of ABE
• Shreya successfully defended her thesis and is a postdoc at Pfizer. Congrats to Dr. Kumar for her outstanding presentation and work! Shreya’s work was published recently at: Cabozantinib and IL-27 combinatorial therapy for bone-metastatic prostate cancer. Another paper is in preparation.
• Dielson Vieira, DVM, MS, PhD joins our lab as a postdoc fellow, co-mentored by Dr. Sintim of Chemistry.
• Our collaboration with the Picanço-Castro lab at USP-Ribeirão Preto produced a new publication,  Engineering NK-CAR.19 cells with the IL-15/IL-15Rα complex improved proliferation and anti-tumor effect in vivo.
• Our new collaboration with Dr. Fonseca-Alves of São Paulo State University-UNESP, produced a new publication, Is Osteopontin a Good Marker for Bone Metastasis in Canine Mammary Gland Tumor and Prostate Cancer?
• Our collaboration with Dr. Sintim of Chemistry and Dr. Lescun of VCS produced a paper: Global proteomics insights for a novel small compound targeting the non integrin LR in a macrophage cell model

2022

• Ying Cheng Chen, M.S., joins our lab in the Fall as a BMS PhD Student
• Cosette successfully defended her thesis and is a postdoc at Cincinnati’s Children’s hospital. Congrats to Dr. Rivera-Cruz for her outstanding presentation and work!
• Dr. Rivera-Cruz has had several publications relating to her work in our lab:
  • Poly I:C-priming of adipose-derived mesenchymal stromal cells promotes a pro-tumorigenic phenotype in an immunocompetent mouse model of prostate cancer.
  • Evaluation of human adipose-derived mesenchymal stromal cell Toll-like receptor priming and effects on interaction with prostate cancer cells.
  • Immunotherapy by mesenchymal stromal cell delivery of oncolytic viruses for treating metastatic tumors

• Our collaboration with the Emrick lab produced a publication, Designing Synthetic Polymers for Nucleic Acid Complexation and Delivery: From Polyplexes to Micelleplexes to Triggered Degradation.
• Our postdoc, Ale Marin, published her project as: Enhancing Prednisone-Based Arthritis Therapy with Targeted IL-27 Gene Delivery

• Wes Salameh published on her project:
  A Second-Generation Nanoluc-IL27 Fusion Cytokine for Targeted-Gene-Therapy Applications.

2021

• Our team, along with Dr. Emrick’s lab, published on polymer zwitterions: Fluorinated Polymer Zwitterions: Choline Phosphates and Phosphorylcholines
• Our team published advances in nonviral vectors for gene therapy and immune therapy:
  • Advances in the Development and the Applications of Nonviral, Episomal Vectors for Gene Therapy.
  • Reengineering Tumor Microenvironment with Sequential Interleukin Delivery.

Fall 2020

• Wes successfully defended her thesis titled "Targeted Cytokine-based Gene Therapies for Treating Prostate Cancer Bone Metastases." Congrats to Wes (aka Dr. Salameh!) for her outstanding presentation and work!
• Congrats to Marxa for receiving two awards in the College: the Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award and the Zoetis Award for Research Excellence. She will be receiving these awards at the Purdue Veterinary Conference for her fantastic work teaching and helping students in and out of the classroom and for her innovative research to advanced the science of veterinary medicine, respectively. These awards are definitely well-deserved!
• Richard, Zach, and Marxa, along with our collaborator at UMass Amherst, published a paper in Bioengineering titled Sonoporation in Skeletal Muscle: Current Approaches and Future Potential. Great work!

Summer 2020

• Grace Mulia, a former rotation student, has joined the lab as a PhD student in the PULSe program. We are excited to have her back in the lab to stay!
• Ramon, Cosette, and Marxa, along with collaborators in Brazil, published a paper in Toxicology In Vitro titled Copper transporter 1 affinity as a delivery strategy to improve the cytotoxic profile of rationally designed copper(II) complexes for cancer treatment. Great work!
• Marxa secured a grant from CTSI for a pilot study on using gene delivery of cytokines to help combat the negative effects COVID-19 has on the lungs
• Cosette passed her prelim and is officially a doctoral candidate! Congrats and great work!
• Richard "attended" and "presented" a poster at the first ASGCT Virtual Conference

Spring 2020

• Marxa, Wes, and Richard, along with collaborators at UMass Amherst, published a paper in Molecular Therapy - Methods and Clinical Development titled "Ligand-Mediated Targeting of Cytokine Interleukin-27 Enhances Its Bioactivity In Vivo." Great work!
• Michael has been accepted into the IBSC PhD program and will be continuing on in our lab for his graduate studies starting Fall 2020. We are very excited to be keeping him in the lab and look forward to seeing his progress. Congrats Michael!
• Virginia and Marxa, along with collaborators in Brazil and Greece, published a paper in Nature Biotechnology titled "Emerging patent landscape for non-viral vectors used for gene therapy." Read the Purdue Press Release here! Great work!
• Wes and Marxa, along with collaborators at IUPUI, published a paper in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences titled "Interleukin-27 Gene Delivery Targeting IL-6Rα-Expressing Cells as a Stress Response Therapy." Great work! 
• Richard, Cosette, Shreya, Wes, and Krista all presented posters at the Indiana CTSI Retreat at Purdue University in January and at the Health and Disease: Science, Technology, Culture and Policy Research Poster Session in March
• We have two rotational students joining our lab for part of this semester:
  • Siyuan Sun
  • Roopashi Saxena

Fall 2019

• Wes and Marxa, along with collaborators at UMass Amherst, published a paper in WIREs titled "Polymer-mediated gene therapy: Recent advances and merging of delivery techniques." Great work!
• We have had two rotational students in our lab for part of this semester:
  • Grace Mulia
  • Kofi Yeboah
• Marxa, Virginia, and Cosette all attended the International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy (ISCT) North America 2019 Regional Meeting, “Engineering the Future of Cell and Gene Therapies” in Madison, WI 
• Marxa presented at the Stem Cell Meeting on campus

Summer 2019

• Krista Huff has joined our lab as a masters student in the BMS program!
• We have multiple new summer researchers working in our lab this summer
  • Chris Williams, a Purdue DVM student
  • Chad Coakley, a Purdue DVM Student

Fall 2018/Spring 2019

• All three of our graduate students - Cosette, Shreya, and Wes - had the opportunity to present posters at the Experimental Biology Conference in Orlando, FL
• Four new postdoctoral researchers have joined our lab:
  
  • Masnsen Cherief, PhD, working on arthritis immunotherapy research
  • Clinton Mikek, PhD, working on laminin receptor and small molecule development
  • Richard Decker, PhD, working on molecular biology, website updates, and sonoporation
  • Virginia Picanco e Castro, PhD, working on vector development
• Two rotation students in the PULSe program joined our lab for part of the Spring semester:
  • Xue (Shirley) Yao
  • Annika Robinson-Hudspeth
• Ramon Gomes Teles joined our lab as a visiting scholar from Brazil

Summer 2018

• A new postdoctoral fellow is joining our lab this summer: Dr. Nurul H Sulimai, DVM, PhD; arthritis immunotherapy research
• A new PhD student has joined our lab, Shreya Kumar (PULSe program); IL-27 immunotherapy project
• The lab has several students for summer research:
  • Krista Huff; PVM Summer Research Fellows Program; MSC biology
  • Michael Robinson; Biological Sciences Summer Undergraduate Research Internship; Laminin Receptor biology 
  • Sven Phillips; Arthritis immunotherapy research
  • Danielle Keating; Equine Research Pilot: MSC biology and drug discovery

Spring 2018

• The lab has presented several posters at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Chicago, IL
• Wes Salameh, a grad student in the IBSC program, has joined our lab 

AUGUST 2017

• Cosette Rivera-Cruz has joined our lab as a BMS Ph.D. student. She is the recipient of a Purdue Doctoral Fellowship 

June-July 2017

• Joe Shearer started as a postdoc and Cancer Prevention Fellow at the National Institute for Cancer (NCI). Congrats!
• Sam Umbaugh will start as a postdoc in the Fall at Dr. Claudio Joazeiro's lab at the ZMBH at Heidelberg, Germany. Congrats!
• Michael Robinson is participating in the Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP) for the second time. Congrats!
• Krista Huff is participating in lab research. Congrats!

April-May 2017

• Joe Shearer and Sam Umbaugh have successfully defended their Ph.D. theses

June 2016

• Lab contributes a chapter to the new book "Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSCs): Biology, Mechanisms of Action and Clinical Uses" entitled Mesenchymal Stem Cell Recruitment into Prostate Tumors

May 2016

• Lab attends and presents work at the 1st IU Musculoskeletal Symposium in Indianapolis, IL
• Manoel F Neto received the Bravo Award at PVM for innovation and creativity in drug discovery for cartilage repair using adipose derived mesenchymal stem/stromal cells
• The lab published a manuscript in Environmental Health Perspectives with Joe Shearer as the first author and Sam Umbaugh as a co author, entitled "Inorganic Arsenic Exposure Aberrantly Reprograms epithelial interactions with adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells". This study was profiled in EHP due to the impact of the findings on potential health issues mediated by iAs in drinking water

April 2016

• Our lab has been awarded a National Insitutes of Health grant entitled "Disrupting tumor/bone malignant interactions with multifunctional cytokine sonodelivery"
• Lab has presented work at the Tackling Joint Disease by Understanding Crosstalk between Cartilage and Bone Research Symposium (Orthopedic Research Society) in Rosemont, IL
• Sam Umbaugh has traveled and presented his work at the Experimental Biology 2016 in San Diego, CA
• Joe Shearer has traveled and presented his work at the Society for Toxicology 2016 meeting in New Orleans, LA
• Sam Umbaugh received the Graduate Student Research Award at the 2016 Phi Zeta Day at the PVM

January-March 2016

• Sam Umbaugh’s research was selected for an oral presentation at Experimental Biology in San Diego this year in April at the session "CELL SIGNALING IN CANCER BIOLOGY AND THERAPEUTICS"

September-December 2015

• Sam received a travel grant from the Purdue University Center for Cancer Research to go to Experimental Biology in San Diego in April
• Lab received a grant from the Indiana CTSI Core Pilot (CTSI) entitled "Elucidating Laminin Receptor Function for Drug Discovery Applications" 
• Dr. Figueiredo participated in the team that was awarded the "Diversity Transformative Award" (Purdue Provost’s Office) with Dr. Susan Mendrysa 

October 2015

• Joe Shearer won best poster award at the Lone Star Society of Toxicology meeting.  The lab presented two posters at the Purdue Cancer Center Research Day

August 2015

• The lab moved to the Basic Medical Sciences Department at Purdue to pursue broader collaborative work in musculoskeletal biology and immunology