Publications by Drs. Iavarone & Lasorella

Simona Migliozzi

Dr. Simona Migliozzi received her PhD in Molecular Oncology in 2019. She is currently an Assistant Scientist with an expertise in computational biology. Her interest is developing computational tools to dissect glioma ecosystem heterogeneity and identify more effective targeted therapies. She plays a key role in the integration of multi-omics platforms for the stratification of clinically informative glioma subtypes. She is currently working on spatial transcriptomics data from glioma samples to identify tumor cell subpopulations and to address whether and how the spatial interactions between malignant and non- malignant cells shape the GBM ecosystem and explore their regulatory effects on interacting cells and downstream biological signaling. She recently got the K99-R00 NIH Pathway to Independence Award mentored by Dr. Iavarone.

Luciano Garofano

Luciano is a Research Assistant Professor for the Division of Biostatistics at the Department of Public Health Sciences. He received his Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from the University of Sannio, in Benevento, Italy. During his doctoral studies, he contributed to the generation of a computational framework for the inference of gene regulatory networks and uncovered the Master Regulators responsible of the transcriptomic program active in the glioblastoma (GBM) harboring the FGFR3-TACC3 fusion gene, a genetic alteration present in 5% of all cancer.

As a post-doctoral research scientist at the Columbia University, he developed innovative computational approaches integrating multi-omics data to dissect the glioblastoma heterogeneity and identified functional subtypes with distinct prognosis and therapeutic vulnerabilities. He also developed an unbiased protein kinase signaling network for the selection of Master Kinases as druggable targets differentially active in each GBM subtypes.

His research interest at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center is to investigate the molecular mechanisms driving the evolution of glioma, in particular GBM, and dissect the tumor and non-tumor components within the glioma microenvironment.

Aram Ko

Aram has obtained a bachelor's and a master’s degree in Biology from Sungkyunkwan University and a doctorate in Biology from Yonsei University in Korea. Her research has been focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms behind cancer development. Specifically, she has studied E3 ubiquitin ligases and deubiquitinases and their role in regulating the protein homeostasis of oncoproteins or tumor suppressors. She has also explored how the dysregulation of these molecules can lead to cancer development and ways to target them for cancer therapy. She has now broadened her research interests to include the study of epigenetic regulation in cancer.

Saloni Jain

Saloni is from India and has moved to the United States to pursue her career in the field of genetics. She has earned her M.S. in Medical Genetics and Genomics from Tulane University. She aspires to use her technical knowledge and skills in research. Her areas of interest are Cancer Genetics, Gene Therapy, Epigenetics.

Mohammad Hasanain

Mohammad Hasanain was born in a small city Jaunpur, in Uttar Pradesh, India. His Ph.D. work focused on exploring mechanism of action of lead molecules with anticancer activity that were identified through screening, with particular emphasis on role of apoptosis and autophagy in promoting cancer cell death. His major focus was to understand crosstalk between autophagy and apoptotic machinery in the development of new chemotherapeutic agents.

After completing Ph.D., he joined the Dr. Iavarone and Dr. Lasorella Lab in January 2020 in Institute for Cancer Genetics at Columbia University in The City of New York. Afterwards, he moved with the lab in University of Miami Health System (Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center) in September 2022 and continued his work. Hasanain's major work focused on investigating the glioblastoma micro-environment, self-renewing properties of glioma stem cells (GSCs) and the driving force behind glioblastoma (GBM) growth and tumor microenvironment (TME). His larger goals in biomedical research are to develop and use mouse model of GBM, to uncover mechanisms and to translate the findings to human GBM therapeutic targets.

Jichang Han

Jichang is an Assistant Scientist at the SCCC of the University of Miami. He completed his Doctorate in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology through a joint program between the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) and ShanghaiTech University. From 2020 to 2022, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, UCAS, where he was awarded grants from the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation and the National Natural Science Foundation. In 2022, he joined Professor Antonio Iavarone’s team. His current research focuses on exploring the interactions between tumor and non-tumor cells in glioblastoma, supported by a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Human Frontier Science Program.

Nadezda Gryaznova

Nadezda Gryaznova is a Ph.D. student. She got her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Miami. Nadezda joined the Lab as a master's student in 2022 and after an excellent completion of the degree she continues to work as a doctoral student. Ms. Gryaznova's project focuses on immunohistochemical analysis of glioblastoma subtypes.

Xiaokong (Jenson) Gao

Jenson is a postdoctoral associate in the lab. He earned his M.D. degree from Central South University in China, an M.S. from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. from SUNY Upstate Medical University. He is interested in studying ubiquitinomics to explore novel vulnerabilities in GBM. When he is out of the lab, he enjoys cooking and playing basketball.

Jessica Chimene Fernandes

Jessica is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Miami/SCCC at Dr. Iavarone’s and Dr. Lasorella’s lab. She earned her bachelor's degree in Biomedical Science at the Federal University of Parana in Brazil, and her master's degree at Instituto Carlos Chagas/Fiocruz. During her master’s degree she focused on the development of bi-specific antibodies for cancer, and she has more than 10 years' experience in Research Laboratories working with Cell culture, Molecular Biology, Cellular biology, Laboratory management/Biosafety and Animal models. Currently she supports the laboratory handling brain tumor cell cultures, mouse colony management, and general laboratory organization.

Sophia De Jesús Lino

Sophia earned her B.S. in Biological Sciences with a dual minor in Chemistry and Psychology. She received her degree from Florida State University, where she also participated in geochemistry research at the National High Magnetic-Field Laboratory. She then became an associate at the Baptist Hospital Cardio-oncology research team at Wake Forest Medical School. Sophia joined the Dr. Iavarone/Dr. Lasorella Lab in 2023 and looks forward to building her experience and pursuing her master's degree.

Fulvio D'Angelo

Fulvio D'Angelo currently serves as a Research Assistant Professor at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami. His primary research endeavors center around the genomic profiling of both sporadic and syndromic gliomas. His goal is to identify genetic alterations pivotal in driving gliomagenesis and the subsequent evolution of tumors. Fulvio D'Angelo earned his master’s degree in Medical Biotechnologies in 2006, followed by the completion of his PhD in Genetics in 2011 at the University of Naples Federico II. Post PhD, Fulvio D'Angelo's focus shifted to emerging high-throughput sequencing technologies. Since 2017 he has been an integral part of the research groups led by Prof. Antonio Iavarone and Prof. Anna Lasorella. His current research involves the comprehensive molecular profiling of clinical and experimental samples aiming to uncover critical insights into the nature of glioma.

Kosuke Aoki

Kosuke Aoki is a neurosurgeon in Japan. Over the past decade he has dedicated his career to multi-omics analyses of brain tumors, unraveling the intricate molecular landscapes that underlie these complex conditions. Currently his focus is on advancing analyses in single-cell RNA sequencing, aiming to gain deeper insights into the heterogeneity of cellular populations and contribute to the field's understanding of neuro-oncology.

Bruno Adaboo

Bruno is a Ph.D. Student in Computational and Quantitative Biology with a solid background in Mathematics and Statistics. Following the completion of his master’s degree he directed his theoretical expertise towards advancing cancer research, demonstrating a dedicated commitment to making substantial contributions to the scientific community. His research interests span a wide spectrum, including chromatin remodeling, genome architecture and spatial transcriptomics. His primary focus is on the computational and modeling aspects of cancer biology, which are pivotal for making advancements in the understanding and treatment of cancer in the era of big data.