Research interests
How does a normal cell become cancerous? What factors enable cancer cells to grow rapidly, evade immune surveillance and metastasize to distant sites? How does the tumor microenvironment evolve during this process? Why are the extant anti-cancer therapeutics largely ineffective? How can we develop more effective therapeutic strategies that will improve clinical outcome in patients with metastatic disease? These are some of the broad questions we seek to address in our laboratory.
Teaching interests
BIOL 444/644 - Development and Cancer
BIOL 303 - Cell Biology
BIOL 499L - Undergraduate Research Seminar (Independent Study)
Education
- Postdoc, Molecular and Cellular Biology — Baylor College of Medicine (2019)
- Postdoc, Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry — Yale University (2015)
- Ph D, Biological Sciences — University of Maryland Baltimore County (2011)
- BS, Biotechnology — Bharathidasan University (2005)
Publications
- ZNF217 promotes ovarian cancer progression by impacting multiple pivotal steps in the metastatic process 2025
- Biology of ovarian cancer: Models, microenvironment, and therapeutics: 15th Biennial Rivkin Center Ovarian Cancer Research Symposium 2025
- Zinc Oxide nanoparticles induce oxidative and proteotoxic stress in ovarian cancer cells and trigger apoptosis Independent of p53-mutation status 2019
- VCAM1 Is Induced in Ovarian Theca and Stromal Cells in a Mouse Model of Androgen Excess 2019
- Selective targeting of p53 gain-of-function mutants in cancer 2018
- USP15-dependent lysosomal pathway controls p53-R175H turnover in ovarian cancer cells 2018
- Regulating NKX3.1 stability and function: Post-translational modifications and structural determinants 2016
- Assembly of an Evolutionarily Conserved Alternative Proteasome Isoform in Human Cells 2016
- Protein kinase A regulates MYC protein through transcriptional and post-translational mechanisms in a catalytic subunit isoform-specific manner 2013
- Stabilization of the prostate-specific tumor suppressor NKX3.1 by the oncogenic protein kinase Pim-1 in prostate cancer cells 2013
- The reverse in-gel kinase assay to profile physiological kinase substrates 2007
Grants and Contracts
- Identifying novel regulators of metastatic ovarian tumor immune microenvironment 2026
- Implementing multiomic long read sequencing approaches to characterize high grade serous transcriptional dependencies 2025
- Developing novel therapeutic combinations to overcome chemoresistance in metastatic ovarian cancer 2025
- High throughput screen to identify novel therapeutic combinations for metastatic ovarian cancer 2024
- Role of protein kinase ADCK5 in ovarian cancer 2023
- Role and Regulation of ZNF217 in ovarian cancer progression and drug resistance 2023
- Clinically translatable strategies to improve therapeutic response in metastatic ovarian cancer 2023
- Accelerated Translational Incubator Pilot (ATIP) Grant 2023
- UMBC Summer Research Faculty Fellowship (SURFF) 2023
- Technology Catalyst Fund Award 2022
- Elsa U. Pardee Foundation Grant 2021
- COMMERCIALIZATION & ENTR RESEARCH (CENTRE) FUNDING INITIATIVE 2021
- ENTREPRENEURSHIP & INNOVATION CURRICULUM GRANT 2021
- Strategic Awards for Research Transitions (START) 2021
- UMGCCC Payline Pilot Grant 2021
- Accelerated Translational Incubator Pilot (ATIP) Grant 2020
- American Cancer Society - Institutional Research Grant 2020
- Scientific Scholar Award 2019