CPRIT BIG-TCR Postdoctoral Fellowship in Cancer Research

CPRIT BIG-TCR Postdoctoral Fellowship in Cancer Research is sponsored by University of Texas Health (UTHealth). Provides interdisciplinary training in cancer research, leveraging UTHealth’s programs in cancer biology, genomics, data science, and translational medicine.

CPRIT Fellowship - Fellowship Training - UTHealth Houston School of Public Health UTHealth Houston – CPRIT Innovation in Cancer Prevention Research Training Program: Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowships Jumpstart your research career in cancer prevention! Outstanding doctoral students and postdocs from diverse disciplines in UTHealth Houston, who are committed to a career in cancer prevention research!

Our program, sponsored by the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas, trains early doctoral and postdoctoral scholars to: apply the tools of innovative thinking and cutting-edge research methods engage in trans-disciplinary teams tackle cancer disparities move the field of cancer prevention forward Applicants should have a project focused on cancer prevention: Primary Prevention: Measures that prevent the onset of illness before the disease process begins - through vaccinations, altering risky behaviors (e.g., poor eating.

habits, tobacco use, sedentary living), and reducing environmental, occupational, and product exposures (e.g., ultraviolet radiation, tobacco, pesticides, viruses, and bacteria) Secondary Prevention: Measures that lead to early detection and prompt treatment of cancer or precancerous processes (e.g., screening for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer) Tertiary prevention/Survivorship: Measures that aim to soften the impact of common consequences of cancer and cancer treatment for the person with cancer and others (e.g., prevention of lymphedema, coordination of care, support for mental, physical, and financial well-being) We recruit from the Schools of Bioinformatics, Public Health (all campuses), Biomedical Sciences, Nursing, and McGovern Medical School.

All fellows take part in an integrative seminar in the spring and fall semesters of the fellowship, take short courses from other schools, lead sessions for the summer undergraduate trainees, and work on joint projects. The program is generously funded by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas grant (RP#210042).

The CPRIT program was created in 2007 as part of a voter-approved constitutional amendment authorizing the state to issue $3 billion in bonds to fund groundbreaking cancer research and prevention programs and services in Texas, and it was renewed in 2021. You can find out more about CPRIT on their website: https://www. cprit.

state. tx. us/ Applications are currently paused Thank you for your interest in our Fellowship Program.

At this time, we are not accepting applications for new fellows. Applications are currently paused Thank you for your interest in our Fellowship Program. At this time, we are not accepting applications for new fellows.

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CPRIT Fellowship Current Trainees SBMI = School of Biomedical Informatics; SPH = School of Public Health; GSBS = Graduate School of Biomedical Informatics Current Predoctoral Fellows School, Department, Mentor Joseph DeCunha, MS (“Full lineal energy spectrum-based tumor and normal tissue biological effect models for ion therapy”) GSBS, Department of Radiation Physics (Radhe Mohan) Zaphanlene Kaffey, MS (“Developing an uncertainty-aware predictive tool for early detection of osteoradionecrosis”) GSBS, Department of Radiation Physics (Clifton David Fuller) Kris Wang, MS (“Investigating aneuploid cells in breast tissues from disease-free women using single-cell multi-omics”) GSBS, Department of Systems Biology (Nicholas Navin) Shiming Zhang, MS (“Occupational and Physical Therapy Services in Pediatric Cancer Survivors”) SPH, Department of Biostatistics & Data Sciences (Michael Swartz) Barbara Marquez, MS (“An automated, specialized contour review system for radiotherapy”) GSBS, Department of Radiation Physics (Laurence Court, PhD) Kevin Liu, MS (“Selective sparing normal tissue in the gastrointestinal tract in FLASH radiotherapy for both proton and electron beamlines”) GSBS, Department of Radiation Physics (Emil Schüler, PhD) Summer Yang, MS (“Developing a patient-centric chatbot to drive clinical trials matching”) SBMI, Department of Health Data Science & Artificial Intelligence (Kirk Roberts) Yeseul Kim, MS (“Detecting changes in diagnostic imaging to aid early detection, risk stratification, and treatment response for pancreatic cancer") GSBS, Department of Radiation Oncology (Eugene J.

Koay, PhD) Anna DeBruine, MS (“Estrogen-related receptors as therapeutic targets in cancer cachexia") GSBS, Institute of Molecular Medicine (Vihang Narkar, PhD) Current Postdoctoral Fellows School, Department, Mentor Beatrice Manduchi, PhD (“Predicting Post-Transoral Surgery Dysphagia in HPV+ Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Survivors Using Easily Accessible Measures: A Secondary Analysis of International Trial Datasets”) GSBS, Department of Head & Neck Surgery (Katherine Hutcheson, PhD) Manvi Sharma, PhD ("Interplay between diet, gut microbiome, and host immune responses in lung cancer development and progression") GSBS, Department of Translational Molecular Pathology (Humam Kadara, PhD) Doctoral Alumni by School (Name, Project, Mentor, & Current Position) Cong Zhu, PhD, MPH - 2021 (“A machine learning based multi-dimensional framework for studying the risk of radiotherapy-induced lymphopenia and its associated survival among esophageal cancer patients”) Epidemiology, Genetics, & Environmental Sciences (Radhe Mohan, Goo Jun) Principal Biostatistician Andrew Aschenbrenner, PhD – 2019 (Moving beyond the single gene: Integrative gene set analysis for RNA-seq) Biostatistics & Data Science (Yunxin Fu, David Loose) Ming Cao, PhD – 2017 (Improved statistical inference for social networks by combining exponential random graph models and latent space models) Biostatistics & Data Science (Kayo Fujimoto, Yonghui Wu) Zhou Renke, PhD – 2014 (A flexible semiparametric joint model for semi-completing risks data with missing cause of informative terminal event) Biostatistics & Data Science (Jing Ning, Melissa Bondy) Principal Biostatistician Ebun O.

Ebunlomo, PhD, MPH, MCHES – 2014 (Health promotion, not cancer prevention: Nigerian women and breast health) Health Promotion & Behavioral Sciences (Sheryl McCurdy) Curriculum Manager of MPH Clinical Assistant Professor' Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences Xinyuan Zhang, PhD, MS – 2022 (“How to better combine human knowledge with an automatic computer algorithm to improve the overall accuracy and interpretability for skin disease images classification”) Laila Bekhet, PhD, MSc, MBA – 2021 (“An implementable deep learning based model for predicting clinical events using electronic health records structured data”) UTHealth, School of Biomedical Informatics YuanYuan Liu, PhD, MS – 2020 (Personalized estimation and causal inference via deep learning algorithms) Director of Natural Language Processing, UTHealth, School of Biomedical Informatics Zhigo Yu, PhD, MS – 2017 (Understanding PubMed search results using topic models and interactive information visualization) (George Delclos, Todd Johnson) Franck Diaz Vasquez Garelli, PhD – 2016 (FAQ DataGauge: A model-driven framework for systematically assessing the quality of clinical data for secondary use) (Todd Johnson, Elmer Bernstam) Dept of Public Health Sciences University of North Carolina at Charlotte Sahiti Myneni, PhD, MSE – 2013 (Attributing meaning to online social network analysis for tailored socio-behavioral support systems) (Trevor Cohen, Kayo Fuijimoto) Associate Professor and Associate Director for Digital Health and Analytics UTHealth, School of Biomedical Informatics Mikayla Bowen, MS - 2024 (“Understanding mitochondrial depletion in Lynch syndrome-related endometrial carcinogenesis provides a novel phenotype with metabolic consequences for screening or preventing endometrial cancer”) Gynecologic Oncology & McGovern Med School (Melinda Yates) Taylor Halsey, PhD, MS - 2024 (“Reducing the risk and severity of immune-mediated colitis following treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors”) Genomic Medicine (Robert Jenq) Ruoyu Wang, MS - 2022 (“Mapping 3D epigenome alterations in human Down Syndrome”) Biochemistry & Cell Biology (Wenbo Li) Brittney Jewell, PhD – 2021 (The role of oxidative phosphorylation in a novel model of iPSC-derived osteosarcomagenesis) Biochemistry & Cell Biology (Dung-Fang Lee) Salk Institute for Biological Studies Tristen Tellman, PhD – 2021 (Perlecan-Semaphorin 3A-Plexin A1-Neuropilin-1 Complex: Flipping the switch controlling metastatic behavior of prostate cancer cells) Diagnostic & Biomedical Sciences (Mary C.

Farach-Carson) American Association for Cancer Research Dept of Diagnostic & Biomedical Sciences UTHealth, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Vinay Nair, PhD, MS – 2021 (“Identifying the structural basis of KRAS-mediated cell proliferation induced by membrane depolarization”) Diagnostic & Biomedical Sciences (Alemayehu Gorfe, John F.

Hancock) Dept of Biochemistry & Cell Biology Computational Institute for Applied Cancer Science MD Anderson Cancer Center Ruoji Zhou, MD, PhD, MS – 2019 (Modeling cancer using Li-Fraumeni Syndrome patient T-derived induced pluripotent stem cells) Integrative Biology & Pharmacology (Dung-Fang Lee) Dept of Urology and Pathology Northwestern Memorial Hospital David Savage, MD, PhD – 2018 (UBE4B levels determine the efficacy of EGFR and STAT5 inhibitors in treatment resistant neuroblastoma) Neuroscience & Cancer Biology (Andrew Bean) PGY3 in Internal Medicine and Hematology Fellow Krit Ritthipichai, PhD, DVM, MS – 2016 (Mechanistic and functional characterization of B and T Lymphocyte Attenuator (BTLA) in CD8 tumor infiltrating lymphocytes) Immunology (Chantale Bernatchez, Roza Nurieva) Assistant Professor of Microbiology Dept of Microbiology and Immunology Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine Jessica Hernandez Chacon, PhD – 2014 (Activating the 4-1BB pathway for the expansion of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes for adoptive T-cell therapy for metastatic melanoma patients) Dept of Medical Education Texas Tech University Health Science Center, Paul L.

Foster School of Medicine Sharangdhar Phatak, PhD – 2012 (Advanced protein modeling method: Benchmarking and applications to computer-aided drug discovery) Immunology (George Stancel, Shuzing Zhang) Postdoctoral Alumni by School (Name, Project, Mentor, & Current Position) Azam Yazdani, PhD – 2015 (Integrating different types of omicdata to identify robust statistical causal structures and causal inferences) Human Genetics Center (Eric Boerwinkle, Devika Subramanian, Hao Xu) Dept of Anesthesiology, Perioperative & Pain Medicine Brigham & Women’s Hospital Katherine Hutcheson, PhD – 2013 (High burden of late effects upon entry into head & neck survivorship care) Epidemiology, Human Genetics & Environmental Sciences (Jan Lewin, Kay Bartholomew) Dept of Head & Neck Surgery Chief for Speech Pathology & Audiology The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Hung Luu, MD, PhD, MPH – 2013 (The role of toll-like receptors in cervical dysplasia) Epidemiology, Human Genetics & Environmental Sciences (David Loose, Jennifer Nettleton) Graduate School of Public Health, Dept of Epidemiology Cancer Epidemiology & Prevention Program Jane Richards Montealegre, PhD, MSPH – 2013 (Ethnographic mapping identifies a productive and feasible venue for a community evaluation of self-sample HPV testing with cytology triage among Latina immigrant screening non-attendees in Harris County, Texas) Epidemiology, Human Genetics & Environmental Sciences (Patricia Dolan Mullen, Michael Scheurer) Dept of Behavioral Science, Division of OVP, Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences UT MD Anderson Cancer Center Heidi Russell, MD, PhD – 2013 (Dose reduction strategies for low-risk rhabdomyosarcoma: Using cost comparisons to help decide between two chemotherapy regimens with similar outcomes) Management, Policy & Community Health (Luisa Franzini) Dept of Management, Policy, & Community Health UTHealth Houston School of Public Health Marcia C.

de Oliveira Otto, PhD – 2012 (Identifying novel approaches to dietary assessment methods) Epidemiology, Human Genetics & Environmental Sciences (David Loose, Jennifer Nettleton) Dept of Epidemiology, Human Genetics, & Environmental Sciences, UTHealth School of Public Health Yue Yu, PhD - 2024 ("Developing a knowledge base for patient safety events in colonoscopy") Clinical Health Informatics (Yang Gong) Hong Kang, PhD – 2019 (Developing a patient safety system for integrated reporting and shared learning) Mary McGuire, PhD, MS – 2013 (Cancer and embryogenesis share common pathways at the molecular level) Senior Information Technology Project Manager MD Anderson Cancer Center Natalie Sirisaengtaksin, PhD – 2020 (Engineering bacterial products as a cancer therapy delivery system) Biomedical Sciences (Anne-Marie Krachler) Program Manager, Academic Affairs MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Zhao Zhang, PhD – 2020 (“Connecting cancer biomarkers to genetic variants in human cancers”) Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (Leng Han) Jing Gong, MD, PhD – 2018 (Characterization of the functional effects of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in lncRNAs across human cancers) Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (Leng Han) Huazhong Agricultural University, College of Informatics Jingjing Jiao, MD, PhD – 2017 (Molecular characteristics of high prevalence of Hepatocellular carcinoma and underlying liver disease in Hispanics) MD Anderson Cancer Center (Laura Beretta) Anatomic and Clinical Pathology Residency Training Program Sara Prijic, PhD, DVM – 2017 (Breast cancer metastasis: What does cholesterol have to do with it?)

Integrative Biology & Pharmacology (Jeffrey Chang, Wendy Woodward) Meng Chen, PhD – 2012 (Pathway analysis of bladder cancer genome-wide association study identified novel pathways involved in bladder cancer development) Integrative Biology & Pharmacology (Xifeng Wu, George Delclos) Associate Professor and Dept Chair Dept of Clinical Laboratories Peeking Union Medical College, National Cancer Center/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Joo-Hyung Lee, PhD – 2022 (“Tumorigenic function of cancer-type specific eRNA”) McGovern Medical School, Dept of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (Wenbo Li) Genomic Profiling Team at Vesalius Therapeutics Hidetaka Tanno, PhD – 2020 (One-step high-throughput identification of antibody/TCR sequences) UT Austin School of Engineering (George Georgiou, Gregory Ippolito, Andrew Ellington) Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science Arzu Ulu, PhD – 2018 (Identification of novel targets in breast cancer metastasis and tumorigenesis) McGovern Medical School, Dept of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology (Jeffrey Frost) Assistant Project Scientist Zhenlong Li, PhD, MS – 2015 (A multiscale computational platform for the rational design of folate-receptor-specific drug nanocarriers) McGovern Medical School (Alamayehu Gorfe, David Gorenstein, David Loose) For more information regarding the fellowship, please email [email protected] , or call 713.

500. 9658. Patricia Dolan Mullen, Co-Director.

Maria E.

Fernández, PhD Lorne Bain Distinguished Professor in Public Health and Medicine Director, Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research Professor of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences, School of Public Health Director, Texas Prevention Research Center Patricia Dolan Mullen, DrPH, MLS The University of Texas System Distinguished Teaching Professor President’s Scholar Minnie Stevens Piper Professor Department of Diagnostic and Biomedical Sciences School of Dentistry Sahiti Myneni, PhD Associate Professor Department of Clinical and Health Informatics McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics Alanna Morrison, PhD - Prof & Chair, Dept of Epidemiology, Human Genetics & Environmental Sci; Director, Ctr for Human Genetics (SPH Houston) Kevin Morano, PhD - SVP for Academic and Faculty Affairs; Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs, Professor, Microbiology and Molecular Gen (McGovern Med School) Melissa Valerio Shewmaker, PhD, MPH – Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, Development, and Diversity; Associate Prof, Dept of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences (SPH Brownsville) Xiaoqian Jiang, PhD - Prof & Director, Ctr for Secure Artificial intelligence f or Healthcare; CPRIT Rising Star (SBMI) Elmer Bernstam, MD, MSE - Prof of Biomedical Informatics & Internal Medicine (McGovern Med School) & GSBS; SBMI Assoc Dean for Research; Director, CCTS Biomedical Informatics Group Melissa Aldrich, PhD – Asst Prof, Ctr for Molecular Imaging (McGovern Med School) Shine Chang, PhD - UT System Distinguished Teaching Prof & Ashbel Smith Prof, Dept of Health Disparities Research; Director, Cancer Prevention Research Training Program (UT MDA Cancer Ctr) 5 things to keep in mind when comparing Dallas and Denton’s COVID vaccine efforts - Nic Garcia and Charles Scudder February 4 2021 UTHealth School of Public Health alumni and Parkland doctor reunites with first patient who survived COVID-19 - Teresa Woodard February 1 2021 Pivoting in the Pandemic: Making Culinary Medicine Accessible and Engaging - John “Wesley” McWhorter, DrPH, MS, RDN, LD, CSCS December 8 2020 Eat Your Water: 12 Hydrating Healthy Fruits and Vegetables - Elemental July 16 2020 From Inspiration to Impact: Harsha Gottimukkala’s Path in Epidemiology Harsha Gottimukkala, MD, MPH, a recent graduate of the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health Epidemiology MPH program, has built a path shaped by personal inspiration, meaningful mentorship, and a commitment to improving population health.

The public health playbook for the World Cup The world's largest soccer tournament has arrived in Texas, bringing thousands of international fans together to celebrate the FIFA World Cup. 2026 Archer fellows head to the Hill UTHealth Houston School of Public Health students head to the heart of public health policy each summer under the Graduate Archer Fellowship Program.

UTHealth Houston partners with city of Houston to establish new academic health department UTHealth Houston announced today a partnership with the city of Houston to establish a new academic health department that will strengthen the region’s public health workforce, expand hands-on training opportunities, and deepen collaboration between academic experts and city health leaders.

Sharma named fellow of the American Heart Association Shreela Sharma, PhD, RDN, LD, vice chair and professor in the Department of Epidemiology at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, has been named a 2026 fellow of the American Heart Association.

Testa collaborates with authorities in Bexar County to bring attention to gun thefts from vehicles through new dashboard Alexander Testa, PhD, associate professor in San Antonio, has been studying gun safety for years, and this year, in collaboration with Bexar County’s Bexar Responsibly Campaign Testa helped provide the data and structure for a brand new gun theft dashboard that the county is hoping will help residents understand the scope of the problem.

Centering Youth Voices in Mental Health Research: The Work of Emily Lemon, PhD, MPH Emily Lemon, PhD, MPH , assistant professor in the Department of Health Promotion & Behavioral Sciences in Brownsville and faculty member at the Center for Healthy Communities, is dedicated to advancing youth mental health through community-engaged research that centers young people as partners in the research process.

Advancing dementia research through the caregiver lens: Jiaming Liang For Jiaming Liang, PhD, the path into dementia research did not begin in a lab, but in a deeply personal place. Witnessing a family member live with the devastating effects of dementia left a lasting impression, one that would ultimately shape his career and drive his commitment to improving care for others facing the same reality.

UTHealth Houston School of Public Health Selected for Statewide Rural Hospital Leadership Initiative Houston, TX — UTHealth Houston School of Public Health has been selected to represent The University of Texas (UT) System in a new statewide initiative, the Texas Rural Hospital Officers Academy, designed to strengthen financial leadership and long-term stability of rural hospitals across Texas.

Texas maternal health initiative launches first in-person learning sessions for hospital teams LASSO-TX (Lactation and Safe Sleep Opportunities in Texas) is a hospital-based quality improvement initiative of the Texas Collaborative for Healthy Mothers and Babies (TCHMB), in collaboration with the Texas Department of State Health Services. Dissertation Defense by Amrita Sidhu PhD c, MDS, MPH, BDS (DDS equiv.)

Dissertation Defense by Timothy Clark, MA: Rest-Activity Phenotypes and Parkinson's Disease in the All of Us Research Program Dissertation Defense by Valerie Simpson: Factors associated with cigarette smoking abstinence Dissertation Defense by Alvin Estacio, MS: Characterizing Workplace Health Program Participation Among Cleaning Workers in the US Dissertation Defense by Xiaona Li: Accounting for Covariate Heterogeneity in Estimating the ROC Curve for Survival Outcomes Dissertation Defense by Tianyao Hao, MS: BAYESIAN METHODOLOGY FOR THE DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF LATE-PHASE CLINICAL TRIALS Dissertation Defense by Jenny Niedenfuehr: Examining Vulvar Pain Disorders and Symptoms in hEDS/HSD Patients 10:30:00 AM - 12:30:00 PM Building Better Brains: The Role of Sleep in Child Development Virtual - Microsoft Teams Dissertation Proposal Defense by Bo Zhang, Master: Novel Statistical Methods for Adaptive Platform Trials with Order-Restriction