Donald A. Adam Melanoma and Skin Cancer Center of Excellence Faculty
The Donald A. Adam Melanoma and Skin Cancer Center of Excellence brings together deep experience in basic science, translational research and clinical practice to the study and treatment of melanoma and other skin cancers.
Director
Keiran S. Smalley, PhD - Senior Member
The goal of research in the Smalley laboratory is to develop personalized therapies for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. Over the past few years our lab has used genetic and mutational profiling data to define two new sub-groups of melanoma and have identified therapeutic strategies for each.
Co-Director
Kenneth Y. Tsai, MD, PhD - Associate Member
The focus of Dr. Tsai’s laboratory is the identification and validation of new molecularly-targeted approaches for skin cancer prevention and treatment. In contrast to melanoma, which has 27 FDA-approved therapies, the non-melanoma skin cancer have but two (as of early 2017), highlighting vast differences in the fundamental molecular understanding of these diseases.
Members
Daniel Abate Daga, PhD - Assistant Member
Dr. Abate-Daga's research is focused on the development of T cell-based immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer, and the translation of those preclinical findings into clinical application.
Alexander R. Anderson, PhD - Senior Member
Dr. Anderson's lab is focused on integrating mathematical and computational modeling approaches with experimental and clinical data to better understand cancer growth and development and translate this understanding into novel therapies.
Amer A. Beg, PhD - Senior Member
The Beg laboratory is interested in developing new strategies aimed at modulating the tumor microenvironment to increase tumor immunogenicity and response to therapeutics. Through both laboratory and clinical trial studies, ongoing projects aim to modulate activity of epigenetic and cytokine pathways to enhance immunological control of lung cancer. The Beg laboratory is also developing novel oncolytic virus strategies to generate potent anti-tumor T cell responses that can turn immune "cold" to "hot" tumors capable of responding to checkpoint inhibitors and other immunotherapeutics.
Andrew S. Brohl, MD - Assistant Member
Dr. Brohl's research focus is in translational genomics, applying next-generation sequencing and assay technology to advance biologic discovery, identify novel targets for therapy, and assist clinical management.
Joel Brown, PhD - Senior Member
As member of the Cancer Biology and Evolution Group and the Department of Integrated Mathematical Oncology, my research and collaborations are multi-disciplinary, including collaborative work on skin cancer cell culturing with Ken Tsai.
Ann Chen, PhD - Associate Member
Dr. Chen’s research has been focused on developing statistical methods and computational tools to incorporate multiple omics sources, select biologically relevant markers, and predict clinical outcomes in a unified framework.
Pei-Ling Chen, MD, PhD
Dr. Chen's is an assistant member of the Department of Anatomic Pathology practice. Her practice is primarily in clinical dermatopathology.
Christine Chung, MD - Senior Member
Dr. Chung's research focuses on molecular characterization of head and neck cancer and translation of these findings to develop integral biomarker-driven clinical trials.
John L. Cleveland, PhD - Senior Member
Dr. Cleveland’s research has been broadly focused on the molecular pathogenesis of cancer, where he has been a leader in interrogating the regulation and role of oncogenes and tumor suppressors in controlling cancer cell growth and survival, and in defining new targets that play essential roles in the development and maintenance of cancer.
Anna E. Coghill, PhD, MPH - Assistant Member
Dr. Coghill's research focus is exploring how the immune environment associated with pathogens such as Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can play a role in both cancer prevention and response to therapy.
Derek Duckett, PhD - Senior Member
Research in the Duckett lab is focused on identifying novel anti-cancer targets , developing small molecule probes against these targets and interrogating how their altered signaling drives tumor progression, metastasis and therapy resistance.
Zeynep Eroglu, MD - Assistant Member
Dr. Eroglu’s research interests are translational and clinical research in targeted therapies and combination immunotherapeutics for melanoma and other skin cancers, along with development of personalized treatment strategies and biomarkers for patients with melanoma.
Steven Eschrich, PhD - Senior Member
The Eschrich Lab uses Bioinformatics and Machine Learning methods to answer translational research questions within cancer research, with a focus on Lung Cancer and Radiation Oncology. Methodological work includes reproducible research pipelines, normalization techniques and machine learning models from molecular data.
Elsa R. Flores, PhD - Senior Member
The main focus of Dr. Flores' laboratory is to understand the overlapping and unique activities of the p53 family in human cancer using mouse models and patient derived tumors.
Peter A. Forsyth, MD - Senior Member
Dr. Forsyth has a strong interest in malignant, invasive glioma brain tumors. He is currently investigating several tumor-inhibiting agents in Phase I clinical trials.
Robert A. Gatenby, MD - Senior Member
Dr. Gatenby spearheaded the formation of a new program at Moffitt titled Integrative Mathematical Oncology (IMO). The IMO brings to the cancer center a cadre of applied mathematicians to collaborate with tumor biologists and clinical oncologists.
Jhanelle Gray, MD - Associate Member
Dr. Gray’s research focuses on the analysis of targeted therapies in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and those at risk for lung cancer with hopes of optimizing the therapeutic benefit while minimizing the toxicity with the use of biomarker analysis to enhance the understanding of cancer biology and treatment.
Louis Harrison, MD, FASTRO
Dr. Harrison is the Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Moffitt Cancer Center. He is also Deputy Physician in Chief at Moffitt.
Eric Haura, MD
Dr. Haura's lab uses proteomic tools to characterize kinase pathways and networks in cancer cells to discover novel therapeutic strategies using kinase inhibitors.
Peter A. Kanetsky, PhD, MPH - Senior Member
New research led by Dr. Kanetsky seeks to determine whether knowledge of genetics can impact melanoma risk behaviors.
Florian A. Karreth, PhD - Assistant Member
Dr. Karreth's lab is interested in the intersection of oncogenic signaling pathways and non-coding RNAs in the initiation, progression, and resistance of cancers driven by the MAPK pathway, with an emphasis on melanoma.
Nikhil I. Khushalani, MD - Senior Member
Dr. Khushalani is interested in research on angiogenesis in melanoma and the translation of findings into clinical therapeutics.
Jongphil Kim, PhD - Associate Member
Dr. Kim's primary research interest involves the multiple comparisons, longitudinal data analysis, categorical data analysis and survival analysis.
Sungjune Kim, MD, PhD - Assistant Member
Dr. Kim's research program is divided into two main themes, cancer immunology and cancer genomics.
Youngchul Kim, PhD - Assistant Member
Dr. Kim is dedicated to a personalized cancer treatment by developing prediction models of responsiveness of cancer patients after anti-cancer drug therapy based on pharmacogenomics data of preclinical cancer models.
Todd C. Knepper, PharmD
Dr. Knepper’s research focuses on the utilization of genomics to improve therapeutic strategies for the treatment of patients with cancer and advance understanding of cancer biology, with a particular interest in rare malignancies.
John M. Koomen, PhD - Associate Member
The Koomen Lab uses mass spectrometry-based techniques to better understand cancer biology, evaluate hypotheses derived from basic science experiments in human tumors, and contribute to the development of novel strategies for patient assessment and treatment.
Eric K. Lau, PhD - Assistant Member
Dr. Lau's innovative research programs focus on defining the molecular mechanisms controlling the development, metastatic progression, and therapeutic resistance of melanoma, with the goal of identifying novel therapeutic, diagnostic and prognostic modalities.
James K. Liu, MD
Dr. Liu also leads a laboratory research effort focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms that drive the formation of brain tumors. In particular, the Liu Laboratory focuses on how a subset of the tumor population with tumor-initiating, or stem-like properties, contribute to the proliferation of brain tumors and their resistance to medical therapies.
Vincent Luca, PhD - Assistant Member
The Luca Lab studies the "molecular language" of cell-to-cell communication using cutting edge approaches in structural, cellular and synthetic biology.
Moffitt Profile | Lab website
Joseph Markowitz, MD, PhD - Assistant Member
Dr. Markowitz's research interest is in studying immune suppressor cells, their role in the development of melanoma, and means of inhibiting their actions.
Jane L. Messina, MD - Senior Member
Dr. Messina's research interests include pathology of the sentinel node, biomarkers of prognosis in cutaneous melanoma, and etiology and treatment of Merkel cell carcinoma.
David L. Morse, PhD - Associate Member
Dr. Morse’s research projects are focused on the identification and validation of cell-surface markers for cancer, discovery of ligands or antibodies specific for binding validated markers, and the development of targeted molecular imaging probes and nanoagents for the detection and treatment of cancer.
James J. Mulé, PhD - Senior Member
Dr. Mulé's research focuses on characterizing and validating genomic signatures of immunotherapy response, as well as designing and translating novel vaccine and adoptive T-cell transfer strategies to patients with advanced solid tumors.
Shari A. Pilon-Thomas, PhD - Associate Member
A major goal of Dr. Pilon-Thomas' research is to investigate approaches that overcome melanoma-mediated T cell suppression.
Sanjay Premi, PhD - Assistant Member
Dr. Premi’s team explores the pathophysiology of melanin-chemiexcitation pathway in skin cancer development, progression, and drug-resistance. One of their immediate goals is to characterize stress mediated, non-classical regulation of gene expression, protein modifications, and resistance against targeted therapy in melanoma.
Uwe Rix, PhD - Associate Member
Dr. Rix's scientific interest centers on chemical biology, targeted drugs, drug-protein interaction networks, synergy and molecular mechanisms of action in the context of cancer research, particularly lung cancer research.
Paulo Rodriguez, PhD - Associate Member
Dr. Rodriguez's research programs focus on the suppressive effects induced by tumor-infiltrating myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC), a heterogeneous population of immature myeloid precursors that are primary mediators of tumor-induced anergy and a major obstacle for the development of successful cancer immunotherapies.
Dana Rollison, PhD - Senior Member
Dr. Rollison’s primary research focus is the molecular epidemiology of human polyomavirus and papillomavirus infections in relation to cancer.
Amod A. Sarnaik, MD - Associate Member
Dr. Sarnaik's primary research interest involves investigation of novel immunotherapeutics in the treatment of melanoma. This includes tumor-based vaccines, immune-activating antibodies, targeted inhibition of oncogenic proteins, and autologous T cell therapy.
Michael J. Schell, PhD - Senior Member
Dr. Schell has led the development of a statistical method to analyze AQUA (Automated Quantitative Analysis)-generated tissue microarray (TMA) data. The method is a 7-step procedure which works quite well for identifying and resolving technical problems when two highly correlated variables are available.
Lubomir Sokol, MD, PhD - Senior Member
Dr. Sokol's laboratory research has been recognized in the field of molecular biology of primary polycythemias and more recently also in the pathobiology of bone marrow failure disorders including T-cell LGL leukemia and MDS.
Vernon K. Sondak, MD - Senior Member
The translational research interest of Dr. Sondak is in allogeneic tumor vaccines for patients with intermediate-risk melanoma.
Ahmad Tarhini, MD, PhD
As a clinical and translational physician-scientist, a major objective of Dr Tarhini’s research has been the pursuit of studies that test novel targeted therapeutic strategies selected on the basis of a continuously deepening understanding of the molecular circuitry and immune biology of melanoma.
Jamie K. Teer, PhD - Associate Member
Dr. Teer's research interests are focused on developing methods to analyze, interpret and visualize massively-parallel sequencing information in cancer genetics.
Mingxiang Teng, PhD - Assistant Member
Dr. Teng’s research focuses on developing computational methods to address data challenges in cancer genomics studies, such as data quality, data bias, pre-processing and functional annotation of high-throughput sequencing data.
Shelley Tworoger, PhD - Senior Member
The focus of Tworoger's research group is to reduce morbidity and mortality from ovarian and breast cancers by enhancing risk prediction models and improving primary and secondary prevention recommendations using an integrative, multidisciplinary approach.
Susan Vadaparampil, PhD - Senior Member
Dr. Vadaparampil’s research uses a combination of behavioral science, epidemiology, health services, and clinical perspectives to understand and improve dissemination and uptake of new cancer prevention and control innovations including genetic testing for hereditary cancer susceptibility and HPV vaccination.
Lixin Wan, PhD - Assistant Member
The Wan lab is focused on the regulation and role of Anaphase-Promoting Complexes (APC) in directing the destruction of key proteins that control transit through the cell cycle, and in shaping proteomic networks in normal versus cancer cells.
Xuefeng Wang, PhD - Assistant Member
Dr. Wang’s research interests include Biostatistics, statistical genomics, and computational biology. His group develops efficient machine learning methods, such as kernel learning and probabilistic learning, for analyzing data in genomics, drug development and personalized medicine.
Evan Wuthrick, MD - Radiatio Oncology
Dr. Wuthrick specializes in radiation therapy for skin cancers such as melanoma, Merkel cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and basal cell carcinoma.
Jiqiang Yao, PhD
Dr. Yao’s research focuses on applying genomics and proteomics technology such as RNA-seq, Chip-seq, NanoString in identifying novel biomarkers and gene signatures of cancers. His interest in immunotherapy is to develop bioinformatics tools for predicting neoantigen candidates that are derived from tumor-specific mutations.
Jonathan Zager, MD - Senior Member
Dr. Zager’s research interests are in treating cutaneous melanoma as well as non melanoma skin cancers and soft tissue sarcomas including, extremity, cutaneous and retroperitoneal sarcomas.
Donald A. Adam Melanoma and Skin Cancer Center of Excellence