HORMEL INSTITUTE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor
- Research
Born in Lahore, Pakistan, Amer moved to the United States in 1998, graduating from Lamar High School in Houston, TX, before getting his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from the University of Houston.
He then moved on to get his Ph.D. under the supervision of Dr. Youxing Jiang at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX, specializing in X-ray crystallographic and biochemical studies of the non-selective tetrameric cation channel NaK. The high-resolution structural studies led to several advancements in the understanding of ion selectivity and gating properties for this large family of transmembrane proteins.
Amer then moved to Zürich, Switzerland, to start his postdoctoral work with Dr. Kaspar Locher at ETH Zürich, where he focused primarily on the structural analysis of human ABCB1 (p-glycoprotein/p-gp/MDR1), an ATP binding cassette (ABC) transporter first identified as a primary player in acquired multidrug resistance of certain tumors.
Amer determined several cryo-EM structures of ABCB1 in various conformations in apo-form or in complex with substrates or inhibitors, yielding important insight into the mechanisms of inhibitor or substrate discrimination by this physiologically and medically relevant membrane transport protein. In addition to his work on ABCB1, Amer also determined the crystal structures of a complex of vitamin B12 (cobalamin) bound human Transcobalamin and its cognate cell surface receptor TCBlR/CD320 during his postdoctoral work.
Amer moved to Minnesota with his wife and young son to work at The Hormel Institute and continue his work on deciphering the molecular details of membrane transport processes, taking advantage of the Institute's state of the art cryo-EM facility.
Job Titles:
- Development Administrative Manager
Job Titles:
- Dean College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences
Job Titles:
- Operations Manager
- As Operations Manager
- Operations Manager / Research and Innovation Office
As Operations Manager, Chelsey Lustig oversees a team of six administrative professionals who support all aspects of The Hormel Institute's operations and faculty.
A native of Austin, MN, Chelsey came to the Institute in 2021 with vast experience in leadership and business management.
Her expertise in streamlining processes, enhancing efficiency, and fostering collaboration ensures seamless administrative support across departments.
We were delighted to host Christen Gibson for the summer intern program. Christen was a senior chemistry major with a minor in public health at Gustavus Adolphus College. After graduating she planned on pursuing either a masters degree or a PhD in organic chemistry.
Collins, E.S., J.E. Hornick, T.M. Durcan, N.S. Collins, W. Archer, K.B. Karanjeet, K.T. Vaughan, and E.H. Hinchcliffe (2010). "Centrosome biogenesis continues in the absence of microtubules during prolonged S-phase arrest". Journal of Cellular Physiology 225:454-465 (with cover photo).
Durcan, T., E. Halpin, T. Rao, N. Collins, E. Tribble, J. Hornick, and E.H. Hinchcliffe (2008). "Tektin 2 is required for central spindle microtubule organization and the completion of cytokinesis". Journal of Cell Biology 181:595-603 (with cover photo).
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor
- Research
Dr. Xu received her Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University and began her postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School. In 2013, she moved to Singapore and continued her postdoc at Duke-NUS Medical School. In 2019, she was promoted as an Assistant Professor at Duke-NUS Medical School Singapore.
In June 2023, she returned to the USA to advance her career at the Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota. Dr. Xu's research focuses on the role of RNA regulatory networks in metabolic diseases. Over the years, she has identified several novel regulators such as Ybx2 and HuR in adipocyte metabolism. The findings of her research have been published in prestigious journals such as Nature Metabolism, Nature Communications, Diabetes, and Journal of Experimental Medicine.
Dr. Xu's lab has built a solid research platform centering on metabolic physiology study, complemented by bioinformatic analysis and RNA molecular biology.
Education
Senior Research Fellow: Program in Cardiovascular & Metabolic Disorders, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
Research Fellow: Program in Cardiovascular & Metabolic Disorders, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
Post-doctoral Research Fellow: Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts
PhD: Case Western Reserve University, Ohio
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor
- Assistant Professor / Nutrition Informatics
- Research
Dr. Annie W. Lin joined Hormel Institute as an Assistant Professor of Human Nutrition, Food Science. She completed a joint MS/RD program at Rush University and a PhD in Human Nutrition at Cornell University (minoring in nutritional epidemiology, physiology). Annie was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the NCI-funded T32 Behavioral and Psychosocial Research Training Program in Cancer Prevention and Control at Northwestern University. She currently holds a dual appointment as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University.
Her research program focuses on using technology-assisted strategies to promote health-promoting diet behaviors in the context of cancer prevention and treatment. Annie is currently leading several collaborations that investigate how to effectively facilitate conversations about health promotion between patients and clinicians using technology. With the support of research assistants and collaborators, she hopes to support efforts for successful translation of nutrition research into clinical practice.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor
- Research
Currently, Dr. Qi Tan is an Assistant Professor and Section Leader, Tissue Fibrosis and Regeneration, at The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota. Dr. Tan obtained his PhD at the Chinese University of Hong Kong with focus on understanding tendon stem cells and their niche in vitro and in vivo and development of stem cell-based cell therapy to repair injured tendon and ligament.
This is a project shaped his research interests into understanding how adult stem cells or progenitors maintain homeostasis and why they failed to repair tissue under chronic condition and targeting those stem cells to restore homeostasis and reverse fibrosis.
In 2014, Dr. Tan joined Dr. Daniel Tschumperlin' s lab at Mayo Clinic Rochester and started his postdoctoral training in the field of lung fibrosis. He has developed 3D co-culture organoid model for the study cell-cell interactions within tissue-like environments, and a platform for studying lung fibrosis in vitro using patient derived primary lung cells.
In 2019, Dr. Tan was promoted into Assistant Professor at Mayo Clinic Rochester. Prior to joined the Hormel Institute, Dr. Tan received his first R01 grant to study lung fibrosis by taking advantage of using lung organoid, aged mice model, conditional knock out mice model and Crispr activation. The current study seeks to delineate the homeostatic and fibrosis-resolving roles of anti-fibrotic factor CEBPA in lung epithelial cells and aims to develop a new regenerative therapeutic strategy.
Education
Post-doctoral fellowship: Mayo Clinic, Rochester MN, USA, 2014-2019
PhD: Stem Cells and Tissue Regeneration, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, 2010-2014
MS: Genetics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China, 2006-2009
BS: Biological Science, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China, 2002-2006
Awards
2022: AJRCMB Junior Investigator Award
2021: American Lung Association Catalyst Award
2018: ATS Abstract Scholarship, American Thoracic Society
2015-2017: Training & Career Development Award in Regenerative Medicine and Science, Mayo Clinic
2015: Travel award for 2015 Vermont Stem Cell Conference, Vermont Stem Cell Conference
Research Interests
Regulatory mechanisms of tissue homeostasis in lung fibrosis. The goal of this project is to identify critical pathways through which to restore reparative or homeostatic interactions between lung resident cell types, ultimately leading to more-effective repair of the lung after injury or chronic lung diseases such as pulmonary fibrosis.
Cell reprogramming in lung repair. Cell fate is not permanently locked in adult lung cells and can be manipulated to promote repair and regeneration. Either abnormal epithelial cells or active fibroblasts can be reprogrammed by CRISPR activation or small molecules toward reparative or homeostatic states, ultimately boosting lung repair.
Lung organoids development. Lung organoid models developed in Dr. Tan's lab allows recapitulation of in vivo microenvironments and maintaining cellular identity within 3D co-cultures, providing a platform for studying pulmonary fibrosis in vitro using patient-derived lung cells or iPS Cells.
Delineating failed lung repair with next-generation sequencing. Lineage tracing of specific cell populations, and detailed analysis of their fates with RNA-seq, scRNA-seq, ATAC-seq, ChIP-seq and spatial RNA-seq, is systemically identifying the transcriptional and signaling programs that regulate lung cells during fibrosis and repair. Promising new targets are being identified and validated as key disease regulators.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Member of the Hormel Institute Advisory Board
- Executive Director / Professor, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics
- Executive Leadership
- Research
An internationally recognized leader in breast cancer research, Dr. Robert Clarke studies how hormones, growth factors, and other related molecules affect breast cancer, and how breast cancers become resistant to hormonal and cytotoxic chemotherapies. He has broad expertise that includes estrogens, antiestrogens, aromatase inhibitors, cell signaling, bioinformatics, drug resistance, signal transduction, and systems biology.
Having developed a series of hormone resistant breast cancer models that are now widely used in the field, Dr. Clarke continues to develop new experimental models. He is currently developing and applying genomic and novel bioinformatic methods to data from ongoing translational studies in both humans and experimental models of breast cancer. Dr. Clarke and his colleagues have recently identified a new, systems biology-based molecular signaling model in breast cancer that involves several novel oncogenes and suppressor genes. This integrated network incorporates cell stress signaling, protein misfolding (unfolded protein response), and communication among the endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria, and nucleus of breast cancer cells. Ultimately, this network determines if a breast cancer cell will grow, differentiate or die, and the mechanism by which the cell will die (e.g., apoptosis, ferroptosis, lysosome-dependent cell death, mitochondrial permeability transition-driven necrosis, necroptosis, necrosis, parthanatos, pyroptosis), in response to therapy.
Dr. Clarke leads several multinational molecular medicine studies in breast cancer in collaboration with collaborators at the Mayo Clinic, the University of Edinburgh (Scotland), and Virginia Tech. While at Georgetown University he led an NCI-funded Center for Cancer Systems Biology (2010-2016) and with Dr. Subha Madhavan he led an NCI-funded In Silico Research Center of Excellence (2009-2014). His research is published in over 340 original papers, reviews, and book chapters. Dr. Clarke has edited two books, "Cancer Gene Networks" (co-edited by Dr. Usha Kasid; 2017) and "The Unfolded Protein Response in Cancer" (2019). He also has edited or co-edited several special issues for journals including Breast Cancer Res Treat and Cancer Metastasis Rev. Representative publications from his bibliography can be found elsewhere in this profile.
With extensive experience in peer review, Dr. Clarke served as a member (2010-2014) and as Chair (2011-2013) of the NIH study section Basic Mechanisms of Cancer Therapeutics; previously he had served as Chair of the Basic Science study section for the NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2002-2008), now the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Dr. Clarke has also chaired multiple study sections for the US Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program. He also serves on the editorial boards of over a dozen international peer review journals. For example, Dr. Clarke is a Senior Editor for the journal Cancer Research, an Associate Editor for Endocrine-Related Cancer, and a member of the Editorial Board of over a dozen journals including Clinical Cancer Research and Breast Cancer Research and Treatment.
Dr. Clarke is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in the USA, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology in the U.K. An acknowledged teacher and lecturer, he is regularly invited to speak about his research at international and national meetings. Dr. Clarke served as the NCI-Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer from 2012-2015.
From 2007-2019, Dr. Clarke served as an Associate Vice President of Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) and Director of the Biomedical Graduate Research Organization at GUMC, home to 60% of biomedical research at GUMC. He also served as Dean for Research from 2011-2019 (home to >75% of sponsored research at Georgetown University) and from 2006-2020 as Co-Director of the Breast Cancer Program at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center (first with Dr. Claudine Isaacs and later with Dr. Marc Lippman). Dr. Clarke was as an elected member of the Georgetown University Faculty Senate (2002-2011), serving as Secretary-Treasurer from 2004-2007.
Sahar did her PhD at Tarbiat Modares University in Tehran, Iran. The main field of her PhD research was cancer and hematopoietic stem cells differentiation. As a postdoctoral fellow in The Verma Lab at the Hormel Institute Sahar is studying the role of metabolism in regulating the effector functions in immune cells with a special focus on CD8 T cells. She is also interested in deciphering the resistance mechanisms that render the immune therapies ineffective in brain tumors.
When she is not in the lab doing experiments, Sahar likes to play volleyball, swim, paint and maybe sleep.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor
- Principal Investigator
- Research
Dr. Vivek Verma is an assistant professor at The Hormel Institute of the University of Minnesota. Dr. Verma did his MS in microbiology from the Central Research Institute at Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh and he earned his PhD from Punjab University, located in the pristine city of Chandigarh in northern part of India. Dr. Verma did his postdoctoral studies in cancer biology and innate immune system, first at Chonnam National University in South Korea followed by Georgia Cancer Center at Augusta, USA. Following his postdoctoral research, Dr. Verma joined Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Center as an Assistant Professor on research tract where he studied the mechanisms to enhance the anti-tumor responses using immune modulatory antibodies and small molecule inhibitors.
Vivek Verma, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota. Verma Lab is interested in delineating the mechanisms of TCR mediated cell activation and immune cell exhaustion. This is achieved by using the pre-clinical disease models of chronic antigen stimulation such as cancers and viral/bacterial infections.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director of Education, Professor
- Professor of Cell Biology
- Research
Edward H. "Ted" Hinchcliffe is a Professor of Cell Biology at the Hormel Institute. Dr. Hinchcliffe received his B.A. in chemistry from the University of Dayton, and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in the lab of Richard Linck, where he worked on tektins and tektin-associated proteins. During that time, he was a student in both the Physiology and Analytical Quantitative Light Microscopy (AQLM) courses at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
Dr. Hinchcliffe was an NIH NRSA post-doctoral trainee and American Cancer Society Senior research fellow in the laboratory of Greenfield "Kip" Sluder at the Worcester Foundation and University of Massachusetts Medical School, in Worcester, Massachusetts. There, he studied centrosome duplication and cell cycle regulation.
In 2001, he joined the biology department at the University of Notre Dame as an Assistant Professor, where he received a Research Scholar Award from the American Cancer Society. In 2008, Dr. Hinchcliffe joined the University of Minnesota's The Hormel Institute as an Associate Professor.
In 2016, he became Professor of Cell Biology, Head of the TCBG Research Group, and Assistant Director of the Institute. In 2018, Prof. Hinchcliffe was named the I.J. Holton Endowed Professor of Cellular Dynamics. From 2002-2010, Dr. Hinchcliffe was an Instructor in the AQLM course at the MBL in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where he taught digital image processing and live-cell imaging.
Education
Post-doctoral research: Cell Biology, Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research and Dept. of Cell Biology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts
PhD: Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Minnesota School of Medicine, Minneapolis, Minnesota
BA: Chemistry, University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio
Cardullo, R.A., and E.H. Hinchcliffe (2007). "Digital manipulation of brightfield and fluorescence images: Noise reduction, contrast enhancement, and feature extraction". Methods in Cell Biology 81: 318-340.
Job Titles:
- Chief of Staff
- Member of the Hormel Institute Advisory Board
- MPNA - Chief of Staff
Job Titles:
- Development & External Relations Director
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor
- Research
Dr. Gasper Kitange is an Associate Professor at The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota. Dr. Kitange joined Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for post-doctoral training soon after he received Ph.D. degree in Japan. While at Mayo Clinic, he moved up his career ladder to become Associate Consultant and Associate Professor.
Dr. Kitange's research interest is focused on understanding the epigenetic regulation of therapy resistance in glioblastoma (GBM), identifying novel molecular targets modulating therapy sensitivity, and developing these targets for therapy in GBM.
Dr. Kitange has over 15 years of experience in brain tumor research with focus on GBM. He uses high throughput genome wide screening as strategy to identify novel molecular targets for therapy as single agents or for sensitizing the current therapy used for treatment of GBM patients, including radiation and temozolomide. These novel molecular drug targets are validated using biochemical and pharmacologic techniques in vitro and in vivo using patient derived GBM xenografts.
Overall, Dr. Kitange has strong expertise in multiple areas of brain tumor research and his current focus is on understanding the epigenetic and non-epigenetic mechanisms that influence the evolution of therapy resistance in GBM and leveraging the results to discovery of novel anticancer agents.
Dr. Kitange is an NIH-funded investigator studying how epigenetic regulates DNA repair genes to enhance recovery from DNA double strand breaks induced by temozolomide.
Education
PhD, Neurological sciences: Nagasaki University School of Medicine, Japan, 1995 - 2000
Doctor of Medicine (MD): Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Tanzania United Republic, 1986 - 1991
Former Executive Director Harald Schmid chronicled more than six decades of history at The Hormel Institute, from its modest beginnings to research impact worldwide. The Hormel Institute journey that began in the 1940s has become a hub of scientific knowledge generation, with investigators from around the globe, more than eight decades later.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor
- Research
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor
- Research
Jarrod was born in Niagara Falls, Canada and completed his BSc in Chemistry and Biology at Brock University, where he spent time conducting undergraduate research in organic and physical chemistry.
For his graduate studies, he joined a newly created tri-institutional chemical biology program offered jointly between Cornell University, Rockefeller University and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Jarrod spent two years in New York City, under the direction of Anthony Sauve, investigating the mechanistic enzymology of Sirtuins and related proteins.
He then moved upstate to complete his PhD training in the laboratory of Steven Ealick. There, he spent the majority of his time investigating the structure and function of proteins involved in purine metabolism using X-ray crystallography and related biophysical methods.
After earning his PhD, Jarrod went on to become a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Postdoctoral Fellow at The Pennsylvania State University in the laboratory of Stephen Benkovic. During his three years in this lab, he used an integrative, cross-disciplinary approach to investigate a newly discovered biomolecular structure called the purinosome.
Jarrod was recruited to Stony Brook University in 2014 as an Assistant Professor with a joint appointment in the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology. In the summer of 2019, he was promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure.
In the fall of 2019, Jarrod (and the lab) moved to The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota, in Austin, Minnesota. Currently, Jarrod is an Associate Professor and Section Leader of Nucleotide Metabolism and Drug Discovery at The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota.
Education
2011-2013: CIHR Postdoctoral Fellow, The Pennsylvania State University (Benkovic Lab)
2007-2010: PhD (Chemistry and Chemical Biology) Cornell University, TPCB Graduate Fellow (Ealick Lab)
2005-2007: MSc (Biomedical Sciences), Weill Medical College of Cornell University, TPCB Graduate Fellow (Sauve Lab)
2000-2004: BSc (Honours, Chemistry and Biology), Brock University
Feng Guo, Weijie Zhou, Peng Li, Zhangming Mao, Neela Yennawar, Jarrod B. French* and Tony Jun Huang* (2015) Precise manipulation and patterning of protein crystals for macromolecular crystallography using surface acoustic waves. Small. 11(23): 2710. *Corresponding authors. PMID: 25641793
Job Titles:
- Research Development Director
Research Development Director Jessica Raines-Jones oversees pre-award, post-award, and the research development team at The Hormel Institute that helps Institute faculty members receive the funding they need to accomplish their research goals.
Jim Snee - CEO, Chairman, President
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board
- Chief Executive Officer
- President
Job Titles:
- Employee Engagement & Immigration Manager
Job Titles:
- Director of Community Outreach
- Director of Community Outreach and Education
Kelly Vincelette, M.Ed., serves as the Community Outreach and Education Director at The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota.
With nearly two decades of experience developing and leading youth programs, she is dedicated to connecting students and educators with STEM resources and career opportunities in biomedical research.
Before joining The Hormel Institute, Kelly spent over 15 years as an Extension Educator with the University of Minnesota Extension, focusing on youth development.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director for Faculty Affairs, Professor
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor
- Research
Shen, Y., Stanislauskas, M., Li, G., Zheng, D., and Liu, L.* (2017) Epigenetic and genetic dissections of UV-induced global gene dysregulation in skin cells through multi-omics analyses. Scientific Reports 7, 42646.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor
- Associate Professor and Leader of the Cancer Biology
- Research
Luke H. Hoeppner is an Associate Professor and leader of the Cancer Biology research section at The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota. As an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Hoeppner identified several novel prostate cancer antigens, resulting in a first-author publication.
He then received a Ph.D. from University of Minnesota studying cancer biology, which also provided him with a strong foundation in molecular, cellular, and biochemistry techniques. In his postdoctoral work, Dr. Hoeppner gained expertise working with genetic animal models.
He developed a zebrafish VEGF-inducible model of vascular permeability amenable to non-invasive real-time fluorescent imaging as well as a human cancer metastasis xenograft model in zebrafish. Combining preclinical mouse cancer models and human translational studies, Luke developed an orthotopic lung cancer model and used it to demonstrate that FDA approved cabergoline and other dopamine D2 receptor agonists reduce lung tumor growth and angiogenesis.
Along with other areas of current research, Dr. Hoeppner is investigating the contribution of downstream dopamine signaling effectors to drug resistance and lung cancer progression with the goal of developing new therapies.
Education
2022 - Present: Associate Professor, University of Minnesota, The Hormel Institute, Austin, Minnesota
2015 - 2022: Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota, The Hormel Institute, Austin, MN
2010 - 2015: Postdoctoral Fellow, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
2004 - 2010: Ph.D. in Cancer Biology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota
2000 - 2004: B.S. in Genetics & Life Sciences Communication University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin
Job Titles:
- Research Facilities Manager
Job Titles:
- Public Relations Administrator
Job Titles:
- Marketing & Communications Manager
- Marketing & Communications Manager / Administration
The Verma lab was delighted to welcome Ms. Lynsey Knudson as a SURE intern. Lynsey was a junior neuroscience major with a minor in forensic science at Hamline University, Minnesota. After graduating she plans to pursue a masters in psychometrics.
Job Titles:
- Professor, Postdoc Development Program Director
- Research
Rebecca J. Morris received her Ph.D. in 1981 in Biology from Syracuse University. After working as a Research Associate with Sue Fischer and Thomas Slaga's at M.D. Anderson's Science Park, she accepted a position at the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research in Wynnewood, PA.
In 2001, Dr. Morris moved her program to the Departments of Dermatology and Pathology at Columbia University Medical Center in Manhattan, New York. She is currently the I.J. Holton Professor of Stem Cells and Cancer at the Hormel Institute/University of Minnesota. Dr. Morris has maintained an interest in keratinocyte stem cells and cancer from her graduate work, and has been funded by grants from the ACS, NIAMS, DOD, and NCI.
Education
PhD: Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, 1981
BS: Biology, Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, 1976
Job Titles:
- Dean of College of Biological Sciences
Job Titles:
- Vice President for Research & Innovation
His research background is in biological sciences (inflammatory diseases) and he completed his PhD at INST-IISER-Mohali, India. His doctoral research focused on understanding epigenetic role of melatonin in regulation of inflammation in macrophages and developing nanocarriers for targeted drug delivery, particularly in the context of Inflammatory Bowel Disease. He is currently investigating the role of mitochondrial metabolism in regulating the effector functions of immune cells, with a particular emphasis on CAR-T cells. He is deeply intrigued by understanding the mechanisms of mitochondrial exhaustion in tumor microenvironment that hinder the effectiveness of immune therapies (CAR-T cells) in solid tumors.
Outside of his research endeavors, he finds joy in engaging in various activities, including playing volleyball, exercising, and understanding himself in solitude (meditation).
Job Titles:
- As Business and Finance Manager
- Business & Finance Manager
As Business and Finance Manager, Tara Plath oversees financial planning, budgeting, and operational strategy to support The Hormel Institute's research and growth.
Job Titles:
- Shared Instruments CORE Manager
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor
- Research
Kumar, S., Ochoa, W., Singh, P., Hsu, C., Schneemann, A., Manchester, M., Olson, M., and Reddy, V. (2009). Tomato bushy stunt virus (TBSV), a versatile platform for polyvalent display of antigenic epitopes and vaccine design. Virology 388(1), 185-90.
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean for Research, Midwest