Gina DeNicola Gina.DeNicola@moffitt.org

Interim Chair and Associate Member, Department of Cancer Physiology

Leader, Metabolism Program

Gina received her PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied the regulation of NRF2 by oncogenic signaling in the laboratory of David Tuveson. She did her postdoctoral work with Lewis Cantley, where she examined the regulation of cellular metabolism by NRF2. In May 2016 she established her own lab at Moffitt Cancer Center.

Aimee Falzone Aimee.Falzone@moffitt.org

Research Project Specialist

Aimee has a BA from the University of South Florida and 11 years of research experience with mouse models. She has organized and assisted in many different research projects involving transgenic mouse model colony building and maintenance, imaging, tissue collection, microsurgeries, irradiation, and cell/drug delivery. She is generating and evaluating GEMM models of lung, pancreatic and liver cancer for stable isotope infusion of tracers to study cysteine metabolism in vivo

Samantha Caldwell | Samantha.Caldwell@moffitt.org 

Research Associate II

Samantha has a B.S. from Millersville University of Pennsylvania. She previously worked as a veterinary technician but decided to take her career another direction and focus on research. She aims to expand her knowledge in metabolism in cancer working with experimental mouse models.

Pritin Soni | Pritin.Soni@moffitt.org

Research Associate II

Pritin received his B.S. in Bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He then joined the lab of Dr. Fred Blattner, where he was part of the team that sequenced E.coli, which at the time was the largest genome sequenced to date. He previously worked at Northwestern University in Chicago in the Feinberg School of Medicine, studying lung injury and pulmonary fibrosis as well as epigenetic changes in prostate cancer and endometriosis.

Amanda Sherwood | Amanda.Sherwood@moffitt.org 

Research Associate I

Amanda Sherwood recently graduated from the University of South Florida with degrees in Cellular and Molecular Biology and Philosophy. She is working with Dr. Nathan Ward to study mitochondrial redox regulation in lung tumorigenesis. She will soon apply to graduate programs in cancer biology.

Nathan Ward | Nathan.Ward@moffitt.org

Research Instructor

Nate received his PhD from the University of South Florida in the laboratory of Dominic D'Agostino, where he evaluated metabolic inhibitors for the treatment of glioblastoma. He is now extending his interest in mitochondrial metabolism to the study of mitochondrial redox regulation in lung tumorigenesis.

Laura Torrente Fernandez | Laura.TorrenteFernandez@moffitt.org

Postdoctoral Fellow

Laura received her PhD from the University of Dundee in Scotland in the laboratory of Laureano de la Vega, where she studied the regulation of NRF2 by the kinase HIPK2. Her project focuses on identification of therapeutics for NRF2/KEAP1 mutant lung tumors.  

Chang Jiang | Chang.Jiang@moffitt.org

Research Instructor | National Pancreas Foundation Grantee | K99 Grantee

Chang received her PhD from the University of Pittsburgh in the laboratory of Dr. Partha Roy, where she studied the molecular mechanisms underlying Profilin-1’s regulation of tumorigenic potential of breast cancer cells. Chang did her first postdoctoral work with Dr. Benjamin Gewurz, where she performed CRISPR/Cas9 screens to identify key regulators of CD40/NFkB signaling in human B cells. She also exploited the same strategy to identify the host B cell factors critical for Epstein-Barr virus latent to lytic switch. She is interested in identifying key regulators of KEAP1/NRF2 signaling and studying the role of KEAP1/NRF2 mutation on tumor initiation and progression.

Sang Jun Yoon | SangJun.Yoon@Moffitt.org 

Postdoctoral Fellow

Sang Jun received his PhD in Pharmaceutical Analysis from Prof. Sung Won Kwon’s laboratory at the Seoul National University in the Republic of Korea. During this time, he applied LC-MS/MS and GC-MS to the study of lipidomics and metabolomics on diverse clinical samples. He is interested in understanding metabolism through the comprehensive interrogation of mass spectrometry based stable isotope labeling and biological phenotypes.

Yumi Kim | Yumi.Kim@moffitt.org

Postdoctoral Fellow

Yumi received her PhD in the Biochemistry from the College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University where she studied the regulation of lipid metabolism by natural products in pancreatic cancer in the laboratory of Hyeung Jin Jang. She did her postdoctoral work with Chang Hwa Jung, where she discovered the impaired autophagy flux in the aging lung, and also studied the role of IDH2 in longevity and aging in skeletal muscle. She now wants to explore cancer metabolism intensively. Her project in the DeNicola lab focuses on identifying key molecules for metabolic reprogramming and cancer progression using organoid models.

Janine DeBlasi | Janine.Deblasi@moffitt.org

PhD Student

Janine received her B.S. from the University of South Florida, where she performed her honors thesis work with Domenic D'Agostino. She subsequently received an M.Sc. from Oxford University. Her PhD work focuses on interrogation cooperation between KEAP1 mutation and loss of other tumor suppressors in lung adenocarcinoma. 

Rebecca Polsky |

Research volunteer

Rebecca earned her B.S. in Health Sciences at the University of South Florida. She previously volunteered in Dr. Feng Cheng lab, at the Department of Pharmaceutical Science at USF. She is working with Dr. Laura Torrente to study NRF2-regulated copper homeostasis. She has future plans to apply to medical school and become a physician.

 

Coming soon

Shravani Inampudi |

Undergraduate volunteer

Coming soon

 

 

 

Alumni

Former Postdoctoral Fellows and Research Scientists

  1. Yun Pyo Kang, PhD (2016-2021), Assistant Professor at Seoul National University
  2. Paloma Gonzalez Sanchez, PhD (2019-2021), Journal Specialist at Frontiers in Microbiomes
  3. Guohui Li (2019-2021), Staff Scientist at Thermo Fisher Scientific
  4. Joseph Combs, PhD (2018-2020), Project Manager at Jackson Labs

Former PhD students

  1. Giulia Ambrosini, PhD (visiting 2020), Postdoc at the University of Verona

Former M.S. students

  1. Cheyenne Schneider, MS (2021-2022), Clinical Research Coordinator at Moffitt Cancer Center

Former Postbaccs and Undergraduates

  1. Lejin Sun (2022-2023), Incoming PhD student, Moffitt PhD Program
  2. Nicolas Prieto (2018-2022), Predental student
  3. Anish Thalakola (2021-2022), Premed student
  4. Juliana Madej (2021-2022), Premed student
  5. Andrea Mockabee Macias (2019-2020), Research Associate at Moffitt Cancer Center
  6. Tycee Flynn (2019-2020), Medical Lab Technician at Baycare Health
  7. Cody Elkins (2018-2019), PhD Student at Emory University
  8. Sae Bom Lee (2017-2018), PhD Student at Moffitt Cancer Center
  9. Seth Ingram (2016), Medical Student at Nova Southeastern University