Symposium Schedule
Thursday, May 14, 2026
Mahogany Ballroom, Delta Hotels Toledo
University of Toledo Health Science Campus
3100 Glendale Ave.
Toledo, OH 43614
Learn more about the schedule for the symposium.
Breakfast
7:45 a.m. - 8:15 a.m.
Welcome & Opening Remarks
8:15 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.
- Imran Ali, MD, Dean, College of Medicine and Life Sciences, Vice Provost for Health Education, Professor of Neurology
- Mitchell McKinney, Ph.D., Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
- Jian-Ting Zhang, Ph.D., Senior Associate Dean for Research,Professor and Chair of Cell and Cancer Biology
Session I: Tumor Biology and Microenvironment
8:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.
Moderator: Viranga Tillekeratne, Ph.D.
Maria Diakonov, Ph.D., Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
Role of Prolactin in Adipocyte-Breast Cancer Cell Crosstalk: Molecular Pathways
Eda Yildirim-Ayan, Ph.D., Department of Bioengineering
From Musculoskeletal Mechanobiology to Cancer Biology: 3D Biomimetic In Vitro and
Ex Vivo Platforms for Studying Cancer Cell Dissemination and Dormancy
Rafael Mata-Garcia, Ph.D., Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
Regulation of Invadopodia Formation by the Coordinated Action of RhoGEFs and RhoGAPs
Session II: Therapeutic Targets and Drug Resistance
9:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
Moderator: Song-Tao Liu, Ph.D.,
William Taylor, Ph.D., Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
Pathways Regulating Cell Death by Ferroptosis
Kevin Jiang, Ph.D., Department of Cell and Cancer Biology
Establish DSTYK as a Prognostic Marker for TNBC Patients
Yue Zou, Ph.D., Department of Cell and Cancer Biology
Mitochondrial Apoptotic Dormancy as a Novel Mechanism of Therapeutic Resistance in
Pancreatic Cancer
Coffee Break
10:30 a.m. - 10:40 a.m.
Session III: Cancer Immunology
10:40 a.m. -11:40 a.m.
Moderator: Dayanidhi Raman, Ph.D.
Jianmin Zhang, Ph.D., Department of Cell and Cancer Biology
TAZ Activation Promotes Recruitment of Immune Suppressive Cells in Breast Cancer
Fan Dong, Ph.D., Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
Upregulation of Bcl-xL through the PU.1-Hemgn Pathway
Shahnawaz Imam, Ph.D., Department of Medicine
Islet-Specific CAR-CD8-T Cell-Based Immunotherapy Modulates the Exocrine PDAC-Immune
Interface
Session IV: Special Emphasis Session: Clinical Perspective on Lung and Breast Cancer
11:40 a.m. - 12:40 p.m.
Moderator: Nagalakshmi Nadiminty, Ph.D.
Danae Hamouda, MD, Department of Medicine
Advances in Triple Negative Breast Cancer: Refining Biology and Personalizing Treatment
in Clinical Care
Mersiha Hadzimetovik, MD, Department of Radiation Oncology
Precision, Biology, and Synergy: Transforming Lung Cancer Care through Modern Radiotherapy
James Willey, Ph.D., Department of Cell and Cancer Biology
Interaction Between Early TP53-Mutated Preneoplastic Colonies and Adaptive Immune
Microenvironment
Lunch / Poster Session
12:40 p.m. -2:00 p.m.
Keynote Speaker
Zhijian 'James' Chen, Ph.D.
Zhijian ‘James’ Chen is an Investigator of Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and
Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology at the University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. He is also Director of Inflammation Research
Center and George L. MacGregor Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science at UT
Southwestern.
Keynote Address
DNA Immunity - Igniting Inflammation with cGAS
Research Interest:
- cGAS-STING pathway
- Innate Immunity
- MAVS: mitochondrial antiviral signaling protein
- NF-kappaB Signaling
- RIG-I Signaling
- Ubiquitin-Proteasome Pathway
Zhijian ‘James’ Chen is an Investigator of Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and
Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology at the University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. He is also Director of Inflammation Research
Center and George L. MacGregor Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science at UT
Southwestern. Prior to moving to Dallas, Chen was a senior scientist at ProScript Inc.
where he helped discover the proteasome inhibitor VELCADE, a medicine used for the
treatment of multiple myeloma. After joining UT Southwestern in 1997, Chen discovered
the regulatory role of ubiquitination in protein kinase activation in the NF-kB and MAP
kinase pathways. In addition, he discovered the Mitochondrial Antiviral Signaling
(MAVS) protein that reveals a new role of mitochondria in immunity. In 2012, Chen
discovered cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS) as a cytosolic DNA sensor and a new
cyclic di-nucleotide signaling pathway that mediate innate immune responses in animal
cells. For his work, Chen has received numerous honors including the National Academy
of Science Award in Molecular Biology (2012), American Society of Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology (ASBMB) Merck Award (2015), Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences
from the Foundation of NIH (2018), Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2019), Switzer
Prize (2019), William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor
Immunology (2020), Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize (2023), Albert Lasker Award for Basic
Medical Research (2024), Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize (2025) and Elaine
Redding Brinster Prize (2026). Chen is a member of both the National Academy of
Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, and a Fellow of Royal Society.
Keynote Address
2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Moderator: Jian-Ting Zhang, Ph.D.
Keynote speaker: James Chen Ph.D.
HHMI Investigator, Member of National Academy of Medicine, Fellow of Royal SocietY
Professor of Molecular Biology, UT Southwestern
Title of the talk: DNA Immunity-Igniting Inflammation with cGAS
Session V: NOCRI Service Cores for Cancer Research
3:00 p.m. - 3:45 p.m.
Moderator: Natalie Rizk
Srinivas Vinod Saladi, Ph.D., Department of Cell and Cancer Biology
BioRepository Core
Jasmine Liu, Ph.D., Department of Medicine
AI-Driven and Structure-Based Drug Discovery Core
Tim Cui, Ph.D., Department of Cell and Cancer Biology
Medicinal Chemistry Core
Xiaohong Li, Ph.D., Department of Cell and Cancer Biology
In-Vivo Therapeutic Core
Poster Awards and Closing Remarks
3:45 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
*Schedule subject to change.