Disease Therapies Archives - Sanford Burnham Prebys

Phenomena or Process: Disease Therapies

Dr. Piña-Crespo earned a PhD in Pharmacology from University College London (UCL), England under the supervision of Profs. Alasdair Gibb & David Colquhoun FRS. He completed postdoctoral training as a Pew Fellow/Research Associate with Prof. Steve Heinemann in the Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory at The Salk Institute, La Jolla, California. Dr. Piña-Crespo has held faculty positions as Instructor and Assistant Professor at Universidad Centroccidental, Venezuela and as Lecturer in the Biology Department at the University of San Diego, California.

Education and Training

  • Postdoctoral training (Pew Fellow/Research Associate) The Salk Institute, California
  • PhD in Pharmacology University College London (University of London), England
  • Veterinarian (D.V.M.) Universidad Centroccidental Lisandro Alvarado, Venezuela

Honors and Recognition

Pew Fellow in the Biomedical Sciences

Neuroscience Discovery Research

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Targeted protein S-nitrosylation of ACE2 inhibits SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Oh CK, Nakamura T, Beutler N, Zhang X, Piña-Crespo J, Talantova M, Ghatak S, Trudler D, Carnevale LN, McKercher SR, Bakowski MA, Diedrich JK, Roberts AJ, Woods AK, Chi V, Gupta AK, Rosenfeld MA, Kearns FL, Casalino L, Shaabani N, Liu H, Wilson IA, Amaro RE, Burton DR, Yates JR 3rd, Becker C, Rogers TF, Chatterjee AK, Lipton SA

Nat Chem Biol 2023 Mar ;19(3):275-283
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Eric has a broad background in chemical biology, with specific training and expertise in kinase inhibitors and targeted protein degradation, an emerging modality in which small molecules recruit E3 ligase complexes to target proteins to induce their ubiquitination and subsequent proteasomal degradation. He also has experience in pharmacological modulation of immune cells to improve anti-tumor immunity.
 
He received his PhD from the University of California San Francisco and postdoctoral training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Education and Training

2021: Postdoctoral Fellow, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute / Harvard Medical School
2015: PhD, University of California San Francisco
2009: BS, Duke University

Fellowship

Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Fellowship

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CDK4/6 Inhibition Augments Antitumor Immunity by Enhancing T-cell Activation.

Deng J, Wang ES, Jenkins RW, Li S, Dries R, Yates K, Chhabra S, Huang W, Liu H, Aref AR, Ivanova E, Paweletz CP, Bowden M, Zhou CW, Herter-Sprie GS, Sorrentino JA, Bisi JE, Lizotte PH, Merlino AA, Quinn MM, Bufe LE, Yang A, Zhang Y, Zhang H, Gao P, Chen T, Cavanaugh ME, Rode AJ, Haines E, Roberts PJ, Strum JC, Richards WG, Lorch JH, Parangi S, Gunda V, Boland GM, Bueno R, Palakurthi S, Freeman GJ, Ritz J, Haining WN, Sharpless NE, Arthanari H, Shapiro GI, Barbie DA, Gray NS, Wong KK

Cancer Discov 2018 Feb ;8(2):216-233
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Xueqin (Sherine) Sun seeks to better understand the genetic and epigenetic underpinnings of cancers, using genome editing technologies, animal and patient-derived models, and other tools to develop more effective cancer therapies.

“My lab is interested in studying how DNA or the machinery that interprets it leads to the transformation of normal cells into cancerous cells and concurrently, their specific vulnerabilities. Identifying these intrinsic vulnerabilities and targeting them properly is profoundly important to developing effective cancer therapies.”

Another aspect of Sun’s work is understanding how cancer cells and tumors change their circumstances and environment to improve survival, including hiding from or repressing the immune system.

“Changes to DNA itself and the way how DNA is interpreted by cells can transform normal cells into cancer cells. And transformed cells propagate by enhancing the misinterpreted DNA information, which in turn becomes the Achilles’ heel of cancer cells. Our goal is to find out how DNA information is misinterpreted in different ways and how to correct it to halt cancer.”

At Sanford Burnham Prebys, Sun and colleagues will employ a host of leading-edge tools and approaches, including functional genomics, artificial intelligence, structural biology, large-scale drug screening, and advanced imaging/spatial technologies.

Sun conducted her postdoctoral fellowship at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory under the guidance of Alea Mills, PhD, a professor at the National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center at Cold Spring Harbor.

She received her PhD from Wuhan University in China.

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Pier Lorenzo Puri earned his MD at the University of Rome “la Sapienza” in 1991. Dr. Puri completed his internship in Internal Medicine at the hospital “Policlinico Umberto I” (Rome) from 1992 to 1997, and defended an experimental thesis on the vascular effects of angiotensin II to graduate as Specialist in Internal medicine at the University of Rome “la Sapienza” in 1997. During this time he was frequently working at the Freien University of Berlin, as visiting scientist at the Deprtment of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, to perform experiments of protein and DNA microinjection in cultured cells. Dr. Puri trained as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), in the department of Cell Biology, under the supervision of Dr. Wang, from 1997 to 2001. He was appointed as Staff Scientist at the Salk Institute (La Jolla) in 2001, and became an Assistant Telethon Scientist at the Dulbecco Telethon Institute in Rome in 2002. He was upgraded to Associate Telethon Scientist at the Dulbecco Telethon Institute in Rome since 2007 and became Senior Telethon Scientist, Dulbecco Telethon Institute, in 2012, but declined this position. Dr. Puri joined Sanford Burnham Prebys as an Assistant Professor in 2004. He has been promoted to Associate Professor in 2010 and full Professor in 2015. From 2008 to 2016 Dr. Puri served as Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego. From 2008 to 2013 Dr Puri was an Associate Member of Sanford Children’s Health Research Center. Dr Puri has been Director of the laboratory of Epigenetics and Regeneration at Fondazione S. Lucia, Roma, Italy, but stepped down this position since 2019.

Education

University of California San Diego, Postdoctoral, Department of Biology
University of Rome La Sapienza, PhD, Internal Medicine
University of Rome La Sapienza, MD, Internal Medicine
University of Rome La Sapienza, Undergraduate, Internal Medicine

Other Appointments

2020-2024: Member of the Science Advisory Board (SAB) European Commission-funded Consortium BIND (Brain Involvement In Dystrophinopathies)
2015-2019: Standing Member, NIH Study Section (SMEP)
2010-present: Member of Editorial Board of Skeletal Muscle

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After receiving his early training in clinical chemistry/biochemistry at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Dr. Millán first joined the La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation (LJCRF) in 1977, the predecessor of Sanford Burnham Prebys, as a trainee in clinical enzymology. He completed his PhD studies in Medical Biochemistry at the University of Umeå, Sweden and after post-doctoral stints in Copenhagen and LJCRF he was appointed to the faculty at SBP in 1986. He served as Professor of Medical Genetics in the Department of Medical Biosciences at his alma mater, Umeå University, Sweden, from 1995-2000. He was appointed Sanford Investigator at the Sanford Children’s Health Research Center at Sanford Burnham Prebys in 2008.

Honors and Recognition

2018: ASBMR Lawrence G. Raisz Award for Pre-clinical Research.
2001: Gold Medal of the Royal Academy of Medicine and Surgery, Murcia, Spain
1992: Honorary title of AcadémicoCorresponsal at the Royal Academy of Medicine and Surgery, Murcia, Spain.

Other Affiliations

Member, Scientific Advisory Board, Soft Bones

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