Aplin Research
Contact
- Deputy Director, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
- Kalbach-Newton Professor in Cancer Research
233 S 10th Street
BLSB 1050
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Team
Target Inhibitor Working Group
Casey Stefanski, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher
Casey investigates metabolic alterations promoting therapeutic resistance through immune suppression.
Geethanjali Annamalai
MD, PhD Student
Geethu studies RAS signaling and targeted inhibitors in acral melanoma.
Scott Varney, PhD
Research Associate
Scott studies therapeutic options for inducing inflammatory cell death in uveal melanoma.
Connor Ott
PhD Student
Connor researches targeted therapies and YAP/TAZ-TEAD signaling in drug tolerant melanoma.
Haley Wilson
PhD Student
Haley studies cutaneous melanomas with poor prognosis including novel therapeutic targets for NRAS mutant melanoma and intrapatient heterogeneity in metastatic melanoma.
Will Madden
Research Technician
Will is responsible for completing essential molecular biology techniques and investigating the role of FOXD3 transcription factor in drug tolerance in melanoma cell lines.
Uveal Melanoma Working Group
Francis Waltrich, Jr
PhD Student
Frank studies transcriptional-based inhibitors for targeting advanced-stage uveal melanoma.
LanMai Dunn
Research Technician
LanMai studies acquired resistance to targeted therapies in uveal melanoma.
Diana Gonzalez Baerga
Diana works on targeting TEAD signaling and studying the mechanisms of therapeutic resistance in uveal melanoma.
Immuno-oncology Working Group
Daniel Erkes
Assistant Professor
Dan studies the impact of pyroptosis on the tumor immune microenvironment of melanoma. He also helps to manage the numerous projects in the lab and mentor many of the trainees.
Kristen DeRosa
PhD Student
Kristen investigates the role of YAP-TAZ/TEAD signaling within the immune microenvironment in cutaneous melanoma.
Computational Biology & Bioinformatics
Timothy Purwin, MS, PhD
Clinical Informatics Specialist
Computational Biology, Bioinformatics and Next-Gen. Sequencing
Glenn Mersky, MS
Clinical Informatics Specialist
Glenn works across the Aplin lab to support lab members with their bioinformatics needs for multiple projects.
Jelan Haj
Research Technician
Jelan prepares reverse phase protein array (RPPA) samples from cultured cell lysates, manages mycoplasma testing, and performs cell culture for different experiments in the lab. Additionally, she analyzes RPPA and RNA-seq data and collaborates with researchers to generate and interpret datasets to support research and publications.
Colette Trouillot
External Research Participant
Colette studies the role of the transcription factor FOXD3 in metastatic melanoma using bioinformatic techniques.
Other
Diana Melissaratos
Research Assistant
Diana’s responsibility is overseeing daily operations, including inventory management and procurement, while also assisting with research on the effects of pyroptosis on the tumor immune microenvironment in melanoma using in vivo animal models.
Charlie Barraclough
Student
Charlie investigates CDK4/6 PROTACs in acral melanoma.