‘Science essential to society’: PhD candidates honored at 2026 award ceremony
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MCCB Student Achievements
MCCB graduate students have been successful in publishing high-impact papers, obtaining independent fellowships, receiving national and institutional awards, and obtaining postdoctoral or industry positions at major institutions and pharmaceutical/biotech companies.
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Publications
In the following list of selected recent student-led peer-reviewed research publications, the student’s name is in bold and the faculty thesis advisor’s name is underlined.
R-loops shape the H2A.Z landscape and promote balanced lineage allocation during differentiation.
Chao CH, Fazzio TG. Genome Res. 2026 May 6;36(5):924-937.
Therapeutic delivery of albumin-binding siRNA targeting IRS2 to diverse cell types reduces mammary tumor growth.
Tocheny CE, Buchwald JE, Dahlke CD, Fakih HH, Morgan JS, Summers A, Silva CA, Jackson SO, Lee JS, Card MA, Echeverria D, Peterson C, Mercurio AM, Khvorova A, Shaw LM. Mol Ther. 2026 May 6;34(5):2963-2982.
The conserved outer mitochondrial membrane protein Mtch regulates mitophagy during Drosophila intestinal development.
Restrepo LJ, Graslie JK, Fortier TM, Baehrecke EH. PLoS Biol. 2026 Jan 23; 24(1):e3003616.
Inducing ferroptosis to impede metastasis by inhibiting the calcium channel TRPC6.
Dimitrov BS, Mukhopadhyay D, Goel HL, Karner ER, Silva CA, Kumar A, Peterson C, Wang M, Mercurio AM. Cell Rep. 2025 Nov 8;44(11):116543.
Resistance to radiation enhancees metastasis by altering RNA metabolism.
Kumar A, Kishimoto K, Goel HL, Silva CA, Li R, Pacheco B, Zhu LJ, Flavahan WA, Mercurio AM. Sci Adv. 2025 Oct 17;1(42):eadx3050.
Single-cell transcriptomic and genomic changes in the ageing human brain.
Jeffries AM, Yu T, Ziegenfuss JS, Tolles AK, Baer CE, Sotelo CB, Kim Y, Weng Z, Lodato MA. Nature. 2025 Oct;646(8085):657-666.
MYC and p53 alterations cooperate through VEGF signaling to repress cytotoxic T cell and immunotherapy responses in prostate cancer.
Murphy KC, DeMarco KD, Zhou L, Peura J, Giwa HK, Lopez-Diaz Y, Ho YJ, Li J, Bai S, Simin K, Zhu LJ, Pitarresi JR, Mercurio AM, Ruscetti M. Cancer Res. 2025 Nov 14;85(22):4359.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Aug 26;122(34):e2427304122.
Multidimensional third-generation sequencing of modified DNA bases allows interrogation of complex biological systems.
David SS, Pacheco BA, Kishimoto K, Vantine S, Hu K, Liu H, Davis DL, Tran H, Sallis BF, Ali L, Haynes CM, McCormick BA, Zhu LJ, Flavahan WA. Nat Commun. 2025 Jul 1;16(1):5676.
Selective targeting of genome amplifications and repeat elements by CRISPR-Cas9 nickases to promote cancer cell death.
Hanlon MB, Shohet JM, Wolfe SA. Nat Commun 2025 Jun 2;16(1):5126.
Mesenchymal Hippo signaling regulates intestinal homeostasis in adult mice.
Dang K, Singh A, Chen X, Cotton JL, Guo S, Hu X, Tao Z, Liu H, Zhu LJ, Ip YT, Wu X, Mao J. iScience. 2025 Jan 20;28(2):111847.
Neuropilin-2-expressing breast cancer cells mitigate radiation-induced oxidative stress through nitric oxide signaling.
Kumar A, Goel HL, Wisniewski CA, Wang T, Geng Y, Wang M, Goel S, Hu K, Li R, Zhu LJ, Clark JL, Ferreira LM, Brehm MA, FitzGerald TJ, Mercurio AM. J Clin Invest. 2024 Oct 1;134(22):e181368.
Calcineurin promotes adaptation to chronic stress through two distinct mechanisms.
Flynn MJ, Harper NW, Li R, Zhu LJ, Lee MJ, Benanti JA. Mol Biol Cell. 2024 Oct 1;35(10):ar123.
The role of quiescent thymic progenitors in TAL/LMO2-induced T-ALL chemotolerance.
O'Connor KW, Kishimoto K, Kuzma IO, Wagner KP, Selway JS, Roderick JE, Karna KK, Gallagher KM, Hu K, Liu H, Li R, Brehm MA, Zhu LJ, Curtis DJ, Tremblay CS, Kelliher MA. Leukemia. 2024 May;38(5):951-962.
YAP/TAZ-mediated regulation of laminin 332 is enabled by β4 integrin repression of ZEB1 to promote ferroptosis resistance.
Goel HL*, Karner ER*, Kumar A, Mukhopadhyay D, Goel S, Mercurio AM. J Biol Chem. 2024 Apr;300(4):107202. (*indicates co-first authors)
FANCJ promotes PARP1 activity during DNA replication that is essential in BRCA1 deficient cells.
Cong K*, MacGilvary N*, Lee S, MacLeod SG, Calvo J, Peng M, Nedergaard Kousholt A, Day TA, Cantor SB. Nat Commun. 2024 Mar 23;15(1):2599. (* indicates co-first authors)
The calcium channel TRPC6 promotes chemotherapy-induced persistence by regulating integrin α6 mRNA splicing.
Mukhopadhyay D, Goel HL, Xiong C, Goel S, Kumar A, Li R, Zhu LJ, Clark JL, Brehm MA, Mercurio AM. Cell Rep. 2023 Nov 28;42(11):113347.
Disruption of sugar nucleotide clearance is a therapeutic vulnerability of cancer cells.
Doshi MB, Lee N, Tseyang T, Ponomarova O, Goel HL, Spears M, Li R, Zhu LJ, Ashwood C, Simin K, Jang C, Mercurio AM, Walhout AJM, Spinelli JB, Kim D. Nature. 2023 Nov;623(7987):625-632.
Reducing the inherent auto-inhibitory interaction within the pegRNA enhances prime editing efficiency.
Ponnienselvan K, Liu P, Nyalile T, Oikemus S, Maitland SA, Lawson ND, Luban J, Wolfe SA. Nucleic Acids Res. 2023 Jul 21;51(13):6966-6980.
Phosphosite Scanning reveals a complex phosphorylation code underlying CDK-dependent activation of Hcm1.
Conti MM, Li R, Narváez Ramos MA, Zhu LJ, Fazzio TG, Benanti JA. Nat Commun. 2023 Jan 19;14(1):310.
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Fellowships
The following is a list of fellowships recently funded to MCCB graduate students.
| Student | Faculty advisor | Fellowship | Years |
| Kelsey Wagner | Michelle Kelliher |
Kids Beating Cancer Emerging Scientist Grant: Identifying BTG2 targets to sensitize leukemia-initiating cells to chemotherapy |
2025 |
| Katherine Murphy | Marcus Ruscetti |
Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (F31): Identifying and targeting the genetic determinants of immune suppression and immunotherapy failure in prostate cancer |
2025-2028 |
| Nathan MacGilvary | Sharon Cantor |
Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (F31): Investigating replication gap suppression in distinct models of chemoresistant BRCA mutant cancers |
2025-2028 |
| Bradley Class | Michael Lodato |
Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (F31): Single-cell analysis of somatic mutation rates, mechanisms, and impacts in human ataxia telangiectasia cerebellum |
2025-2028 |
| Lucas Restrepo | Eric Baehrecke |
Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (F31): Identification of a putative mitochondria solute carrier that regulates mitophagy |
2024-2027 |
| Ayush Kumar | Art Mercurio |
Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Fellowship for Students at Institutions with NIH-Funded Institutional Predoctoral Dual-Degree Training Programs (F30): VEGF/Neurophilin-2 signaling and radioresistance in triple-negative breast cancer |
2023-2027 |
| Chaitanya Parikh | Marcus Ruscetti |
Pancreatic Cancer Alliance Fellowship: Modulating the immunosuppressive pancreas tumor microenvironment through intratumoral delivery of cytokine-encoding mRNAs |
2023-2026 |
| Sookyung Kim | Cole Haynes |
Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Fellowship for Students at Institutions with NIH-Funded Institutional Predoctoral Dual-Degree Training Programs (F30): Modulation of mitochondrial biogenesis by the Integrated Stress Response (ISR) |
2022-2027 |
| Kevin O'Connor | Michelle Kelliher |
Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Fellowship for Students at Institutions with NIH-Funded Institutional Predoctoral Dual-Degree Training Programs (F30): Targeting dormant leukemia-initiating cells in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia |
2020-2024 |
| Melanie Walker | Art Mercurio |
Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (F31): Integrin regulation of mammary gland development |
2020-2023 |
| James Shen | Eric Baehrecke |
Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Fellowship for Students at Institutions with NIH-Funded Institutional Predoctoral Dual-Degree Training Programs (F30): Discovery of a novel role of VPS13D in autophagy |
2019-2025 |
| Kevin Luk | Scot Wolfe |
NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (F31): Amelioration of Beta-hemoglobinopathies by efficient precise deletion of the +58 BCL11A enhancer using orthogonal Cas9-Cas9 chimeras |
2019-2021 |
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Awards
Many of our graduate students have won prestigious national and institutional awards for their academic scholarship, mentorship and community service. Below are lists of institutional awards recently received by MCCB graduate students.
National Awards
| Year | Student | Faculty advisor | Award |
| 2025 | Ayush Kumar | Art Mercurio | |
| 2024 | Chaitanya Parikh | Marcus Ruscetti | AACR Scholar-in-training Award to attend the AACR Special Conference in Advances in Pancreatic Cancer Research |
| Chaitanya Parikh | Marcus Ruscetti | Trainee Award by Aegean Conferences to attend the 6th International Conference on Cytokines in Cancer | |
| 2023 | Ayush Kumar | Art Mercurio | 2023 Lasker Essay Contest Winner |
Institutional Awards
MCCB Students in the News
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MCCB Student Spotlights
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