Shu-Han Yu, Ph.D.
Dr. Shu-Han Yu was so productive during her time with us as a Ph.D. student that she still continues to publish! See her latest work examining dependence of tumor cell growth on IL-6 signaling in the prostate tumor microenvironment. Dr. Yu is currently an Assistant Professor at the National Defense Medical Center, Graduate Institute of Life Science, in Taiwan. Congratulations Shu-Han!
Carli Jones
We are very excited to welcome Carli Jones to the lab. Carli is a graduate student in the Pathobiology program at Johns Hopkins who will be conducting her thesis work in the lab. She recently participated in a series of short films highlighting students in the program. Watch Carli talk about Pathobiology and her research interests here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQkWgp-swNM#action=share
P.S. She also passed her oral entrance exam this week, congratulations and great work Carli!!
JHU medical student Borna Kassiri
Johns Hopkins medical student Borna Kassiri recently presented his Department of Urology Persky fellowship and Sfanos lab summer project at the South Central Section of the AUA meeting in Nashville, TN! Borna’s presentation titled “Profiling the Urinary and Gastrointestinal Microbiota in Healthy Children and Children with Antibiotic Prophylaxis for Urogenital Malformations” was chosen for a moderated poster presentation. Congratulations Borna!!
Pathobiology graduate student Corey Porter gave her thesis presentation yesterday: “The Induction and Silencing of Lactoferrin, a Putative Prostate Cancer Tumor Suppressor Gene, in the Early Stages of Prostate Neoplasia and Progression”. Corey will be moving on to a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan. Congratulations Corey!!
Congratulations to Dr. Lauren Peiffer for her recently awarded DoD PCRP Early Investigator Research Award “The Gastrointestinal Microbiota and Immunotherapy in Advanced Prostate Cancer”!! Lauren continues to impress as she also just recently passed her veterinary boards and is now a Board Certified Anatomic Veterinary Pathologist!! We’re so proud of you!!
We recently published our first study that examines differences in the gastrointestinal (gut) flora that are possibly induced by prostate cancer treatment with androgen receptor-axis targeted therapies including enzalutamide and abiraterone acetate. Key findings include the observation of significant compositional differences in the gut microbiota of men taking oral formulations of medications that target the androgen receptor axis including a greater abundance of species previously linked to response to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy such as Akkermansia muciniphila and Ruminococcaceae spp. In functional analyses, we found an enriched representation of bacterial gene pathways involved in steroid biosynthesis and steroid hormone biosynthesis in the fecal microbiota of men taking oral androgen axis targeting drugs. This study was funded by the Prostate Cancer Foundation as part of a 2016 Challenge Award.
The study can be found here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41391-018-0061-x
A commentary on our article published in Nature Reviews Urology can also be found here: rdcu.be/3R4d
A write up of our article and the topic by the Prostate Cancer Foundation can also be found here: https://www.pcf.org/news/crystal-ball-for-predicting-cancer-treatment-response-your-poop/
Ayanna Carter and Dr. Janielle Maynard
Ryan Kempski and Dr. Janielle Maynard
L to R: Corey Porter, Eva Shrestha, Lauren Peiffer
A new review article, co-authored by Sfanos lab graduate students Corey Porter, Eva Shrestha, and Lauren Peiffer, is now available online! The full-text article can be found here: https://rdcu.be/OZyq
Our research funded by the U.S. Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP) is currently highlighted on the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) website. This work is focused on understanding the role of inflammation and inflammatory factors in the prostate tumor microenvironment on tumor aggressiveness. The video covers a study led by Dr. Heidi Hempel, a former Sfanos lab graduate student (now postdoctoral fellow at the NCI), who examined the relationship between mast cells, tumor aggressiveness, and the racial disparity in prostate cancer.
http://cdmrp.army.mil/pubs/video/pc/karen_sfanos_Video
Dr. Janielle Maynard, Sarah Ernst, and Eva Shrestha
Several members of the Sfanos Lab are in attendance at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting in Chicago, IL.
Sarah Ernst, M.S. presented an abstract on biobanking and feasibility considerations for our PCF-funded study on the gastrointestinal microbiome in metastatic, lethal prostate cancer.
Dr. Janielle Maynard is presenting an abstract on her work examining cytokines in the tumor microenvironment in prostate cancer racial disparities.
Eva Shrestha, B.A. is presenting an abstract on her work involving the development of RNA in situ hybridization techniques to localize and visualize bacteria in cancer tissues.
Great work Sarah, Janielle, and Eva!!
