Who We Are
Educating and Researching to Make a Difference

Director for The Center for Cell Reprogramming
Richard Schlegel, MD, PhD.
“It’s a dream of a scientist to be able to discover something in a laboratory that might not only be interesting to other scientists but have an impact on healthcare in the country, or in this case, the entire world…so it’s an exciting time!”
– Dr. Richard Schlegel, Chair of Department of Pathology and Director of Center for Cell Reprogramming, GUMC
Faculty

Seema Agarwal, PhD
Associate Professor
• In Vitro Cell Line Models
• Signaling Pathways
• Cell Model Systems

Ewa Krawczyk, PhD
Assistant Professor
• CRC Lab Manager
• E5 Protein
• CRC Cultures

Xuefeng Liu, MD
Professor
• Co-Director of Center for Cell Reprogramming
• Director of Telomeres & Cell Immortalization
• Scientific Director of Conditional Reprogramming Laboratory (CRL)
• Papillomavirus Oncoproteins

Hang Yuan, PhD
Associate Professor
• Director of HPV Biology Program
• Canine Papillomavirus
• Vaccine Development

Jeffrey K. Huang, PhD
Assistant Professor
• Department of Biology
• Oligodendrocyte Regeneration
• Molecular Signals in Injury Microenvironments

Frank Suprynowicz, PhD
Assistant Professor
• Signaling Pathways
• CRC Biology
• CRC Technique

Priscilla A. Furth, MD
Professor and Associate Dean
• Professor of Oncology & Medicine
• Associate Dean for Faculty Development
• Primary Epithelial Cell Development

Christopher Albanese, PhD
Associate Professor
• Department of Oncology
• Growth Regulation of Cancer
• Development of High-Energy Imaging Technologies

Anton Wellstein, MD
Assistant Professor
• Oncology & Pharmacology
• Growth Factor Pleiotrophin and its Signaling through the ALK Kinase Receptor
• Discovery of Mechanisms of Cancer Metastasis and Genes

Michael Johnson, PhD
Assistant Professor
• Department of Oncology
• Proteases, Invasion and Metastasis and the Progression of Breast Cancer.
• The Pharmacogenetics of Drugs used in Cancer Therapy

Elena Silva, PhD
Professor
• Department of Biology
• Professor and Vice Dean
• Nervous System Development

Steve Singer, PhD
Professor
• Department of Biology
• Pathogenesis in Giardia and Giardia-host-microbiota interactions
• Innate immunity in Giardia Infection, Vaccine Development, Giardia co-infections
Center Members

Sujata Choudhury, PhD
Research Associate II
• Working with Dr. Seema Agarwal
• Feeder free CRC system
• Role of p53 in normal/tumor CRCs and Rock1/Rock2 in cell reprogramming

Jie Lu, MS
Research Assistant II
• Working with Dr. Ewa Krawczyk
• Processing tissues and using conditional reprogramming method to establish new cell lines

Dan Zhou, MS
Research Assistant III
• Working with Dr. Hang Yuan
• Managing papillomavirus vaccine development and production
• 3D Air-liquid Interface culture to analyze HPV-related cancers in vitro

Jerry Xiao
MD-PhD Candidate
• Working with Dr. Seema Agarwal
• Exploring Circulating Tumor Cells and their role in tumor metastasis
Administrative

Haewon Park, MPH, CRA
Director of Business Operations
• Financial and Administrative Leadership
• Business outreach initiatives, commercial and research projects
• Marketing for CRC technology

Vera Simic, BS
Program Coordinator
• Lab Management
• Laboratory finances
• Maintaining and conditionally reprogramming tissue culture cells
Rachel Choi, CPA
Office Manager
• Office operations for Dr. Richard Schlegel
• Center for Cell Reprogramming website development