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

Jeffrey K. Huang, PhD
Deputy Director of CCR
Associate Professor
• Department of Biology & Pathology
• Oligodendrocyte Regeneration
• Molecular Signals in Injury Microenvironments

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

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

Aibing Wang, PhD
Assistant Professor
• HPV Biology Program
• Vaccine Development
• Canine Papillomavirus

Xuefeng Liu, MD
Adjunct Professor
• Scientific Director of Conditional Reprogramming Laboratory (CRL)
• Papillomavirus Oncoproteins

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
Research Team

Dan Zhou, MS
Research Specialist/Lab Manager
• Working with Dr. Hang Yuan
• Managing papillomavirus vaccine development and production
• 3D Air-liquid interface culture to analyze HPV-related cancers in vitro

Shravanthy Suguru, MS
Research Assistant
• Working with Dr. Seema Agarwal
• Research to leverage cell reprogramming to understand cancer metastases and circulating tumor cells

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

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

Vera Simic, BS
Director of Business Operations
• Financial and Administrative Leadership
• Business outreach initiatives, commercial and research projects
• Marketing for CRC technology

Ewa Krawczyk, PhD
CRC Lab Manager
• Optimize cell culture conditions
• Provide instructive support and technical expertise to researchers and staff
• Coordinate collection of clinical biospecimens and authentication of generated cell lines

Rachel Choi, CPA
Office Manager
• Manage office operations for Dr. Richard Schlegel
• CCR website development • CCR Seminar Series manager

Dan Zhou, MS
Schlegel Lab Manager
• Lab Management
• Papillomavirus vaccine development & production
• Maintaining and conditionally reprogramming tissue culture cells