Our Lab Members:

Deliang Guo, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at Ohio State University

Post-Doctoral Scholars:


Beatrice Gini, Ph.D.
I am from the University of Verona, Italy. I am working in Mischel Lab since October 2009 as post-doctoral fellow. Currently I am studying GBM autopsy samples and cell lines in order to find new insights in the EGFR signaling cascade. In particular I am evaluating the expression of particular protein isoforms in GBM that may influence the EGFR pathway and that could determine the highly infiltrating nature of GBM cells.

Ivan Babic, Ph.D.
I am a post-doctoral fellow from Canada with a background in mRNA processing and regulation of RNA binding proteins. My current investigation is to understand how mRNA processing events such as pre-mRNA splicing, mRNA stability and translation are deregulated in EGFR-activated GBM. The ultimate goal is to identify and test novel therapeutic strategies for treating glioblastoma. 

Tomoo Matsutani, M.D., Ph.D.
I came from Dept. of Neurosurgery, Chiba University in Japan as a post-doctoral fellow in October, 2010, and I have just started to work in this laboratory. I am interested in glioma biology and traget therapy.

Kenta Masui, M.D., Ph.D.
I am a postdoc researcher from Fukuoka, Japan. My primary interests are the elucidation of pathogenesis and biology of gliomas, and the development of newly molecular-targeted therapies interfering with growth factor signaling cascades. Also, I am eager to grasp the nature of glial cells and glial progenitors. I have a background of neuropathology, and want to tackle these issues from a neuropathological standpoint.

Sohila Zadran, Ph.D.

Feng Liu, Ph.D.

Graduate Students:

David Akhavan, M.D./Ph.D. candidate
I am originally from Maryland, but raised in Los Angeles. On my free time I like to enjoy the rugged outdoors. My main scientific interest is how EGFR driven glioma develops resistance to EGFR targeted inhibitors. I am also interested in how cancer cell metabolism is different from normal cell metabolism and how to take advantage of these differences in order to hault tumorigenesis.

Jessica Gu, Ph.D. candidate
I come from a beautiful city in south China and completed my undergrad in school of pharmaceutical science, Sun Yat-sen university. In my undergrad, I used to work in professor Lianquan Gu and Zhishu Huang’s lab studying an interesting DNA secondary structure known as G-quadruplex and its biological function in cancer cells.  Now I’m a PhD student in the department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, and found that tumor metabolism is the most appealing area to me. I  joined the Mischel lab in my second year and started  my project trying to study the metabolism of glioblastoma. This would help understand the reason for the development of drug resistance and indicate potential clinical application of PET imaging in assessing patient response.

Jerry Villa, M.D./Ph.D candidate

Staff Research Associates:

Shaojun Zhu
I perform molecular biological experiments in GBM translational research on cell signal transduction, and serve as Lab Manager.

Huijun Yang
I am from mainland of China and obtained my B.S. degree from the Capital Normal University in Beijing.  I worked as an assistant researcher for four years at the Institute of Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and worked as research assistant for three years in John Innes Centre/Sainsbury Laboratory, UK. From 2004, I came to U.S.A, worked as a research specialist at the University of California-Riverside and worked as a research associate at the University of South Carolina. I have extensive training and experience in plant molecular biology, especially making constructs for various purposes. In addition, organizing and providing continuity for lab resources (plasmid, strain and seed collections), supporting lab members in individual projects were my duties as well at the different institutions.

Andrea Miller
I am originally from California, and I received a BS in Biochemistry from Notre Dame de Namur University. I am working a project in collaboration with the Heath group at  CalTech which implements microfluidics to detect growth factors and cytokines in patient blood before and after therapy.

Tremylla Johnson

Lab Helpers:

Briana Hougum

Harley Anthony Searcy, Jr.

Undergraduate Students:

Mary Youssef

Alexandra  Pourzia

Alvaro Assuncao

Carolina Jacobs

Alex Nourian

Rotations & Volunteers:

Mitchell Flagg, volunteer


Former Members of Mischel Lab with Current Position:

Gheeyoung Choe, M.D., Ph.D. 
Former Visiting Assistant Researcher
Current Position: Professor and Chair of Department of Pathology, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Korea (http://medicine0.snu.ac.kr/eng/

Koji Yoshimoto, M.D.
Former Post-Doctoral Fellow
Current Position: Assistant Professor of Department of Neurosugery, Kyushu University Hospital, Japan (http://hyoka.ofc.kyushu- u.ac.jp/search/details/K003066/english.html)

Yinglin Wang, Ph.D.
Former Post-Doctoral Fellow
Current Position: Senior Scientist, Ventana Medical Systems, Inc.

Ling, Ling, Ph.D.
Former Post-Doctoral Fellow
Current Position: Post-Doctoral Fellow, National University of Singapore

Kan Lu, Ph.D.
Former Graduate Student & Post-Doctoral Fellow
Current Position: Post-Doctoral Fellow, Gabriele Bergers’ Lab, UCSF

Kelly Lin, M.D.
Former Medical Rotation Student
Current Status:Medical Student School of Medicine, UCLA

Rebecca Dumont, M.D.
Former Medical Rotation Student
Current Status: Medical Student School of Medicine, UCLA

Kimberly Jong, B.S.
Former Undergraduate Student
Current Status: Medical Student School of Medicine, Cornell University

Ederlyn Dia, B.S.
Former Staff Associate Researcher
Current Status: Pharmacy Student School of Pharmacy, UOP

Mariet Asadoorian, B.S.
Former Undergraduate Student
Current Status: Medical Student School of Medicine, UCSD

Armandip Gill, M.D. 

Former Medical Rotation Student
Current Status: Medical Student School of Medicine, UCI

Isaac Odenberg
Former Summer Volunteer
Current Status: Undergraduate Student Undergraduate School, UCB

Ava Kofman
Former High School Volunteer
Current Status: Undergraduate student, Harvard University

Shawn Sarkaria, B.S.                                                                                                         
Former Staff Research Associate
Current Status: Medical student, Cornell University

Toni Brand, B.S.
Former Volunteer
Current Status: Graduate student

Julie Dang, B.S.
Former Staff Research Associate
Current Status: Pharmacy Student School of Pharmacy, UCSF

Angela Liu, B.S.
Former undergraduate researcher

Tiffany Huang, Ph.D.
Former Post-Doctoral Fellow

Daisuke Kuga, M.D.
Former Post-Doctoral Fellow

David Nathanson, Ph.D.
Former Ph.D student
Current Status: Post-Doctoral Fellow at UCLA Pharmacology

Anke Ziegenbalg

Former undergraduate volunteer

Felicia Reinitz
Former SRA
MD.PhD student at Stanford University

Ali Nael, M.D.
Former volunteer
Resident fellow at UCI                                                                                   

Akio Iwanami, M.D., Ph.D.
Former postdoc fellow
Current status: Assistant Professor at Keio University, Japan 

Kazuhiro Tanaka, M.D., Ph.D.
Former postdoc fellow
Current status: Assistant Professor at Kobe University