TVG Faculty & Staff

The Tumor Vaccine Group

Our Staff
    ~ Primary Investigators
    ~ Basic Science Staff
    ~ Clinical Staff
    ~ Administrative Staff
    ~ Students

Past Members

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Pricipal Investigators (in alphabetical order)

	May L. (Nora) Disis, M.D. Dr. Disis is a Professor of Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Pathology and Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Washington (UW), and a Member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC). She is the Associate Dean for Translational Science in the UW School of Medicine. Dr. Disis received her M.D. from the University of Nebraska Medical School and completed a residency and chief residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Her fellowship in oncology was done at UW/FHCRC. Dr. Disis is an expert in breast and ovarian cancer immunology and translational research. She is one of the pioneering investigators who discovered that HER-2/neu is a tumor antigen. Her work has led to several clinical trials which evaluate boosting immunity to HER-2/neu with cancer vaccines. Dr. Disis is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha and the American Society of Clinical Investigation. She is the Deputy Editor for Translational Oncology for the Journal of Clinical Oncology, and is a member of several committees and task forces for both the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). She is also the Director of the Institute of Translational Health Sciences and the Director for the Center of Translational Medicine in Women’s Health at the UW. Her multifaceted research program within the Tumor Vaccine Group includes the discovery of new antigens for breast and ovarian cancer and the development of vaccine and cellular therapy targeting those antigens.


	Heidi Gray, M.D. Dr. Gray is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the UW. She received her M.D. from the University of California, San Diego in 1997, and completed her Obstetrics and Gynecology residency training at the UW. She completed her fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Concurrently, she was an instructor for the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1999, Dr. Gray received the Berlex Award for Best Teaching Second Year Resident at UW, as well as the Gallway Fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. In 2001, she received the David C. Figge Award for Outstanding Chief Resident in Gynecologic Oncology, UW. She is presently conducting ovarian cancer research under a grant from the Gynecologic Cancer Foundation.


	Hailing Lu, Ph.D. Dr. Lu is an Acting Assistant Professor of Oncology at the UW. Dr. Lu received her Ph.D. in Toxicology from the UW in 2001. She had post-doctoral training at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center studying the effect of interleukin-7 on immune reconstitution before she joined the Tumor Vaccine Group. Dr. Lu is working on the development of multi-antigen vaccines to prevent breast cancer.


	Lupe Salazar, M.D. Dr. Salazar, M.D. is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the UW and a member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC) Breast Cancer and Gynecologic Cancer Program. Dr. Salazar completed medical school and Internal Medicine residency training at the University of Minnesota, and completed her fellowship training in Hematology / Oncology at the UW. Dr. Salazar is the past recipient of a Hugh J. Anderson Memorial Scholarship, Bristol-Meyers Squibb National Medical Fellowship, and currently holds a Mentored Clinical Scientist Award (K23) from the NCI. Dr. Salazar's research focuses on the development of novel Phase I and II studies of immunotherapy. These studies include testing novel cancer vaccines for the treatment and/or prevention of solid tumors. Of particular interest to Dr. Salazar is assessing the development of immunologic memory as the endpoint of a successful cancer vaccine. In addition, she is evaluating how to enhance endogenous tumor immunity by modulating the activity of immunoregulatory cells.


	Ron E. Swensen, M.D. Dr. Swensen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the UW. He received his M.D. in 1984 from Loma Linda University, California, and completed his internship in 1985 at University of Wisconsin Hospitals in Madison, Wisconsin. His residency was completed in 1988 at Stanford University Hospital in Obstetrics and Gynecology and he was selected as Outstanding Resident Instructor in 1985 – 1986. He completed a fellowship in gynecologic oncology in 1995 at Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania. From 1990 to 2003, Dr. Swensen was an Assistant Professor in the Loma Linda University School of Medicine, and he is the former Chief, Gynecology Division at Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Veterans Hospital.

Basic Science Staff (in alphabetical order)

	Denise Cecil, Ph.D. Dr. Cecil received her BS in Microbiology from Michigan State University in 1996. After graduation, she joined a B-cell biology lab at The Scripps Research Institute focused on rheumatologic diseases. She then moved over to the UC San Diego’s Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology Department in 2000 and worked as a technician. In 2008 she received her Ph.D. from UC San Diego in Molecular Pathology examining the role of non-traditional inflammatory cytokines in the modulation of the pathogenesis and progression of osteoarthritis. Currently Dr. Cecil is working with TVG on the development and characterization of peptide-specific vaccines for breast and ovarian cancers.


	Yushe Dang, Ph.D. Dr. Dang received her Ph.D. in Immunology from University of Surrey, United Kingdom in 1996. She completed her postdoctoral studies in the Reproductive Immunologic Laboratory at Swedish Medical Center, Denver, Colorado in 2000. Dr. Dang is an expert T cell biologist. She has extensive experience in projects related to T cell therapy in both academia and industry. Within the Tumor Vaccine Group she is involved with the development of adoptive T cell immunotherapy for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer, including establishing ex vivo T cell expansion as a GMP technique.


	Ekram Gad, Ph.D. Dr. Gad has a Ph.D. in immunology and parasitology from Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt. Her work focuses on the in vivo modeling of novel immune-based approaches for the treatment and prevention of breast cancer.


	Katherine Henderson, B.S. Ms. Henderson received a B.S. in Cell Biology from Western Washington University in 1998. Prior to joining TVG, Ms. Henderson worked at ZymoGenetics in Seattle for 9 years, first in the Immunology group, and later in the Hematology/Oncology group.


	Greg Holt, M.D. Gregory Holt is a fellow in the Department of Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine at the University of Washington. He received his M.D./Ph.D. from Loyola University in Chicago graduating in 2002 working with W. Martin Kast Ph.D. during graduate school. His thesis evaluated tumor vaccine strategies towards prostate specific antigen modeling both the targeting of a self antigen and working within the HLA A*0201 haplotype. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Georgetown University and served as chief medicine resident for one year before joining the Pulmonary Division at the UW. His research interests involve tumor vaccines targeting non small cell lung cancers in both a prophylactic and therapeutic manner.


	Vy Phan Lai, Ph.D. Dr. Vy Phan Lai received her B.Sc. in Biology, with a minor in English, at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. After graduation, she joined the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where she conducted research on the biology of liver cancer and other gastrointestinal cancers. In 2004, Dr. Lai received her Ph.D. in Tumor Biology from the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine (in Dr. Richard Vile’s laboratory), where she developed new dendritic cell-based therapies for the treatment of various cancers, including melanoma. At the Tumor Vaccine Group, Dr. Lai continues to pursue her interests in tumor immunology, focusing on vaccine-based and T cell-based therapies for breast cancer. Dr. Lai’s research is centered on the development of HER2/neu peptide-specific CD4+ T cells from neu-transgenic mice for adoptive T cell therapy studies. It is her hope that the preclinical investigations will help to advance our understanding of HER2/neu specific T cell infusions as a potentially beneficial treatment for advanced stage breast cancer patients.


	Sue Ludmann, M.S. Sue Ludmann is a Research Scientist in the Tumor Vaccine Group. Sue received her MS degree from Miami University (Ohio). She has worked in both academia (University of Minnesota) as well as in the private sector. In particular, Sue worked at a small “start up” medical device company involved in imaging rare cancer cells as well as imaging of her2+ breast cancer samples. Sue is a cell biologist with expertise in microscopy and flow cytometry.


	Meredith Slota, B.S. Ms. Slota received her B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology and Chemistry in 2002 from the University of Washington. Prior to coming to work with the TVG, she worked as a Research Associate at the Seattle-based Institute for Systems Biology.


	Mei Wu, Ph.D. Dr. Wu received her Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She completed her post-doctoral training at UW-Madison and the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. During her tenure at the University of Michigan, she studied genetics and cell biology of inflammatory breast cancer. She has extensive expertise on molecular biology, bioinformatics, cell biology, and anti-tumor drug development. Currently she is working on the identification of tumor biomarkers and the development of multi-antigen tumor vaccines.


	Yi Yang, M.S. Yi received a Master’s degree in biochemistry from Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry, Chinese Academy of Science. After a few years as a visiting scientist in Dr. George Stamatoyannopoulos’s lab in Division of Medical Genetics, University of Washington, he joined Dr. Hellstrom’s lab working on tumor antigen discovery and early detection of human tumors as well as tumor-based therapy of mouse melanoma models.

Clinical Staff (in alphabetical order)

	Nicole Bates, B.A. Ms. Bates received her B.A. in Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Molecular Biology in 2007 from Whitman College. Prior to joining the Tumor Vaccine Group, she worked for Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, with a focus on breast cancer research. As Recruitment Coordinator, Ms. Bates orchestrates patient recruitment and enrollment and provides overall support to the Tumor Vaccine Group’s clinical trials.


	Jennifer Childs, M.P.H., C.C.R.P. Ms. Childs received her B.S. in Microbiology in 1997 from the University of Arizona, where she also received her M.P.H. in 2003. Prior to joining the Tumor Vaccine Group, she worked with the Arizona Cancer Center. As Research Coordinator with the Tumor Vaccine Group, Ms. Childs provides professional-level support and overall coordination for clinical trials.


	Andrew Coveler, M.D. Dr. Coveler received his B.A. in Biology in 1998 from Northwestern University, where he also earned his M.D. in 2002. He completed his internship at Baylor College of Medicine and his residency at the University of Washington. He currently is a Fellow at the University of Washington in the division of Oncology. His present research interests include immunotherapy and cell-based therapy for cancer.


	Doreen Higgins, R.N., B.S.N., C.C.R.P. Ms. Higgins received a B.Sc. in Therapeutic Recreation in 1979 and a B.S. in Nursing in 1999. With over 25 years of experience in the health care field, Doreen brings a high level of quality to her patient care and versatile people skills. She works closely with physicians, patients, families, and other staff members to educate, recruit and enroll patients. She coordinates patient care, provides follow-up, gathers and disseminates information, and serves as an excellent clinical resource.


	Danelle Wallace, M.P.H. Ms. Wallace received her B.S. in Health Science in 2000 from the University of Arizona, where she also received her M.P.H. with a focus in Epidemiology in 2002. Prior to joining the Tumor Vaccine Group, she worked for the university-affiliated Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center as well as Harborview Medical Center. As Research Coordinator/Data Manager with the Tumor Vaccine Group, Ms. Wallace provides professional-level data analysis and management support and overall coordination for clinical trials.

Administrative Staff (in alphabetical order)

	Tess Bayon, B.S. Ms. Bayon received her Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Baguio, Baguio City, Philippines, a Registered Nursing Assistant license (Washington State), and experience in finance and mortgage lending. She joined the Tumor Vaccine Group in March 2007 as a Program Assistant. Her duties and support for the Tumor Vaccine Group includes coordinating the purchasing cycle, maintaining office machines and supplies, maintaining record keeping/filling, room scheduling for meeting/trainings and handling a variety of accounting tasks.


	Molly Boettcher, B.A. Molly received her BA in 2000 from the University of Washington. After three years with Gastroenterology as administrative and fellowship coordinator she joined the Tumor Vaccine Group in 2008 as Program Operations Specialist. Her support for the Tumor Vaccine Group will be in the areas of grant management, website development, faculty assistance and event coordination and outreach.


	Kathleen Tietje, Ph.D. Dr. Tietje is a Senior Research Scientist in the UW Division of Oncology, and the Administrative Director of the Tumor Vaccine Group. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington, Department of Pharmacology in 1991, and has expertise in research program development and project management, contract negotiation, and clinical trial implementation. Prior to joining the Tumor Vaccine Group in 2006, she was the Program Administrator for the Cancer Prevention Program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Student Staff (in alphabetical order)

	Adelbert Asirot Mr. Asirot is a pre-pharmacy student currently working on my Microbiology major at the UW. The unregulated hyperactive growth of cancer has always astonished him, and from his perspective using antibodies targeting cancer-specific proteins is ingenious. While with the TVG he aims to make it a learning experience taking in as much as he possible can.


	Vania Wang Ms. Wang is a student in Microbiology at the University of Washington. During her academic career, she has worked in a variety of research groups concerning medicine and biology—particularly in the fields of computational biology and bioinformatics. In June 2008, she joined the Tumor Vaccine Group with the goal of gaining a deeper understanding on the biological aspect behind those fields.