Meet the Team
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Dr. Tatiana Kalin
Principal Investigator
(tatianakalin@arizona.edu)
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Wen Gao
Researcher
(wgao1@arizona.edu)
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Dr. Ying-Wei Lan
Researcher
(yingweilan@arizona.edu)
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Dr. Nawal Merjaneh
Collaborative Investigator
(nmerjaneh@arizona.edu)
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Dr. Ghufran Ahmed
Researcher
(gufran06@arizona.ed)
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Xiaomei Xia
Technician
(xxia@arizona.edu)
Hear From Our Team
Hear From Our Team
Dr. Tatiana Kalin
Principal Investigator
(tatianakalin@arizona.edu)
Dr. Tatiana Kalin is the Professor of Child Health of the newly launched Phoenix Children’s Research Institute at the University of Arizona College of Medicine and vice chair of translational research for the Phoenix Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders. Dr. Kalin came from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital with more than 20 years of experience in developing novel therapeutic approaches to improve patients’ outcomes. She earned her MD and PhD from Pirogov’s National Medical University in Moscow and completed her fellowship programs at the University of Chicago and University of Illinois at Chicago. She started her independent career as an Associate Professor at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital where she reached the level of tenured Professor.
Wen Gao
Researcher
(wgao1@arizona.edu)
Dr. Wen Gao’s research focuses on the role of pericytes during progression of pulmonary fibrosis. She is also interested in the role of Foxf1 and its downstream target in different lung cell types in fibrosis with the goal of normalizing the blood vessels.
Dr. Ying-Wei Lan
Researcher
(yingweilan@arizona.edu)
Dr. Ying-Wei Lan’s research focuses on identifying the therapeutic effects of the c-Kit-positive endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) to improve endothelial functions and attenuate lung disease in mouse model. Some of these lung diseases include bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis, H1N1- induced lung pneumonia, and irradiation induced lung damage. Another project he leads is focused on determining the molecular mechanisms regulating the crosstalk between lung pericytes and endothelial cells in the microvascular niche during the lung fibrosis progression.
Dr. Nawal Merjaneh
Collaborative Investigator
(nmerjaneh@arizona.edu)
Dr. Nawal Merjaneh is a pediatric oncologist with a primary interest in sarcomas, molecular oncology, and developmental therapeutics. Her current research focuses on investigating the role of ATP2B4 -a calcium channel located on the plasma membrane- in rhabdomyosarcoma pathogenesis. Her team was able to previously show that the knockdown of ATP2B4 in 76-9 -a mouse rhabdomyosarcoma cell line- inhibits cell proliferation and colony formation and impairs cell migration. Furthermore, they showed that ATP2B4 is differentially expressed in rhabdomyosarcoma compared to normal muscle cells. The knockdown of ATP2B4 increases intracellular calcium, which is likely related to the biological impact on cells. For their upcoming projects, they want to explore the ATP2B4 expression level in human rhabdomyosarcoma cell lines compared to other ATP2B isoforms. They also want to use the CRISPR KO system to create a mouse model with KO tumors. The KO tumors will be compared with WT tumors regarding tumor growth and the risk of lung metastases. A future study will be on the effect of ATA -a known inhibitor for ATP2B4- on rhabdomyosarcoma cell survival.