Marcin Iwanicki Ph.D
Assistant Professor

Department of Chemistry, Chemical Biology
Stevens Institute of Technology

Dr. Marcin Iwanicki is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey. He received his B.S. in Biology from George Mason University and his Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Virginia. As a postdoctoral fellow, at Harvard Medical School, Marcin developed three-dimensional cellular models of ovarian cancer (OC) to investigate the contribution of various mutant p53 and extracellular matrix proteins to cell phenotypes associated with the disease progression. The current focus of Marcin’s research program is to characterize the functional consequences of OC cell interaction with tumor microenvironment-associated amino acid osmolytes.

His research group recently observed that taurine, a non-proteogenic amino acid, and osmolyte, is a constituent of OC and its tumor microenvironment and can be leveraged to suppress OC outgrowth. The growth inhibitory effect of taurine is linked to the reactivation of p53/p21/TIGAR tumor suppressor pathways in ovarian cancer cells that carry mutant p53.

Sergey Karakashev, PhD
Assistant Professor

Fels Cancer Institute for Personalized Medicine
Lewis Katz School of Medicine
Temple University

My research interest focuses on elucidating the significance of epigenetics in promoting resistance to anti-cancer therapies in ovarian cancer and devising innovative therapeutic strategies to overcome this resistance. Through my academic training and research experience, I have acquired a comprehensive background in various biological disciplines, including molecular biology, biochemistry, and cancer biology. As a graduate student at Drexel University in Philadelphia, I investigated the impact of hypoxia on resistance to targeted therapies in breast cancer.

For my postdoctoral training at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, I continued to explore the mechanisms underlying resistance to anti-cancer therapies in ovarian cancer. Given the high fatality rate associated with ovarian cancer, the development of new therapeutic options is of paramount importance. Specifically, my research was centered around comprehending the role of epigenetics in the development of ovarian cancer and its contribution to chemoresistance.

In my current position as an independent cancer research investigator at Temple University in Philadelphia, I am further advancing our understanding of how epigenetic regulation influences ovarian cancer progression, with a particular focus on devising novel therapeutic approaches that enhance the anti-tumor immune response.

Dimitrios Nasioudis, MD

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Gynecologic Oncology
University of Pennsylvania

Dr Dimitrios Nasioudis is currently completing his fellowship training in Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his medical degree from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and completed a research fellowship in Reproductive Immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College followed by residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania. His current research focuses on the development of novel treatment options for patients with ovarian cancer capitalizing unique genomic vulnerabilities with an emphasis on tumors lacking TP53 gene mutations.