Professional Preparation
Ph.D. - Anatomy and Cell Biology
Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University - 2016
B.S. - Biotechnology
Liaoning Normal University, China - 2010
Research Areas
Lung cancer
Acute myeloid leukemia
Immunotherapy
Appointments
Assistant Professor of Instruction
UT Dallas [2022–Present]
Sr. Research Associate
UT Southwestern Medical Center [2019–2022]
Simultaneously manage several projects including the use of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) patient samples banked here at Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center to study minimal residual disease, the use of Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) patient samples to determine if the burden of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) at pre- and post-transplant will be predictive of clinical outcomes, etc.
Postdoctoral Trainee
UT Southwestern Medical Center [2017–2019]
Simultaneously manage several projects including the combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy to try to rejuvenate both innate and adaptive immune response in mice with lung cancer, the identification and characterization of an alternative cancer-derived PD-L1 splice variant, the elucidation of PD-L1 dependent immune escape mechanism in lung cancer using CRISPR screening, etc.
Research Assistant
Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University [2011–2016]
❖ Spend my first two years of PhD training taking medical school classes (both classroom and lab) together with medical students. Major classes taken include: Gross Anatomy and Embryology (8 credit hours- 8 CH); Medical Physiology (8 CH); Histology and Cell Biology (4 CH); Medical Pharmacology I (5 CH); Med Pharm for Hlth Scie II (3 CH).
❖ Shadow Dr. John Wiley, a clinical cytogeneticist, to learn how to employ techniques such as NGS sequencing and microarray analysis to conduct genetic screening and evaluate patients at risk for inherited
diseases.
❖ Conduct research under the supervision of Dr. Warren Knudson, a world-renowned hyaluronan expert, to study the role of hyaluronan in cartilage tissue homeostasis using the most cutting-edge technology CRISPR.
Teaching Assistant
Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University [2012–2012]
Teach physical therapy students and nurse anesthesiology students in Human Anatomy lab.