In keeping with our commitment to multidisciplinary research and in pursuit of National Cancer Institute designation, the UF Health Cancer Center is investing in its faculty, as evidenced by the superb 2016 recruits highlighted here.

Joined: June 2016
Prior Institution: University of Southern California, Los Angeles
Position(s): Assistant Professor, Department of Oral Biology, UF College of Dentistry Research: Dr. Toth’s laboratory investigates how Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus, or KSHV, can hijack components of the host epigenetic machinery and use them to establish persistent infection and cause cancers in humans. His team’s goal is to understand the key differences in the epigenetic regulation of the KSHV genome and host genes in different human cell types, which can determine the outcome of infection. Better understanding of what viral and host epigenetic factors control KSHV infection can lead to the development of novel strategies to block KSHV infection and pathogenesis.

Joined: August 2016
Prior Institution: University of Minnesota
Position(s): Professor and Frank A. Duckworth Eminent Scholar, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, UF College of Pharmacy
Research: Dr. Xing’s research broadly covers the isolation, design and synthesis, and identification of biologically active small molecules, employing such candidates as probes to tackle fundamental health-related biological questions, and evaluating their clinical potential. Currently, Dr. Xing’s team is focused on translational development with several indications, including novel therapies selective against multidrug-resistant malignancies, chemopreventive agents against primary carcinogenesis and
a natural dietary supplement for neurological disorders.

Joined: August 2016
Prior Institution: The Ohio State University
Position(s): Professor and Nicholas Bodor Professor in Drug Discovery, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, UF College of Pharmacy; Graduate Coordinator for Medicinal Chemistry
Research: Dr. Li focuses his research on molecular recognition, with a strong application to structure-based computer-aided drug design. He combines molecular simulation, synthetic chemistry, X-ray protein crystallography, thermodynamic measurements, cellular techniques and in vivo animal models to explore molecular interactions, especially protein-ligand interactions, at molecular, cellular and organismal levels. His current working projects include both computational method development and drug design applications.

Joined: September 2016
Prior Institution: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Position(s): Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, UF College of Medicine
Research: Dr. Guryanova’s research is focused on the blood system, with a specific interest in hematologic malignancies. The overarching goal of her laboratory is to delineate the mechanisms of the cross-talk between epigenetics and chromatin organization, and how these processes contribute to the development of acute myeloid leukemia resistance to therapies and clonal evolution. Ultimately, she would like to harness this mechanistic understanding to develop improved therapeutic approaches for leukemia.

Joined: November 2016
Prior Institution: University of Nebraska
Position(s): Associate Professor, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, UF College of Medicine
Research: Dr. Opavsky’s lab is focused on the evaluation of functions performed by DNMTs in normal and malignant hematopoiesis utilizing mouse models, genome-wide approaches and in vivo functional studies of DNA target genes. Particularly, his team is interested in the role of promoter hypomethylation in cellular transformation in order to identify oncogenes for therapeutic targeting.

Joined: August 2016
Prior Institution: Wayne State University
Position(s): Scott Professor, Department of Chemistry, UF College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Research: Dr. Guo’s lab is focused on the interfaces of organic synthesis, carbohydrate chemistry, glycobiology, glycoimmunology and drug discovery. His team’s major research interests are centered on the development of novel therapeutics for cancer and other diseases, the investigation of molecules on the cell surface for the discovery of new molecular markers and the development of new synthetic methodologies for carbohydrates, glycopeptides and glycolipids — in addition to the chemical and chemoenzymatic synthesis of natural and unnatural glycans and glycoconjugates, as well as their applications in biology and medicine.

Joined: September 2016
Prior Institution: Yale University
Position(s): Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, UF College of Medicine
Research: Dr. Xie’s lab studies the biogenesis mechanism of microRNAs, a group of small noncoding RNAs that regulate the expression of other genes at the post-transcriptional level. MicroRNAs are important for controlling human developmental, differentiation and disease processes. His team specifically focuses on microRNAs generated by alternative mechanisms, which surprisingly incorporate fundamental cellular machineries involved in processing other classes of RNAs. This research, therefore, would expand the appreciation of these RNA processing machineries’ impact on small RNA populations and oncogenesis.

Joined: April 2016
Prior Institution: Cancer Specialists of North Florida
Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, UF College of Medicine
Research: Dr. Starr is a clinically-based investigator and educator with a focus on gastrointestinal cancers. He is an active member of the UF Health Cancer Center’s GI Oncology Program. He is actively involved in the education and training of fellows, residents, and students in the College of Medicine. Dr. Starr is interested in personalized oncology treatments including innovative therapies as part of cancer clinical trials as well as the comprehensive and multidisciplinary care of the cancer patient.

Joined: October 2016
Prior Institution: MD Anderson Cancer Center
Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Otolaryngology, UF College of Medicine
Research: Dr. Silver is the research leader for the disease-specific group for head and neck cancer at the UF Health Cancer Center. She is responsible for organizing clinical trials and working in a multidisciplinary setting to find the best possible treatment for head and neck cancer patients. She is also a leader of translational research projects at UF, including the use of novel genomic testing to improve the outcomes and treatments in head and neck cancer patients.

Joined: July 2016
Prior Institution: Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute
Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, UF College of Medicine
Research: Dr. Parekh is a clinical investigator with a focus on gastrointestinal cancers. She is an active member of the UF Health Cancer Center’s GI Oncology Program is involved in the development and conduct of clinical trials aimed to bring new therapies to patients with digestive cancers and rapidly accelerate the use of personalized oncology treatments.

Joined: September 2016
Prior Institution: H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center.
Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, UF College of Medicine
Research: Dr. Murthy’s primary clinical interests are in myelodysplastic syndrome, lymphoid neoplasms, acute and chronic leukemia’s, plasma cell dyscrasias, autologous and allogeneic stem cell transplantation and palliative medicine. Currently he serves as an editorial board member for the Annals of Hematology and Oncology and is an active manuscript reviewer for the Annals of Internal Medicine, Value in Health and Hematology/Oncology and Stem Cell Therapy.

Joined: August 2016.
Prior Institution: Mayo Clinic
Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, UF College of Medicine
Research: Dr. Farhadfar’s expertise and research interests focus on management of acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease and late effects of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Joined: November 2016
Prior Institution: Roswell Park Cancer Institute
Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology, UF College of Public Health and Health Professions
Research: Dr. Cheng is a cancer and nutritional epidemiologist. His major research area is using molecular epidemiological approaches to study genetic and non-genetic risk factors for solid tumors, mainly breast and lung cancers, in the human population. His work has two main elements: 1) studying the role of genetic susceptibility, environmental exposure, and their interactions; and 2) investigating molecular markers in cancer subtypes to elucidate cancer etiologies. Current efforts emphasize molecular pathological markers that can not only classify cancer subtypes but also elucidate carcinogenic mechanisms and etiology.