New Recruits
Welcoming new recruits
The UF Health Cancer Center is pleased to welcome seven recruits to UF who represent a wide range of research and clinical expertise.
Georges Khalil, Ph.D.
UF College of Medicine, Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics
Start Date: 1/6/2020
Previous Institution: University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Research: Dr. Khalil’s research interests are cancer prevention, digital technologies, and social interactivity. His work primarily focuses on the design and evaluation of technology-based interventions that aim to improve clinical and behavioral outcomes related to cancer prevention and control among youths.
Lynn El Haddad, Ph.D.
UF College of Medicine, Department of Gastroenterology
Start Date: 1/13/20
Previous Institution: University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Research: Dr. El Haddad’s current research focuses on studying the impact of bacteriophages in preventing multidrug resistant organism (MDRO) colonization and infection hematopoietic cell transplant recipients.
Zhe Ma, Ph.D.
UF College of Medicine, Department of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology
Start Date: 2/7/20
Previous Institution: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research: Dr. Ma’s lab focuses on carcinogenic viral infections. Upon viral infections, the host innate immune system acts as the first line of host defense to prevent viral invasion or replication, while viruses also strive for survival by repressing innate immune signaling. By gaining a further understanding of how innate immunity is regulated by tumor viruses, Ma’s lab aims to dissect innate immune responses and viral tumor development for the sake of identifying potential targets and strategies for viral cancer treatment.
Zeina Al-Mansour, M.D.
UF College of Medicine, Division of Hematology & Oncology
Start Date: 3/30/20
Previous Institution: University of Massachusetts
Research: Dr. Al-Mansour’s primary clinical interests focus on hematological malignancies and hematopoietic cell transplant, particularly transplant in the elderly population.
Mei He, Ph.D.
UF College of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutics
Start Date: 6/1/2020
Previous Institution: University of Kansas
Research: Dr. He’s research focuses on precise definition and control of immunity at the molecular level to tissue level, via extracellular vesicles and exosomes-mediated delivery and biological programming strategies, which can be employed in advancing cancer immunotherapy, regenerative medicine and precision therapeutics.
Sherise Rogers, M.D., M.P.H.
UF College of Medicine, Division of Hematology & Oncology
Start Date: 8/14/20
Previous Institution: Ohio State University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center
Research: Dr. Rogers’ area of clinical and research focus are gastrointestinal malignancies with a special interest in pancreas and hepatobiliary cancers.
Dejana Braithwaite, Ph.D.
UF College of Medicine, Department of Aging
UF College of Public Health and Health Professions and Medicine, Department of Epidemiology
Start Date: 11/1/20
Previous Institution: Georgetown University
Research: Dr. Braithwaite’s research focuses on the nexus of cancer and aging, particularly in relation to generating epidemiologic evidence on the benefits and harms of screening for breast and lung cancers in older adults.
