MONIKA VISHNOI, PhD
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE II

Monika Vishnoi completed her Ph.D. in Cancer Genetics from the SGPGIMS, Lucknow, India, and MSc in Molecular biology and Biotechnology from the GB Pant University, India. She received prestigious senior research fellowship grant from ICMR, India to pursue her cancer research at SGPGIMS, India. She has deep expertise in the field of translational research, liquid biopsy, cancer dormancy residual disease, and brain cancer with personal motivation to provide quality life to cancer patients. She played a critical role in the development of a novel 4D ex vivo lung cancer model to study circulating tumor cells (CTCs) dissemination in cisplatin drug therapy. She also developed CTCs-derived xenograft models to characterize the functional and molecular properties of CTCs during the metastatic brain cascade of breast and melanoma. She joined Dr. Rostomily’s lab to pursue her research on understanding the role of tumor microenvironment in brain cancers including GBM and BMs.  Her current lab interests are to  (i) identify novel targeted signaling pathways involved in matrix modeling and (ii) develop pre-clinical therapeutic screening models to enhance precise drug therapy in brain cancer patients, by using tools such as PDX mice, oncoslice, 3D bioprinting, microfluidic device, etc. She enjoys traveling, gardening, and spending time with family and friends.

Vishnoi M, Scranton RA, Asante SK, Rostomily RC. (2020) Basic Biology of Brain Metastasis. In: Ramakrishna R., Magge R., Baaj A., Knisely J. (eds) Central Nervous System Metastases. Springer, Cham.
“https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-42958-4_2“

SVETLANA MIKHEEVA, MS
SENIOR RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Svetlana earned her MS in Computer Science and engineering from Polytechnic University, St. Petersburg, Russia. Upon graduation, she joined Dr. Kevin Jarrell’s laboratory at Boston University and was involved in research that focused on studies of group II intron as a tool to direct nucleic acid manipulations. Her study on ribozyme catalyzed gene assembly resulted in US patents. Her work contributed to startup company Modular Genetics, focusing on development of gene engineering systems. After moving to Seattle, she continued her work as a molecular biologist at the University of Washington. She was involved in the development of microarray technology for expression profiling. She applied this technology to study human cells following HIV-1 infection and to investigate teratogenic effect of heat shock on mouse embryonic development. She joined the Rostomily lab in 2005 as its manager and worked on expression profiling of genetically engineered glioblastoma cells. She is currently leading viral mediated recombinant DNA transfer studies to investigate mechanisms of glioma stem cell invasion, tumorigenicity and drug resistance in vitro and in vivo. In her free time, she loves to play piano, knit and garden. In fact, her first publication in US was in the Knitting Magazine.

MATTHEW SHOREY, PhD
T32 POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW

Matt Shorey completed his PhD in the Molecular, Cellular and Integrative Biosciences program at Penn State. His thesis work involved making transgenic zebrafish with fluorescent protein expressing neurons to investigate genetic criteria for DRG neuron regeneration, as well as characterizing the microtubule polarity of vertebrate sensory neurons using real-time, whole mount in vivo imaging and demonstrating how this can be effected by chemotherapeutics that cause peripheral neuropathy. Additional projects included laser mediated injury, and live imaging regeneration time course of individual motor neuron dendrites in the zebrafish spine, as well as axon and dendrite regeneration work in the drosophila peripheral nervous system. During his PhD, Matt developed a intense appreciation of the role fluorescent proteins play in biological research and for his postdoc joined the lab of Dr. Francois St-Pierre to gain experience in protein engineering and biosensor design before receiving the NeuralCODR fellowship to conduct interdisciplinary work adapting biosensors for cancer research. He enjoys mountain biking, sichuan peppercorns, and novel applications of pressure cookers.

ANA GUTIERREZ, BS
RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Ana Gutierrez is originally from Monclova, Mexico. She attended Texas Tech University in Lubbock, where she graduated with a B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology with a minor in Chemistry. During her time at Texas Tech, Ana worked at Dr. Susan Bergeson’s laboratory and developed a large animal model of Alcohol Use Disorder to test a novel medication created by the lab. She was also part of the Mays Cancer Center Summer Mentorship Program, where she joined Dr. David Morilak’s lab investigating the cognitive and inflammatory effects of docetaxel on a prostate cancer rodent model. Ana is looking forward to a career in scientific research and wants to eventually obtain a PhD in Neuroscience or Pharmacology to investigate brain cancer as well as drug development and delivery for brain tumors. On her free time, she enjoys making stained glass pieces or ceramics and spending time with friends and her bulldog Bocho.

MANUEL ROJAS
SENIOR RESEARCH OPERATIONS MANAGER

Manuel currently serves as the Operations Manager for the Glioblastoma and Brain Metastasis (GBM-BM) research lab. He has nearly 8 years of experience in research administration and 13 years in financial services. Mr. Rojas is responsible for being a liaison between the GBM-MB lab, executive leadership and managing the team’s financial and administrative functions. His prior experience derive from serving in the departments of Cardiovascular and Epigenetics at Houston Methodist. Mr. Rojas’ dedication to research stems from being a part of novel discovery and therapeutics that will ultimately help those patients that are in urgent need of healing. As a native Houstonian, Mr. Rojas earned his B.B.A and M.B.A from the University of Houston-Downtown, in 2008 and 2013, respectively