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News
March 17, 2025: Yuru Chen, Ph.D. candidate has had Longitudinal Monitoring of Circulating Tumor Cell Burden and Single-Cell RNA Profiling in ALK-Positive NSCLC Patients accepted for oral presentation at the 2025 AACR meeting.
March 07, 2025: Project 1 – Team training on a new instrument to enrich for live cells- allowing us to improve the quality of patient-derived material and study cells that survive therapy.
November 20, 2024: Genprex Signs Exclusive License to Additional Gene Therapy Technologies with the University of Michigan for the Treatment of Lung Cancer
July 19-20, 2024: ALK Initiative team members Stacy Fry, Mary Horn, Habib Serhan, LiWei Bao, and Dr. Sofia Merajver traveled to the ALK Positive Summit in Nashville, TN and hosted an unprecedented in-field research blood collection.
July 11, 2024: The Science and Research Communications team at ASCO announced they will highlight Dr. Sofia Merajver's 2024 ASCO Breakthrough abstract 215, “Precision medicine-based platform to guide the treatment of EML4-ALK driven lung cancers and other NSCLC in real time” at the ASCO Breakthrough Conference in Yokohama (August 10 - 24, 2024).
August 14, 2023: Andrew G. Shuman, M.D., FACS, HEC-C appointed assistant dean for veteran affairs in the medical school. Shuman is an associate professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, associate chief of staff for education at the VA Ann Arbor Health System (VAAAHS), and co-chief of the clinical ethics service in the Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine.
Presentations
April 25-30, 2025: Yuru Chen, Ph.D. (standing to the left in the image with Sunitha Nagrath, Ph.D. and Sofia Merajver, M.D., Ph.D.) candidate gave an oral presentation on Longitudinal Monitoring of Circulating Tumor Cell Burden and Single-Cell RNA Profiling in ALK-Positive NSCLC Patients during the Liquid Biopsy Session of the 2025 AACR meeting. Read more about Yuru Chen and the 2025 AACR meeting in AACR 2025 Rogel Recap.
April 25-30, 2025: Yusoo Lee, Ph.D. presented Investigating the role of Nfe2/2 in early A/k-dependent lung adenocarcinoma tumorigenesis as part of the poster presentations at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting.
April, 2025: At the Department of Internal Medicine Annual Research Symposium, Ann Arbor, MI:
Marisa E. Aikins Ph.D. presented Temporal Immune Evolution in a Murine EML4-ALK NSCLC Model: Genomic, Proteomic, and Drug Co-Culture Characterization. Marisa E. Aikins Ph.D., Abdullah Saeed Ph.D., Derek Nancarrow Ph.D., Sydney Malawer, Tejas Thiyagarajan, Andrew Yu, Sofia E. Merajver M.D., Ph.D., Kiran Lagisetty M.D. Poster.
Tejas Thiyagarajan, undergraduate researcher presented Light Sheet Image Analysis for Immune Cell Spatial Localization in Lung Cancer Spheroids Using Classical Machine Learning Models. Tejas Thiyagarajan, Marisa Aikins Ph.D., Sofia Merajver M.D., Ph.D. Poster.
Andrew Yu, undergraduate researcher presented Advancing Light Sheet Fluorescence Microscopy Techniques for Visualizing Small, Dense Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Spheroids. Andrew Yu, Tejas Thiyagarajan, Marisa Aikins Ph.D., Sofia Merajver M.D., Ph.D. Poster.
April, 2025: Madeline Bough, undergrad researcher presented the following at the Michigan Research and Discovery Scholars Symposium, Ann Arbor, MI:
Evaluating Dose-Response Efficacy of ALK Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor and Immunotherapy Combinations in a 3D Co-culture Model. Madeline Bough, Sydney Malawer, Marisa Aikins Ph.D., Sofia Merajver MD, Ph.D. Poster.
April 18, 2025: At the Department of Internal Medicine Annual Research Symposium Hamadi Madhi, Ph.D. presented:
1. Combretastatin A-4 Enhances EGFR Inhibitor Efficacy in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
AUTHORS: Hamadi Madhi, Nathalie Vandecan, Athena Apfel, Habib Serhan, Peter Ulintz, Liwei Bao, Xu Cheng, Aki Morikawa, Matt Soellner, Sofia Merajver*, Nathan Merrill*. This received an Honorable Mention Poster Award (see photo on right).
2. Targeting mTOR to Enhance Alectinib Efficacy in ALK-Positive Non-small Cell Lung Cancer
AUTHORS: Hamadi Madhi, Habib Serhan, Rachel Mercer, Liwei Bao, Xu Cheng, Nathan Merrill, Sofia Merajver*, Matt Soellner*
March 11 - 13, 2025: Dr. Nathan Merrill attends and presents the poster Precision medicine platform to guide the treatment of NSCLC at the AACR Special Conference in Cancer Research: Functional and Genomic Precision Medicine in Cancer: Different Perspectives, Common Goals.
December, 2024: Marisa E. Aikins, Ph.D. presented the following at the IASLC Hot Topic in Basic and Translational Science, Washington DC, VA.
Temporal Immune Evolution in a Murine EML4-ALK NSCLC Model: Genomic, Proteomic, and Drug Co-Culture Characterization. Marisa E. Aikins Ph.D., Abdullah Saeed Ph.D., Derek Nancarrow Ph.D., Sydney Malawer, Tejas Thiyagarajan, Andrew Yu, Sofia E. Merajver M.D., Ph.D., Kiran Lagisetty M.D. Poster.
November 13 - 16, 2024: Dr. Sunitha Nagrath attended AACR Special Conference in Cancer Research: Liquid Biopsy: From Discovery to Clinical Implementation in San Diego, CA. She also participated in the Plenary Session 1: Biology Behind Circulating Tumor Cells, presenting Early cancer dissemination: Circulating tumor cells in ductal carcinoma in situ patients.
October 16-18 2024: Dr. Sofia Merajver attended The Molecular Analysis for Precision Oncology Congress 2024 in London, UK. At a poster session, she presented Precision medicine drug testing platform to guide the treatment of EML4-ALK fusion lung cancers
September 24, 2024: Marisa E. Aikins Ph.D. presented the following at the International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference, National Harbor, MD.:
Integrating systems immunology and tumor organoid model to screen immune-mediated resistance mechanisms to immune checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapies in EML4-ALK non-small cell lung cancer. Marisa E. Aikins Ph.D., Andrew Yu, Sydney Malawer, Tejas Thiyagarajan, Kiran Lagisetty M.D., Sofia E. Merajver Ph.D. Poster.
September 24, 2024: PIBS 25 Anniversary Symposium, Ann Arbor, MI
Sydney Malawer, undergraduate researcher presented: Immunotherapy and Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Combinations Exhibit Limited Efficacy in Temporal Ex Vivo EML4-ALK NSCLC Tumor Spheroid Co-cultures. Sydney Malawer, Marisa Aikins Ph.D., Kiran Lagisetty M.D., Sofia Merajver M.D., Ph.D. Poster.
Andrew Yu, undergraduate researcher presented: Optimizing Light Sheet Fluorescence Microscope Imaging in Small, Dense Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Spheroids. Andrew Yu, Tejas Thiyagarajan, Marisa Aikins Ph.D., Sofia Merajver MD, Ph.D. Poster.
Tejas Thiyagarajan, uundergraduate researcher presented: Automating Light Sheet Image Analysis to Investigate Immune Cell Spatial Localization. Tejas Thiyagarajan, Marisa Aikins Ph.D., Sofia Merajver MD, Ph.D. Poster.
September 19, 2024: Dr. Sofia Merajver presented at the Mathematics Seminar at Rey Juan Carlos, in Móstoles, Spain.
This is the abstract: "For the last 25 years, we have tried to advance cancer care to be guided by the molecular changes that can be detected in tumors. From a beginning understanding focused mainly of mutations, as technologies have progressed and we can understand how much of each gene is expressed, the molecular characterizations have become increasingly more sophisticated. Recently, we have tried to overlay functional assessment of drug sensitivity to gene expression, hoping to be able to predict who will respond to which drug. I will show data from breast, bladder, brain metastases, and lung cancer to exemplify the problems and challenges to matching the right drug to the right patient. Computational methods are needed to enhance the robustness of the predictions".
August 09, 2024: Dr. Sofia Merajver stands by the ALK Initiative poster 2024 ASCO Breakthrough abstract 215, “Precision medicine-based platform to guide the treatment of EML4-ALK driven lung cancers and other NSCLC in real time” at the ASCO Breakthrough Conference in Yokohama (August 10 - 24, 2024) Abstracts & Posters | ASCO Breakthrough
April 24, 2024: Merajver Lab undergraduates Sohair Holman and William Bieneman awarded Blue Ribbon for research on cell signaling pathways in EML4-ALK+ NSCLC at the UROP 2024 Spring Research Symposium.
April 24, 2024: Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program Symposium, Ann Arbor, MI
Tejas Thiyagarajan, undergraduate researcher presented the following award-winning poster
Development of a Python Program to Analyze Immune Cell Spatial Localization within Lung Cancer Spheroids. Tejas Thiyagarajan, Ryan Oliver Ph.D., Marisa Aikins Ph.D., Sofia Merajver M.D., Ph.D.
Sydney Malawer, undergraduate researcher presented:
In Vitro and In Vivo Validation of Immune-Competent Murine ALK+ Lung Cancer Cell Lines. Sydney Malawer, Marisa Aikins Ph.D., Sofia Merajver MD, Ph.D. Podium Presentation.
March 20, 2024: ALK Initiative Retreat; Team meets at UM North Campus Research Complex to discuss publications, project goals, and future directions.
October 17, 2023: Dr. Sofia Merajver (pictured with Delta Airlines CEO Mr. Ed Bastian) at the Delta-Breast Cancer Research Foundation Town Hall, which took place at Delta World Headquarters in Atlanta. Dr. Merajver spoke about her research and answered questions from Delta employees who are cancer survivors. Mr. Bastian's father suffered and died from non-smokers lung cancer. Sofia explained how her team is putting all the advances they have achieved in breast and other cancers to improve our understanding of lung cancer.
October 16-17, 2023: Dr. Angel Qin (pictured second row from bottom; second from left) meets with colleagues at the 2023 LUNGevity Fall Science Meeting to discuss breakthroughs in lung oncology and the future of the field.
October 4-6, 2023: Drs. Sofia Merajver and Nathan Merrill present at The 2023 Molecular Analysis for Precision Oncology Congress in Paris: Drug resistance and novel treatments for ALK-positive lung cancer.
September 10, 2023: Laura Goo to present on the Judith Tam ALK Lung Cancer Research Initiative’s infrastructure, goals, and methods at the 2023 IASLC World Conference on Lung Cancer in Singapore.
August 7, 2023: Drs. Sofia Merajver and Nathan Merrill meet with researchers at the National Cancer Center East in Tokyo, Japan.
August 3-5, 2023: Dr. Nathan Merrill and Dr. Sofia Merajver present at the ASCO Breakthrough meeting in Yokohama, Japan: Precision medicine-based platform to guide the treatment of EML4-ALK fusion lung cancers and other non-small cell lung cancers.
Optimization of Collagen Type I for ALK+ Lung Spheroid Models. Sydney Malawer, Marisa Aikins Ph.D., Sofia Merajver MD, Ph.D. Poster.
April 18, 2023: Yuru Chen presents on “Expansion and characterization on ALK positive NSCLC circulating tumor cells isolated using a size based inertial microfluidic Labyrinth device” at the 114th Annual American Association for Cancer Research Meeting in Orlando, Florida.
February 23, 2023: Dr. Angel Qin presents at the 2023 IASLC Targeted Therapies of Lung Cancer Meeting in Santa Monica, California about ALK resistance, ongoing research, and clinical trials.
June 9, 2022: Dr. Angel Qin presents the Judith Tam ALK Lung Cancer Research Initiative at the Hawaii Lung Cancer Summit hosted by DAVA Oncology.
Meeting Attendance
March 12, 2025: Dr. Merajver attended the farewell reception for her great friend and collaborator in computational biology, Dr Jun Li, also fellow physicist. Dr. Lin will be the new Chair for the Department of Computational Genomics and genetics at the University of Oklahoma. Good luck and Godspeed Jun, and onwards yo great discoveries for humanity.
February 19-22, 2025: Drs. Merajver and Qin attend the IASLC 2025 Targeted Therapies of Lung Cancer Meeting in Huntington Beach, CA. Dr. Merajver is pictured with a dear friend and indefatigable advocate for patients with ALK lung cancer.
November 13 - 16, 2024: Drs. Sunitha Nagrath and Ananya Banerjee attended AACR Special Conference in Cancer Research: Liquid Biopsy: From Discovery to Clinical Implementation in San Diego, CA.
September 13-17, 2024: Dr. Sofia Merajver attends the ESMO 2024 conference in Barcelona, Spain and met with ALK Positive Advocates.
July 20, 2024: Dr. Angel Qin participates in the Key Opinion Leader (KOL) Panel w/ Case-based segments and Asks the Experts Breakout Session at the ALK Positive Summit in Nashville, TN. ALK Summit 2024 — ALK POSITIVE
July 19-20, 2024: ALK Initiative team members Stacy Fry, Mary Horn, Habib Serhan, LiWei Bao, and Dr. Sofia Merajver travel out to the ALK Positive Summit in Nashville, TN to host an unprecedented in-field research blood collection.
April 10, 2024: Hamadi Madhi and Habib Serhan discuss variable ALK NSCLC therapeutic strategies at the AACR Annual Meeting 2024.
April 10, 2024: ALK Initiative researchers present JTARI progress at the AACR Annual Meeting 2024 in San Diego, CA.
June 2, 2023: Dr. Sofia Merajver and Dr. Vincent Lam (Johns Hopkins) meet at the 2023 American Society of Clinical Oncology Meeting in Chicago, IL.