Â鶹ӳ»­

KLSchadl@MDAnderson.org
Associate Professor

Fellow ¡ª University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, 2010¨C2015
Ph.D. ¡ª MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX, 2010
B.S. ¡ª Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 2004

Keri Schadler is originally from Austin, Texas. She completed her B.S. in molecular and cell biology at Texas A&M University, where she had her first job in a scientific setting making fly food for a drosophila genetics lab. She then completed her Ph.D. in cancer biology at the MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Her thesis work demonstrated the critical role of DLL4-Notch signaling for bone marrow-derived cell participation in vasculogenesis in Ewing¡¯s sarcoma. For this work, Schadler was awarded the Alfred Knudson Award for Excellence in Graduate Research by MD Anderson. During graduate school, Schadler completed more than 100 hours of observation in the pediatric non-neural solid tumors clinic in the Children¡¯s Cancer Hospital at MD Anderson, and earned a certification in Clinical and Translational Research. After graduate school, Schadler completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute. During this fellowship, Schadler¡¯s love for tumor vascular development was combined with a scientific interest in the role of exercise in cancer treatment, and she launched the basis of her current focus on the effects of exercise on tumor response to therapy. Schadler returned to MD Anderson as faculty in 2015. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, traveling and running or cycling the bayou trails of Houston.

Truong Lam
Tnlam@mdanderson.org
Research Investigator
 

Truong Lam is a research investigator in Dr. Keri Schadler's lab in the Pediatrics Research Department at Â鶹ӳ»­ MD Anderson Cancer Center.  He has a lifelong love for science, a strong passion for discovery and understanding how things work, and in his later years, how this knowledge can be used to help others.   He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology with a minor in French from Â鶹ӳ»­ at Austin in 2010.  Since then, he has dedicated his professional life to basic science research across multiple institutions.  His work has spanned multiple disciplines and techniques from cardiac metabolism and investigating lipid processing in muscles to visual characterization of various tumors through multispectral imaging.  Outside of work, he enjoys exercise, reading, spending time with family, helping the underserved in the community, and running his small Vietnamese coffee business!  As a member of Dr. Schadler's lab, he is interested in understanding the specific mechanisms by which exercise and metabolism interplay to improve response to therapy and survival outcomes for pediatric cancer patients. 

Jonghae Lee, Ph.D.
JLee47@MDAnderson.org
Postdoctoral Fellow

Jonghae Lee graduated with an M.S. in exercise physiology from Seoul National University, South Korea in 2011. After graduation, he worked as an administrative officer at the University of Seoul for two years, then moved to the United States to pursue a Ph.D. in cardiovascular exercise physiology. He joined Dr. Park¡¯s lab at the University of Houston in 2014, where his doctoral research centered on how exercise regulates inflammatory signaling as a key player in vascular dysfunction in diabetes and obesity. He completed his Ph.D. in December 2019 and now works in the Schadler Lab, learning about cancer biology and eventually building his expertise in exercise oncology. His current research interests focus on investigating the roles of exercise in immune checkpoint inhibitor-associated cardiovascular toxicity in mouse melanoma models.

Sumedha Pareek
SPareek1@MDAnderson.org
Graduate Research Assistant
MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

Sumedha Pareek is a Ph.D. student in the Schadler Lab originally from Rajasthan, India. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees (BTech/MTech) in biotechnology from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India. She received an M.S. degree from the graduate school in 2019 with a thesis on "Bilirubin Nanoparticle as an anti-inflammatory therapy for Graft versus Host Disease." Her current research focuses on studying the immunological changes in cancer with exercise. She enjoys running, photography and making art along with science.

Priya Tirumala
ppt1@rice.edu
Undergraduate Research Assistant

Priya Tirumala is a junior at Rice University studying biosciences (biochemistry) and global health technologies on the pre-medical track. Priya has a passion for interdisciplinary studies that is reflected in her research interests, both in biomedical engineering and cancer research. In the Schadler Lab, Priya studies the relationship between aerobic exercise and lymphangiogenesis in melanoma metastasis. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her friends and family and traveling to national parks.

Claudia Alvarez-Florez, M.S.
Position in the Schadler Lab:?Research Assistant II
Currently:?Clinical Research Assistant, MD Anderson

Riccardo Ballaro, Ph.D.
Position in the Schadler Lab: Postdoctoral Fellow

Riccardo Ballaro earned his B.S. in biology at the University of Perugia, Italy, with an experimental thesis on the role of S100B in adult neurogenesis and glioblastoma. After the completion of his bachelor studies, he moved to Torino, Italy, where he earned his M.S. in molecular and cellular biology studying the effects of GSH-responsive nanosponges in chemotherapy-resistant colon and prostate cancer cells. He then started his translational studies as a Ph.D. student in the laboratory of Paola Costelli in Torino, where he demonstrated the critical role of targeting mitophagy and mitochondrial function by small molecule drugs and exercise in reverting cancer and chemotherapy-induced cachexia. In 2020, Riccardo moved to MD Anderson in the Schadler Lab. His projects are focused on the role of exercise as adjuvant therapy for PDAC patients. In particular, he studies the effects of exercise in the modulation of PDAC microenvironment, focusing on tumor vasculature, fibrosis and cancer-associated fibroblasts. 

Meredith Buzbee, B.S.
Position in the Schadler Lab: Research Assistant I
Currently: Sam Houston State Univeristy School of Medicine

Elysia Cohen
Position in the Schadler Lab: Fellow

Avis Harden, M.D.
Position in the Schadler Lab: Pediatrics Hematology/Oncology Fellow
Currently: Assistant Professor of Pediatrics Patient Care

Miriam Morrell, D.O.
Position in the Schadler Lab:?Pediatric Oncology Fellow
Currently: Attending Pediatric Oncologist, St. Joseph¡¯s Hospital in Tampa, Florida

Hetal Patel
Position in the Schadler Lab: Research Assistant I

Hannah Savage, Ph.D.
Position in the Schadler Lab: Research Postdoctoral Fellow
Currently: Working in lab of Dr. Devon Lawson at the University of California Irvine, pursuing metastasis research and use of next-generation throughout technology to be used in cancer investigations

Aiqian Zhang, Ph.D.
Position in the Schadler Lab:?Graduate Research Assistant
Currently: Physician, Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University