Christine Brown Lab

Maryam Aftabizadeh, Ph.D., earned her B.S. in biology in Tehran, Iran. Dr. Aftabizadeh moved to Germany to join a postgraduate program at RWTH Aachen, one of Germany’s Universities of Excellence, where she completed her Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular cell biology. To pursue her interest in cancer biology and immunology, she joined the Department of Immuno-Oncology at City of Hope to work with Hua Yu, Ph.D., and, afterward, with a desire to understand the role of the tumor microenvironment in growth and progression of GBM, she joined the lab of Marcin Kortylewski, Ph.D., in the same department. She joined Dr. Brown’s lab as a staff scientist. Her project is concerned with, but not limited to, designing and executing immunochemical studies, including immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence and mass cytometry (CyTOF), coupled with analyses using high dimensional imaging software to profile immune cell infiltrates in GBM tumors. Dr. Aftabizadeh’s goals are to understand and surmount barriers limiting application of CAR T cell immunotherapy to glioblastoma and other primary and metastatic brain tumors. These barriers include the immunosuppressive microenvironment, T cell persistence and exhaustion and tumor antigen escape.
 

Brenda Aguilar earned her B.S. in animal science from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and her Registered Veterinary Technology License from Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California. She joined City of Hope in 1998 in the Division of Comparative Medicine/Animal Resources working as an Animal Health Technician. In 2003, Brenda joined the laboratory of Michael Jensen, M.D., as a research associate where she studied trafficking and anti-tumor efficacy of CAR T cells against glioblastoma. In 2015, Aguilar was promoted to staff scientist and is now the comparative medicine studies Aguilar currently works with Christine Brown, Ph.D., in the optimization of CAR T cell therapy for optimizing clinical parameters and translating this therapy to patients. She is also involved with a project that aims to understand the tumor microenvironment and tumor architecture of GBM using chromogenic multiplex immunohistochemistry.

Darya Alizadeh, Ph.D. is an assistant research professor in the Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation at City of Hope. Dr. Alizadeh earned her B.S. in engineering from University of Orumieh in Iran. Later, she earned her M.S. in molecular biology from California State University, Fullerton and her doctoral degree in cancer biology from the University of Arizona.
 
She then completed her postdoctoral fellowship at City of Hope studying glioma immunotherapy. Dr. Alizadeh has extensive expertise in immuno-oncology and immunotherapy. Her research focuses on identifying the drivers of immune response and resistance in brain tumors. As part of the CAR T cell therapy program at City of Hope, one of her primary research efforts is focused on deciphering the pathways that may impair the efficacy of CAR T cell therapy and to further develop strategies to target the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment to enhance immunotherapies for gliomas, including CAR T cell therapy. Her studies focus on elucidating the interplay between the endogenous immune system, CAR T cells and gliomas, both clinically and preclinically.
 
Dr. Alizadeh also provides scientific insight for correlative studies from the ongoing clinical trials focused on the treatment of recurrent glioma patients with CAR T cells. She is part of a multidisciplinary network of scientists and clinicians aiming to improve the outcome for cancer patients.

Dominic Bellavari, B.S., is a research associate in the Christine Brown lab at City of Hope

Franklin Chen, B.S, is a research associate in the Christine Brown Lab at City of Hope.

Jyun Hao Chen earned a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Davis. Following the completion of his degree he participated in a one-year internship at the University of Southern California where his research focused on stem cells differentiation, such as a ureteric bud. He continued at the University of Southern California as a technician to help investigate how to differentiate inducible pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) into brain pericytes. He is currently working on incorporating meditope technology into CAR designs, conferring new functionality to CAR T cells.

Kaixin Du, earned her Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology in a Joint Graduate Program of National Institute of Biological Sciences (NIBS) and Beijing Normal University, where she established a huge interest in cancer biology and immunology. She then joined Prof. Christine Brown’s lab at City of Hope as postdoctoral fellow. Kaixin’s current research focuses on enhancing CAR T cells therapeutic efficacy in solid tumor (e.g. glioblastoma and melanoma) through multiple levels of engineering.

Bita was born and raised in Tehran, Iran, and earned her B.Sc. in plant pathology and M.Sc. in biotechnology at the Immam Khomeini International University (graduated with distinction). In her first master’s thesis, she focused on surveying the effect of nano particles, as elicitors, on gene expression in plant cell cultures which resulted in two publications. Due to her interest in gene editing, she then joined a transgenic animal lab at Stem Cell Technology Research Center in Tehran, focusing on generating mouse models by CRISPR, Cas9, resulting in two additional publications. In 2019, she came to the U.S to continue her education at the University of California, Irvine. In 2021, she joined the lab of Dr. Christine Brown PhD to pursue her interest in drug development specifically for cancer and earned a second Master’s in Translational Medicine through a joint program between Keck Graduate Institute and the Irell & Manella Graduate School of Biological Sciences at City of Hope. Her project focused on improving IL13Ra2-directed CAR T cells through the gene editing strategies, specifically knocking out CD70 on the IL13Ra2-directed CAR T cells. She is currently pursuing a PhD, under the mentorship of Dr. Brown, by investigating novel targets to expand the current repertoire of CAR T cells targeting glioblastoma.

Sharareh (Sherri) Gholamin, M.D., graduated from Shahid Beheshti Medical School in Tehran, Iran. Gholamin later moved to Stanford University, where she studied in the laboratories of Irving Weissman and Samuel Cheshier to advance humanized anti-CD47 antibody, a myeloid checkpoint blockade, as a potent and safe modality for pediatric and adult brain tumors. The outcome of their work established a foundation for future clinical application of anti-CD47 antibodies. Her research was also focused on characterizing macrophages/microglial cells in the context of anti-CD47 antibody mediated therapies. In collaboration with other neuro-oncology laboratories at Stanford, she contributed to molecular oncology research to decipher the pathogenesis of brain tumors.

Building upon her experience in conducting translational studies, Sherri joined the California Institute of Technology Biology and Bioengineering Ph.D. program in 2016 to further expand her knowledge in cancer immunotherapy. She is currently working on her thesis research at City of Hope under the supervision of Christine Brown, Ph.D., and Stephen Forman, M.D. She is fascinated by the bench-to-bedside emphasis at City of Hope, where the T Cell Therapeutics Research Laboratory program can easily transfer their findings at the bench to patients. Her focus currently relies on understanding the mechanism of resistance to CAR T cell mediated therapies and their combination with checkpoint blockades as well as developing strategies for overcoming the resistance. She envisions applying her expertise to biological problems and advancing cancer research when she returns to the clinic.

Research Focus

• Regenerative therapies for central nervous system diseases
• Neural stem cell and immunotherapy approach
• Stem cell biology
• NSC-mediated enzyme/prodrug therapy
• Pediatric brain tumor models
• Stem Cell Manufacturing, Terumo BCT
• Development of neural stem cells for neurodegenerative diseases

Cheng-Fu (Jeff) Kuo earned B.S. in Life Science from National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan, and later completed his M.S. in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology from University of Southern California where his research mainly focused on hepatitis B and C viruses. Jeff finished his Ph.D. training in the Irell & Manella Graduate School of Biological Sciences and continued his research as a postdoc fellow at City of Hope. His projects involve in combining meditope technology into CAR designs, conferring new functionality to the CAR T cells. The novel platform for CAR design will greatly improve CAR T cells manufacture and therapeutic potential. 

Chetan obtained his B.E. in Biotechnology from RV College of Engineering (VTU) in India and a M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from University of California, Los Angeles. Upon graduation, he worked at Amgen in Thousand Oaks, CA, developing electronic lab notebooks for use in Quality Control. Thereafter, he joined City of Hope in November 2016 to help with longitudinal immune monitoring of HCT patients who received a CMV vaccine. In November 2020, he transferred to the Brown Lab to utilize and improve on his skills in correlative studies while contributing to the development of CAR T cell therapy against brain tumors. When he is not working in the lab, he enjoys playing sports, and watching movies and standup comedies.

Eric Ma earned a B.S. in Chemistry with a Minor in Biological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine and is currently pursuing an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Southern California. Since joining the Christine Brown lab in May 2021, he has been working with Margarita Gutova, M.D. on identifying new approaches for therapeutic cell delivery.

Madeleine Maker earned a B.A. in biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology from Whitman College. After joining the Christine Brown Lab in August 2019, she has been working on the team of Darya Alizadeh Ph.D., studying the effect the tumor microenvironment has on CAR T cell efficacy. Her work primarily deals with in vivo murine glioma models. 

Robert Machuca graduated from Occidental College in the winter of 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in Cell and Molecular Biology. While at Oxy, Robert gathered his undergraduate research training as a protein engineering intern at City of Hope in both Dr. Markus Kalkum’s mass spectrometry lab and in the  T Cell Therapeutics Research Lab (TCTRL). After graduating from Oxy, he joined COH as a clinical manufacturing associate for our ongoing CART cell therapy clinical trials. In May 2022, Robert returned to research in Dr. Brown’s lab, where he currently works with Dr. Kaixin Du on engineering the Chlorotoxin (CLTX) CART platform for glioblastoma and related tumors of the neural crest.

Christian Masia earned his B.S. in Molecular Biology & Physiology with a minor in Chemistry from Cal State Long Beach. During his time at CSLB, he participated in research in the lab of Dr. Deborah Fraser, studying the innate immune protein C1q’s role in atherosclerosis, while working as a PCIA certified rock-climbing instructor. After graduating at the start of the pandemic he went to work as a clinical lab technologist for Perkin Elmer Genomics where he ran Covid-19 PCR tests. After two years at PEG he decided that I wanted to return to the research world to further his education and eventually apply to graduate school. He is a Duarte native and has chosen City of Hope to get back to where he grew up.

Robyn (Wong) Nee earned a B.S. in chemistry and integrative biology at University of California, Berkeley. She began her research as an undergraduate, publishing her work on the phylogeography of the African Helmeted Terrapin. She was then selected as a CIRM Bridges intern, successfully completing her work with Dr. William Weiss and Dr. Qi-Wen Fan at University of California, San Francisco. Her project focused on small molecule inhibition of the mTOR pathway as a combination therapy in glioblastoma. In 2016, she joined the team of Christine Brown, Ph.D., at City of Hope and has worked closely with Darya Alizadeh, Ph.D., to dissect the mechanism of maintaining an IL15-mediated stem cell-like phenotype in CAR T cells. Her current work is focused on understanding the tumor microenvironment in syngeneic mouse models of glioblastoma.

Hernán Reza, M.S., grew up in Pico Rivera, California, and earned his B.S. in microbiology with a minor in chemistry and M.S. in biological sciences at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Mentored by Dr. Jill Adler-Moore, he focused on the development and optimization of a novel liposomal vaccine against the fungal infection pulmonary aspergillosis caused by Aspergillus fumigatus. Reza is currently pursuing his doctorate at the Irell & Manella Graduate School of Biological Sciences at City of Hope. His work with Christine Brown, Ph.D., and Zhiqiang (Daniel) Wang, Ph.D., focuses on improving the efficacy of CAR T cell therapy against solid tumors, targeting the adenosinergic pathway in the tumor microenvironment via gene editing technology.

Vanessa Salvary joined City of Hope in August 2020 with a passion for research and helping people. She received her B.S. in Applied Mathematics and Statistics from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and plans to pursue a graduate degree to further her research career in the field of data analysis and immunology. She earned her Laboratory Animal Technician certification in February 2020 and is currently pursuing her Laboratory Animal Technologist certificate. She has seven years of experience working with animals in research and veterinary hospital settings. Salvary is eager to be part of the TCTRL team to develop and translate her benchwork and computational skills to help advance treatment and restore wellness and hope for GBM patients.

Gaby Sanchez, M.S, is a research associate in the Christine Brown lab at City of Hope.

Sean Sepulveda’s interest in biology began at a young age. His fascination with how spiders liquified their food sparked curiosity in enzymes and led to an interest in biochemistry, which was his major at University of California, Irvine. His accomplishments included a first author paper, exploring the effects of injury and stress on the aging process in fruit flies. This was followed by a journey to the East Coast that would last 12 years and is where he discovered his love of cancer immunotherapy. After seeing a picture of lung cancer before and after immunotherapy at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Sepulveda pursued and completed a master’s degree in cell and molecular biology at Boston University. After studying specific T cell responses at Massachusetts General Hospital, Sepulveda moved back to California and is currently analyzing glioblastoma samples at City of Hope as a research associate II.
 

Noah Shulkin earned his degree from the University of Southern California in 2022 with a B.S. in Human Biology and a minor in Race, Ethnicity, and Politics. As an undergraduate, he worked under Dr. Valter Longo to study how intermittent fasting can combat chemotherapy-induced cognitive deficits. After graduating, he was eager to join the Christine Brown lab in the effort to improve the prognosis of glioblastomas and other brain tumors. He currently works on the correlatives team to process clinical samples.

Renate Starr, M.S. earned her B.S in biological sciences from the University of CA, Irvine and her M.S. from California Polytechnic University, Pomona. Her career at City of Hope began in 2005 when she joined the lab of Dr. Michael Jensen, M.D., as a research associate II. Under the direction of Dr. Christine Brown, her initial research focus was to culture cancer stem cells derived from glioblastoma and evaluated their targetability by CAR T cells. In 2010, Dr. Jensen left City of Hope and leadership of the lab was transferred to Dr. Stephen Forman, M.D. That same year, Starr was promoted to a senior research associate and took on the additional role of being the lab manager for the Forman lab also known as the T cell Therapeutics Research Laboratory. In 2015, Starr was promoted to staff scientist and in 2020 she received the title of Director of the TCTRL Laboratory Operations. Over the years, the TCTRL  has evolved to include five labs, including Dr. Stephen Forman, M.D., Dr. Christine Brown, PhD., Dr. Xiuli Wang, PhD., Dr. Saul Priceman, PhD and Dr. Elizabeth Budde, M.D., PhD.. Dr. Christine Brown continues to be an amazing leader, mentor and friend during the almost 2 decades of working together and Starr counts herself very lucky to have been given the opportunity to grow and evolve alongside the TCTRL program.

Zhen Tong earned a B.S. in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior from the University of California, Davis, and a M.S. in Environmental Health Science at the University of California, Los Angeles where his research mainly focused on environmental carcinogen and fatty acids-rich diets interplay on lung cancer. Zhen is currently a graduate student in the Irell & Manella Graduate School of Biological Sciences at City of Hope and his project is focused on Regulated Control of CAR T cell Expansion and Persistence for Improved Safety and Efficacy.

Simiao Wang earned a B.S. in biological sciences from China Agricultural University in Beijing, China and later completed her M.S. in biochemistry and molecular medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, where her research mainly focused on hippocampal neural stem cells derived from human iPSCs and CHARGE syndrome. Wang is currently a graduate student in the Irell & Manella Graduate School of Biological Sciences at City of Hope and her project is focused on tumor heterogeneity, tumor microenvironment, and CAR T cell therapy using tumor organoids as a research model.

Agata Xella earned her B.S. in biotechnology with honors from University of Bologna in Italy. During this time, she spent a year as an exchange student at University of California, San Diego, where she found her passion for medical research and fell in love with Southern California.
 
Xella completed her M.S. in biomedical sciences from Sanford Burnham Prebys Cancer Center in San Diego under the guidance of Dr. Wechsler-Reya. Her work focused on uncovering the role of the Musashi family of RNA-binding proteins in the rise and development of childhood brain tumor, medulloblastoma.
 
Following graduation, Xella moved back to Europe and settled in London where she worked for Synexa Life Sciences studying biomarker analysis for clinical trial samples.
 
Xella joined the Christine Brown Lab in early 2020 and is working to improve GBM-targeted CAR T cell therapy. She applies her expertise in brain cancer and immunological techniques to several projects and aims to expand her contributions and develop knowledge relevant to data analysis and combinational therapies.

Ling Zhao, M.S, is a research associate in the Christine Brown lab at City of Hope

Xin (Cindy) Yang earned a M.S. in animal science with a specialized focus on biotechnology/stem cell biology from Purdue University. Yang joined City of Hope in 2015 and has been actively researching CAR T cell therapy against glioblastoma multiform under the leadership of Christine Brown, Ph.D. Yang's interest in perfecting CAR T cell therapy include, but are not limited to, exploring new CAR targets, CAR structure designs, patient product bioactivities and associated clinical responses. She is passionate about promoting translational technology applications and collaborations on emerging fields.