Tristan Chan earned his Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry from University of California, Santa Barbara in 2017. At UCSB, he did research in the laboratory of Songi Han, Ph.D., studying the effects of surface species on proteorhodopsin. Later, he earned his Master of Science in biochemistry from University of Arizona in Tucson under the guidance of Wolfgang Peti, Ph.D. His master’s thesis focused on expanding the interactome of PIM1 Kinase. Chan looks forward to diversifying his expertise as a researcher in a clinical research environment, and is excited to jump into the field of immune-oncology in the lab of Leo Wang, M.D., Ph.D.

Diana Gumber graduated with a Bachelor of Science from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in 2015, double majoring in animal science and biology. In 2017, she earned her Master of Science degree in agriculture with a specialization in animal science from the CIRM-funded Regenerative Medicine program at Cal Poly. Upon graduation, she joined the Laboratory of Karl Willert, Ph.D., at University of California, San Diego, which studies the role of Wnt proteins and their signaling pathways in cancer and development. As a graduate student of City of Hope's Irell & Manella Graduate School of Biological Sciences, she is excited to begin her dissertation research in the laboratory of Leo Wang, M.D., Ph.D., in the study of hematopoietic malignancies and cancer immunotherapies.
 

In 2008, Leonce Kouakanou, Ph.D., graduated from University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin with a Bachelor's in physiology. He then completed his M.Sc. in microbiology/immunology at the University of Lome, Togo in 2011. His master's thesis, which was completed at the Medical Research Council in the U.K, The Gambia, focused on the immunoregulation by antibodies in infant malaria. In 2015, with a Ph.D. scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service, he joined the University of Kiel in Germany in the group of Professor Dieter Kabelitz. He obtained his Ph.D. in Immunology in 2019, working on the influence of vitamin C in the differentiation and functional plasticity of human gamma delta T cells, in the context of cancer immunotherapy.
 

Jennifer Shepphird earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana in microbiology and her Ph.D. in chemistry and biochemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles, studying protein structure by X-ray crystallography. She worked in the field of structure-based drug design before focusing on science communication and project management. At City of Hope, she is a project development scientist within the Clinical and Translational Project Development team and functions as the project manager for Dr. Leo Wang’s pediatric brain tumor CAR T cell trial.
 

Grace Sun graduated from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in 2020 with a bachelor's degree in animal science. She then continued her education at the University of Southern California, earning her Master of Science in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine in 2021. During her time at USC, she conducted research in the laboratory of Miller Huang, Ph.D, where she studied the molecular mechanisms of MYCN pathway in medulloblastoma and its effect on tumorigenesis. Sun is excited to explore the clinical and translational aspect of research, as well as the field of immuno-oncology in the lab of Dr. Wang. 

Hanmin Wang graduated from Beijing University of Chinese Medicine in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in biopharmaceutical engineering and then completed his Ph.D. in physiology at Loma Linda University in 2021. His previous research interests focus on cell fate decisions and in the actions of transcription factors and miRNAs in development and in cancer.
 
He finished his Ph.D. project in the laboratory of Dr. Juli Unternaehrer at Loma Linda University. There, Hanmin studied the role of transcription factor SNAIL and miRNA let-7 in the context of cancer cell stemness. Hanmin joined the laboratory of Dr. Leo Wang as a postdoctoral fellow and is eager to start the next chapter of his career and expand his horizons in the pursuit of cancer patient health.