Asimakopoulos Lab
UCSD Moores Cancer Center
Fotis Asimakopoulos, MB BChir, PhD | Principal Investigator
Fotis completed his MD/PhD at the University of Cambridge in the UK, working with Tony Green on mapping 20q deletions associated with pre-leukemias. He then spent two (in his own words, “unforgettable”) years in Jerusalem working with Dina Ben Yehuda as a Golda Meir Fellow on mechanisms underlying CML clonal evolution.
After residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, he joined Nobel prize laureate Harold Varmus’ group at MSK. In Harold’s lab, he began his work to generate a RAS-driven model for myeloma, a goal that eventually came to fruition several years later, with the publication of the VQ model (in collaboration with Jing Zhang’s group at UW-Madison as well as Marta Chesi and Leif Bergsagel at Mayo).
In 2010, he became an Assistant Professor and later a tenured Associate Professor at UW-Madison. The Asimakopoulos lab moved to UCSD and sunny San Diego in 2019.
Yun Huang, PhD. | Project Scientist
Yun completed his PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Science and Technology of China in 2012. His PhD works focus on the mitotic machinery in cancer cells and uncover the cause and consequence of chromosome missegregation, micronuclei and aneuploidy in cancer development.
From 2013-2022 he joined the clinical research group of Prof. Jena-Pierre Bourquin at the University Children’s hospital Zurich where he pursuit the biomedical research focusing on childhood leukemia. Collaboration with distinguished scientists and clinicians internationally, he employed cutting-edge omics methodologies and in vivo approaches to dissect critical oncogenic determinants in fatal leukemia subtypes in children, model the disease in mice and translate into new insights of therapeutics (Huang Y, et al. Cancer cell 2019; Huang Y, et al. HemaSphere 2020; Boutter J, Huang Y, et al. Oncotarget 2014. etc).
Inspired by the current progress in immune-oncology and the pioneering work by Prof. Fotis Asimakopoulos in anti-myeloma immunotherapy, he joined Prof. Asimakopoulos’s group as a project scientist at UC San Diego since 2022. Thanks to the innovational tools and discovery pipelines developed in the lab he will model and explore the molecular pathology of relapsed / refractory disease in anti-myeloma immunotherapy with hope of translating into clinical benefits with significant worldwide impact.
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In his free time, Yun likes to go on hikes, play badminton and exploring sea sports.
Daniel Lagal | Post-doctoral Fellow
Daniel grew up in Spain where he completed his bachelor´s Degree in Biochemistry in 2017. His interests in oncological research aimed him to complete his Master´s Degree in Molecular Oncology in Spain in 2018. It was then that Daniel decided to start his PhD in the oncological field. Mainly, he developed his Ph.D. in Spain in Redoxins´ lab team, however, he was also working in the National Institute of Health in Maryland in collaboration with Professor Thomas Leto. His PhD was focused on the implications of antioxidant enzymes in proliferative and metastatic behavior of liver cancer cells through Differential Proteomic analysis and in vitro studies.
Inspired by his interests on tumoral Microenvironment, tumor matrix immune crosstalk and his experience with in vivo models, he joined Prof. Asimakopoulos as a Postdoctoral-Scholar Employee in 2023. He is focused on how cancer cells can remodel the surrounding Matrix which influences anti-tumor immunity impacting on cancer cells behavior. He continues with his experience on lipid-based nanoparticle treatments in in vivo models and he Is developing new skills in CAR-T cell therapy in myeloma.
During his free time, Daniel is passionate about CrossFit, weightlifting, water sport, hiking, and running around beach!
He enjoys meeting new people and joining to social events! He expects to learn to surf during his stay in San Diego.
Yaling Dou | Staff Research Scientist
Alicia Gibbons | Graduate Student
Alicia grew up in Rhode Island and attended college at UCLA, where she received a bachelor’s degree in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics. There, she studied CAR-iNKT cell therapy for cancer in the Lili Yang lab. She joined the Asimakopoulos lab in 2023 as a PhD student and aims to assist the lab in designing in situ cancer vaccines.
In her free time, Alicia likes to spend time with her family and friends, explore the outdoors, and read cool sci-fi books.
Alex Tong | Medical Oncology Fellow
Alex grew up in Dallas, Texas and attended Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. Throughout undergrad, he was part of the Taosheng Chen Lab at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital where he fell in love with bench-to-bedside translational cancer research.
Alex is currently an internal medicine resident at UCSD looking forward to pursuing an academic career in hematology/oncology. He did his MD/PhD at the Case Western Reserve University Medical Scientist Training Program in Cleveland, Ohio and worked in the Alex Huang Lab investigating cellular cancer immunotherapies and using 2-photon intravital microscopy to explore the dynamics of immune cells in lymph nodes.
He joined the Asimakopoulos Lab with an interest in uncovering immunoregulatory properties of matrix proteoglycans in multiple myeloma.
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Outside of the hospital/laboratory, Alex enjoys classical music, sci-fi novels and exploring San Diego with his wife and daughter.
Esperanza Quionez-baltazar | Undergraduate Researcher
Esperanza is a senior undergraduate at UC San Diego,majoring in Human Biology from Lynwood, California. She joined the lab through the Genentech Scholars Program supported by the UC San Diego’s Division of Student Affairs and the Undergraduate Research Hub (URH). She is excited to learn about cancer research and grow her research skills. After her undergraduate studies, her goal is to attend medical school and become involved in research.
In her free time, she loves to spend time with family, friends, and dogs. She loves outdoor activities.
Duncan Hong | Undergraduate Researcher
Duncan is a sophomore majoring in General Biology. His interests within the lab include getting first hand experience working with various techniques used in cancer research and in understanding how various cancer models function at a molecular level. His goals are to enroll into medical school and to take part in the fight against myeloma.
In his free time he likes road trips, watching sports, and learning about business.
Brolyn Zomalan | Undergraduate Researcher
Brolyn is currently a Sophomore at UCSD, majoring in Human Biology. He joined this lab to gain hands-on experience with lab work and learn about the specifics of how myeloma works. His goal after completing his undergraduate degree is to attend medical school and pursue a career in Dermatology.
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In his free time, he likes to spend time with his family and friends, watch sports, and go to the gym.
UCSD Lab Alumni
Lab Managers, UCSD
2020-2021
2021-2022
Garrett Arauz, BS
University of California, Merced
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Alex Cicala, BS MD/PhD (2022-ongoing)
University of Wisconsin BS
Stony Brook University MD/PhD
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Alejandro Rizo, BS
Flordia International Univeristy
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Tori Ribbens, MS
Fort Lewis College, BS
The University of Arizona, MS
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2022-2023
2023-2024
Postdocs
2020-2021
Varun Bansal, PhD
Project Scientists
2020-2022
Gauri Deb, PhD
2021-2022
Athanasios Papadas, MD PhD
UW Madison Lab Alumni (2010-19)
PhD and MD/PhD Graduate Students, UW- Madison
2017-21
2017-19
2017-19
2011-15
2011-16
Athanasios Papadas, MD PhD (2021)
Cellular and Molecular Pathology (CMP) graduate program
AACR Scholar-In-Training Awardee 2020
UCSD Visiting Graduate Student 2019-21
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Evan Flietner, BS PhD(2022)
Cellular and Molecular Pathology (CMP) graduate program
CMP T32 awardee
(2019-2022, Zhang lab, UW-Madison)
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Zachary Morrow, BS
Cellular and Molecular Biology (CMB) graduate program
NSF Graduate Research Fellow 2019-2023
(2019-, Sauer lab, UW-Madison)
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Jeff Jensen, MD PhD (2015)
Cellular and Molecular Biology (CMB) graduate program
UW MSTP student- UW ICTR TL1 awardee
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Chelsea Hope, PhD (2016)
Cellular and Molecular Pathology (CMP) graduate program
UW Hematology T32 awardee;
ASH Abstract Achievement Awardee 2012
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Postdoctoral Fellow, UW- Madison
2018-19
Sarbjeet Kaur Makkar, PhD
(University of Arkansas)
Rural and Urban Scholars in Community Health Program (RUSCH)
2015-19
Rima Minazetdinova, UW-Platteville
Patricia Krueger, UW-Parkside
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Bianca Ruffolo, UW-Parkside
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Mohammad Raza, UW-Parkside
Shapiro Summer Research Program UW- Madison
2017-19
2014
Elena Kurudza, UW-Madison
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Claire Flanagan, UW-Madison
MS graduate student, UW- Madison
2012-14
Joe Ollar, MS (2014)
Cellular and Molecular Pathology (CMP) graduate program
Genomic Sciences T32 awardee
Lab Managers, UW-Madison
2016-19
2010-15
Adam Pagenkopf, BS
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Ellen Hebron, BS
Clinical Residents/ Fellows, UW- Madison
2017-19
2018
Muhammad Umair Mushtaq MD
Sibgha Chaudhary MD
Sanjay Patel MD
2016
Biology 152 Undergraduate Lab Course, UW- Madison
2012-19
Tyler Graham, UW- Madison
Alex Glodowski, UW- Madison
Kimberly Gromek, UW- Madison
(Hilldale Undergraduate/ Faculty Research Fellow)
Jaye Dvorak, UW- Madison
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Alexander Cicala, UW- Madison
(Hilldale Undergraduate/ Faculty Research Fellow)
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Science Research Internship program (SRI)
2017-19
Samik Partha, Memorial High School, Madison
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Andrew Jiang, Memorial High School, Madison
Staff Research Associate, UCSD, Undergraduate Researcher, UW-Madison
2018-20
Joshua Wiesner, UW-Madison
Senior Undergraduate Thesis program, UW-Madison
2018-20
James Menting, UW-Madison
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Alexander Cicala, UW-Madison
Undergraduate Researcher, UW-Madison
2016-18
Bradley Nagel, UW-Madison