The 13th annual Harper Cancer Research Day, held on Monday, April 14, 2025, at the Morris Inn, featured poster sessions, oral presentations, and a keynote address. This year’s keynote address, "Engineering Microscopy for Cancer Imaging: From Making Tumor Models to Improved Clinical Diagnoses," was delivered by Rohit Bhargava, Director of the Cancer Center at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Bhargava holds the prestigious title of Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering and serves as a Professor of Bioengineering.

Additionally, two distinguished international guests attended the 13th annual Harper Cancer Research Day and delivered respective talks during the afternoon session. Eva Szegezdi, Associate Professor in Biochemistry at the University of Galway and Head of the Blood Cancer Biobank in Ireland, presented a talk on “Cellular- and nano-immunotherapeutic approaches to overcome tumor immune escape of blood-borne malignancies." Dr. Fiona Adagi, Clinical Oncologist and the Head of the Oncology Department at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital (JOOTRH) in Kisumu, Kenya, delivered a talk titled “Cancer Care and Treatment in Kisumu, Kenya.”

Students and postdoctoral fellows were awarded travel grants at this year’s research day, recognizing excellence in both oral and poster presentations. Over 100 abstracts were submitted, and of those submitted, 15 were selected for oral presentations. All participants whose abstracts were selected for oral presentations received a $400 travel grant, supporting their continued academic and professional development.

Abstracts selected for oral presentations:

• Elizabeth Heffernan (Hassan / von Holzen Lab), “Effects of Novel Isoform Selective HSP90Beta Inhibitors Alone and in Combinations Against Experimental Esophageal Adenocarcinoma”

• Santosharupa Ponna (Awasthi Lab), “Antiproliferative Activity of PRMT-5 Inhibitor

• GSK3326595 in Pancreatic Cancer Cells”

• Courtney Flatt (Littlepage Lab), “Cxcr2 as a Therapeutic Target in Breast Cancer Bone Metastasis”

• Caitlin Horgan (Bilgicer Lab), “A Breakthrough in Breast Cancer Treatment: Targeted Delivery of Dually Loaded Lipid Nanoparticles Achieves Synergistic Effect Across All Luminal Subtypes”

• Ian Mersich (Blagg Lab), “Integrative Multi-omics and Gene Dependency Analyses Reveal Mechanisms of Hsp90β Dependency and Resistance in Cancer”

• Angela Taglione (Hanjaya-Putra Lab), “Investigating the Role of Granular Hydrogel Matrix Compositions on Differentiated LEC Behavior and Gene Expression”

• Gaeun Kim (Wang Lab), “Empowering Gene Delivery to Breast Cancer: Small Extracellular Vesicles with Chiral-Assisted siRNA Loading and pH-Responsive Peptide Functionalization”

• Leah Lund (White Lab), “Intracellular pH Dynamics During Tumor Microenvironment Stiffening Mediate Vascular Mimicry via β-catenin”

• Lauren Hawthorne (Zorlutuna Lab), “Hybrid In Vivo Breast Cancer Model Reveals Transcriptomic Insights into Cancer Progression with Age”

• Maria Unger (Zartman Lab), “Elucidating Mechanisms Driving a Rare, Aggressive, and Fatal Human Uveal Melanoma With the Help of Drosophila melanogaster Model Organism”

• Emma Powers (von Holzen Lab), “Therapeutically Targeting the Developmental Role of Cxcr2 in Bone, Adipose, and Mammary Tissue in Breast Cancer”

• Emily Richardson and Sophia Santoso (Stack Lab), “Enhanced Chemosensitivity in Ovarian Cancer: A Novel Combination Therapy of SREBP1 Inhibitor and Standard-of-Care Chemotherapy in Obese Hosts”

• Guoqiang Liu (Lu Lab), “CDH3-targeted ADC and CAR-T Immunotherapies for Metastatic Double-negative Prostate Cancer and Triple-negative Breast Cancer”

• Fangfang Guo (Li Lab), “Molecular Profiling of Breast Cancer from Native American Women Reveals Distinct Genomic and Transcriptomic Features”

• Kofi Owusu (Sintim Lab), “Identification of Alkynyl Nicotinamide HSN748 as a RET Solvent-front Mutant Inhibitor with Intracranial Efficacy”

Additional awards were given for top poster presentations. The first-place poster winner received a $400 travel grant, second place received $300, and third place was awarded $250. Awards were presented in three categories: undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral.

Undergraduate award winners

1. Annie Ritter (Hassan / von Holzen Lab), “PKM2 inhibition overcomes lapatanib resistance in HER2 overexpressing esophageal adenocarcinoma”

2. Viktoriia Khomenko (Stack Lab), “Exploring the Role of HERV-K and Nitric Oxide in Ovarian Cancer: Implications for Biomarkers and Therapeutic Targets”

3. Abraham Guadiano (White Lab), “Investigation of PKM2 Puncta Formation in a Warburg Like Environment”

Graduate award winners

1. Desmond Akwata (Sintim Lab), “Design and Development of Small Molecule Kinase Inhibitors Targeting TAK1 for Cancer Therapy”

2. John Alex Sinclair (C. Chang Lab), “Novel Janus Particle Technology to Characterize Small Extracellular Vesicles for Improved Cancer Screening Applications”

3. Sarah Nano (Niebur Lab), “Cancer-associated osteoblasts exhibit morphological abnormalities and inhibited mineral deposition in an engineered bone metastatic niche”

Post-doctoral fellow award winners

1. Pratik Yadav (Sintim Lab), “3H-pyrazolo[4,3-f]quinoline hinge binder, a tunable scaffold for development of novel kinase inhibitors against FLT3-driven leukemia”

2. Verodia Charlestin (Littlepage Lab), “Regulation of Cellular Metabolic Stress by Aquaporin-7 in Breast Cancer”

The Dr. Michael Rodriguez award was presented to Dr. Jorge Lasso de la Vega, a distinguished Panamanian gynecologic oncologist. This award is given to someone whose contributions to cancer research at the Harper Cancer Research Institute best exemplify the spirit of Dr. Michael Rodriguez, who himself passed from cancer in 2015.

Two additional awards were also presented to exceptional trainees. The exceptional mentor award is awarded to the trainee for their exceptional leadership in mentoring others. The exceptional team science award is presented to the trainee who best exemplifies Harper Cancer Research Institute’s foundation in interdisciplinary research and their commitment to collaboration.

Gaeun Kim from Yichun Wang’s lab received the exceptional mentor award and Leah Lund from Katherine White’s lab received the exceptional team science award.

"Thank you to everyone who participated, attended, and supported Harper Cancer Research Day, and thank you to the judges of the poster sessions. This year was our best Research Day yet, from the 100+ trainee presentations to the talks presenting interesting highlights from the work of our international faculty collaborators, and culminating with a highly engaging and fascinating Keynote presentation," said Sharon Stack, Ann F. Dunne and Elizabeth Riley Director of Harper Cancer Research Institute, Kleiderer-Pezold Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry. "It will be hard to top the 2025 event next year, but we'll certainly try!"

Photos by Angelic Rose Hubert

About Notre Dame Research:

The University of Notre Dame is a private research and teaching university inspired by its Catholic mission. Located in South Bend, Indiana, its researchers are advancing human understanding through research, scholarship, education, and creative endeavor in order to be a repository for knowledge and a powerful means for doing good in the world. For more information, please see research.nd.edu or @UNDResearch.

Originally published by Caroline Collins at harpercancer.nd.edu on April 24, 2025.