Xue Zeng, MD
Xue 'Lucy' Zeng was a member of the Delgoffe lab from 2015-2017 as a Scholar from Tsinghua University in China.
Lucy had several projects in the laboratory focused on altering the metabolism of tumor cells and bolstering mitochondrial activity in T cells. Lucy is now in medical residency in China.
Yiyang Wang
Yiyang "Steve" Wang was a student of the Experimental Class of Medicine at Tsinghua University (China). As part of his 8-year MD program, he joined the lab in 2017 to receive scientific research training. He had a great interest in oncology and cardiovascular diseases. Steve's project mainly focused on the establishment of a murine CAR T immunotherapy model. Steve has since returned to Tsinghua University to complete his medical studies.
Nicole Scharping, PhD
Nicole Scharping was a graduate student in the University of Pittsburgh Immunology Graduate Program, who joined the lab in 2015. Her project centered on the metabolic defects of tumor-infiltrating cytotoxic T cells and uncovering the basic processes that underlie T cell exhaustion.
Nicole is now a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Ananda Goldrath’s lab at UCSD.
Ashley Menk, MS
Ashley Menk was the laboratory manager of the Delgoffe Lab until 2021. She received her BS from the University of Pittsburgh in 2015 and joined the lab that summer.
As Ashley ran the Seahorse Bioanalyzer, she had many and varied projects. However, her main focus was on the pathways that are involved in T cell metabolic reprogramming.
Ashley is now an Associate Scientist at Novasenta.
Madeleine Stout, BS
Madeleine Stout was a graduate student in the University of Pittsburgh’s Biomedical Master’s Program. She joined the Delgoffe lab in 2019. Madeleine’s project was focused on how adoptive cell therapy can mitigate exhaustion of tumor-infiltrating T-cells in the nutrient deficient tumor microenvironment.
Madeleine is now in medical school at the University of Pittsburgh.
McLane Watson, PhD
McLane (Mac) Watson was a graduate student part of the Immunology program at the University of Pittsburgh. Mac joined the Delgoffe lab May 2017 and studied the utilization of lactate by regulatory T cells as an energy source in the tumor microenvironment. After graduation in Dec 2021 with a manuscript in Nature (!) Mac began his postdoc in Dr. Russel Jones’ lab at the Van Andel institute.
Mary Philbin, BS
Mary Philbin was a Research Specialist in the Delgoffe lab. She joined the lab in 2020 and worked on a project involving comparing the success rates of combination versus bispecific reagent immunologic therapies. Mary is now a Medical Assistant and is applying to PA school.
Konstantinos Lontos, MD, PhD
Konstantinos (Dinos) Lontos was a Hematology/Oncology fellow and a graduate student at the Institute for Clinical Research Education (ICRE) of the University of Pittsburgh. Dinos joined the lab in 2018 and worked to develop new models for studying CAR-T cells in solid tumors as well as studied ways to improve CAR-T cell function.
Dinos is now a Stem Cell Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Fellow at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Yupeng Wang
Yupeng “Jeremy” Wang was a student of the Experimental Class of Medicine at Tsinghua University, China. He joined the lab for scientific research training as part of his 8-year MD program. He studied metabolic aspects of T cells functioning in the tumor microenviroment and metabolic adjustment for improvement of cancer immunotherapy.
Jeremy has now returned to Tsinghua University to finish his medical studies.
Paolo Vignali, PhD
Paolo Vignali is a University of Pittsburgh MD/PhD candidate who joined the lab and the PMI program in 2018. Paolo studied the metabolic adaptations of immune cell subtypes and tumor cells which confer functional advantages in the characteristically nutrient-dearth tumor microenvironment with significant interest in novel drug discovery and treatment protocols to augment current immunotherapeutic efforts.
Paolo has finished the PhD side of his degree and has returned to medical school to finish his medical training.
Jessica Jana, BSE
Jessica Jana was a lab tech in the Delgoffe lab from 2020-2022. During her time in the Delgoffe lab she focused on improving adoptive cell therapy by reengineering transferred T cells to be more metabolically competitive in the tumor microenvironment.
Jess has since joined the Program in Microbiology and Immunology (PMI) at Pitt as a graduate student.