Home > Cancer and Treatments > Pancreatic Cancer > Research

Lab personnel

Diane M. Simeone, M.D.
Associate Professor of Molecular & Integrative Physiology

Diane M. Simeone, M.D. is an Associate Professor in the Section of General Surgery, Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery and Associate Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology. Dr. Simeone received her bachelor's degree from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and a medical degree from Duke University Medical School in Durham, North Carolina. She completed her General Surgery residency training in 1995 at the University of Michigan Medical Center. She joined the faculty at the University of Michigan Medical Center in 1995. Dr. Simeone's clinical interests are in the area of gastrointestinal oncology. She has a special interest in the surgical treatment of pancreatic adenocarcinoma, and is the Surgical Director of the Multidisciplinary Pancreatic Cancer Clinic. Dr. Simeone is the principal director of a research laboratory that is funded by the National Institutes of Health. Her basic science laboratory investigates mechanisms of pancreatic growth regulation and molecular events important in the development and progression of pancreatic adenocarcinoma. She is also an associate member of the Early Detection Research Network (EDRN), an NCI-funded initiative to identify and validate early detection biomarkers for the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

Huibin Yang, M.D.,
Research Investigator

Dr. Huibin Yang, M.D., is a Research Investigator in the Section of General Surgery, Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery, at the University of Michigan Health Systems. Dr. Yang received his M.D. degree in 1982, from the Suzhou Medical College in China. He received a master's degree in medical science, immunopathology/cell biology in 1988, from Suzhou Medical College. He joined the faculty of Suzhou Medical College in 1989, in the Department of Pathophysiology. In 1994, Dr. Yang went on for postdoctoral training in the Department of Neurobiology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. In 1998, Dr. Yang became a Research Associate in the Department of Pediatrics and Neurology at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan and in September of 2005, Dr. Yang joined the faculty in the Section of General Surgery, Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery, at the University of Michigan Health Systems.

Dr. Yang's research interest/focus is to study the roles of Ataxia-Telangectasia group D associated complementing gene (ATDC) in ionizing radiation-induced DNA damage response in pancreatic cancer using tumor cell lines, primary tumor cells and ATDC in pancreatic tumor development by ATDC gene conditional knock out and knock in approaches. Huibin is also developing novel transgenic mouse models of altered ATDC expression to studt the role of ATDC in normal organ function and diseases states.

Jingjiang Wu Ph.D.

Dr. Wu received her Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry, Shanghai, China. Her previous research focused on the molecular mechanism of a blood disease TTP. Dr. Wu joined Dr. Simeone's research team in Department of Surgery at University of Michigan in 2007, and she is currently working to elucidate the role of Notch signaling pathway in maintaining cancer stem cell population in pancreatic tumors.

Joseph Dosch, B.S.

Joseph Dosch completed his B.S. in Biochemistry from Indiana University. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Cellular and Molecular Biology program here at the University of Michigan. He is completing a joint thesis project between the Simeone lab and the lab of Dr. Charles Burant in the gene profiling and characterization of pancreatic cancer stem cells.

Mark J. Hynes

Mark Hynes has been in the Simeone lab for 2 years and is involved in a number of pancreatic cancer stem cell projects. He is examining the effect of Notch pathway inhibition on CSC tumorigenesis by using a blocking antibody to the Delta-like 4 ligand. Another project is to determine how the ATDC protein mediates CSC resistance to radiation and chemotherapy. He is also director of the xenograft core where primary human pancreatic tumors are implanted in NOD/SCID mice for future studies.

Lidong Wang, Ph.D.

After graduated from Peking Normal University with M.S and PhD degree, Lidong Wang engaged his postdoctoral fellow training in Dr. T. Yamada's laboratory in the department of internal medicine, at the University of Michigan. His postdoctoral projects focus on the regulatory mechanism of brain-gut peptides releasing. Through his postdoctoral studies, he gained extensive training in biochemical and molecular cell biology. Subsequently, Dr. Wang joined the Peking Union Medical College with an appointment as Assistant Professor in the department of physiology. There, He performed outstanding research on the effects of the gastrointestinal hormones microinjected into cerebroventricles on the pancreatic exocrine and gastrointestinal tract motility. Later, he joined the research laboratory of Dr. John Del Valle in the department of internal medicine, at the University of Michigan. While working with Dr. Del Valle, he was a lead author on the studies that describe the molecular basis of the structure and function of the G protein coupled receptor. Currently, he joined the laboratory of Dr. Diane Simeone in the department of general surgery, at the University of Michigan.

Currently, Lidong studies the molecular mechanism of pancreatic carcinogenesis. His research mainly focuses on characterizing the biological functions and clinical relevant of a novel DNA repair gene, Ataxia-Telangectasia group D associated complementing gene (ATDC). ATDC is expressed in the majority of pancreatic cancers and has dual functions of promoting pancreatic cancer cell growth and regulating cellular responses to DNA damage. His work has important implications for better understanding pancreatic tumorigenesis, as well as for exploring the potential role of ATDC in growth regulatory mechanisms and DNA damage responses in both neoplastic and normal cells, a topic which has not been previously explored. Furthermore, targeting ATDC for inactivation may have therapeutic value, in the future, by both reducing proliferation and increasing susceptibility to radiotherapy of pancreatic cancer cells.

Filip Bednar, M.D., Ph.D.

Fil Bednar is a surgical resident and research postdoctoral fellow in the Section of General Surgery of the Department of Surgery. He spent three summers during his undergraduate time studying various aspects of thrombin and cAMP receptor signaling at Merck & Co. and Princeton University. After graduating from Princeton with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Molecular Biology, he trained in the M.D./Ph.D. program at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia. He completed his doctoral thesis on the signaling crosstalk between formyl peptide and chemokine receptors in human leukocytes in the laboratory of Dr. Thomas Rogers. He is currently pursuing his post-graduate medical training at the University of Michigan in the Department of Surgery and serves as a research postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Diane Simeone and the Program for Organogenesis. His current research interests focus on the fundamental biology of pancreatic cancer and the role of cancer stem cells in pancreatic cancer initiation and progression.

Masashi Goto, Ph.D.

Masashi Goto received his Ph.D from Nara Institute of Science and Technology. He is a visiting scholar who is involved in pancreatic cancer stem cell projects to investigate ways to suppress the progression of pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

Note: Dr. Goto is a visiting scholar from Japan.

Erica Proctor, M.D.

Erica N. Proctor, M.D. is a research fellow in the Section of General Surgery, Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery at the University of Michigan Health System. Dr. Proctor received her bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and earned her medical degree from the University of Michigan Medical School. She began her general surgery residency training at the University of Michigan Medical Center in 2006 and will resume general surgery training in July 2011. Dr. Proctor joined Dr. Simeone's research team in 2009, and she is currently working to elucidate the role of Notch signaling pathway in maintaining the pancreatic cancer stem cell population in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma as well as evaluating the role of Bmi1 in pancreatic cancer tumorigenesis.

Edward Kim, M.D.,Ph.D.

Edward Kim is Chief Fellow in the Division of Hematology/Oncology of the Department of Medicine. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry at Harvard University. He went on to receive his MD/PhD degrees from Stony Brook University in New York. He completed his doctoral thesis at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories under Dr. David Helfman exploring the role of S100A4 in metastasis by dissecting the role of calcium- binding and homodimerization. He came to the University of Michigan in 2005 to receive training in the Internal Medicine Residency and Hematology/Oncology Fellowship through the Physician Scientist Program. His current research includes clinical trials for patients with pancreatic cancer and translational exploration of novel therapeutics in relationship to Hedgehog signaling and cancer stem cell biology.

Stephanie Laurinec, B.S.
Research Lab Specialist Intermediate

Stephanie Laurinec is a Research Lab Specialist Intermediate in the section of General Surgery, at the University of Michigan. Stephanie received her B.S. in Biology from Purdue University in 1995. After graduation, she joined the research lab of Dr. James Walker, Department of Basic Medical Sciences at Purdue University, where she studied the affects of alcohol on the developing brain. In 1999 she moved to Boston and joined the research lab of Dr. Sylvia Sanders (HHMI Investigator), at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While at M.I.T., Stephanie's research focused on yeast cell polarity and bud- site selection. In 2001, she accepted a position with Dr. Ben Margolis at the University of Michigan (HHMI Investigator/ Department of Nephrology) continuing her focus of cell polarity, this time in the kidney. Stephanie left the Margolis lab to briefly work with Dr. James Bardwell (HHMI Investigator) at the University of Michigan, focusing on the study of disulfide bond formation and the three-dimensional structure of proteins. In 2006, Stephanie joined the laboratory of Dr. Diane Simeone, in the Department of General Surgery, at the University of Michigan.

Currently, Stephanie's position encompasses managerial responsibilities for the Simeone lab, as well as assisting with research (mainly utilizing Immunohistochemistry) to investigate the mechanisms of pancreatic growth regulation, molecular events important in the development and progression of pancreatic adenocarcinoma, and the identification of biological markers for the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Stephanie is also responsible for all of the IRB approved human studies, and can be found in the MDP clinic on Mondays consenting patients and obtaining samples for the labs numerous ongoing research studies.

Simeone Lab Group

Back (Left to Right): Mark Hynes, Masashi Goto, Lidong Wang, Gina Ney, Filip Bednar
Back (Left to Right): JingJiang Wu, Stephanie Laurinec, Erica Proctor, Huibin Yang, Dr. Diane Simeone

Return to the top of the page