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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 at 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 transforming growth factor (TGF-ÿ)/SMAD signaling pathway in the development of surgical pancreatic disease, including pancreatic cancer and pancreatitis. Currently he is involved in Ataxia-Telangectasia group D associated complementing gene (ATDC) projects to study the roles of ATDC in pancreatic tumors by ATDC conditional knock out and knock in approaches.

Chenwei Li, M.D., Ph.D.,
Research Associate II

The cancer stem cell hypothesis suggests that neoplastic clones are maintained by a small subset of cells with stem cell properties within a tumor. The existence of cancer stem cells was first proven in the context of acute myeloid leukemia and has since been proven to be the case in several human cancer types. I have recently identified a highly tumorigenic cancer stem cell population of primary pancreatic cancer cells expressing the cell surface markers CD44, CD24, and ESA, which represent 0.2-0.8% of pancreatic cancer cells. The CD44+CD24+ESA+ cells showed the stem cell properties of self-renewal, the ability to produce differentiated progeny, and increased expression of developmental signaling pathways.

I am currently working on the identification of pancreatic cancer stem cells with new cell surface markers and testing several new drugs and methods which are specifically targeting cancer stem cells in pancreatic cancer xenograft model established in our lab. Conventional cancer treatments have been focused on the ability to kill most of the tumor population, but in doing so may miss the cancer stem cells. The new therapeutic plan targeting cancer stem cells demonstrated promising results. This research is aimed at the development of novel therapeutic strategies to selectively target cancer stem cell population, which has been shown in pancreatic and other tumor models to be highly resistant to standard chemotherapy.

C.J. Lee, M.D.

Dr. Lee completed his Bachelors in Biochemistry at the University of Michigan. He attended and graduated with honors from the University of Michigan Medical School. Currently Dr. Lee is undergoing his residency in General Surgery at the University of Michigan. His current projects involve identifying and characterizing pancreatic stem cells, as well as genetic and protein profiling of pancreatic cancer.

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.

Anudeep (Deep) is an undergraduate student majoring in Spanish Language and Literature on the pre-medical track at the University of Michigan. He has been working with General Surgery residents in the Simeone Lab for 2 years to better understand the role of cancer stem cells in pancreatic adenocarcinoma and several related pathways (Akt, BMI-1) in pancreatic tumorigenesis. After graduation, Deep plans on attending medical school with the eventual goal of becoming an academic physician.

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.

Dr. Sarkar is currently a surgical resident in the Department of General Surgery, at the University of Michigan. After completing his undergraduate degree from Columbia, Beda completed his medical and post-doctoral training at NYU Medical School. His PhD work examined regulated mRNA turnover.

Dr. Sarkar is working in Dr. Simeone's lab to investigate signaling pathways that are critical for pancreatic cancer stem cell tumorigenicity. His current research is focusing on the examination of the Akt signaling pathway in pancreatic cancer and how it affects cancer stem cell function. Inhibition of Akt causes apoptosis of pancreatic cancer cells in vitro and this appears to be due to modulation of survival factors. Dr. Sarkar is further examining this hypothesis in vivo, by using the Simeone mouse xenograft model system.

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.

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): Joe Dosch, C.J. Lee, Dawn Barnes, Chenwei Li
Back (Left to Right): Diane Simeone, Stephanie Laurinec, Huibin Yang, Lidong Wang

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