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Defining how oncogenic and tumor suppressor enhancers impact tumorigenesis in hematological and solid tumors
Dissecting the interplay between cancer cell-specific metabolic rewiring and epigenetics in T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (T-ALL)
Developing in vivo models of epigenetic and metabolic reprograming to test novel therapeutic strategies.
Dr. Herranz is a Tenured Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Pediatrics at Rutgers University. Over the last 15 years, he has pursued a combined training in metabolism, epigenetics and how both affect human cancer development through the generation and analysis of relevant mouse models. After obtaining his doctoral training in Pharmacy from the Complutense University of Madrid, Dr. Herranz completed a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from the Autonomous University of Madrid under the supervision of Dr. Manuel Serrano at the Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO). Here, Dr. Herranz addressed the role of Sirt1 in metabolism, cancer and aging. Specifically, he demonstrated for the first time the protective role of Sirt1 from high-fat diet-induced metabolic damage (Pfluger*, Herranz* et al., PNAS, 2008) as well as from spontaneous aging-associated cancers and high-fat diet promoted liver cancers thereby increasing the healthspan of mice (Herranz et al, Nature Communications, 2010). After completing his Ph.D., Dr. Herranz joined the Ferrando laboratory at Columbia University in April 2011 as a Postdoctoral Fellow. During his postdoctoral studies, Dr. Herranz uncovered N-Me as the long-sought missing link in the regulation of MYC by NOTCH1 in T-cells. As such, N-Me is a T-cell specific Myc oncogenic enhancer controlled by Notch1 that is critically required for normal T-cell development and for NOTCH1-induced T-ALL generation and maintenance (Herranz et al, Nature Medicine, 2014). Moreover, Dr. Herranz’s research unveiled that metabolic reprogramming after loss of the PTEN tumor suppressor gene can drive resistance to NOTCH1 inhibition in vivo and revealed a prominent role of glutaminolysis in NOTCH1-driven T-ALL, opening new therapeutic avenues (Herranz et al, Nature Medicine, 2015). Dr. Herranz's group at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey works on the discovery and characterization of enhancer regions critical for cancer cell survival and proliferation, as well as on the interplay between metabolism and epigenetics as a pathogenic mechanism in cancer using T-ALL as a model. Recent discories in the lab include the identification of SHMT as a novel therapeutic target in T-ALL (Garcia-Cañaveras, Lancho et al, Leukemia, 2021), the discovery of a novel mitochondrial uncoupling drug with strong antileukemic effects in vivo (da Silva-Diz et al, Blood, 2021), the discovery of a tumor suppressor enhancer region of PTEN (Tottone et al, Blood Cancer Discov, 2021), or the discovery of a therapeutically targetable NOTCH1-SIRT1-KAT7 axis in T-ALL (Lancho et al, Blood Cancer Discov, 2023). The long-term goal of the Herranz lab is to find new therapeutic targets for the treatment of this disease. Full Publication List
In his free time, you can probably find Dr. Herranz at any of the concerts happening around the New York City area. He is a huge fan of Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Wilco, The National and many others! He is also an avid mid-distance runner (10K to half-marathon distances are his favorites, although he recently completed the NYC marathon) and swimming (he proudly swam from Alcatraz to the San Francisco Bay!). More broadly, he is in love with all that New York City has to offer!
Vicky earned her Master´s degree in Molecular Medicine in the University of Santiago de Compostela, followed by a Ph.D. in Biomedicine from the University of Barcelona. There, under the supervision of Dr. Purificación Muñoz, Vicky addressed the molecular and functional alterations of epithelial and cancer stem cells during tumor initiation and progression. Her studies demonstrated that alterations in the homeostasis and dynamics of hair follicle stem cells have an impact on skin squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) development. She found that regulatory mechanisms that control cancer stem cell proliferation and dissemination change in advanced SCCs, correlating with aggressive tumor growth and enhanced metastasis. She also described that the functional deficiency of DICER1 promotes the acquisition of cancer stem cell properties and metastatic capacity. In the Herranz lab, Vicky is focusing on the impact of cancer metabolism on leukemia progression.
She likes to travel and try different cities' traditional food. She enjoys photography too and she will try to get a great shot of you whenever she has the chance.
Maya earned her Bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences from Rutgers University. After completing her degree, Maya joined the laboratory of Dr. Yurchenco at Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School as a Research Teaching Specialist where her research work encompassed cell and molecular biology, protein biochemistry and mouse genetics; her research activities in Dr. Yurchenco's lab focused on studying the assembly, structure and function of basement membranes in muscle, kidney and peripheral nerves. Diseases of interest were laminin-deficient muscular dystrophy and Pierson syndrome. Maya joins the Herranz Laboratory in July, 2020 where she will be applying her skills and experience as a Research Teaching Specialist to managing lab operations and carrying out research activities.
In her free time, Maya enjoys spending time with family, hiking, traveling, being in nature, photography, culinary pursuits and gardening. Most weekends, you can find Maya spending time tending to her back yard organic garden, biking around town or trying out new recipes for culinary experiences with family and friends.
Komal earned her Bachelor's degree in Biotechnology from Vellore Institute of Technology (Vellore, India). She then moved to the US to pursue her master’s degree in Biotechnology from Tandon school of Engineering at NYU. Upon graduating, she started working as a Research Technician in Dr. Jason Lewis’ Lab at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York, where she investigated membrane dynamics of receptor tyrosine kinases in Gastric Cancer using molecular imaging techniques. Her work as a research technician involved investigating the membrane dynamics of receptor tyrosine kinases in Gastric Cancer using molecular imaging techniques. Specifically, she used immuno-PET imaging to monitor the availability of receptor tyrosine kinases (mainly HER2) at the cell membrane for treatment with therapeutic monoclonal antibodies. She joined the Herranz lab in April 2022, where she will pursue her PhD degree working on novel therapeutic approaches in leukemia.
In her free time, Komal enjoys spending time with family and friends, traveling, and hiking. She is also loves cooking and exploring different cuisines.
Amartya earned his BS-MS dual degree from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (Pune, India). He then moved to the US to pursue a PhD in Physics from Rutgers University - New Brunswick. Growing interest in computational approaches to address biological problems led him to work with Drs. Hossein Khiabanian and Gyan Bhanot for his PhD, in which he developed a novel biclustering algorithm to analyze large gene expression data sets.
He continued as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Khiabanian and Herranz Labs, expanding the scope of his work to epigenomic analyses of tumors. He is currently developing novel tools and pipeline for analyzing single-cell gene expression data sets and is looking forward to further explorations and applications of these tools for spatial single-cell transcriptomic studies.
Apart from his academic pursuits, Amartya is an avid reader. You’ll always find him with a book or two in his backpack. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Non-Fiction) and The Overstory by Richard Powers (Fiction) are his must-reads. He also enjoys cooking, strumming on his guitar, and occasionally indulging in some weaving.
Animesh completed his undergraduate studies at Acharya Narendra Dev College, University of Delhi (India), earning a Bachelor's degree in Biomedical Science in 2014. He then went on to earn a Masters' degree in Biophysics from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi (India).
In 2016 he joined Regional Centre for Biotechnology (RCB, India) for his doctoral studies working under the guidance of Professor Avinash Bajaj and Professor Ujjaini Dasgupta (Amity University, Gurgaon, India). His research work focused on understanding the molecular dynamics of tumor progression in murine breast cancer models and patient populations in response to engineered nanotherapeutics. For his research work, he actively worked in collaboration with Dr. Arnab Mukhopadhyay in his lab at National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, India. He joined the Herranz Lab in October 2023
In addition to his work, he has a passion for reading science fiction and non-fiction books, sketching scientific and non-scientific illustrations, wildlife photography, and playing various kinds of sports.
Rodrigo completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Salamanca, where he obtained his Bachelor's degree in Pharmacy in 2011. He then attended the Master in Cellular and Molecular Physiopathology and Pharmacology at the University of Salamanca, where he joined the laboratory of Dr. Angel Hernandez Hernandez.
He went on to complete a PhD under his supervision, studying the in vivo function of reactive oxygen species generated by NADPH oxidases in hematopoietic stem cell maintenance and differentiation. Later, Rodrigo obtained a postdoctoral fellowship where, in addition to continuing his studies in hematopoiesis, he evaluated the potential therapeutic combination of protein tyrosine phosphatase inhibition together with tyrosine kinase inhibitors in the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia.
In his free time, Rodrigo likes playing video games, reading comics, playing modern board games and watching movies or TV series. Outside of home, he also likes to exercise and play sports (although he hasn't done it for a long time...). But most of all, he loves to try new types of food.
Byron Avihai is an M.D./Ph.D. candidate at the Rutgers and Princeton University M.D./Ph.D. Program.
He received his undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Physics from the Ecole Polytechnique de Paris, and his graduate degree in Genetics from the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris
His PhD thesis focuses on identifying markers of therapeutic resistance in pediatric AML by combining both single cell DNA and RNA data.
Outside of work, he plays chess recreationally, is a science-fiction fan, fantasy geek, and is passionate about Dungeons and Dragons, for which he created his own homebrewed universe.
Christopher Thai is a fellow of the Biotechnology Training Program and a Ph.D. student in the Quantitative Biomedicine program at Rutgers University.
He received his bachelor's in Computer Science and Engineering from UCLA and is now primarily interested in clustering analysis of single-cell RNA-sequencing data. Other interests include machine learning and multi-omics approaches.
In his free time, he likes to play video games, exercise, play music, and cook.
Oekyung earned her Biotechnological Science PhD from Kyoto University (Japan) under the supervision of Drs. Ohigashi and Murakami. She identified two novel compounds from avocado fruit (persenone A and B) as antiinflammatory inhibitors of superoxide and nitric oxide generation. Oekyung then pursued a postdoc in Dr Yun Qiu’s lab (Universities of Minnesota and Maryland), where she studied IL-6 induced activation of androgen receptor in prostate cancer. She continued to work in Dr. Mary Poss’s lab (Penn State) studying the spatial and temporal dynamics of cell-specific innate responses using RSV virus. In 2021, Oekyung joined Dr. Zhaohui Feng’s lab at CINJ where she studied the mechanisms of mutant p53 gain-of-function in cancer.
Oekyung joined the Herranz Lab in December 2022, where she will support our leukemia studies in vitro and in vivo.
In her free time, she enjoys spending time with family, traveling, watching hero movies and she loves to cook and read.
Le earned her bachelor’s in biotechnology at Vietnam National University. Then, she joined the Ho Chi Minh City Biotech Center to work on an anti-CD20 mAb project to provide low-cost biosimilar for autoimmune diseases and certain cancer types in developing countries.
She later joined Dr. Chen Liu’s lab at CINJ to work on the impact of electronic cigarettes on lung metastasis of breast cancer. She also conducted projects using patient samples, and mouse PDX models. In 2021, Le’s family welcomed a baby, then she worked part-time in Dr. Ruth Steward’s lab at Rutgers Waksman Institute to study the non-catalytic function of the Tet gene in transcriptional regulation and brain development before joining the Herranz Lab in May 2023
She likes spending time with family, traveling and hiking. She plans to pursue her love for skydiving in the future.
Tanaya Kulkarni is a junior at Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, majoring in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. She currently spends her time volunteering at Pediatric Hospitals through her club Project Sunshine, and at various other organizations with her service sorority, Omega Phi Alpha.
Tanaya is also passionate about teaching and spent her sophomore year conducting an interdisciplinary research project on the mental health curriculums of middle schools. She is also a Learning Assistant at Rutgers and tutors in her free time
Tanaya is focusing on research during her last two years at Rutgers and plans to take a gap year after graduation to pursue Medical School. In her free time, Tanaya enjoys reading, tutoring, traveling, and spending time with friends and family.
Gwendolyn Chung is a freshman in the School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program at Rutgers University, majoring in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. She is pursuing a double minor in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Philosophy. She currently spends her time involved with the Rutgers Residence Hall Association as an Advocacy Liaison, working to improve living conditions for her fellow residents, and has been involved with advocacy for years.
Gwen plans to pursue research for all her years at Rutgers and then go on to graduate school for molecular biology. Outside of academics, she enjoys pursuing her artistic hobbies.
We are currently seeking talented post-doctoral fellows with a strong passion for translational research to join our lab. Please Click here for more information and use the form below to contact Professor Herranz about open positions.