Translational Lung Cancer Research Group (TLCaRG)
Welcome to the Translational Lung Cancer Research Group (TLCaRG) webpage. Please feel to contact us for any info about our members and the research we conduct. We would be pleased to hear from you.
The TLCaRG focuses its research on discovering new strategies for lung cancer detection and the development of RNA based therapeutics. Our research also investigates the role of immunotherapy as an approach for treating lung cancer. Additional areas of investigation include the role of the microbiome in lung cancer pathogenesis and the development of clinically informative biomarkers in the diagnosis and management of malignant pleural disease, lung cancer associated cachexia and COPD.
Research
Learn about ongoing research projects in the TLCaRG
A brief summary of our current research projects are found below.
Our Team
Meet the members of our research team
S. Patrick Nana-Sinkam, MD
Professor & Division Chair
S. Patrick Nana-Sinkam, MD
Professor & Division Chair
Internal Medicine
Division of Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine
Phone: (804) 828-9071
Fax: (804) 828-2578
Email: patrick.nana-sinkam@vcuhealth.org
Address/Location:
Box 980050
Richmond, Virginia 23298-0050
Howard Y. Li, MD
Associate Professor
Howard Y. Li, MD
Associate Professor
Internal Medicine
Division of Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine
Phone: (804) 827-1013
Email: howard.li@vcuhealth.org
Address/Location:
Box 980050
Richmond, VA 23298
Mario Acunzo, PhD
Assistant Professor
Mario Acunzo, PhD
Assistant Professor
Internal Medicine
Division of Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine
Email: mario.acunzo@vcuhealth.org
Address/Location:
Box 980050
Richmond, Virginia 23298-0050
Giulia Romano, PhD
Research & Lab Manager
Giulia Romano, PhD
Research & Lab Manager
Internal Medicine
Division of Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine
Email: giulia.romano@vcuhealth.org
Address/Location:
Box 980050
Richmond, Virginia 23298-0050
Trinidad M. Sanchez, MD
Research Fellow
Trinidad M. Sanchez, MD
Research Fellow
Internal Medicine
Division of Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine
Robin Toft, CPT, CCRP
Clinical Research Coordinator
Robin Toft, CPT, CCRP
Clinical Research Coordinator
Massey Cancer Center Administrative Services
Email: rtoft@vcu.edu
Address/Location:
Box 980070
Richmond, VA 23298-0070
Patricia Le
Research Laboratory Technician
Patricia Le
Research Laboratory Technician
Internal Medicine
Division of Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine
Email: patricia.le@vcuhealth.org
Lavender Micalo
Research Laboratory Technician
Lavender Micalo
Research Laboratory Technician
Internal Medicine
Division of Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine
Michela Saviana
Research Laboratory Technician
Michela Saviana
Research Laboratory Technician
Internal Medicine
Division of Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine
Publications
Learn more about our work
S. Patrick Nana-Sinkam, MD
Representative publications
- Lee L.J., Yang Z., Rahman M., Ma J., Kwak K., McElory J., Shilo K., Goparaju C., Yu L., Rom W., Kim T.K., Wu X., He Y., Wang K., Pass H.I., Nana-Sinkam S.P., Extracellular mRNA Detected by Tethered Lipoplex Nanoparticle Biochip for Lung Adenocarcinoma Detection, Am J Respir Crit Care Med, Vol. 193,No. 12 (2016) pp. 1431-143.
- Rahman M.A., Barger J.F., Lovat F., Gao M., Otterson G.A., Nana-Sinkam S.P., Lung Cancer Exosomes as Drivers of Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition, Oncotarget, 2016 Aug 23;7(34):54852-54866.
- Nana-Sinkam, S.P., Acunzo, M., Croce, C.M., Wang, K. Extracellular Vesicle Biology in the Pathogenesis of Lung Disease, Am J Respir Crit Care Med, 2017 Dec 15;196(12):1510-1518
- Nigita,G., Distefano, R., Veneziano, D., Romano, G., Rahman, M., Wang, K., Pass, H., Croce, C.M., Acunzo, M., Nana-Sinkam P. Tissue and exosomal miRNA editing in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Sci Rep. 2018 Jul 5;8(1):10222.
- Arasada RR, Shilo K, Yamada T, Zhang J, Yano S, Ghanem R, Wang W, Takeuchi S, Fukuda K, Katakami N, Tomii K, Ogushi F, Nishioka Y, Talabere T, Misra S, Duan W, Fadda P, Rahman MA, Nana-Sinkam P, Evans J, Amann J, Tchekneva EE, Dikov MM, Carbone DP. Notch3-dependent β-catenin signaling mediates EGFR TKI drug persistence in EGFR mutant NSCLC, Nat Commun. 2018 Aug 10;9(1):3198. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-05626-2.
Howard Li, MD
Representative publications
- Li H, McSharry M, Walker D, Bullock BB, Neuwelt A, Kwak J, Poczobutt JM, Sippel TR, Keith RL, Weiser-Evans MCM, Clambey ET, Nemenoff RA. Targeted overexpression of prostacyclin synthase inhibits lung tumor progression by recruiting CD4+ T lymphocytes in tumors that express MHC class II. OncoImmunology 2018; 7:5, e1423182. DOI: 10.1080/2162402X.2017.1423182
- Li H, McSharry M, Bullock B, Nguyen TT, Kwak J, Poczobutt JM, Sippel TR, Heasley LE, Weiser-Evans MCM, Clambey ET, and Nemenoff RA. The tumor microenvironment regulates sensitivity of murine lung tumors to PD-1/PD-L1 antibody blockade. Cancer Immunology Research 2017; 5: 767-777. PMID: 28819064, DOI: 10.1158/2326-6066.CIR-16-0365
- Bullock BL, Kimball AK, Poczobutt JM, Neuwelt AJ, Li HY, Johnson AM, Kwak JW, Kleczko EK, Kaspar RE, Wagner EK, Hopp K, Schenk EL, Weiser-Evans MC, Clambey ET, Nemenoff RA. Tumor-intrinsic response to IFN shapes the tumor microenvironment and anti-PD-1 response in NSCLC. Life Sci Alliance 2019; 2:3, e201900328, DOI: 10.26508/lsa.201900328
Mario Acunzo, PhD
Represenative publications
- isoTar: Consensus Target Prediction with Enrichment Analysis for MicroRNAs Harboring Editing Sites and Other Variations. Distefano R., Nigita G., Veneziano D., Romano G., Croce C.M., ACUNZO M. Methods Mol Biol. 2019.
- Selective targeting of point-mutated KRAS through artificial microRNAs. ACUNZO M., Romano G, Nigita G, Veneziano D., Fattore L., Laganà A., Zanesi N., Fadda P., Fassan M., Rizzotto L., Kladney R., Coppola V., Croce C.M. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017.
- Cross-talk between MET and EGFR in non-small cell lung cancer involves miR-27a and Sprouty2. ACUNZO M., Romano G., Palmieri D., Laganá A., Garofalo M., Balatti V., Drusco A., Chiariello M., Nana-Sinkam P., Croce C.M. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013.
TLCaRG
Contacts
Giulia Romano, PhD
Research & Lab Manager
Phone: (804) 628-0898
Email: giulia.romano@vcuhealth.org