Our Research Team
Jordan Winter, MD
Professor of Surgery and Biochemistry
Chair of Surgical Oncology
Director of Surgical Services
Department of Surgery, University Hospitals
Seidman Cancer Center, University Hospitals
Case Western Reserve School of Medicine
Jordan M. Winter, MD is a nationally recognized, board-certified surgeon with a special interest in the medical and surgical management of pancreatic and related cancers, pancreatic cysts, chronic pancreatitis, bile duct strictures, biliary, gastric and liver cancers and abdominal tumors. He is also the chief of surgical oncology at UH Hospital. He is also a member of the Developmental Therapeutics Program at Case Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Luke Rothermel, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor of Surgery
Principal Investigator
Chief, Section of soft tissue and GI surgery
Department of Surgery, University Hospitals
Rui Wang, PhD
Assistant Professor of Surgery
Principal Investigator
Department of Surgery, University Hospitals
Mehrdad Zarei, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Scholar
Mehrdad’s research focuses on immunometabolism to understand how metabolic pathways alter immune cell function in the tumor microenvironment. Ultimately, his goals are to exploit strategies to improve immune cells infiltration and efficacy for treating cancer.
Currently, he is focusing on understanding the role of isocratic dehydrogenase 1 as one of the important NADPH generating enzymes for the detoxification of ROS in melanoma and tumor-associated immune cells
Omid joined the Winter lab as a graduate student in 2019. His project focuses on the underlying anti-cancer effects of a ketogenic diet against pancreatic cancer. For this project, Omid is specifically focus on underlying metabolism and epigenetic changes that are caused through the effects of a ketogenic diet.
Omid Hajihassani
PhD Candidate
Alexander Loftus
General Surgery Resident
Alex is a General Surgery Resident undertaking dedicated laboratory training with Dr. Winter and Dr. Rothermel. His areas of interest include; cancer metabolism, immunotherapy, and personalized cancer therapies. Alex’s current project focuses on the metabolic vulnerabilities of melanoma in in-vitro and in-vivo models
William Beegan
Master's student
Parnian Naji
Research associate
Parnian joined the Winter lab in 2023 as the Research associate. She is currently recruiting treatment-naive cancer patients in a study that focuses on developing a metabolic signature-based early diagnostic tool for different cancer types
James Choi
Master's student
Peter Gallagher
Master's student
Peter is a master's student in the Department of Physiology who plans on attending medical school after graduating. His research interests include understanding the effect of a ketogenic diet on pancreatic cancer angiogenesis. Outside of research, he enjoys cooking, reading, and listening to podcasts
Semmer Ali
Undergraduate student
Faith is a graduate student in the Winter lab, her project focuses on using Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) precursors for pancreatic cancer prevention. Faith intends to uncover the metabolic, and epigenetic reprogramming that happens to cells and tissues in the presence of NAD+ precursors, thus suppressing pancreatic cancer initiation
Bill is a master’s student and lab volunteer who plans to attend medical school in the near future. He is interested in progressing metabolic pathway-based pancreatic cancer research. Some of his favorite activities include spending time with family, dirt bike riding, running, and playing video games
James is a master’s student in the Medical Physiology program, hoping to go to medical school. He is interested in oncology and joined the Winter Lab to assist the team in researching the role of a ketogenic diet in pancreatic cancer progression
Semmer is an undergraduate on premedical track. She is interested in researching the role of IDH1, as well as Ivosidenib, its inhibitor. She is mainly focused on targeting the amino acid glutamine and glutamine transporters to disrupt metabolic pathways thereby increasing treatment efficacy in Ivosidenib-resistant cells.
Elena Winter
High School Researcher
Christine Kim
High School Researcher
Alumni
Ali Vaziri-Gohar, Ph.D.
Erryk Katayama
Medical Student at OSU
JJ Hue, MD
Resident of surgery
University Hospitals of Cleveland
Anusha Mudigonda
Undergraduate Researcher
Karen Ji
Shihong Lei
