Hematology & Oncology About Us Message from the Chief Timeline Contact Us Clinical Expertise Faculty Fellowship Research Research Division of Hematology & Oncology, Department of Medicine Home About Campus & Community Resources Medicine: Hematology and Oncology > Research Our Research The Division of Hematology & Oncology is engaged in a range of clinical and translational research efforts aimed at advancing the understanding and treatment of malignant and non-malignant conditions. Learn more about our research efforts below: Shirin Attarian, MD Shirin Attarian, MD, is a medical oncologist whose research interests include evaluating innovative treatment protocols for patients with head and neck cancers and thoracic tumors, improving the quality of life and symptoms in patients with cancer and clinico-epidemiological studies of malignancies. Elizabeth Brém, MD Elizabeth Brém, MD, has a clinical focus on lymphomas, chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and multiple myeloma. Dr. Brém serves as the chair of the University of California Hematologic Malignancies Consortium Lymphoma/CLL committee and is an active member of the American Society of Hematology (ASH). She is also active in the National Clinical Trials Network and is currently chair of a study of patients aged 75 and older with a new diagnosis of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, for which she was awarded the Coltman Fellowship from the Hope Foundation in 2021. Dr. Brém has participated in a number of high-profile clinical research mentoring programs and collaborates with Dr. David Fruman, PhD, a professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, to bring the use of statins to improve responses to certain anti-leukemia therapies to clinical trial. Dr. Brém also participates in several clinical trials with industry partners, choosing studies that bring novel therapies or combinations of treatments to patients with lymphoma. Warren Chow, MD Warren Chow, MD, performs clinical and translational research focused on improving outcomes for patients with sarcoma and melanoma who receive chemotherapy, immunotherapy and targeted therapies. He also works on strategies to prevent and reverse resistance to these therapies that commonly develop. Stefan Ciurea, MD Stefan Ciurea, MD, is interested in improving outcomes of patients receiving hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and cellular therapy. He is a world leader in haploidentical transplantation, expanding donor options for virtually all patients requiring transplantation. He has more than 200 publications in this field, with significant contributions to the advancement of allogeneic stem cell transplantation, such as being the first to recognize an association between donor-specific anti-HLA antibodies and engraftment failure in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation with HLA mismatched donors; he pioneered desensitization treatment to improve engraftment rate in these patients. Dr. Ciurea is now focused on improving patients’ outcomes with cellular therapy and utilized donor-derived ex vivo expanded natural killer cells for patients with advanced myeloid leukemia before and after transplantation to achieve disease control, decrease relapse rate and improve survival. Catherine C. Coombs, MD Catherine C. Coombs, MD, focuses her research on improving the care of patients with CLL and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL). She has participated in multicenter studies examining the “real-world” implications of novel therapeutic agents on the lives of patients, and she has served as the principal investigator on many clinical trials, including both cooperative group studies and early-phase trials of novel agents and novel combinations. In addition to her research in CLL/SLL, she has also conducted research related to the impact of leukemia precursor states, including clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential and clonal cytopenia of uncertain significance in patients with solid tumors. Wendy Cozen, DO, MPH Wendy Cozen, DO, MPH, is a cancer epidemiologist with a 25-year research program studying the determinants of risk and prognosis of mature B-cell neoplasms, with an emphasis on genetics, immunology and infection, and risk disparities. She conducted one of the first genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of Hodgkin lymphoma, identifying several strong associations in immune response genes, and the only GWAS of multiple myeloma in African American patients. She is completing an R01 study on the role of the tumor microenvironment in overall survival of Hodgkin lymphoma in a cohort of 901 multiethnic patients and molecular studies comparing DNA methylation, clonal hematopoiesis, and T- and B-cell repertoires on twin pairs discordant for Hodgkin lymphoma. She currently leads an R01 study to investigate determinants of a myeloma precursor, known as monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, in a multiethnic sample of 3,600 patients (47% African American). Dr. Cozen is highly collaborative and works closely with bench scientists, clinicians and biostatisticians and is involved in several large consortia. She has had continuous grant funding since 2003 and over 250 peer-reviewed publications. Farshid Dayyani, MD, PhD Farshid Dayyani, MD, PhD, performs clinical and translational research in gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary carcinomas. He manages a wide portfolio of investigator-initiated, NCI-funded and industry-sponsored clinical trials to develop novel treatment options and establish new biomarkers. Angela Fleischman, MD, PhD Angela Fleischman, MD, PhD, studies the role of inflammatory stressors on development of chronic myeloid malignancies. She is translating her laboratory work into investigator-initiated clinical trials aimed at reducing inflammation in myeloproliferative neoplasms. John P. Fruehauf, MD, PhD John P. Fruehauf, MD, PhD, carries out clinical trials and laboratory-based research focused on prostate cancer and melanoma. His focus is on how these cancers become resistant to treatment and developing new therapeutic strategies to improve outcomes. Sai-Hong I. Ou, MD, PhD Sai-Hong I. Ou, MD, PhD, has served as principal investigator in numerous clinical trials in the field of lung cancer, especially driver mutation-positive non-small cell lung cancer. Some of these trials have led to the approval of novel, first-in-class cancer therapies. Pankaj Gupta, MD Pankaj Gupta, MD, serves as the site principal investigator for several clinical trials within the VA Long Beach Healthcare System, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Department of Defense, Veterans Affairs (VA) and industry. He is also the program director for the Lung Precision Oncology program and Lung Cancer Screening program and the site principal investigator at VA Long Beach for NAVIGATE, the VA-NCI collaborative cancer clinical trials program. Deepa Jeyakumar, MD Deepa Jeyakumar, MD, performs clinical research in acute leukemias and myelodysplastic syndromes. She manages a wide portfolio of investigator-initiated, NCI-funded and industry-sponsored clinical trials to develop novel treatment options. She is also on the steering committee for the University of California Hematologic Malignancies Consortium, which seeks to connect researchers at the different University of California medical centers to develop investigator-initiated trials to treat patients with rare diseases using newer treatment options. Yulian Khagi, MD Yulian Khagi, MD, has research interests that include precision oncology and personalized medicine, next-generation sequencing to identify predictive biomarkers for treatment response, and tumor immunology and immunotherapy. He is the author or coauthor of several peer-reviewed publications and abstracts. Jacqueline H. J. Kim, PhD Jacqueline H. J. Kim, PhD, examines psychological health across diverse contexts, with the goal of translating findings to create or enhance psychosocial interventions that are culturally appropriate and promote well-being. Areas of central focus are (advanced/metastatic) cancer survivorship, internalizing symptoms with significance for impairment (depressive, somatic, traumatic stress), Asian American/immigrant or limited English proficiency populations, and chronic adversities such as historical trauma. She conducts community-engaged research and employs both quantitative and qualitative methodology with her knowledge of mixed methods. More broadly, Dr. Kim collaborates on research that advocates to improve the quality of life of racial/ethnic minorities and underserved populations such as Black women with breast cancer. Learn more about the Kim Lab. Sayeh Lavasani, MD Sayeh Lavasani, MD, is interested in breast cancer research. She has recently investigated the de-escalation of neoadjuvant therapy in HER2-positive breast cancer and has examined the mechanisms of treatment resistance in metastatic breast cancer, particularly ESR1 mutations. Her previous publications focused on drug development, adverse drug events, quality assurance, breast cancer risk reduction and Women’s Health Initiative studies. Sunmin Lee, ScD Sunmin Lee, ScD, is trained in social epidemiology, and her research focuses on reducing health disparities among racial/ethnic minority populations, especially Asian Americans. She has incorporated both quantitative and qualitative research methods, and has conducted both epidemiologic and intervention studies, to comprehensively examine the etiologies of health disparities and design, implement and evaluate randomized, controlled trials that are culturally and linguistically appropriate to reduce health disparities. Dr. Lee currently leads three NIH-funded projects: a longitudinal study to investigate associations among stressors, sleep and cardiometabolic health; a randomized controlled trial to increase colorectal cancer screening; and an observational study to examine associations between stressors, sleep and cognitive function. Gordon D. McLaren, MD Gordon D. McLaren, MD, is a physician-scientist with a special interest in nonmalignant hematology, especially iron metabolism, including iron deficiency anemia and hemochromatosis, which is his main research focus. He has researched the kinetics of iron metabolism in health and disease, including studies of patients with hemochromatosis. More recently, he was involved in collaborative multicenter studies on the prevalence of hemochromatosis in a large multiethnicity sample of the North American population and the frequency of manifestations of the disease in affected people. He is currently the principal investigator of an international study examining genetic modifiers of the disease that may be helpful to identify those hemochromatosis patients who require close monitoring and possible therapeutic interventions in the future. Helen Ma, MD, PhD Helen Ma, MD, PhD, is focused on the environmental and genetic interactions in the development of lymphoid malignancies at VA Long Beach Healthcare. As part of the Million Veteran Program, she has received a VA career development award to conduct epidemiologic studies to understand the relationship between genetics and military exposures in veterans diagnosed with lymphoid malignancies and is also undertaking translational research to understand epigenetic changes in lymphoid malignancies with and without known exposures. In addition, Dr. Ma is the site principal investigator of clinical trials for patients with lymphomas. Nataliya Mar, MD Nataliya Mar, MD, is interested in the development of novel therapies and predictive biomarkers in genitourinary malignancies, as well as disparities in cancer care delivery. She has been a principal investigator on multiple clinical trials in genitourinary malignancies, including bladder, kidney and prostate cancers, and is also leading several investigator-initiated clinical trials. Dr. Mar’s work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Clinical Oncology and the New England Journal of Medicine, and her research has been presented at various national and international conferences, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium and the European Society for Medical Oncology. Misako Nagasaka, MD, PhD Misako Nagasaka, MD, PhD, has clinical and research interests in molecular targeted therapy and immunotherapy in thoracic malignancies, with a special focus on medical ethics. Dr. Nagasaka has experience serving as the site principal investigator for over 20 interventional trials and has also served as a sub-investigator for many others. She has more than 100 publications to her name, including research papers, abstracts and book chapters. Andreea Nanci, MD, MBA Andreea Nanci, MD, MBA, performs clinical research as a co-investigator in multiple cancer subtypes, with an interest in breast cancer and cancer survivorship. She is part of the Community Oncology practice of UCI. Kiran Naqvi, MD Kiran Naqvi, MD, has clinical and research interests in patients with hematological malignancies. As principal or sub-investigator, her areas of research include novel treatments in patients with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) who are refractory/resistant to prior therapies and in those with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia. Dr. Naqvi is an active member of the University of California Hematological Malignancies Consortium, which focuses on developing novel therapies for acute leukemia, MDS and myeloproliferative neoplasms. She also collaborates with members of the transplant team to develop a database of patients who have presented to UCI in the last 10 years with myelodysplastic neoplasms, including chronic myelomonocytic leukemia. Susan O’Brien, MD Susan O’Brien, MD, specializes in the treatment of CLL and has been involved with the development of all of the currently active small molecules used to treat CLL. She continues to be the principal investigator on multiple clinical trials examining novel agents for the treatment of CLL. Zahra Pakbaz, MD Zahra Pakbaz, MD, has served as principal investigator for clinical trials in sickle cell disease, thalassemia syndromes and paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, some of which have led to the approval of novel, first-in-class agents. She looks forward to expanding to other areas of non-cancer blood disorders. Dr. Pakbaz is a member of the American Society of Hematology Research Collaborative West Coast Sickle Cell Consortium and the West Coast Thalassemia Consortium, both of which are led by led by UC San Francisco, as well as the National Alliance of Adult Sickle Cell Clinics and the University of California Hematology Consortium. Nicholas Pannunzio, PhD Nicholas Pannunzio, PhD, focuses his research on B-cell cancers, especially the formation of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). Improper repair of DSBs is a major factor in the etiology of B-cell malignancies. Dr. Pannunzio uses genetic and pharmacological approaches to understand how internal factors (torsional stress, transcription, replication, DNA modifying enzymes) and external factors (reactive oxygen species, radiation, chemotherapy drugs, environmental toxins) contribute to DSB formation. He is also investigating why certain populations (Hispanics and Latinos) are disproportionately affected by acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Arash Rezazadeh Kalebasty, MD Arash Rezazadeh Kalebasty, MD, has served as principal investigator in numerous clinical trials in the field of genitourinary malignancies, particularly cancers of the bladder, kidney and prostate. Some of these trials have led to the approval of novel first-in-class cancer therapies. Brian Sworder, MD Brian Sworder, MD, seeks to develop and apply novel molecular tools to profile determinants of response and resistance to immunotherapy, and to functionally characterize the mechanisms through which resistance occurs. He previously developed a strategy to utilize cell-free DNA to simultaneously profile both the tumor- and effector-mediated factors that contribute to treatment resistance in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma undergoing therapy with anti-CD19 CAR T-cells. Dr. Sworder’s laboratory focuses on utilizing multifaceted approaches, including genomics, liquid biopsy and innovative model systems, to understand the molecular underpinnings of resistance to immune-based therapies in lymphoma and beyond. As a physician-scientist, it is his goal to translate such findings into improved immune-based therapies and improved outcomes for patients. Jennifer B. Valerin, MD, PhD Jennifer B. Valerin, MD, PhD, completed PhD research focused on resistance mechanisms to inhibitors of the enzyme poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase in hereditary pancreatic cancer. Dr. Valerin’s current research interests include gastrointestinal cancers, hereditary cancers, translational genomics and early-phase clinical trials. She is the author or coauthor of numerous papers on studies of pancreatic and other cancers. She also received a Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology and an award for her basic science research from the American Association for Cancer Research. Jason A. Zell, DO, MPH Jason A. Zell, DO, MPH, serves at UCI School of Medicine as a translational clinical trials researcher within the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. His hypotheses are based on early cancer genetic and epidemiologic studies. They focus on novel approaches to colorectal cancer prevention, diagnosis and therapeutics, including efforts to reduce cancer disparities through improved minority recruitment to clinical trials. Nationally, he serves as co-chair of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Gastrointestinal Steering Committee’s Rectal-Anal Task Force and as a member of the NCI Cancer Prevention Steering Committee. He is also the principal investigator for an NCI-funded Phase III clinical trial on the prevention of colon cancer using eflornithine and sulindac. Mo Ziari, MD Mo Ziari, MD, focuses his research on breast, lung and gastrointestinal cancers, examining the complex molecular processes dictating their development, progression and metastasis. He is committed to identifying innovative treatment targets and devising novel therapeutic strategies by leveraging advancements in genomics, immunotherapy and targeted treatments. Through this work, he hopes to advance understanding of these cancer types, paving the way for improved precision-medicine approaches and better outcomes for patients.