Our main events include First Friday Coffee and Dissertation celebrations, check back here for dates and locations!
Feb 16, 2024
CBSO co-hosted the first pan-biology graduate Spring Formal Masquerade. Students enjoyed foods, drinks, dancing, and a masquerade contest!
Feb 12, 2024
Current PhD students met with prospective PhD candidates for the Cancer PhD program over dinners, coffee mixers, and tours of the campus.
Feb 9, 2024
Trainees and Moffitt employees celebrated Lunar New Year with specialty foods, games, a DIY lantern workshop, fan dance, and other festivities.
Feb 8, 2024
Congratulations to Dr. Qian Liu who successfully defended her thesis titled "Androgen Drives Melanoma Invasiveness and Metastatic Spread by Inducing Tumorigenic Fucosylation"!
Dec 13, 2023
Trainees enjoyed holiday themed brunch with music and festivities at the Trainee Holiday Party hosted by Research Education & Training Office!
Nov 3, 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Qianqian Hu who successfully defended her thesis titled "Elucidation of Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Multi-Targeted Therapy Strategies for EML4-ALK Driven NSCLC"!
Oct 26, 2023
Students participated in the Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest hosted by the Research Education & Training Office. While carving, participants enjoyed Halloween-themed snacks and drinks. This year, students from the Ruffell Lab won first place while a team of first-year students won second place!
Oct 24, 2023
Nobel laureate physician scientist Dr. William Kaelin visited Moffitt as the Ted Couch Lecturer, in honor of his significant contributions to cancer research. PhD students gained insights into Dr. Kaelin's research career in the Coffee with a Scientist event and had the opportunity to personally meet with Dr. Kaelin after his public seminar.
Oct 17, 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Emma Adhikari who successfully defended her thesis titled "Brain metastasis-associated fibroblasts secrete fucosylated PVR/CD155 that induces breast cancer invasion"!
Oct 11, 2023
Due to the rainy weather we had our Annual Cancer Biology PhD Program Picnic indoors this year! Students and staff enjoyed having food, playing games, and participating in a round of trivia. The winning trivia team won candy and a Mofftt tumbler!
Oct 16, 2023
Congratulations to Dr. J Mandula who successfully defended their thesis titled "Meddling in Myelopoiesis: Targeting Tumor Associated Myeloid Cell Development to Mobilize Anti-Tumor Immunity"!
Oct 9, 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Chris Letson who successfully defended his thesis titled "Targeting BET Proteins Downregulates miR-33a to Promote Synergy with PIM Inhibitors in CMML"!
Sep 28, 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Janine DeBlasi who successfully defended her thesis titled "Distinct NRF2 signaling thresholds mediate lung tumor initiation and progression"!
Sep 12, 2023
The 2023 Graduate Welcome Reception was held at the Vincent Stabile Research Center. The evening commenced with the introduction of first-year PhD students from Moffitt Cancer Center and USF Molecular Biosciences. Dr. Meghan Kreeger Borysova and Dr. Hamed Mirzaei shared their remarkable career journeys, offering valuable insights and inspiration to aspiring scientists in the audience. Graduate students with outstanding achievements received recognition through the Outstanding Graduate Student Research Award.
Congratulations to Chris Letson and Elliott Medina who were awarded the Outstanding Graduate Student Research Award!
Sep 8, 2023
The annual Moffitt Junior Scientist Retreat was held at Hunter's Green Country Club. This year's theme revolved around the topic of "Sustainability in Science Careers". Stephanie Millar, representing My Green Lab, delivered an inspiring keynote address that set the tone for the day's discussions. The event featured engaging breakout sessions that empowered trainees to explore various aspects of their scientific careers. Topics included: navigating career options for international trainees, diverse paths to research careers, and opportunities beyond the bench. Trainees had the chance to connect with leading companies and institutions, including Genentech, Abbvie, Amgen, My Green Lab, Merck, St. Jude, and Nanostring. These interactions opened doors to exciting career possibilities. Discussion panels were also held delving into the future of computational biology and sustainability at the bench. The retreat culminated in a trainee forum, where participants brainstormed strategies for fostering a future of sustainability in cancer research.
Aug 18, 2023
The incoming first-year PhD students of 2023 for were welcomed by CBSO officers!
May 17, 2023
The 2023 Moffitt Scientific Symposium is a great way for students to showcase their research and see what everyone at Moffitt is up to!
Congratulations to Gosia, Mostafa and Devesh for their featured posters or oral presentations.
April 14 - 19, 2023
13 students presented their work at this year's American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Conference! Three students, Neel, Janine, and Bina earned awards for their outstanding work. It was a busy week immersed in cutting edge cancer research.
March 15, 2023
Congratulations to Dr. January Watters who successfully defended her thesis entitled "Histone Deacetylase 8 is a novel therapeutic target for Mantle Cell Lymphoma and preserves Natural Killer Cell cytotoxic function"!
March 6, 2023
Congratulations to the newly minted Dr. Daniel Lester, who successfully defended his thesis entitled "Fucosylation of HLA-DRB1 in anti-melanoma immunity"!
January 25, 2022
Congratulations to a number of our students on passing their qualifying exams for candidacy! Bravo Alicia, Angelo, Darwin, Elena, Nada, Nicol, Rob, Sara, and Wynn!
December 15, 2022
Moffitt PhD Students enjoyed a warm and cozy breakfast this morning of pancakes and hot chocolate served by our very own Research, Education and Training office. Students got into the holiday spirit with painting, and making hand-made ornaments.
December 13, 2022
A big round of applause, and heartfelt congratulations to Dr. MacLean Hall on the successful defense of his Ph.D. dissertation entitled Neoantigen-specific CD4+ TIL are critical effectors of the anti-tumor immune response in metastatic melanoma patients treated with ACT!
October 14, 2022
It was a beautiful afternoon at USF Riverfront Park for our Annual Cancer Biology Student Picnic. Students, staff, and faculty enjoyed grilling, chatting, and playing some outdoor games with giant Jenga being the fan favorite.
In addition, the 2022 Outstanding Research Award was awarded to J. Mandula, Congratulations J!
September 9, 2022
The annual Junior Scientist Retreat was held at the Florida Aquarium. The event began with a humorous keynote address from Adam Ruben, PhD about the many career paths open to scientists beyond the academic faculty track. A lunch full of networking and meeting new scientists built momentum for the plenary session from Samuel Falsetti, PhD who provided his experience with switching from academia into industry. In the afternoon, attendees had the option to attend discussion panels centered around careers in academia, start-ups, the pharmaceutical industry, and liaison/consulting roles. The day concluded with exploring the aquarium and a dinner reception.
March 23rd, 2022
A big round of applause, and heartfelt congratulations to congratulations to Dr. Ilah Bok on the successful defense of her Ph.D. dissertation titled Establishment of a melanoma ESC-GEMM platform and its use to study PTEN tumor suppressor function!
March 4th, 2022
Many congratulations to Dr. Jinyong Huang following the successful defense of his Ph.D. dissertation titled Cell-free DNA Methylation Signatures in Cancer Detection and Classification!
February 17th, 2022
A big, heart-felt congratulations to Dr. Carly Harro following the successful defense of her Ph.D. dissertation titled Origin and Epigenetic Regulation of Cutaneous T Cell Lymphoma.
