Principal Investigator

Mythreye Karthikeyan

Mythreye Karthikeyan (K. Mythreye) completed her Bachelors in Science from Delhi University in the Biochemistry honors program and after completing her MS in Biochemistry, received her PhD from UNC Chapel hill in 2005. As a postdoctoral fellow at Duke University  (Gerard Blobe mentor) , she was first a recipient of the Susan Komen postdoctoral fellowship and subsequently a recipient of the DOD (OCRP) Postdoctoral Award. She made notable contributions and discoveries on the role of TGFβ coreceptors and cell-ECM interactions in regulating tumor cell behavior in both ovarian and breast cancer models. MK was a 2013 Liz Tilberis Scholar, awarded the same year she joined the faculty of University of South Carolina, Columbia, in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry as a tenure-track Assistant Professor (2013). She received tenure and promotion in the Summer of 2019.

MK is currently a Tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Graduate Faculty and Co-director of the TMS T32 and a Scientist Member of the Cancer Cell biology Program at the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center.        Email: mythreye@uab.edu and Office ph: 205-934-2746  CV  and publications

CURRENT

Graduate Students

Resha Rajkarnikar

Resha is a PhD candidate in the GBS program . She completed her BS in Biochemistry from University of New Mexico (UNM).  Previously, Resha worked as a lab technician in Dr. Eric Prossnitz’s lab at UNM, where her projects focused on metabolism in obesity and diabetes. To pursue her interest in cancer biology, she joined the Graduate Biomedical science program at UAB (P3 theme) in 2021 and joined Mythreye’s lab in 2022. She is currently examining mechanisms of anoikis resistance exploring a novel protein kinase and its regulation GYN cancer models .

         

Manan Virendra Nayyar

 

Manan is a MS student in the Interdisciplinary Biomedical Science Program at UAB. He previosuly completed a Masters in Biotechnology in India ( Vellore Institute of Technology). To extend his training in cancer biology, he  joined Mythreye’s lab in late summer of  2024. His master thesis is focused on investigating the role of Activin in stromal senescence.

 

Post Doctoral Fellows and Researchers.

Asha Kumari Ph.D ( Researcher V)

Asha completed her Ph.D from Banaras Hindu University, India in 2018. She worked as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at UCSD till June 2020, before joining the lab. Her research interest includes understanding the relationship between aging and angiogenesis  during cancer progression . Asha uses aging models to mimic post menopausal onset of ovarian cancer along with molecular and cellular tools to address this issue.

Emily O’Brien M.D (Gynecology Oncology fellow)

Emily is a first year Gynecology Oncology Fellow at UAB who completed her Doctorate of Medicine (MD) at the Mercer University School of Medicine and completed her Ob/Gyn Residency at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh. During her one year research training, her work will focus on evaluating Activin changes in platinum sensitive and refractory ovarian cancer.

Liz Q Macias Ph.D (Senior Researcher)

Liz is a researcher who obtained her MS and PhD from CINVESTAV-IPN in Mexico City and has subsequently worked in diverse research areas and multiple mouse models with prior employment at Emory and UAB.

Select Alumni

Clinical Fellows

Kaitlyn Dinkins M.D

Wade Barton M.D.

Elizabeth Evans M.D

Researchers

Alex Seok Choi ( Doctoral 2018-2024) Scientific Support Specialist, ABCAM

Kevin Tabury ( Doctoral 2018-2022) Scientist, SCK-CEN, Belgian Nuclear Research Center

Zainab Shonibare ( Doctoral 2017-2022). Post Doctoral Researcher, Yale School of medicine

Ben Horst ( Doctoral 2017-2022) CMC Lead and Process Development Scientist, STC Biologics Inc

Archana Varadaraj ( pdfellow 2013-2016). Tenure Track Faculty Northern Arizona University.

Priyanka Singh (pdfellow 2015-2018). Research Scholar University of Michigan

Kathleen O’ Connell (pdfellow 2016-2017) California State University, Instructional Faculty

Lauren Vaughn ( pdfellow 2018-2019) University of South Carolina , Instructional Faculty

Laura M Jenkins ( Lane) (Doctoral 2014-2019) Program Coordinator, SC DHEC

Tirthankar Bandyopadhyay ( MS ) PhD program University of South Carolina

Pratik Patel (Research Technician) Quality Specialist at KBI Biopharma. Durham, NC

Carly Lancaster (Undergrad researcher) PhD program Emory University

John Caleb Snider (Undergrad research). PhD program Vanderbilt University

Calen Raulerson (Undregrad research) MS program in Bioengineering

Juliet Joseph (Undergrad research) MD Program South Carolina

Nick Lenze (Undergrad research) MD Program UNC Chapel Hill