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Houda Alachkar
Houda Alachkar
PharmD, PhD
Principal Investigator
Houda Alachkar is an Associate Professor at the University of Southern California, School of Pharmacy.
Email: alachkar@usc.edu
Current Lab Members
Current Lab Members
Postdoctoral Scholars
Postdoctoral Scholars
Mateusz Pospiech
Mateusz Pospiech
Mateusz Pospiech is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Southern California, School of Pharmacy. Mateusz's research focuses on identification of neoantigens and characterization of TCR repertoire of acute myeloid leukemia and their function in the development of personalized cell therapies.
Mateusz received his undergraduate and graduate degree in Chemistry from Poland. He pursued a PhD from Swasnea University Medical School, under the mentorship of Professor Martin Sheldon where he focused on the use of bisphosphonate inhibitors of squalene synthase to provide cytoprotection against cholesterol-dependent cytolysins.
Email: pospiech@usc.edu
PhD Students
PhD Students
Sandra Onyemaechi
Sandra Onyemaechi
Sandra is a third year PhD student in Pharmaceutical Sciences at USC School of Pharmacy. Sandra received her undergraduate degree from University of Texas at Austin.
Email: onyemaec@usc.edu
Amani Alqahtani
Amani Alqahtani
Amani is a second year PhD student in Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics at USC School of Pharmacy. Amani received her undergraduate degree from King Saud University in Saudi Arabia.
Email: amanialq@usc.edu
Deema Sharif
Deema Sharif
Deema is a second year PhD student in Clinical and Experimental Patient Therapeutics. She completed her undergraduate degree in biology at Hunter College and her master's in Pharmaceutical Science at USC Mann in 2023.
Her project focuses on dual targeting of FLT3 and CD99 for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia.
Email: dasharif@usc.edu
Master's Students
Master's Students
Yiqing Song
Yiqing Song
Yiqing Song is a first-year Master’s student in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the USC School of Pharmacy. He received his B.S. in Biology and B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Irvine.
Email: songyiqi@usc.edu
Undergraduate Students
Undergraduate Students
Ryan Chu
Ryan Chu
Ryan is a third Year Undergraduate pursuing a B.S. in Pharmacology and Drug Development.
His research mainly focuses on midostaurin-resistant AML cells and their response to FLT3/CD99 targeting.
Email: rlchu@usc.edu
Former PhD Students
Former PhD Students
Yiting (Ophelia) Meng
Yiting (Ophelia) Meng
Ophelia is a fourth-year PhD candidate in Pharmaceutical Sciences at USC School of Pharmacy. Ophelia received her undergraduate degree in Biology with a minor in Biochemistry at University of Oregon.
Email: yitingme@usc.edu
Atham Ali
Atham Ali
Atham earned his PhD from the University of Southern California, School of Pharmacy. Atham's research focuses on the interaction and targeting of CD99 and FLT3 to eliminate leukemic stem cells in AML.
Atham received his undergraduate degree in Public Health Science at the University of California, Irvine, where he conducted research in Dr. Ehlerts Lab and helped develop a novel method for analyzing the activity of agonists for eliciting responses through G protein-coupled receptors.
Email: athamali@usc.edu
Kerui Peng
Kerui Peng
Kerui completed her PhD at the University of Southern California, School of Pharmacy. Kerui’s research focus is the mining, modeling, and analysis of the T cell receptor repertoire to predict disease prognosis and treatment outcomes.
Email: keruipen@usc.edu
Tian Zhang
Tian Zhang
Tian graduated with a Ph.D from the Medical Biology program at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California in Spring 2020.
Email: zhangtia@usc.edu
Pooja Vaikari
Pooja Vaikari
Pooja graduated with a Ph.D in Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics from the University of Southern California, School of Pharmacy in Spring 2020. Her research focused on understanding the role of CD99 in acute myeloid leukemia.
Email: vaikari@usc.edu
John Beckford
John Beckford
John graduated with a PhD in Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics from the University of Southern California, School of Pharmacy in Spring 2021.
Email: jbeckfor@usc.edu
Lucas Gutierrez
Lucas Gutierrez
Lucas graduated with a PhD in Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics from the University of Southern California, School of Pharmacy in Spring 2021. Lucas's research project focuses on identification and validation of leukemia neoantigens. He is also investigating the impact of FLT3 inhibitors on T cells function and repertoire in patients with AML.
Email: lkgutier@usc.edu
Sharon Wu
Sharon Wu
Sharon graduated with a Ph.D in Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics from the University of Southern California, School of Pharmacy in Spring 2020. Sharon is interested in understanding the mitochondrial deregulation in acute leukemias.
Email: sharongw@usc.edu
Former MS Students
Former MS Students
Wenda Zhu
Wenda Zhu
Wenda is a second-year Master's student in Pharmaceutical Sciences at USC School of Pharmacy. He received his undergraduate degree from Southeast University in China.
Email: wendazhu@usc.edu
Qianqian Peng
Qianqian Peng
Qianqian Peng is a second-year Master's student in Pharmaceutical Sciences at USC School of Pharmacy. She received her undergraduate degree from The Ohio State University.
Email: pengqian@usc.edu
Yiyu Xiao
Yiyu Xiao
Yiyu Xiao is a second-year Master student in Pharmaceutical Sciences at USC School of Pharmacy. She earned her undergraduate degree in Sun Yat-Sen University in China.
Email: yiyuxiao@usc.edu
Ananya Salian
Ananya Salian
Ananya is a second year master's student. She earned her undergraduate degree from Mahatma Gandhi Memorial College in India where she studied botany, zoology and chemistry.
Here, she's working on sequencing TCR's for AML patients and trying to compare the TCR repertoire with the clinical and molecular features of the patients.
Email: asalian@usc.edu
Kalyani Divgi
Kalyani Divgi
Kalyani is a second-year Master's student in the Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics track. She received her undergraduate degree in Microbiology and master's degree in Public Health at Savitribai Phule Pune University.
At the Alachkar lab, Kalyani studies the role of SOD2 polymorphisms in ROS-mediated oxidative damage after L-asparaginase treatment in the context of acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Email: divgi@usc.edu
Xiaochen Zhang
Xiaochen Zhang
Xiaochen earned her Master's in Clinical and Experimental Patient Therapeutics (CXPT) in 2024. She recieved her bachelor's degree in Pharmacy at Zhengzhou University.
Her research project entails establishing and characterizing a Cre-inducible apolipoprotein C2 (Apoc2) knockout mouse models to study the rules of Apoc2 in normal hematopoiesis.
Email: xzhang39@usc.edu
Shephali Milind Kadam
Shephali Milind Kadam
Shephali recieved her Master's in Pharmaceutical Sciences (PSCI) in 2024. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy and MBA in Pharmaceutical Technology at NMIMS university.
Her research mainly focuses on characterizing the effects of CD99 on T cells.
email: shephali@usc.edu
Kanaka Dhuri
Kanaka Dhuri
Kanaka earned her Master's in Molecular Pharmacology and Toxicology (MPTX) in 2024. She completed her Bachelor's degree in Pharmacy from University of Mumbai.
Her research focuses on examining the role of Apolipoprotein C2 (APOC2) in Hypomethylating agent (HMA) therapy resistance in Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and exploiting the APOC2-CD36 axis as a treatment strategy to sensitize AML to HMAs.
Email: kdhuri@usc.edu
Ritu Chandwani
Ritu Chandwani
Ritu is a first year Master's student in Pharmaceutical Sciences at USC School of Pharmacy. Ritu received her undergraduate degree from Mumbai University in India.
Email: rchandwa@usc.edu
Yu-Chun (Teresa) Wei
Yu-Chun (Teresa) Wei
Teresa is a first year Master's student in Pharmaceutical Sciences at USC school of Pharmacy. Her research focuses on the cloning of T cell receptors for acute myeloid leukemia treatment.
Teresa received her undergraduate degree in Pharmacy from China Medical University in Taiwan.
Email: yuchunwe@usc.edu
Yuqiao (Aurora) Liu
Yuqiao (Aurora) Liu
Aurora is a second year Master's student in Pharmaceutical Sciences at USC School of Pharmacy. Aurora received her undergraduate degree in Pharmaceutical Engineering from Sichuan University in China.
Email: yuqiao@usc.edu
Lena Keossayan
Lena Keossayan
Lena is a second year Master's student in Molecular Pharmacology and Toxicology at USC School of Pharmacy. Lena received her undergraduate degree in Biology from University of California, Santa Barbara.
Email: keossaya@usc.edu
Yang Zhao
Yang Zhao
Yang is a second year Master's student in Pharmaceutical Sciences at USC School of Pharmacy. Yang received her undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering and Technology from Hainan University in Haikou, China.
Email: yzhao504@usc.edu
Mohammed Almatani
Mohammed Almatani
Mohammed is a second year Master's student in Molecular Pharmacology and Toxicology at USC School of Pharmacy. Mohammed received his PharmD from Taif University in Saudi Arabia.
Email: almatani@usc.edu
Jiawen (Lyn) Yang
Jiawen (Lyn) Yang
Jiawen graduated with MS degree from the University of Southern California, School of Pharmacy. Jiawen is currently a PhD student at the university of Arizona.
Email: jiawenya@usc.edu
Yang Du
Yang Du
Yang graduated with MS degree from the University of Southern California, School of Pharmacy
Email: yangdu@usc.edu
Rucha Deo
Rucha Deo
Rucha was a former Masters student at the University of Southern California, School of Pharmacy. Rucha is currently research associate at City of Hope
Email: rdeo@usc.edu
Former high School Students
Former high School Students
Anthony Ball
Anthony Ball
Anthony was a high school student in the Science, Technology and Research (STAR) program from Bravo Medical Magnet High School.
Sasha Kartman
Sasha Kartman
Sasha was a high school student in the Science, Technology and Research (STAR) program from Bravo Medical Magnet High School.
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