Living and Working in Philadelphia

Tuesday, February 7, 2023
2:15 - 3:15 PM

Moderator

Daniel Blumenthal, PhD
Principal Scientist, Carisma Therapeutics
Postdoc (2015 - 2020), Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Daniel holds a PhD in biotechnology engineering. He came from Israel to postdoc at CHOP with Jan Burkhardt, where he studied the effects of antigen-presenting cell stiffness on the cells’ ability to prime a T cell response. While at CHOP, Daniel served as the inaugural co-chair of the CHOP Postdoc Alliance (CPA) where he aimed to better the postdoc experience at CHOP. Today, Daniel is a principal scientist at Carisma Therapeutics, where he leads a team of five scientists. Currently, he oversees discovery work aimed at developing a novel, CAR monocyte platform for cancer immunotherapy. Apart from his main role, Daniel and his team collaborates with many departments in Carisma to bring CAR monocyte to the clinic – working closely with process development, giving scientific advice on the development of a production process for the CAR monocytes product. He also works with the regulatory department to prepare scientific documentation and reports to support an Investigational New Drug (IND) submission.

Panelists

Tess Cherlin, PhD
Postdoc, UPenn Perelman School of Medicine
​PhD (2015 - 2022), Thomas Jefferson University

Dr. Tess Cherlin does her postdoc research in the Setia-Verma lab (https://setia-vermalab.org/). They use computational approaches to study precision medicine. By leveraging large datasets, they aim to link genetic, biological, and environmental variables to phenotypes to uncover patterns in disease risk, diagnosis, and prognosis. Her main project investigates how genetics, medication, and other covariates influences the long-term cardiovascular outcomes for women with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS).

Learn more about Dr. Tess Cherlin here.​​

Sandra Deliard, PhD
Postdoc, The Wistar Institute
PhD (2013 - 2019), Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University

Dr. Sandra Deliard graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in Biology. She completed her Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in 2019. Her thesis project was “Studying the role of splicing factor SF3B1 in epigenetic regulation” in Dr. Jean-Pierre Issa’s lab. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Alessandro Gardini’s lab at The Wistar Institute, where she studies the genomic landscape of myeloid cells.  

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Janusz Franco-Barraza, PhD
Assistant Research Professor, Fox Chase Cancer Center - Temple Health
Postdoc (2009 - 2017), Fox Chase Cancer Center - Temple Health

Dr. Janusz Franco-Barraza started his academic career in Mexico in 1995. In 2010, he received his PhD from the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (CINVESTAV-IPN), mentored by Prof. Isaura Meza and Prof. Luis Benitez at the department of Molecular Biomedicine. In 2009, Janusz moved to Philadelphia and joined Prof. Edna Cukierman’s laboratory at Fox Chase Cancer Center as a post-doctoral trainee. Recently, Dr. Franco-Barraza joined the faculty staff of FCCC as young investigator. His research focus in on the identification of means to understand, classify, and study the interrelation of distinctive players in the tumor microenvironment. 

Learn more about Dr. Janusz Franco-Barraza here.

Robert Pellegrino, PhD
Postdoc, Monell Chemical Senses Center

Dr. Bob Pellegrino obtained his B.S. in Computer Science from Arkansas Tech University and later his Ph.D. in Food Science from the University of Tennessee. He also has a doctorate in Otorhinolaryngology from the Technical University of Dresden. He is currently a postdoc fellow here at Monell Chemical Senses Center working with Joel Mainland and Pam Dalton. His interests are to understand and predict approach and avoidance behaviors during odorous encounters in healthy and unhealthy olfactory systems.