Lab Members & Events

Robert M. Prins, PhD

Principal Investigator - rprins@mednet.ucla.edu

Dr. Prins received his B.S. degree in Kinesiology and Master's degree in Physiological Science from UCLA. He then received a PhD in Anatomy and Immunology from the Medical College of Virginia in 2001. After completing post-doctoral fellowships in tumor immunology, he joined the faculty at UCLA as an Assistant Professor in 2006. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2010 and then to full Professor in 2017.

Rob's favorite breakfast pastry are Primo’s Donuts!

Linda M. Liau, MD, PhD, MBA

Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery - lliau@mednet.ucla.edu

Professor and Director of the UCLA Brain Tumor Program. Dr. Liau's clinical expertise is in intra-operative functional brain mapping and use of intra-operative imaging for resection of brain tumors (gliomas, meningiomas, and metastatic tumors). Her research efforts are focused on the molecular biology of brain tumors, gene therapy, immunotherapy, and brain cancer vaccines.  Dr. Liau is the former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Neuro-Oncology.  She is the Director of the UCLA Brain Cancer SPORE (Specialized Program of Research Excellence).  She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Richard G. Everson, MD

Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery - reverson@mednet.ucla.edu

As a member of the UCLA Brain Tumor Center, Dr. Everson collaborates with other UCLA experts in the fields of neuroradiology, neuropathology, radiation-oncology, neuropsychology, basic and translation science, neuro-rehabilitation and care coordination to offer the world’s most advanced treatment options for patients suffering from central nervous system tumors. Unique at UCLA, Dr. Everson possesses an advanced fellowship training from MD Anderson Cancer Center which provides him with the insight of how to best combine surgery as part of a comprehensive care plan for neuro-oncology patients who may require combination therapies such as chemotherapy or radiation. His involvement in laboratory science allows him to be a co-investigator on several active clinical trials and translate information learned "from bench to bedside" and back again.

Won Kim, MD

Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery - wonkim@mednet.ucla.edu

Dr. Kim's clinical interests include the treatment of primary and metastatic brain tumors deep within the brain using a wide variety of surgical modalities to best suit each individual patient and tumor type. Using technologies including the laser ablation of tumors (Visualase), white matter preserving corridor surgery (BrainPath), and stereotactic radiosurgery, he is able to treat many tumors traditionally deemed “inoperable.”  In addition to the treatment of tumors within the brain, Dr. Kim specializes in advanced endoscopic techniques to surgically remove tumors of the pituitary and skull base. Working hand-in-hand with a multidisciplinary surgical team of otolaryngologists and oculoplastic surgeons, he is able to treat tumors in a minimally invasive manner that avoids large craniofacial incisions and maximizes functional outcomes.

Lu Sun, PhD

Assistant Project Scientist at UCLA - lusun@mednet.ucla.edu

Lu Sun received her B.S. degree in Materials Physics from Fudan University, China and her Ph.D. in Biophysics from National University of Singapore. She has conducted postdoctoral research on the evolution of therapeutic resistance in metastatic melanoma using high throughput omic data from patient tumors and murine models. Currently, she is working in Dr. Prins’ lab to understand the phenotypic alterations induced by immune checkpoint blockade in glioblastoma and metastatic brain tumors, with an overarching goal to improve antitumoral immune response in brain tumor patients.

Lu's favorite breakfast pastry is mee jiang kueh, a fluffy Singaporean peanut pancake.

Julio Sanchez, PhD

Postdoctoral Scholar - jcsanchez@mednet.ucla.edu

Julio Sanchez completed his PhD at Cornell University in Dr. Richard Cerione’s laboratory. Julio’s dissertation research focused on how oncogenic signaling, including EGFR and PTEN/PI3K signaling, influenced extracellular vesicle biogenesis and immunosuppressive functions. As a postdoc in Dr. Prins' lab, Julio was awarded the NRSA T32 Tumor Immunology Training Fellowship for his pre-clinical research investigating how the timing/chronology of combination immunotherapies impact glioblastoma survival rates and their functional consequences on tumor specific T cells.

Julio's favorite breakfast pastry is a warm, crispy Danish.

Alex Lee, PhD

Postdoctoral Scholar - alexanderlee@mednet.ucla.edu

Alex received his B.S. degree in Molecular Biology UC Berkeley and completed his PhD at UCLA in the Dept. of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology. Alex’s dissertation research focused on using single-cell RNA and TCRsequencing to see how neoadjuvant anti-PD-1 therapy changes the immune composition of the glioblastoma immune microenvironment. As a post-doc in the lab, Alex is researching ways to find tumor-reactive TCRs from an antigen-agnostic approach.

Alex has not met a breakfast pastry that he has disliked and inarguably eats far more than his doctor would recommend..

Marissa Pioso

PhD Candidate - mpioso@mednet.ucla.edu

Marissa Pioso is a graduate student in the Molecular and Medical Pharmacology program at UCLA. She received her undergraduate degree in Animal Sciences at The Ohio State University.  After graduating, she worked at Dana Farber Cancer Institute under Dr. Anthony Letai using functional precision medicine to understand apoptotic blocks in drug-resistant AML as well as determine effective interventions in this setting. She is currently studying the interplay between intrinsic oncogenic signaling and antitumor immunity in glioblastoma (GBM), with the ultimate goal of identifying combination therapies that enhance patient response and survival. 

Marissa's favorite breakfast pastry is anything found on the streets of Paris 🇫🇷

Amber Monteleone

Lab Manager - amonteleone@mednet.ucla.edu

Amber is a Clinical Research Coordinator and the Lab Manager for the Brain Tumor Immunology lab. She graduated UCLA in 2022 with a degree in Biochemistry, and has been working in the Prins lab since then. Amber focuses on bench-to-bedside work, manufacturing autologous dendritic cell vaccines for recurring glioblastoma patients on a clinical trial.

Amber's favorite breakfast pastry is a double chocolate chip muffin from Le Chef bakery.

Andrea Tamayo

Staff Research Associate

Andrea is a staff research associate and licensed veterinary technician for Prins Lab. Andrea has a combined 9-year experience in hospital and laboratory settings working with both small and large animals. I work on introducing GBM cells into orthotopic xenograft mouse models, monitoring xenograft growth, administering and monitoring treatments, and the collection and preparation of tissue samples. I plan to further specialize in laboratory animal science as well as pursue an undergraduate degree in molecular biology here at UCLA.

Andrea's favorite breakfast pastry are Conchas!

Isabelle Trinh Phan

Staff Research Associate

Isabelle is a staff research associate whose project focuses on exploring the effects of EGFR inhibition in enhancing anti-PD-1 response in glioblastoma (GBM) patients by identifying, characterizing, and mapping immune cells in GBM tumor microenvironment by utilizing multiplex immunofluorescence on murine models.

Isabelle's favorite breakfast is Banh Mi.

Gilbert Herrera

Staff Research Associate

Gilbert is a staff research associate whose project leverages single-cell transcriptomic/proteomic data to explore the effects of immunotherapy on the glioblastoma microenvironment. His focus is on uncovering immunosuppressive signaling mechanisms between macrophages and tumor-specific T cells to identify novel therapeutic targets.

Gilbert's favorite breakfast pastry is a (nutless) banana chocolate chip muffin.

Thomas Lai

Medical Student

Thomas joined the Prins Lab as a sophomore student at UCLA in 2019. As an undergraduate student and current research assistant applying to MD/PhD programs, he has proposed and driven a project focused on optimizing adoptive T-cell immunotherapy for the treatment of glioblastoma. Thomas is interested in characterizing the role of epigenetics in modulating the immunosuppressive tumor immune microenvironment in brain tumors.

Thomas' favorite breakfast pastry is the obnoxiously overpriced almond croissant from Verve Coffee on Melrose.

Jorge Sifuentes

Medical Student

Jorge is a graduate researcher and medical student whose project aims to elucidate the roles of different immune cells in tumor immunity, particularly in metastatic brain cancer, using murine models of melanoma brain metastases treated with immune checkpoint blockade.

Jorge's favorite breakfast pastries are Portuguese egg tarts.

Jonathan Moore

Undergraduate Researcher

Jonathan is an undergraduate research volunteer whose project focuses on optimizing dendritic cell (DC) vaccination with PD-1 blockade for Glioblastoma in the preclinical setting. Jonathan is optimizing and establishing protocols for the differentiation of functionally superior BMDCs to be used in pre-clinical murine models.

Lauren Markus

Undergraduate Researcher

Lauren is an undergraduate volunteer who uses multiplex immunohistochemistry to characterize the tumor microenvironment of recurrent glioblastoma patients in response to immune checkpoint blockade inhibitors.

Lauren's favorite breakfast pastries are danishes.

Marissa Li

Undergraduate Researcher

Marissa is an undergraduate research volunteer whose project investigates how oncogenic EGFR signaling may drive a sex-specific response to immune checkpoint (ICB) blockade in a novel mouse glioma model. Her work focuses on assessing the combination of EGFR-targeted therapy with ICB to improve survival outcomes and anti-tumor immune response.

Marissa’s favorite breakfast pastry is a chocolate croissant.

Sophie Ashley

Undergraduate Researcher

Sophie is a second-year undergraduate research volunteer. Her work involves investigating the cytotoxic potential of tumor-specific T cells against various murine glioma cell lines, exploring their effectiveness under different experimental conditions

Sophie's favorite breakfast pastry is a Ham and Swiss Croissant and a warmed double chocolate chip muffin (she can't choose just one!)