Our 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.

Eileen Shiuan, MD, PhD

Hematology/Oncology Fellow - EShiuan@mednet.ucla.edu

Eileen is a hematology/oncology fellow and has a special interest in brain metastasis and leptomeningeal disease. She grew up in the Bay Area but her training has taken her all over the the US, from Chicago and the east coast to Nashville. After graduating from the Vanderbilt MSTP, she came to UCLA for internal medicine residency and stayed on as a hematology/oncology STAR fellow. Her current projects in the lab include investigating mechanisms of and ways to target chronic inflammation that lead to resistance to immune checkpoint blockade in melanoma brain metastasis and developing a point-of-care diagnostic assay for leptomeningeal disease. She is supported by the Neuro-Oncology Translational Research Training Program T32 and a JCCC postdoctoral fellowship award.

Eileen's favorite breakfast pastry is a toasted chocolate croissant.

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.

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 🇫🇷

Madeline Ho

Graduate Student - MadelineHo@mednet.ucla.edu

Madeline is a graduate student in the Molecular & Medical Pharmacology program at UCLA. She received her undergraduate degree in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology at UCLA in 2022 and worked in the biotech industry for two years, evaluating the therapeutic efficacy of novel bispecific antibodies in cancer. Now back at UCLA in the Prins lab, Madeline is studying the spatial tumor immune microenvironment in glioblastoma and investigating novel treatment strategies to boost the anti-tumor immune response in pre-clinical models of GBM.

Madeline's favorite breakfast pastry is a HK pineapple bun (bo lo bao)!

Thomas Lai

Medical Student

Thomas joined the Prins Lab as a sophomore student at UCLA in 2019. As an undergraduate student, research assistant, and current medical school student, 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.

Amber Monteleone

Clinical Research Coordinator, Lab Manager - amonteleone@mednet.ucla.edu

Amber graduated from UCLA in 2022 with a B.S. degree in Biochemistry, and has been working in the Prins lab ever since. Amber manages external and internal lab logistics and focuses on bench-to-bedside work. In collaboration with UCLA's Human Gene and Cell Therapy GMP Facility, she manufactures autologous dendritic cell vaccines for recurring glioblastoma patients on ongoing clinical trials.

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

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.

Marissa Li

Staff Research Associate

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.