Lab Updates

2024

  • January: Dinesh Rao is appointed Chair of the Scientific Committee on Epigenetics and Genomics of the American Society of Hematology.
  • January: Congratulations to Dr. Tasha Lin on her publication in Blood Advances!

2023

  • September: Congratulations to Dr. Sharma on the publication of her thesis work in JECCR!

  • September: The UCLA DGSOM published a research spotlight featuring Dinesh Rao and the Rao lab. View the spotlight.

  • September: The Rao lab participated on a collaborative project with sarcoma researchers, Drs. Kyle Klingbeil, Anusha Kalbasi and Brian Kadera, on their recent publication in Cancers. IGF2BP3 is a prognostic marker in certain subtypes of liposarcoma, a type of cancer that affects soft tissues.

  • May 2023: Congratulations to Dr. Jayanth Palanichamy and other members of the Rao lab for their publication on phenotypes in Trp53 mouse.

 

2022

  • October 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Tiffany Tran for her review article, now available online!
  • September 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Jennifer King for her publication in Frontiers in Immunology!
  • July 2022: Dinesh Rao is promoted to Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UCLA
  • July 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Tasha Lin on a successful thesis Defense!
  • July 2022: Welcome to Michelle Thaxton, who joins the group as an SRA!
  • June 2022: The Rao Lab receives news of a major award from the California institute of regenerative medicine.
  • April 2022: Dinesh Rao receives one of three awards from the UCLA Innovation Fund in the therapeutics track.

2020

  • October 2020: Dinesh Rao presents a lecture at the 5th Annual UCHMC Research Symposium
  • June 2020: Dinesh Rao presents a talk at the SVIB meeting, which is virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic 
  • March 2020: Dinesh Rao presents work at the Experimental Hematopathology Committee's workshop at USCAP in Los Angeles, shortly before the start of shutdowns at UCLA and around the country due to COVOD-19
  • February 2020: Dinesh Rao receives the ASH Bridge Grant award
  • January 2020: Dinesh Rao presents an invited seminar at UC Irvine in the Department of Developmental and Cell Biology

2019

  • Fall 2019: Welcome to Dr. Jayanth Palanichamy and Gunjan Sharma, graduate student, who are working on the IGF2BP1 protein in acute leukemia. 
  • Fall 2019: Dinesh Rao is cited as one of the "World's most cited researchers" by Web of Science
  • Summer 2019: The Committee on Experimental Hematopathology is founded within the Society for Hematopathology; Dinesh Rao is a founding member
  • July 2019: Dinesh Rao is appointed to the ASH Scientific Committee on Epigenetics and Genomics. 
  • June 2019: Dinesh Rao is appointed to NCI-I Study Section
  • January 2019: Welcome to Dr. Tasha Lin, Hem/Onc fellow and STAR program fellow, who is working on a Ph.D.

2018

  • June: Congratulations to Dr. Jennifer King on her thesis defense!
  • June: Welcome (back) to Dr. Jayanth Palanichamy as a Visiting Assistant Professor at UCLA!
  • April: Dinesh Rao is the Grand Rounds Speaker at the New York University Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.
  • April: Congratulations to Dr. Jennifer King on her receipt of a K08 career development award from the NIH/ NIAMS.

2017

  • July: Dinesh Rao is promoted to Associate Professor with tenure.
  • July: Congratulations to Thilini Fernando and the Rao lab for publication of a new paper on the role of lncRNA CASC15 in B-lymphoblastic leukemia.
  • July: The Rao lab receives a seed grant from Immunology, Inflammation, Infection and Transplantation (I3T) Research Theme at DGSOM.
  • June: The Rao lab receives an R21 grant from the National Institutes of Health/ National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIH/NIAID).
  • May: Dinesh Rao presents for Grand Rounds at the Department of Laboratory and Genomic Medicine at Washington University.
  • April: Blood publishes an article by the O’Connell lab at the University of Utah , where Dinesh Rao was a collaborating author.
  • January: A chapter authored by Dinesh Rao and Jonathan Said, “Pathology and Molecular Pathology of Hematologic Malignancies”, appears in: Loda M, Mucci LA, Mittelstadt ML, Van Hemelrijck M, Cotter MB, editors. Pathology and Epidemiology of Cancer.
  • January: Dinesh Rao is appointed Director of Translational Research for the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.
  • January: Congratulations to Dr. Jennifer King, first author on a paper published in Frontiers in Immunology!
  • January: The Rao lab receives a research grant from STOPCancer and the Gary and Barbara Luboff Mitzvah Fund. Dinesh Rao is honored at a reception for the STOPCancer Foundation at UCLA on January 12.
  • January: The Rao lab receives a research grant from the Margaret E. Early Foundation.

2016

  • December: Jennifer King presents her research at the 2016 Annual American Society of Hematology meeting.
  • December: Welcome to May Paing, our new lab manager.
  • August: Welcome to Dr. Amit Kumar, who has joined the Rao lab as a post-doctoral scholar.
  • July: Congratulations to Tiffany Tran, who received a T32 training grant from the Tumor Cell Biology Training Program.
  • July: Congratulations to Jorge Contreras, who received a T32 training grant from the Tumor Immunology Training Program.
  • June: Congratulations to Jorge Contreras (pictured), who successfully defended his Ph.D. Thesis. Dr. Contreras plans to spend another year in the Rao lab completing some additional research.
  • May: The Rao Lab receives a R21 grant from the NIH/NCI.
  • April: Congratulations to Dr. Nolan Ung, who received a T32 training grant in Developmental Hematology.
  • March: Congratulations to co-first authors Jayanth K Palanichamy, Tiffany Tran, and Jonathan Howard from UCSC! See our newest publication at the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Also, see the UCLA website press release. 
Lab member celebrate one of their own successfully defending his PHD thesis.

2015

  • January: We bid farewell to Norma, who is on to a post-doctoral fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center!
  • December: Congrats to Norma on her paper being accepted to Molecular Cancer!
  • November: Congrats to Norma Rodriguez-Malave (pictured), who graduated with her Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Pathology. Well done, Dr. Rodriguez-Malave!
  •  November: We bid farewell to Dr. Thilini Fernando (pictured), the first post-doc in the lab! Thilini did an amazing job working on lincRNAs, and is moving on to a project scientist position at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Congrats Thilini!
  • April: Welcome to Dr. Nolan Ung, who is our fourth post-doctoral fellow and an expert in image analysis!
  • April:  Tiffany Tran (pictured) was accepted into the Ph.D. program in Molecular Cellular and Integrative Physiology at UCLA. Congrats Tiffany!
  • April:  The Rao lab's second publication is now published online. Congrats to Jorge Contreras
  • February: We welcome our third post-doctoral fellow to the lab, Dr. Jaime Angiuano. Welcome to the Rao lab!
  • February: The Rao Lab's first publication with regards to long non-coding RNA is accepted for publication. Congrats to Thilini, Norma and Ella!

2014

  • November: We bid farewell to Dr. Jayanth Palanichamy (pictured), who was appointed as a tenure-track assistant professor at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, the most prestigious medical school in India. Congratulations, Professor!
  • September: The Rao Lab receives a supplement from the NIH Single Cell Analysis program to study single cell-level effects of microRNA function in B-cells. This was in collaboration with Dr. Alex Hoffmann.
  • June: We bid farewell to Jasmine Gajeton (pictured), undergraduate student in the lab, who is off to graduate school at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Congrats, Jasmine!
  • March: A review in Frontiers in Genetics, authored by Jayanth Palanichamy and Dinesh Rao, is published.
Lab members celebrate one of their own going being appointed to a tenure-track assistant professor position.
Lab members celebrate one of their own going to graduate school.

2013

  • December: Congratulations to Norma Iris Rodriguez-Malave, who was awarded the 2013 ASH Minority Graduate Student Achievement Award!
    The Rao lab presents four abstracts at the annual ASH Meeting in New Orleans, LA.
  • October: Dinesh Rao becomes course director for a new course at UCLA, "Hematopoiesis: Basic Biology and Clinical Implications", which runs through the Fall Quarter. The speakers include numerous basic scientific and clinical researchers at UCLA, Cedars-Sinai, and Caltech.
  • June: The Rao lab receives funding from the University of California Cancer Research Coordinating Committee.
Lab members celebrate one of their own going to graduate school.
  • May: We bid farewell to Ella Waters (pictured), who is off to graduate school at UC Berkeley. Congratulations, Ella!
  • April: Congratulations to Dr. Thilini Fernando, who received a training grant in Cancer Biology!
  • January: The Rao lab receives a R01 award from the NIH/NCI!

2012

  • November: We bid farewell to Neha Goswami, our first technician and thank her for all her work in the lab.
  • October: Jorge Contreras receives a training grant award from the UCLA tumor immunology program.
Lab members are pictured during an outing to bid a visiting scholar farewell.
  • June: We bid farewell to Dr. Young A Kim (pictured), who spent a year with us as a visiting scholar. To celebrate, the lab travels to LA's Koreatown for some excellent Korean BBQ!
  • May: Welcome to Dr. Jayanth Palanichamy, a new post-doctoral fellow in the lab.
  • March: Congratulations to Dr. Thilini Fernando, who received a training grant award in Developmental Hematology
  • February: A review in the Journal of Hematology and Oncology, authored by Thilini Fernando, Norma Iris Rodriguez-Malave and Dinesh Rao is published.

2011

  • December: A review in the journal Leukemia, authored by Jorge Contreras and Dinesh Rao is published.
  • December: Congratulations to Norma, who received a prestigious graduate fellowship from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
  • November: Welcome to Dr. Thilini Fernando, a post-doctoral fellow in the lab.
  • September: Welcome to Dr. Young A Kim, a visiting scholar from Seoul, Korea, and Abinav Baweja, a medical student, who are now part of the lab.

2011

  • December: A review in the journal Leukemia, authored by Jorge Contreras and Dinesh Rao is published.
  • December: Congratulations to Norma, who received a prestigious graduate fellowship from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
  • November: Welcome to Dr. Thilini Fernando, a post-doctoral fellow in the lab.
  • September: Welcome to Dr. Young A Kim, a visiting scholar from Seoul, Korea, and Abinav Baweja, a medical student, who are now part of the lab.
Lab members sit at an outdoor table celebrating the lab's one-year anniversary.
  • August: The lab celebrates one year in existence! (Pictured.)
  • July 1: An invited review on microRNAs in myeloid development by Dinesh Rao and others appears in the journalBlood.
  • June 15: Two graduate students, Norma and Jorge, join the lab.
  • May 22: Dinesh Rao receives a research grant from the Tower Cancer Foundation at the Foundation's 2011 Tower of Hope Gala in Beverly Hills, CA.
  • May 15: Two papers regarding the dramatic inflammatory/cancer phenotype in miR-146a knockout mice, on which Dinesh is a co-author, are published in J. Exp Med and PNAS.
  • May: Dinesh Rao receives a Kimmel Scholar Award for Cancer Research, funded by the Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research.
  • April: Dinesh Rao receives the Stein-Oppenheimer Endowment Award at UCLA.