Lab Members

Noel received his B.S. in 2004 from James Madison University, with a dual concentration in Engineering and Biotechnology. Following undergrad, he was awarded the Molecular Targets and Drug Discovery Fellowship, a joint program sponsored by Johns Hopkins University and the NIH, where he earned an M.S. in Biotechnology. During this time, he trained at the NCI in the lab of Dr. Phil Dennis studying PI3K signaling in lung cancer. Noel received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences in 2011 from UC San Diego in the lab of Dr. Alexandra Newton, where he studied mechanisms responsible for Akt activation in cancer. His postdoctoral research was conducted as a NCI Ruth L. Kirschstein postdoctoral fellow at the Penn State Hershey Cancer Center in the lab of Dr. Wafik El-Deiry. There, he gained experience in translational medicine studying novel mechanisms of HIF-1 regulation. In 2015, Noel joined the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Arizona as an Assistant Professor. He is also a member of the UA cancer center and is funded by the American Cancer Society and Department of Defense PCRP.

Shailender received his M.S. (2005) and Ph.D. (2013) from the Panjab University, Chandigarh, India where he studied biochemistry and experimental toxicology. After graduating, he worked numerous research jobs including Senior Research Fellow and Senior Research Officer at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India. In 2015, he moved to Omaha, Nebraska to become a postdoctoral researcher at University of Nebraska Medical Center studying colon cancer progression. He joined the Warfel Lab at the University of Arizona Cancer Center in 2018. He is currently studying reactive oxygen species and mitochondrial dynamics in lung cancer.

Amber received her B.S. in Molecular and Cell Biology from Western Washington University in 2014. After a few years working as a laboratory technician in a clinical pathology lab, Amber returned to school and received her master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences from Midwestern University in Phoenix Arizona. Her master’s thesis focused on the effects of altered cadherin expression on cell survival signaling in basal-like breast cancer. Her interest in cancer cell signaling led her to the University of Arizona. She matriculated into the Cancer Biology Graduate Interdisciplinary Program and the Warfel Lab in 2020. Her current research focus is determining the role of hypoxia-induced PIM expression in regulating an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment via alterations in macrophage recruitment and survival.

Hope received her B.S in Biology from the University of Oregon in 2017. Upon graduating, she worked on developing drugs-of-abuse immunoassays at Thermo Fisher, gaining experience working on 510k FDA clearances. After a year at Thermo Fisher, deciding to challenge herself, she hopped onboard a start-up proteomics company, SEER Inc. She helped get it off the ground and launched the Proteograph™, an automated rapid unbiased instrument to sample the proteome. Here she gained experience working with automation engineering, assay development, and developing production processes. Her interest in proteomics and pathways led her to the University of Arizona in 2021 where she rotated and eventually entered the Cancer Biology Graduate Interdisciplinary Program and the Warfel lab in 2022. Currently, she’s working on kinase-independent pathways and the regulation of PIM1.

Caitlyn received her B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Arizona where she studied the life cycle of high-risk human papillomaviruses in the Van Doorslaer lab. She became particularly interested in HPV-associated cancers and decided to pursue her PhD in Cancer Biology at the University of Arizona. Caitlyn’s interest in cancer therapeutics led her to join the Warfel lab where her research is focused on developing a targeted hypoxia drug in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Former Lab Members

Adi Gunderia, MS 2021 Adi gunderiaadi@gmail.com

Andrea Casillas, PhD 2020 alcasillas@wisc.edu

Corbin Jensen, PhD 2022 jensencc@unc.edu