Current Members

Dahee Jung, is a postdoctoral researcher in the Steve Lee Lab at the University of Illinois Chicago. She received her B.S. in Nutritional Science and M.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Ewha Womans University, where she studied the PK/PD of nanoparticle drugs. Before starting her PhD at UIC in 2020, she worked as a researcher at a pharmaceutical company. Her doctoral work in Steve Lee lab focused on engineered anti-CD40 antibodies for personalized cancer vaccine delivery. She also completed an internship at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, where she investigated biomarker applications in the approval of neurological drugs. As a postdoc, she is establishing humanized anti-CD40-mSAs efficacy testing and immunogenicity assays in human-relevant models to support clinical translation.

Thilini Rathnaweera is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. She completed her BSc in Chemistry at University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka and obtained her PhD in Analytical Chemistry from Iowa State University. Her PhD work focused on developing integrated microfluidic platforms for rare-single cell isolation and analysis at high throughput, and incorporating device features for commercial production of the chips. Currently, she is working on developing a novel microfluidic device to deliver multiple drugs to a core needle biopsy with the aim of establishing personalized immunotherapy screening.

Elie Abi Khalil is a PhD student in the Pharmaceutical Sciences department. He previously completed his BS and MS degrees in Biological Sciences at the Lebanese American University in Beirut, Lebanon. During his bachelor’s, he worked on identifying single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with coronary artery disease and then shifted his research focus to the molecular mechanisms underlying glioblastoma multiforme when he began his master’s. Currently, he wants to further his knowledge of cancer by investigating the tumor microenvironment using spatial omic techniques as well as delve into the world of drug delivery for the purpose of advancing cancer therapeutics.

Xiaoying Cai is a PhD student in the Pharmaceutical Sciences department. She previously completed her BS and MS degrees, majoring in Clinical Laboratory Diagnostics at the Chongqing Medical University in Chongqing, China. During her master’s, she worked on developing biosensors based on collateral cleavage of CRISPR/Cas12a for detecting cancer-associated antigens for more sensitive and specific cancer diagnosis and also evaluated the effectiveness of aptamers on the peptide of cell membranes for cancer therapy and diagnosis. Currently, she is working on the development of novel cancer vaccine delivery systems for advanced personalized cancer immunotherapy.

Dylan Schwartz is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. He previously completed his B.S. in Biochemistry and B.A. in Philosophy from Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ, where he worked on developing novel peptide-based therapeutics to target multidrug resistant microorganisms and metastatic cancers. He has also worked as an intern in the biotechnology industry as an in/ex-vivo pharmacologist, primarily conducting PK/PD studies. Presently, Dylan is working on utilizing the lab’s confocal microscopy photobleaching-based spatial multi-omics platform for human tissue samples to better understand the tumor microenvironment.

Ziye Wan is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. She previously completed her B.S. in Biochemistry and Pharmacology from China Pharmaceutical University and my master’s degree in Integrative Pharmacy (Pharmaceutical Science) at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she worked on translating STING-activating cyclic dinucleotide-manganese nanoparticle via lipid layer engineering and also worked on hydrogel modulation of gut microbiota. Presently, she is working on antibody engineering and immunotherapy.

Ganesh Katta is an MS student in the Computer Science Program at the University of Illinois Chicago, specializing in machine learning and computer vision for healthcare applications. He previously completed his B.E. in Electronics and Communications from SRM University in Chennai, India. He has worked as a Software Engineer at Siemens, developing REST APIs, and computer vision algorithms for automated detection systems. Presently, Ganesh is exploring computer vision and image processing applications in pathology and clinical settings, with particular interest in virtual staining techniques and automated diagnostic systems to improve healthcare outcomes.

Rachel Mei is an undergraduate student majoring in biological sciences. She participated in UIC’s Cancer Healthy Equity Summer Scholars Program where she examined the effectiveness of Anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy by utilizing a TUBO tumor model and immunofluorescence light-sheet and confocal microscopy.

Joseph Pitock is a Research Specialist in Dr. Steve Lee’s lab in the department of Pharmaceutical Sciences here at the University of Illinois Chicago. He received his B.S. in Psychology from Bradley University where he investigated CBD’s therapeutic effect on PTSD, ostracism’s impact on college student binge drinking, and a self-math overlap manipulation and its effect on math anxiety. He previously worked as the lab manager for Dr. Elizabeth Glover in UIC’s department of Psychiatry looking at neural circuitry involved in behaviors relating to alcohol use disorder. He looks forward to strengthening his microscopy skills and deepening his understanding of the cancer tumor microenvironment and pharmacology.