My Mahoney, PhDThomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA

Dr. Mahoney is a Professor in the Departments of Dermatology and Cutaneous Biology and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and a member of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA. She received a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology under Drs. David Gross and Linda Slakey from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and did her post-doctoral training with Dr. John Stanley at the University of Pennsylvania. The goal of her laboratory is to understand, at the molecular and cellular level, how normal signaling events during skin morphogenesis and development are subverted for pathogenic signaling during wound healing and cancer (basal and squamous cell carcinoma) progression. She focuses on the role of desmosomal cadherins in modulating cell surface receptor presentation, signal transduction, and extracellular vesicle release, which carry unique miRNAs that are critical for cell-cell and cell-microenvironment communications.

Jennifer Zhang, PhDDuke University, Durham, NC

Jennifer Zhang, PhD, is an Associate Professor of the Department of Dermatology of Duke University. Currently, her lab is focused on understanding how ubiquitination enzymes and inhibitors control the signaling network and gene expression in skin cells. Her long-term goal is to identify novel therapeutic targets for inflammatory and neoplastic skin disorders.

Bin Zheng, PhDMassachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA

Dr. Zheng is an Associate Professor of Dermatology at the Cutaneous Biology Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Department of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School. He received a PhD in Molecular Pathology from University of California, San Diego and carried out postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Lewis Cantley at Harvard Medical School. The long-term goal of his laboratory is to decipher the molecular mechanisms of metabolic signaling in melanoma and to translate these basic research findings into potential personalized therapies. Preclinical work from his laboratory on AMPK and phenformin have led to a Phase I clinical trial evaluating phenformin with the dabrafenib BRAF inhibitor and trametinib MEK inhibitor combination in patients with BRAF mutant melanoma.

Sun Pharma/SID Mid-Career AwardCongratulations to the following recipients who each received a $100,000 Sun Pharma/SID Mid-Career Award.