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The Study

I am currently working towards a Ph.D. in Immunology at the University of Texas Graduate School of Biolmedical Sciences - Houston, with my research at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, in the Department of Cancer Biology.  My research is in osteosarcoma, a primary malignant bone tumor most often found in kids.  My thesis is focused on determining some the mechanisms responsilible for the metastatic spread of the disease and helping to develop therapies that can take advantage of these mechanisms.  I am very fortunate in that my research has been applicable to patient care and it is my hope that it will directly benefit patients in the future.

There are fewer people more generous than the patients involved in the clinical trials we administer, who allow us to study their diseases on such a personal level.  It's because of them that so many advances in cancer research are made -- and needed!

My first publication has just come out (see it here), and there are several more in preparation.  I hope to finish up the majority of my lab work before the stork comes and complete my thesis in the spring. I have two Bachelors, one in biology-chemistry ('96), the other in chemistry ('97).  Both were received from the University of Southwestern Louisiana, now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

These are the members of the Kleinerman lab.  Only Mary Ann is missing, our delightful and competant research nurse.  She was probably working hard when this picture was taken.