The Department of Pathology was well represented at the 2025 Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center (MECCC) Annual Scientific Retreat: Building Bridges, held Friday, September 19, on the Einstein campus. Nearly a dozen pathology faculty members, postdoctoral fellows, and PhD students from the labs of Drs. Shanye Yin, John McAuliffe, David Fooksman, Maja Oktay and David Entenberg, along with Drs. Louis M. Weiss and Marco Fragoso Garcia, were among the MECCC Transdisciplinary Research Program and MECCC Shared Resources members to present their latest discoveries in cancer research. In all, 343 Montefiore Einstein faculty, staff, students and more attended the on-campus retreat.

Ulrich Steidl, MD, PhD, MECCC Interim Director, opened the retreat with welcome remarks. The day-long program included oral presentations, student and postdoc lightning rounds, a session with 91 posters, and meals including a reception on the lawn. The event concluded with MECCC’s inaugural Innovation Pitch Competition, where ten teams delivered three-minute presentations. Pathology faculty contributed to two of these teams: one pitch was presented by David Entenberg, PhD, and two other faculty members. John McAuliffe, MD, PhD, and Priyanka Patil, MD, served as team members on a pitch led by En Cheng, MD, PhD, Professor of Epidemiology & Population Health. The teams are competing for two $100,000 pilot awards to support novel projects advancing inter-programmatic collaborations in translational research within MECCC’s scientific focus areas. Winners will be announced in upcoming MECCC communications.

Lina Ariyan, a PhD student in the McAuliffe lab, was among threes winners in the Student Lightening Round

Pathology’s next generation of cancer researchers also made its mark at the scientific retreat. Lina Ariyan, a PhD student in the McAuliffe lab, was one of three winners in the Student Lightning Rounds for her presentation, Villain Mutant KRAS vs Mena Knockdown. Winners received a basket of swag and a $500 certificate for conference travel, registration, or lab supplies. 

“This is a wonderful opportunity for cross fertilization between the research and clinical faculty, which illustrates the importance of the MECCC in driving innovation in cancer research, management and therapy,” said Louis M. Weiss, MD, MPH, Vice Chair for Academic Affairs and Research, Department of Pathology.

Pathology Presententations

Oral Presentations:

Shanye Yin, PhD, delivered an oral presentation highlighting innovative approaches to unraveling the complexity of the tumor microenvironment.

• Shanye Yin, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pathology, Director, Einstein Pathology Single-cell & Bioinformatics lab – Decoding the Tumor Microenvironment in Head and Neck Cancer Using Multi-Omics Spatial Analysis.

Poster and Lightning Round Presentations: Tumor Microenvironment & Metastasis Section

Clockwise from top left, Lina Ariyan, Jianhong An, PhD, Kiana Chen, and Anastasia Aristoteleia Chondronikola, PhD

• Lina Ariyan, PhD student (McAuliffe lab) – MENA Promotes Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma.
  • Student Lightning Round — Villain Mutant KRAS vs Mena Knockdown — Winner!
• Jianhong An, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Yin lab) – Spatial Transcriptomic Insights into Dual Immune Evasion in Pancreatic Adenosquamous Carcinoma
  • Postdoc Lightning Round
• Kiana Chen, PhD student (Fooksman lab) – Developing CAR T-Cell Therapies for Murine Models of Multiple Myeloma.
• Anastasia Aristoteleia Chondronikola, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Oktay/Entenberg lab) – Impact of Neoadjuvant Endocrine Therapy on ER+ Breast Cancer Tumor Microenvironment and Metastasis.
• Erqiang Hu, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Yin lab) – Frequent HPV Integration in PD-L1 Reshapes the Immune Landscape of Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma.
• Suryansh Shukla, MS, Principal Staff Scientist (Oktay/Entenberg lab) – Applying Machine Learning to Lung Cancer Screening.
• Jing Zhu, PhD, Staff Scientist (Yin lab) – Survivin as a Driver of Cell Proliferation in HPV-Negative Head and Neck Cancer.

Erqiang Hu, PhD and Jing Zhu, PhD, postdoctoral research fellows, Yin lab

Suryansh Shukla, principal staff scientist, Oktay/Entenberg lab

MECCC Shared Resources 

• Marco Antonio Fragoso Garcia, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Director, Histology and Comparative Pathology Core Facility — Presented the services and impact of the Histology and Comparative Pathology Core for MECCC investigators, with some interesting cases.
• Louis M. Weiss, MD, MPH, Professor of Pathology and Medicine (Infectious Diseases), Vice Chair for Academic Research and Affairs, Pathology, and Scientific Director, In Vivo Imaging System (IVIS) — Presented the services and impact of the IVIS facility.

Innovation Pitch Competition

Contenders:

Dr. David Entenberg presenting his research

• David Entenberg, PhD, Associate Professor of Pathology, Director of the Computational Analysis of Biomarkers Program, and Co-Director of the Gruss Lipper Biophotonics Center — presented Development and Validation of Machine Learning Biomarkers for Patient Outcome in Melanoma.

Dr. En Cheng presenting in the Innovative Pitch Competition with team members on screen including pathology researchers Dr. John McAuliffe and Priyanka Patil.

John McAuliffe, MD, PhD, Oncology Surgeon and Associate Professor of Surgery and Pathology, and Priyanka Patil, MD, GI/Liver Surgical Pathologist and Assistant Professor of Pathology — team members on a pitch presented by En Cheng, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology & Population Health, titled Body Composition, Tumor Microenvironment of Metastasis (TMEM) and Pancreatic Cancer Survival.