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Immunology

Welcome to The MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences graduate program in Immunology. The Immunology Graduate Program is designed to provide high-quality, comprehensive education and research training in the exciting field of immunology, allowing graduates to successfully pursue careers as independent investigators in academia or industry.

Train with Us

Principles of immunology have been applied to create numerous preventative and curative therapeutics for many types of human disease. The GSBS Program in Immunology is an inter-institutional activity with faculty and laboratories located in the UTHealth McGovern Medical School and School of Dentistry, and the MD Anderson Cancer Center, all committed to excellence in graduate student education and research. 

We currently have 74 faculty members from both MD Anderson and The University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston representing 26 departments. Collectively, research conducted by our faculty reflects the complexity and diversity of the immune system. Main areas of faculty research include cancer immunology, infectious diseases, and inflammation with special interests in innate responses, adaptive responses, immune regulation, development of prophylactic vaccines, and development of vaccines or immunotherapy for a form of cancer, allergy or autoimmunity. Faculty members are committed to fostering a highly interactive and supportive environment that enables students to complete our rigorous curriculum and receive advanced training in basic and translational immunology research.

Antibodies attacking a virus Immunology Header

Student Achievements

  • Research Award Recipients

    Congratulations to these Immunology Program students for their accomplishments during the 2024 Immunology Program Retreat:

    Post-Candidacy Poster Winners

    Ben Whitfield 
    Advisor: Dr. Jason Huse 
    “Exploring the immunologic implications of ATRX deficiency in glioma”

    Josue Pineda
    Advisor: Dr. Matthew Gubin and Dr. Stephanie Watowich
    “Elucidating the Role of MHC class I and MHC class II Tumor Antigen Presentation by CD103+ Dendritic Cell Vaccines”

    Pre-Candidacy Poster Winners

    Maria Grimaldo
    Advisor: Dr. Seyed Moghaddam
    “Dissecting the Relationship between Mucin 5AC and the Lung/Gut Microbiome in the Pathogenesis of K-ras Mutant Lung Cancer”

    Emily Bontekoe
    Advisor: Dr. Alexandre Reuben and Dr. John Heymach
    "T cell receptor engineering targeting EGFR-mutant drug-tolerant persister cells in NSCLC”

    Oral Presentation Winners

    Samer Mathkour
    Advisor: Dr. 
    "Comprehensive discovery of tumor antigens in Acute Myeloid Leukemia”

    Ruparoshni Jayabalan
    Advisor: Dr. Mauro Di Pilato
    "The Role of CD83 In Modulating Tumor Immune Responses”

    Sumedha Pareek
    Advisor: Dr. Keri Schadler
    "Aerobic exercise reduces immunosuppression in the pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma microenvironment.”

    Shao-Ping Yang
    Advisor: Dr. Dihua Yu

    "Sequential Triple Combinatorial Therapy of Selective Histone Deacetylase Inhibitor, Low-Dose Radiation and Anti-PD1 Impedes Brain Metastasis Outgrowth"

  • 2024-2025 Scholarship Award Recipients

    Congratulations to these Immunology Program students for their accomplishments during the 2024-2025 Academic Year:

  • 2024 Research Excellence Award Recipients

    Ben Whitfield 

    Advisor: Dr. Jason Huse

    Spencer Lea 

    Advisor: Dr. Michael Curran 

  • 2024-2025 Fellowship Recipients

    Congratulations to these Immunology Program students on receiving fellowship grants for the 2024-2025 Academic Year:

    • Andres Lopez-Rivas (Advisor: Candelaria Gomez-Manzano)- Recipient of the American Legion Auxiliary Fellowship in Cancer Research 
    • Hao-Nien Chen (Advisor: Dihua Yu)- Rosalie B. Hite Fellowship 

Student Activities

  • Program Retreat

    Each year the Immunology Program sponsors a student-organized research retreat, which includes student talks, poster sessions, and a keynote speaker. The retreat is considered to be valuable time away from the laboratory allowing students and faculty to become better acquainted with each other.

  • Seminar Series

    The CCIR-Immunology Trainee Seminar Series is a weekly seminar attended by faculty, students, postdocs, and other researchers. It offers an opportunity for GSBS students, postdocs, and other early-career researchers to present their research findings, receive feedback, and foster collaborations and interactions. Trainees at all stages are encouraged to present their work, even if their project is early in development and their findings are preliminary. Each seminar features two speakers, with each speaker allotted ~20 minutes for their presentation, followed by ~10 minutes for questions and discussion per speaker. The series is organized by a student committee and two faculty advisors, Dr. Gheath Al-Atrash and Dr. Matt Gubin.

    The series is sponsored by the GSBS Immunology Program, the Department of Stem Cell Transplantation & Cellular Therapy, and the Department of Immunology, which provide support, as well as funds to provide lunch to attendees.

Student Committees

  • Immunology Research Retreat Committee

    An annual retreat is organized by Program students who develop retreat sessions and invite a nationally renowned scientist to present at the plenary talk. All the students in the Program present their research either in a poster or oral presentation to Program faculty.

    2025 Committee Members:

    Dr. Laura Bover, Faculty Advisor

  • Media Committee

    Primary oversight of media related to the Immunology Program is provided by the Media Committee. Chief activities include maintaining the content on the Program website, as well as publicizing relevant information via social media platforms to help attract high-quality students and faculty to the Immunology community. 

    2025 Committee Members:


    o 
    Dr. Cassian Yee, Faculty Advisor

  • CCIR Seminar Committee

    Students are encouraged to attend cancer immunology-related seminars offered by the Center for Cancer Immunology Research (CCIR) and the Center for Inflammation and Cancer (CIC); both Centers are based at MD Anderson and specializing in translational immunology research.  The seminars are wonderful opportunities for students to learn about research led by accomplished scientists. The CCIR also holds seminars in which students, postdoctoral fellows and PhD-level research staff give talks about their projects, and in return they receive feedback regarding presentation style, experimental design and interpretation of results from faculty.  

    2025 Committee Members:

    o 
    Dr. Matthew Gubin, Faculty Advisor 
    Dr. Gheath Al-Atrash, Faculty Advisor

  • Student Recruitment Committee

    The Student Recruitment Committee organizes all Program recruitment activities in an effort to attract first year GSBS students to the Program.

    2025 Committee Members:

    o 
    o Emily Bontekoe
    o
    o Sarah Schneider

    o Dr. Suhendan Ekmekcioglu, Faculty Advisor
    o Dr. Alexandre Reuben, Faculty Advisor

Contact Us

Ekmekcioglu-Suhendan.jpg Director
Suhendan Ekmekcioglu PhD
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology
713.563.0605
[email protected]
MDA Y8.5357 (Unit 362)
Reuben-Alexandre.jpg Co-Director
Alexandre Reuben PhD
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Thoracic/Head & Neck Medical Oncology
713-745-3014
[email protected]
MDA T8.3904 (Unit 432)
Scott_Ariel.jpg

Ariel Scott 
Program Coordinator
713-745-0662
[email protected]
BSRB S3.8328 
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