Rejniak Lab: Personnel

Katarzyna (Kasia) A. Rejniak (PI)

PhD: Tulane University, Department of Mathematics, 2002

Postdoctoral Fellow: Mathematical Biosciences Institute, OSU, Columbus Ohio

Postdoctoral Researcher: University of Dundee, Scotland

Profile:

Lab collaborators:

  • Dr. Shari Pilon-Thomas (Moffitt)
  • Dr. Michael Poch (Moffitt)
  • Dr. Mehdi Damaghi (Stony Brook)
  • Dr. Dmitry Markov (Vanderbilt)
  • Dr. Lisa McCawley (Vanderbilt)
  • Dr. Brian Ruffell (Moffitt)
  • Dr. Jennifeer Permuth
  • Dr. Jose Alejandro Guevara
  • Dr. Jerome Irianto (FSU)
  • Dr. Michael Roper (FSU)
  • Dr. Yue Julia Wang (FSU)
  • Dr. Marilyn Bui (Moffitt)
  • Dr. James Costello (Moffitt)
  • Dr. Robert Gillies (Moffitt)
  • Dr. David Morse (Moffitt)
  • Dr. Natarajan Raghunand (Moffitt)
  • Dr. Judith Perez-Velazquez (Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen, Germany)
  • Dr. Ami Radunskaya (Pomona College)

Former lab members:

  • ~~~~ High School interns ~~~~
  • Ms.McKenzie Williams
  • Ms.Priya Bhatt
  • Ms.Shreya Mathur
  • Ms.Shannon Chen
  • Ms.Samantha Lee
  • Mr.Risheet Jojoo
  • Mr.Rudra Patel
  • Mr.Manoj Kambara
  • Mr.Saharsh Agrawal
  • ~~~~ Undergraduate Interns ~~~~
  • Ms.Ayah Tarabishi
  • Ms.Jessica Kingsley
  • Ms.Shreya Mathur
  • Ms.Mia Yan Miao
  • Ms.Sara Dawit
  • Mr.Manoj Kambara
  • Mr.Luis SanJuan
  • Mr.Sharan Poonja
  • Mr.Tamas Kis
  • Mr.Lawrence Abu-Hammour
  • Mr.Jake Nadulek
  • Mr.Branton Huffstutler
  • Mr.Dandre Allison
  • ~~~~ Medical Student Interns ~~~~
  • Ms.Noemi Vitos
  • Mr.Rupin Singh
  • Mr.Zain Khan
  • ~~~~ Graduate Interns ~~~~
  • Mr.Martin Busik
  • Ms.Laura Depner
  • Mr.Elliot Nelson
  • ~~~~ Postdoctoral Fellows ~~~~
  • Dr.Ibrahim Chamseddine
  • Dr.Aleksandra Karolak
  • Dr.Banu Baydil
  • Dr.Tedman Torres
  • ~~~~ Research Scientists ~~~~
  • Dr.MunJu Kim

 

Lab Research Interests:

 

 

Postdoctoral Fellow (08/2021-present);

PhD: Biomathematics Program at the North Carolina State University, Department of Mathematics

  a leading scientist: "Reconstruction of tumor tissue oxygenation in bladder cancers and its role in immunotherapy" project

Postdoctoral Fellow (08/2022-present);

PhD: Computational Science Program at the Middle Tennessee State University

a leading scientist: "ML-PETIL protocol for predicting expansion of TILs in patients’ bladder tumors" project

Graduate Student (09/2022-11/2022);

MSc: Physics, Universidad Industrial de Santander, Colombia

a leading scientist in Rotation 1 project: "tumor-ECM remodeling"
a leading scientist in PhD dissertation project: "Modeling cell-cell and cell-stroma interactions to investigate the cause of microinvasions in DCIS"

Undergraduate Student Intern (11/2020-present);

studies: chemistry major, University of South Florida

  a leading scientist: "3D Cell Lineages" project
  a leading scientist: "Tumor-macrophages interactions under ER inhibitors--3D in vitro model" project

Undergraduate Student Intern (02/2023-present);

studies: chemistry major, University of South Florida

  a leading scientist: "Tumor-macrophages interactions under ER inhibitors--2D in vitro model" project

 

 

Former members

Medical Student Intern (10/2017-01/2018)

studies: major in medicine, University of South Florida Medical School, Tampa, FL

a leading scientist: "Cross-Disciplinary Assessment of Chlorotoxin Distribution in Gliomas in Mice", a joint project with M. Wiranowska lab (USF)

Postdoctoral Fellow (06/2015-06/2018)

PhD: University of South Florida, Department of Chemistry, Tampa, FL

a leading scientist: "Physical Dynamics of Cancer Response to Chemotherapy in 3D Microenvironments", a joint project with Lisa McCawley and Dmitry Markov labs (Vanderbilt)

a leading scientist: "Targeted Imaging Agents Modeling and Quantification", a joint project with Dave Morse lab (Moffitt)

Undergraduate Student Intern (12/2022-01/2024);

studies: pre-med & math major, University of South Florida

  a leading scientist: "Mathematical Modeling of T-cell Immunotherapy with Rose Bengal Vaccination" project (honor thesis)

Postdoctoral Fellow (10/2011-09/2011)

PhD: Rensselear Polytechnic, Department of Mathematics, Troy, NY

a leading scientist: "Somatic Evolution within Breast Cancer Histology", a PSOC project~PI in collaboration with Mark Lloyd (Moffitt Microscopy Core)

a leading scientist: "Developent of DCIS microinvasions: cellular treats and phenotypes"

Undergraduate Student Intern (07/2015-12/2016)

studies: major in physics, Univeristy of South Florida, Tampa, FL

a leading scientist: "Virtual Cell Colony Model for Testing Optimal Dosing Schedules"

Graduate Student Intern (12/2017-present); Undergraduate Student Intern (10/2017-12/2017)

studies: math major, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL

a leading scientist: "Modeling 3D Tumor Response to Drugs Based on IC50 Curves" project

Summer Undergraduate Student Intern (06-08/2010)

studies: major in computer sciences, Pomona College, Claremont, CA

REBMI (Research Experience at the Biology-Mathematics Interface), NSF-funded program at Claremont Colleges, CA

a leading scientist joint with Sara Dawit: "Interactions between melanoma tumor cells and tumor-specific T cells: an integrative model", a joint project with Shari Pilon-Thomas lab (Moffitt)

Graduate Rotation Student Intern (04-07/2016)

studies: major in physics, Oxford University, Systems Approaches to Biomedical Science (SABS), UK

Systems Approaches to Biomedical Science @Oxford, UK.

a leading scientist: "Mechanobiology of Circulating Tumor Cells"

Postdoctoral Fellow (01/2019-03/2020)

PhD: McGill Univeristy, Montreal, Canada

a leading scientist: "Physical Dynamics of Cancer Response to Chemotherapy in 3D Microenvironments, a joint project with Lisa McCawley and Dmitry Markov labs (Vanderbilt)

a leading scientist: “Optimizing vaccine-induced immuno-therapy", a joint project with Shari Pilon-Thomas lab (Moffitt)

Undergraduate Student Intern (10-12/2017)

studies: Florida Atlantic Univeristy, Boca Raton, FL

a leading scientist: "Modeling 3D Tumor Response to Drugs based on IC50 Curves"

Research Assistant (05/2019-07/2021); Undergraduate Student Intern (02/2018-05/2019)

studies: math major, University of South Florida

a leading scientist: "Metabolic Fluctuations in Cancer" project
a leading scientist: "Mathematical Modeling of Microscale Pharmacology" project

Graduate Rotation Student Intern (04-07/2016)

studies: major in biology, Oxford University, Systems Approaches to Biomedical Science (SABS), UK

 

Systems Approaches to Biomedical Science @Oxford, UK.

a leading scientist: "Mechanobiology of Circulating Tumor Cells"

Undergraduate Student Intern (01-03/2018)

studies: Dartmouth College off-Campus Program @ Moffitt, Hanover, NH

Dartmouth Off-Campus Program @Moffitt

a leading scientist: "Image-Based Modeling of Targeting Nanoparticle Delivery for High Uniform Receptor Saturation" under the guidance of Dr. Aleksandra Karolak

Undergraduate Student Intern (10/2019-07/2021)

studies: chemnical engineering major, University of South Florida, Tampa,FL

a leading scientist: "The Organoid Microenvironement and Branching" project

SPARK Undergraduate Intern (05-08/2021); HIP-IMO High School Student Intern (06-08/2019)

studies: Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville High School: Land O'Lake High School, Tampa FL

 

SPARK ~~ Summer Program for the Advancement of Research Lnowledge

a leading scientist: "Mathematical Modeling of Adoptive T cell Immunotherapy in Melanoma", a joint project with Dr. Shari Pilon-Thomas and Dr. Michael Poch labs (Moffitt).

HIP-IMO ~~ High School Internship Program @ Moffitt

a leading scientist: "Modeling Vaccine-Induced Immunotherapy: Studying Treatment Robustness Using Virtual Populations" under the guidance of Dr. Ibrahim Chamseddine

Graduate Student Intern (05-08/2017)

studies: major in mathematics, Univeristy of Zilina, Slovakia

 

 

a leading scientist: "Circulating Tumor Cells in Blood Flow and Microfluidic Devices"

 

HIP-IMO High School Student Intern (06-07/2022);

High School: Phillips Academy, Andover, MA

  a leading scientist: "Oxygenation landscape in bladder tumor histology" project

Undergraduate Student Intern (01-03/2020)

studies: Dartmouth College off-Campus Program @ Moffitt, Hanover, NH

Dartmouth Off-Campus Program @Moffitt

a leading scientist: "Optimizing Adoptive T Cell Therapy by Exploring the Tumor Microenvironment Complexity"

Graduate school summer project programmer (06-08/2023);

studies: applied mathematics, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA

a leading scientist: " Building a modular app for the microscale pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics (microPKPD) model" together with Rubaiyat Bin Islam

Research Scientist (08/2011-07/2014)

Brown University, Department of Engineering, Providence, Rhode Island

a leading scientist on the Miles for Moffitt Milestones Award "Optimising cell-cycle inhibitors in sarcomas: an integrative model", a joint project with Moffitt Sarcoma Program

a leading scientist on the PSOC-TransNetwork grant "Heterogeneity of Cytoskeletal Architecture as an Indicator of Treatment Response", a joint project between four PSOCs: Moffitt, Scripps, Cornell and University of Southern California

Undergraduate Student Intern (09/2018-08/2019)

studies: Florida Atlantic Univeristy, Boca Raton, FL

 

a leading scientist: "Modeling "3D Tumor Response to Drugs Based on IC50 Curves"

Visiting Scholar Intern (09-12/2018)

studies: medical program, Sahlgrenska Academy, Univeristy of Gothenburg,Sweden

a leading scientist: "Modulating the Tumor Microenvironment to Improve Immunotherapy in Melanoma", a joint project with Shari Pilon-Thomas lab (Moffitt)

Graduate Student Rotation 2 (11/2022-02/2023);

MSc: Mathematics, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana

a leading scientist: "Glucose-regulated tumor growth" project

HIP-IMO High-School Student Intern (06-08/2019)

High School: Ottawa Hills High School, Toledo, OH

HIP-IMO ~~ High School Internship Program @ Moffitt

a leading scientist: "Modeling Vaccine-Induced Immunotherapy: Optimizing Treatment Dosage and Timing" under the guidance of Dr.Ibrahim Chamseddine

HIP-IMO High School Student Intern (06-07/2023);

High School: Middleton High School

HIP-IMO ~~ High School Internship Program @ Moffitt

a leading scientist: " A Genetic Algorithm based Manifold Learning Feature Selection Approach Using Bladder Cancer Patient Data" under the guidance of Dr. Kayode Olumoyin

Graduate school summer project programmer (06-08/2023);

studies: applied mathematics, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA

a leading scientist: " Building a modular app for the microscale pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics (microPKPD) model" together with Moslem Uddin

HIP-IMO High School Student Intern (06-07/2023);

High School: Middleton High School

HIP-IMO ~~ High School Internship Program @ Moffitt

a leading scientist: " An Advanced Spatial Analysis of CD8+ T Cell Distribution Patterns in Orthotopic Mice Bladder Tumors and the Impact of Hypoxia on Immune Cell Infiltration" under the guidance of Dr. Maureiq Ojwang'

Medical Student Intern (05/2016-07/2017)

studies: major in medicine, Univeristy of South Florida Medical School, Tampa, FL\

a leading scientist: "Cross-disciplinary Optimization of Nano-Drug Delivery to Glioma Cells", a joint project with M. Wiranowska (USF) and N. Alcantar (USF) labs; funded by the USF 2016 Summer Scholarly Award Program.

HIP-IMO High School Student Intern (07-08/2016)

High School: C. Leon King High School, Tampa, FL

HIP-IMO ~~ High School Internship Program @ Moffitt

a leading scientist: "Hide & Seek: Cell Strategies to Survive in Chemotherapy"

HIP-IMO High School Student Intern (07-08/2016)

High School: Berkeley Preparatory School, Tampa, FL

HIP-IMO ~~ High School Internship Program @ Moffitt

a leading scientist: "Optimizing the Efficacy of Cytotoxic T Cells" project

Summer Undergraduate Student Intern (06-08/2010)

studies: major in biology, Scripps College, Claremont, CA

REBMI (Research Experience at the Biology-Mathematics Interface), NSF-funded program at Claremont Colleges, CA

a leading scientist joint with Dandre Allison: "Interactions between melanoma tumor cells and tumor-specific T cells: an integrative model", a joint project with Shari Pilon-Thomas lab (Moffitt)

HIP-IMO High School Student Intern (06-07/2018)

High School: C. Land O'Lakes High School, Tampa

HIP-IMO ~~ High School Internship Program @ Moffitt

a leading scientist: "Enhancing the Effectiveness of Hypoxia-Activated Pro-Drugs by Using Sensitizers"

Undergraduate Student Intern (01/2018-09/2019); Summer Student Intern (06-08/2017)

studies: pre-med program, Univeristy of South Florida, Tampa, FL

a leading scientist: "Histology-Based Analysis and Modeling of Ductal Microinvasions"

 

a leading scientist: "Defining a digital signature of a tumor cell based on multicellular spheroid cultures"

 

Research Assistant (06/2020-08/2021); High School Student Intern (06/2019-05/2020); HIP-IMO High School Student Intern (06/2018-07/2018)

studies: pre-med major, University of Florida, Gainesville;high school: Brooks DeBartolo Collegiate High School, Tampa

 

a leading scientist: "Macrophages in the 3D Breast Tumor Microenvironments", a joint project with Dr. Brian Ruffell lab (Moffitt).

a leading scientist: "Mathematical Modeling of Acidic Landscape in DCIS" project

HIP-IMO ~~ High School Internship Program @ Moffitt

a leading scientist: "Enhancing the Effectiveness of Hypoxia-Activated Pro-Drugs with Vasodilators" project

SPARK Summer Research Intern (05-08/2019)

studies: major in mechanical engineering, Vanderbilt Univeristy, Nasville, TN

a leading scientist: "Metabolic Reprogramming to Improve Immunotherapy in Melanoma"

 

Postdoctoral Fellow (10/2009-01/2011)

PhD: Arizona State Univeristy, Departmen of Physics, Tempe, AZ

"leading scientist: Drug Transport Through the Tumor Tissue"

Medical Student Intern (08/2015-07/2017)

studies: major in medicine, Ross Univeristy Medical School, Miami, FL

a leading scientist: "Virtual Clinical Trial Model: Enhansing Clinical Accuracy and Applicability"