Lab Members

Xianzhi (Andrew) Lin, PhD, received his bachelor's degree in bioengineering from the Kunming University of Science and Technology in 2004, and a doctorate in microbiology from the Institut Pasteur of Shanghai, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2012. Before joining the Lawrenson Laboratory in the Women's Cancer Program at Cedars-Sinai, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at UCLA with Grace Xiao, PhD, studying the molecular mechanisms of RNA regulation, including alternative splicing, RNA editing and RNA degradation. Currently, his research focuses on elucidating the mechanism of long noncoding RNAs in the initiation and/or development of ovarian cancers.

Rosario “Ivetth” Corona de la Fuente, PhD, has a bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from CETYS Universidad, Mexico, and a master of science in computer science from CICESE, Mexico. She was first introduced to computational biology during her master’s degree, where she studied protein structure prediction. Continuing in the structural bioinformatics field, for her doctorate she analyzed protein-DNA complexes and characterized structural features that account for DNA-binding specificity. She then completed an internship at Takeda Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she studied cancer genomics for the first time. Now, under the direction of  Kate Lawrenson, PhD, and Simon Gayther, PhD, Corona de la Fuente is a computational biologist studying the interplay between transcription factors and somatic and germline variants that contribute to the development of ovarian cancer.

Forough Abbasi graduated with her bachelor’s degree in cell and molecular biology in 2006. After getting her degree, Forough spent several years working in a clinical lab before joining the laboratory of Johnathan Lancaster, MD, PhD, at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. Forough has extensive experience in preclinical modeling and translational research, and is commonly referred to by her coworkers as the cell culture whisperer. She joined the Lawrenson Laboratory in 2016 and participates in multiple laboratory projects using cellular and molecular biology approaches.

Marcos Abraao, PhD, has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais, Brazil (2007); a master’s degree from Federal University of Sao Carlos, Brazil (2010); and a doctorate from University of Sao Paulo, Brazil (2016). Abraao has research experience in combinatorial optimization problems on manufacturing systems and reactive production scheduling using artificial intelligence techniques including ant colony optimization, genetic algorithms and fuzzy logic. He joined the Lawrenson Laboratory in 2016, applying bioinformatics integrative approaches to define and understand the cell origin of ovarian cancer. Currently, Abraao is working on master transcription factor identification and characterization on different cancer types and subtypes.

Robbin Nameki received her bachelor of science from California State University, Long Beach, where she studied the neuroendocrine regulation of sexually dimorphic behavior in rodents in the laboratory of Houng-Wei Tsai, PhD. Nameki was also part of the laboratory of Jorge Busciglio, PhD, in the last year of her undergraduate degree. In the Busciglio Laboratory, Nameki studied the role of neuron-specific zinc as a co-transmitter in the process of learning and memory. In the summer of 2017, she joined the Cedars-Sinai graduate program, where she expanded her interests to include the interaction between the noncoding genome and nuclear proteins involved in disease pathways. Nameki is currently pursuing her doctorate in the Lawrenson Laboratory, studying the transcriptional regulatory profile of transcription factors in ovarian cancer.