RONAI LAB
Cedars Sinai Medical Center
Ze'ev Ronai
Ze'ev Ronai obtained his Ph.D. in 1985 from The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel and performed his postdoctoral research with I.B. Weinstein at the Cancer Center of Columbia University in New York. He established the Molecular Carcinogenesis Program at the American Health Foundation in Valhalla, New York, and in 1997 moved to the Ruttenberg Cancer Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, where he was a tenured professor up to 2005. From 2004-2024 he fulfilled a number of leadership roles at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in La Jolla CA, including Program Director, Scientific Director, Chief Scientific Advisor, and Cancer Center Director. He also established a cancer center at the Technion in Israel (Technion Integrated Cancer Center), while maintaining his activities at SBP. He is currently Director of the Translational Research Institute at Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles CA, Professor of Surgery and Biomedical Sciences at Cedars Sinai.
Linkedin • Download CV • Contact: zeev@ronailab.net
Hyungsoo Kim
Research Assistant Professor
Hyungsoo obtained is Ph.D. at the Seoul National University and joined the lab in 2007. He has been studying the role of Siah in mitochondrial dynamics and cell motility (Mol Cell 2011, Oncogene 2014) and more recently in melanoma resistance and RNF125 (Cell Rep 2015). Hyungsoo’s recent studies addressed the importance of SHARPIN in the regulation of PRMT5 (J Clin Invest, 2018). Hyungsoo received a R21 from the National Cancer Institute (2015-2017) that focused on the role of RNF125 in melanoma resistance to BRAFi, and is currently studying the link between PRMT5 and the regulation of immune checkpoint.
Contact: hyungsoo.kim@cshs.org
Hyunjeong Joo
Post Doctoral Trainee
Hyunjeong Joo received her M.S. degree and Ph. D. From Sookmyung Women’s University in South Korea. She studied cancer cell metabolism during her M.S. work and focused on energy metabolic regulation of the E3 ligase β-TrCP during her Ph. D. program. She joined Ronai’s lab in 2023 as a postdoctoral associate and is exploring new research projects in melanoma.
Contact: hyunjeong.joo@cshs.org
Maryam Jafri
Post Doctoral Trainee
Maryam received her Ph.D. from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in New York, where she was mentored by Professor Ana Maria Cuervo. Her research centered on chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA), specifically investigating the molecular mechanism behind the beneficial effects of caloric restriction (CR) and CR mimetics on CMA during aging. She also identified a novel regulatory pathway for CMA, providing new insights into this crucial cellular process.
Contact: maryam.jafri@cshs.org
Ximena Diaz
Graduate Student
Ximena obtained her bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from the University of Santiago of Chile. After graduating, she worked for two years at Fundación Ciencia & Vida, where she studied resident memory CD8 T cells contribution to anti-tumor immunity. Later, she joined the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC), where she studies the role of macrophages in colorectal cancer progression. Currently, she is a Ph.D. student at the GSBS, in Ronai’s Lab. She is investigating the role of microbiota in anti-tumor response.
Contact: xdiazolea@sbpdiscovery.org
Syuog Chavan
Lab Coordinator
Suyog got Master's degree in Biotechnology from NYU in 2017. He joined the Gubbles lab in Boston College, where he studied T. gondi using different infectious mice models. He moved to Jenkins Lab at Harvard Medical School, where he worked in Cancer Immunotherapy before he joined the CRISPR core facility in HMS Cell Biology.
Contact: suyog.chavan@cshs.org
Xiurong Ke
Post Doctoral Trainee
Xiurong Ke received her Ph.D. from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, where she worked in Prof. Wijnand Helfrich's group, specializing in cancer immunotherapy. Her doctoral research focused on the engineering of bispecific antibodies for cancer treatment, particularly those targeting both immune checkpoints and cancer antigens.
Contact: xiurong.ke@cshs.org
Jingxing Yang
Post Doctoral Trainee
Jingxing earned his Ph.D. at National Central University in Taiwan. Afterward, he pursued postdoctoral training at the Immunology Research Center of National Health Research Institutes in Taiwan, where his research focused on Toll-like receptor signaling and vaccine adjuvants. He also investigated the role of PDLIM2 in lung cancer, particularly its impact on cellular metabolism and mitochondrial function.
Contact: jingxing.yang@cshs.org
Ronai Lab Alumni - Where are they now?
Dania Alarcon-Vargas
Dania performed her Ph.D. thesis in our lab, studying the mechanisms underlying the regulation of c-myc stability. She completed her requirements for her Ph.D. at MSSM/NYU in 2004. She continued her research as a postdoctoral fellow at Albert Einstein School of Medicine in NYC, before moving to the health industry, currently the Chief Medical Officer in Publicis Health in New York City.
Emily Avitan Hersh, M.D./Ph.D.
Emily took time off from her M.D. work to complete a Ph.D. training under the supervision of Drs. Amir Orian and Ze’ev Ronai, studying the ubiquitin ligase RNF4. She is currently leading the Department of Dermatology at Rambam Hospital in Haifa, Israel.
Anindita Bhoumik
Anindita worked in our lab for over 8 years, making major contributions to our studies with ATF2 and melanoma. Anindita is currently leading research at Kenai Therapeutics in San Diego.
Limor Broday, Ph.D.
Limor studied the ubiquitin ligase RNF5 using C. elegans as a model system and explored the function of SUMO during post-embryonic development. She is currently a Professor at the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University in Israel.
Parinaz Bina
Parinaz was a research scientist in our laboratory, relocated to UCSD where she continues her work as a research assistant.
Thomas Buschmann, Ph.D.
Thomas was a postdoctoral trainee from 1997 till 2001. Thomas assumed the position of a Research Administrator at the Europroteorue Institute in Berlin Germany.
Mei-Fan Chen, Ph.D.
Mei-Fan performed her graduate studies in our lab, with a focus on the cross-talk between ER stress and cell cycle. She moved to perform a postdoctoral training in neurobiology at UCSD, La Jolla, CA, and is now Assistant Professor at University of Kentucky. meifan.chen@uky.edu
Ssang Goo Cho, Ph.D.
Ssang Goo was a postdoctoral fellow in the lab from 2000-2001 and worked on the regulation of ATF2 by TIP49b. Ssang Goo returned to Korea where he is Professor at Konkuk University.
Giuseppina Claps, Ph.D.
Giusy completed her Ph.D. in our lab in 2015 and after a year of postdoctoral training she moved to extend her training in INSERM Paris with Drs. Carolin Robert and Stephan Vagner. Giusy was the recipient of a Joanna M. Nicolay Melanoma Foundation Research Scholar Award (2013). She is currently a group leader in Evotec in Toulouse, France.
Adrienne Crown, J.D.
Adrienne oversaw the operation of the lab and the office of the Scientific Director (2011–2015). She currently serves as a General Counsel at Sanford Burnham Medical Discovery Institute in La Jolla.
Agnes Delaunay, Ph.D.
Agnes moved to our lab in 2005 as a postdoctoral fellow. She studied the role of RNF5 in mouse models, using Tg and KO mice. Her work established a link between RNF5, ER stress and muscular disorders, in particular the inclusion in body myosities. In 2008, Agnes assumed an independent position as a principal investigator at the CEA in Paris.
Begona Diaz Fernandez, Ph.D.
Begona spent a short time in our laboratory studying novel aspects for the PDK1 kinase, as she transitioned from Dr. Sara Courtneidge’s lab to her own lab at the LA BioMed at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance CA.
Christine Didier, Ph.D.
Christine studied the ubiquitin ligase RNF5, a RING finger protein that regulates cell motility by targeting paxillin ubiquitination and altered localization. Christine is currently at the Centre de Recherche en Pharmacologie-Sante, UMR 2587 CNRS in Toulouse, France.
Yuanning Du
Yuanning worked as a research assistant in our lab before relocating to Purdue University to pursue a Ph.D. program.
Benjamin Van Espen, Ph.D.
Ben completed his graduate studies in the Ronai lab and obtained his Ph.D. in September 2023. He joined a law firm in early 2024, while pursuing a law degree that compliments his Ph.D. in biology.
Yongmei Feng
Yongmei served as the lab manager and in parallel led studies on small molecule inhibitors of the eIF4F translational initiation complex, She is currently coordinator at the Sanford Laboratories in La Jolla.
Boris Fichtman, Ph.D.
Boris performed an 18-month training in our lab with a focus on ATF2 and moved for a second postdoc at UCSD followed by positions at the Technion and Bar Ilan School of Medicine in Israel.
Serge Y Fuchs, M.D.
Serge was a postdoctoral fellow in the lab from 1994 to 1997, exploring the kinaseless role of JNK in mediating the ubiquitination-dependent degradation of its non phosphorylated substrates c-Jun, ATF2 and p53. Serge was among the first to discover bTrCP as the E3 ligase for I-kB and b-catenin. He is currently a Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Yu Fujita, M.D.
Yu Fujuta was a postdoctoral training student studying the role of RNF5 in intestinal inflammation. He studied the importance of RNF5 in autoimmunity, demonstrating the high susceptibility of RNF5 mutant mice to develop IBD. Following his training, supported in part by Japanese Fellowship, he returned to Jikei University School of Medicine, Division of Respiratory Medicine, Tokyo, Japan where he is establishing his research laboratory and practicing as M.D..
Gustavo Gutierrez, Ph.D.
Gustavo completed postdoctoral training in our lab, during which he first-authored two studies concerning the regulation and function of JNK in cell cycle. He is currently at the Laboratory of Cell Genetics, Department of Biology, Vrije Universiteit, Brussels, Belgium.
gustavo.gutierrez.gonzalez@vub.ac.be
Hasem Hapahake
Hasem joined the lab as a postdoc after he received his Ph.D. in Japan. In our lab, he studied the ubiquitin ligase Siah and its role in the degradation of TRAF2 and ODGC-E2. In 2005, Hasem moved to the University of Iowa, where he is currently a Professor. He continues to study post-translational modifications underlying the regulation of TRAF2 functions.
Erez Hasnis, M.D.
Erez joined the lab from his post at the Rambam Hospital where he was attending physician in the GI department. He studied the ubiquitin ligase RNF125 in pancreatic cancer. Erez returned to a position of physician scientist at the Rambam Health Care Campus in the summer of 2020.
Vladimir Ivanov, Ph.D.
Vladimir was a Research Assistant Professor in our lab. Vladimir studied the regulation of apoptosis in melanoma, with focus on TRAF, NFkB and Fas signaling pathways. He moved to serve as an Associate Research Professor at the Center for Radiological research at Columbia University NY.
Young Joo Jeon, Ph.D.
Young Joo joined the lab from the School of Biological Sciences, Seoul National University in Seoul, Korea and studied the role of RNF5 in the control of glutamine metabolism in breast cancer and melanoma. She published a landmark paper in Cancer Cell (2015) defining the regulation of glutamine carrier proteins by RNF5. She has established a research laboratory at the Chungnam National University Korea.
Takayuki Kadoya, M.D.
Takayuki performed a post doctoral training in our lab, studying the protein JAMP – JNK associated membrane protein which Takayuki found to be implicated in ERAD and ER stress. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine, Hiroshima University.
Ali Khateb, Ph.D.
Ali earned his Ph.D. degree from the Technion studying the role of RNF5 in AML (2019). He extended his studies on RNF5 in AML during his postdoctoral training, which resulted in his publication in Nat. Comm 2021. He has relocated to south San Francisco, where he leads exciting projects in Biotech companies.
Ersheng Kuang, Ph.D.
Ersheng worked as a postdoc in our lab. He has established his laboratory at the Institute of Human Virology, Zhangshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China.
Aaron Laine
Aaron received his B.S. in chemistry from Arizona State University and joined our lab as an M.D./Ph.D. student. As part of his Ph.D. thesis, he explored the novel mechanisms underlying the regulation of p53 activity, and the role of ubiquitin in regulation of p53 localization, rather than stability. He completed his M.D. degree and performed clinical work in Texas.
Eric Lau, Ph.D.
Eric received his Ph.D. from UCSD in 2008 and performed postdoctoral training that focused on the regulation and function of ATF2. Eric demonstrated the role of subcellular localization in ATF2 function, as the role of FUK in control of melanoma metastasis. He was awarded K00/99 for his work and established his own laboratory at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa Florida. Eric has recently relocated to Oregon Health Science University in Portland where he is a Professor and Associate Director at the Knight Cancer Institute.
Philip Lazarus, Ph.D.
Philip was training in our lab from 1991-1992. Philip currently serves as the Boeing Professor and Chair, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Washington State University, Spokane.
Marilyn Leonard, Ph.D.
Marilyn was our lab manager, overseeing the mice colony and managing our lab's day-to-day operation. She relocated to UCSD and recently retired from overseeing an active lab at UCSD.
Pablo Lopez-Bergami, Ph.D.
Pablo joined our group in 2002 to study the role of MAP kinases in melanoma development and progression. Pablo's work provided the foundation for understanding the nature of re-wired signal transduction pathways in melanoma, with particular attention to ERK-JNK and PKC-JNK cross-talk. In 2008, Pablo assumed an assistant professor position at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Stephanie Myers, M.Sc.
Stephanie graduated from the University of California, San Diego in 2016 with a B.S. in Neuroscience. She worked as a Lab Assistant in the Ju Chen Lab at UCSD while earning her B.S. Stephanie joined the lab in 2016 as research coordinator and in 2018 joined the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at SBP. Her Ph.D. thesis was focused on the role of Siah2 in neurodegenerative disorders, in collaboration with Huaxi Xu, Ph.D. as her co-mentor. Completed MSC and now working in biotech in La Jolla CA.
Toshinari Minamoto, M.D.
Toshinari was trained as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab from 1996-1998. After his return to Japan he kept advancing research on early detection in colon cancer. He became a Professor and Head of the Division of Oncology at Kanazawa University in Japan, before retiring recently.
minamot@kenroku.kanazawa-u.ac.jp
Namratha Nadig
Narmatha was a graduate student in our lab at SBP and where she continues her studies towards Ph.D.
Koh Nakayama, Ph.D.
Koh joined the lab in 2002 as a postdoctoral fellow. He established the line of research concerning the role of the Siah2 ubiquitin ligase in hypoxia. Koh was faculty at the Tokyo Medical and Dental University in Tokyo, and more recently a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology in Asahikawa Medical University in Japan.
Gaurav Pathria, Ph.D.
Gaurav joined the lab and has set out to understand metabolic rewiring in melanoma and pancreatic cancer cells. Gaurav studies led to clinical evaluation of a combination therapy in pancreatic cancer and in melanoma, having identified the synthetic lethal action of ASNS and MEK inhibition. Following his tenure in the lab, he became a scientist in Genentech, CA.
Jianfei Qi, Ph.D.
Jianfei trained as a postdoc and later as a staff scientist focusing his studies on the role of the ubiquitin ligase Siah1/2 in prostate cancer. Following important publications in Cancer Cell and PNAS he relocated to the University of Maryland School of Medicine. where he is currently a Professor.
Chelsea Ruller, M.Sc.
Chelsea worked as our lab coordinator from 2010 to 2013. Following a 2-year tenure at the University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus, and more recently at the Moffitt Cancer Center.
Susan Rutberg, Ph.D.
Susan was a postdoctoral trainee in our lab from 1991-1995, when she moved to a scientist position at NCI. Susan moved from NCI to work as a senior scientist at Gillette Corporation and more recently the Director of Bioassays and Molecular Biology at Sanofi Genomic Medicine Unit.
Daniela Senft, Ph.D.
Daniela received her Ph.D. from Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, Germany in 2012. She joined the lab to further elucidate the roles of the transcription factor ATF2 in melanocyte biology, melanoma genesis and melanoma progression in response to UV-irradiation. Currently back at her homeland, serving as senior editor for Nature Reviews in Cancer.
Marzia Scortegagna, Ph.D.
Marzia continued her work as Research Assistant Professor on immune cell control by lipids, aging and cancer, in part supported by her DOD grant.
Carolina Silva
Following a short training in our lab, Carolina returned to her home lab to pursue her Ph.D. in Brazil.
Shoichi Takahashi, M.D./Ph.D.
Shoichi discovered that ATF2 can also be phosphorylated by ATM, a finding that led to the characterization of ATF2 in DNA damage response. He returned to Japan where he serves a clinical function and performs research in parallel at Hiroshima University.
Marianna Tcherpakov, Ph.D.
Marianna received her Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute in Israel and joined the lab in 2005. She worked on a novel protein identified in our lab, which was designated JAMP, an anchor for proteasomes recruitment to the ER. Marianna is currently a leading Business Development at a local San Diego biotech company.
Stefania Tocci, Ph.D.
Stefania Tocci completed her M.Sc. studies in Medical Biotechnology in Italy, after training in E. Wagner’s lab at CNIO in Madrid. After graduating the Signgene program at Max Plank Berlin (MDC) and Technion studying Sharpin/PRMT5 control of melanoma development, Stefania earned the Ph.D. degree and moved to UCSD to perform post doc training.
Sachin Verma, Ph.D., AMGEN
Sachin performed his first postdoc at the Salk Institute, studying BRCA1 in cell growth control using breast cancer. His postdoc training in our lab led to the discovery of melanoma addiction to GCDH, which was published in Nat. Cell Biol (2022) and serves as a novel therapeutic modality that is being explored. Sachin is currently at Amgen in Thousand Oaks, CA.
Lab Retreats
