Vishal Khivansara, M.S., Sr. Research Scientist
After graduation, Vishal trained at Rockefeller University and the University of Michigan, specializing in miRNAs and RNAi. He has been part of Dr. Nijhawan’s research group for the past four years, where he currently focuses on identifying small molecules that selectively target leukemias.
Shanhai Xie, Ph.D., Sr. Research Scientist
Dr. Xie received his graduate training in the laboratory of Dr. Ralph Arlinghaus at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Following this, he completed his postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Steve McKnight at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He then joined Peloton Therapeutics, where he worked from its inception until its acquisition by Merck. Afterward, Dr. Xi returned to UT Southwestern to join Dr. Deepak Nijhawan’s laboratory, focusing on small molecule drug discovery.
Min Fang, Ph.D., Scientist
Dr. Fan is currently focused on selecting small molecule toxins that bind mutant proteins using inducible forward genetics.
Ashley Leach, B.S., Sr. Research Associate
Ashley Leach is a Research Associate with over 8 years of experience in the biomedical research field. Within the Nijhawan lab, Ashley assists with in vivo and ex vivo experiments focused on studying the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of the lab’s assorted small molecule library. The overarching goal of these studies is to identify and validate protein targets for small molecules with anti-cancer activity. Ashley received a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology from the University of North Texas in 2013.
Jacob Kimberg, Research Technician I
Pano Theodoropoulos, M.D., Ph.D., Clinical Fellow
Dr. Theodoropoulos is a physician-scientist fellow in medical oncology, currently training under the Physician Scientist Training Program (PSTP). His passion lies in bridging laboratory discoveries with patient care. He earned dual degrees (B.S./B.A.) in Biochemistry and Chemistry from the University of Chicago before completing his M.D./Ph.D. at UT Southwestern, where he trained under the mentorship of Dr. Deepak Nijhawan. Dr. Theodoropoulos had the privilege of working in the labs of Drs. Jonathan Graff, Steve McKnight, Deepak Nijhawan, and Bruce Beutler. These experiences fueled his fascination with the interactions between bioactive chemicals and biological systems, and he i particularly interested in identifying novel therapeutic targets for cancer treatment.
Kurt Reichermeir, M.D., Ph.D., Clinical Fellow
Kurt Michael Reichermeier grew up in Germany and earned his medical degrees, M.D. (2014) and Dr. med. (2015), from Medizinische Hochschule Hannover and Justus-Liebig Universität Giessen. In 2015, he moved to the United States to train with Raymond J. Deshaies at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and with Ingrid Wertz and Donald S. Kirkpatrick at Genentech, Inc. During this time, he pursued graduate studies in biology and earned a Ph.D. from Caltech.
In 2020, Dr. Reichermeier joined the Physician Scientist Training Program at UT Southwestern, where he completed residency training in Internal Medicine in 2022 and Clinical Fellowship Training in Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine in 2024. He is currently a postdoctoral research fellow in the Nijhawan Laboratory, where his research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of tissue fibrosis and the development of antifibrotic therapies.
Stephen DeAngelo, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. DeAngelo is a postdoctoral fellow in the Nijhawan lab with over 10 years of experience in cancer drug discovery. He first earned his B.S. in biochemistry from Boston College in 2017 while he performed research at Harvard Medical School, working in x-ray crystallography and structure-guided drug development. He then spent two years working as a research technician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where he assisted in developing some of the seminal biochemical assays for the development of Proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs). In 2019, he began his Ph.D. in cancer biology at the University of Michigan, where he explored the mechanisms of small molecule-induced ferroptosis in colorectal cancer. Following his doctoral research, Dr. DeAngelo performed a short postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University, learning CRISPR screening and prime editing techniques.
Current Students
Harrison Brown, Graduate student
Harrison Brown is a student in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences studying biological chemistry in the Nijhawan Lab. Previously, he studied human papillomavirus (HPV) oncogenes as an undergraduate at the University of Oklahoma, and cancer metabolism as a research assistant at UT Southwestern. His current projects utilize chemical biology and genetics to identify the functional target of novel anticancer chemical scaffolds.