Principal Investigator
Deepak Nijhawan M.D., Ph.D.
Originally from Chicago, Dr. Nijhawan completed his doctoral and medical degrees in UTSW's Medical Scientist Training Program. He then completed a residency in Internal Medicine and clinical fellowship in Medical Oncology before returning to UT Southwestern.
During his fellowship, he used functional cancer genomics to identify novel targets in cancer, developing a novel strategy to target “passenger” genes as an Achilles heel in ovarian cancer.
At UTSW, he is interested in expanding the list of vulnerabilities and translating these findings into the clinic to improve the treatment of ovarian and lung cancer.
Outside of medicine, Dr. Nijhawan enjoys cycling, hiking, travel, and sports.
Jef de Brabander Ph.D.
Jef K. De Brabander is a native of Belgium where he pursued his undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Ghent (with Prof. M. Vandewalle, Ph.D. 1993). Following postdoctoral studies with the late Wolfgang Oppolzer at the University of Geneva (94-95) and Paul Wender at Stanford University as a NATO and Fulbright-Hays fellow (95-96), he began his independent career at the University of Geneva. In 1998, he was recruited to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, where he was promoted to Full Professor in 2007 and appointed Co-Director of the “Chemistry and Cancer Scientific Program” of the Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center. He currently holds the Julie and Louis Beecherl, Jr., Chair in Medical Science, and in 2014 was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences. Jef De Brabander was an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow (2001-03), received the “Journal Award” from the editorial boards of Synlett and Synthesis (2006) and an Academic Development Award from the Chemistry Council of Merck Research Laboratories (2004-08). Jef De Brabander has co-founded three start-up companies (Reata Pharmaceuticals, Nasdaq RETA; Lydian Neurosciences; and Barricade Therapeutics).
Dr. De Brabander’s achievements in basic science and translational research have been documented in over 100 peer-reviewed publications and 16 patents. He has presented >60 lectures (Named, Plenary, or Keynote) at major national and international conferences, and >80 lectures at various universities and pharmaceutical companies. Jef De Brabander was a member of the National Institutes of Health Study Section, the Chair of the 51st Gordon Research Conference on Natural Products (Tilton, New Hampshire, July 2010) and the ESF-COST conference on Natural Products Chemistry, Biology and Medicine III (Maratea, Italy, September 2010).
Current Lab Members
Arin Aurora, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Arin B. Aurora earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from Cornell University and went on to obtain her Ph.D. in immunology from the University of California, San Francisco. She conducted postdoctoral work as an American Cancer Society fellow at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, examining the transcriptional programs regulated by angiogenic inhibitors. Dr. Aurora then continued her postdoctoral work with Dr. Eric Olson at UT Southwestern, where she made important discoveries toward understanding the immunological pathways regulating mammalian heart repair and regeneration. In 2014, Dr. Aurora joined the faculty of the Children’s Medical Research Institute at UT Southwestern as an Assistant Professor investigating the molecular mechanisms that enable melanoma metastasis. Beginning in 2023, Dr. Aurora has worked as part of a cross-disciplinary team to assess the feasibility of using anticancer small molecules with novel targets for preclinical development.
Ye Tao, Ph.D., Instructor
Ye Tao, Ph.D., is currently an Instructor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He received his bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from Chongqing University in Chongqing, China, and later completed his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at the University of Houston, Texas. As a medicinal chemist, he is passionate about studying anti-cancer drug design and identifying the molecular targets of these drugs. In addition to his scientific work, he is an avid basketball fan and enjoys hiking.
Divya Reddy, Ph.D., Assistant Instructor
Divya is a broadly trained biochemist with a focus on uncovering protein interactions and functions. Her PhD and postdoctoral training centered on exploring the role of chromatin complexes in regulating transcription.
As an Instructor in the Nijhawan lab, she is eager to apply her expertise to understand how small molecules bind to their targets and influence protein interactions.
Vishal Khivansara, M.S.
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
Rutuja Dighe, Research Associate
Terry Mann, Research Associate
Terry Mann is a Research Associate with seven years of research experience, including two years in the industry. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Sam Houston State University in 2017. In the Nijhawan lab, Terry focuses on evaluating the feasibility of targeting novel pathways with small molecules that have demonstrated anticancer properties. She collaborates with a team of biologists to assess these small molecules for potential clinical development.
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.
Current Students
Holly Guo, MSTP student
Holly received a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University, where she trained under Dr. Charles Eberhart and Eric Raabe. She matriculated into the UTSW Medical Scientist Training Program in 2020 and completed two years of medical school before joining the Nijhawan Lab. Holly is passionate about cancer drug discovery. She is currently studying mechanisms of small molecules that are cytotoxic to cancer cells.
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.