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Principal Investigator
CPRIT Scholar of Cancer Research
Assistant Professor
AVaishnavi1@MDAnderson.org
Follow Dr. Vaishnavi on Twitter: @DrAriaV

Aria Vaishnavi, Ph.D., is a cancer biologist who specializes in signal transduction, targeted therapeutics and mouse models of human cancer. Dr. Vaishnavi obtained her bachelor's degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from the Honor¡¯s College at Washington State University in 2007. She completed her doctoral studies in cancer biology at the University of Colorado Denver Anschutz under the mentorship of Dr. Robert Doebele. Here, she worked on investigating the biology and targeted therapeutic intervention of fusion kinases in lung cancer. Dr. Vaishnavi did her postdoctoral training with Dr. Martin McMahon at the University of Utah¡¯s Huntsman Cancer Institute, where her work was focused on mouse models of human lung and pancreatic cancer. She was recruited as a CPRIT scholar of Cancer Research and an assistant professor in the department of Cancer Biology at MD Anderson Cancer Center?in 2022. She is currently a faculty member in MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in both the?Cancer Biology?and?Therapeutics and Pharmacology (TAP)?programs, and she is?currently accepting graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

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Melanie Angelina Dacheux, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
MADacheux@MDAnderson.org

Melanie Dacheux received her Ph.D. in parasitology, cell biology and pathophysiology from the National Museum of Natural History of Paris/Sorbonne University (France) in 2018. She completed her first postdoc at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, in Memphis, where she investigated the role of autotaxin-producing pulmonary stromal cells (an enzyme that generates the bioactive lipid, lysophosphatidic acid) in the development of melanoma to lung metastasis. In the Vaishnavi lab, her research focuses on the molecular pathways underlying environmentally induced lung cancer in never smokers.

Matthew King, M.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow

Matthew King is from Dallas, Texas. He received his medical degree from Texas A&M University College of Medicine and is joining the Vaishnavi lab as a postdoctoral fellow.?

Shiming Jiang, Ph.D.
Research Scientist
SJiang2@MDAnderson.org

Shiming Jiang graduated with his Ph.D. in Biomedical Science from the University of Heidelberg at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) with Dr. Uwe Haberkorn in 2001. He went on to complete his DOD-funded postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Steffi Oesterreich at Baylor College of Medicine, where he received a Career Development Award from the MD Anderson SPORE in breast cancer. Shiming is an experienced veteran with expertise in leveraging mouse genetics to study mechanisms of gene regulation in numerous cancer types. As a research scientist in the Vaishnavi Lab, he is studying different classes of BRAF mutations.

Cheng Pei Wu
Research Assistant
CWu20@MDAnderson.org

Cheng Pei (Gary) Wu moved to the states in 2019 for college. He graduated from UT Austin with a biology degree. He has an identical twin brother called Larry. He likes to listen to music, work out, hike and try out new things. Gary loves science, but is planning to go to medical school in the future.

Monique Richardson
Senior Administrative Assistant
MMRichardson1@MDAnderson.org