About the Department of Pharmacology & Immunology

Focus: Systems-based Approaches to Heart Valve Development and Disease

Dr. Peggi Angel's research is focused on understanding the spatial systems biology of human health – how molecular interactions change due to external, endogenous environmental and mechanical forces in normal development and in disease. The primary analytical research in her lab is focused on developing new approaches for deeper single cell sequencing of collagen structures, targeting signaling components of fibrotic deposition, and the application of these methods for human disease prognosis and diagnosis. The main biological research focus of her group is understanding how spatial changes in translational and post-translational collagen regulation contributes to breast cancer initiation and metastasis and impacts on cancer risk. She is the inventor of the spatial method targeting collagen on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues. The approach generates data that may be used not only to understand stroma regulation within the tumor microenvironment and circulating serum. Collagen biosignatures also be used as a predictive tool developing signatures that differentiate pathologies, patient status, and therapeutic response. She has published several papers using this method in various cancerous tissues. Her lab is focused on leveraging this approach to understand disparities in breast cancer, colorectal cancer, and outcomes in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Focus: Role of O-GlcNAc Glycosylation in the Regulation of Insulin/IGF-1 Receptor Signal Transduction Pathways

Dr. Lauren Ball's research focuses on defining the impact of the glucose-responsive, post-translational O-GlcNAc modification of adaptor proteins, transcription factors, and epigenetic regulators on cellular signaling and metabolic homeostasis. The activity of O-GlcNAc transferase, the enzyme responsible for protein O-GlcNAcylation, is elevated in many human cancers. Her lab is establishing LC-MS/MS-based methodology to identify the proteins (and sites therein) that are differentially regulated by O-GlcNAc, probe for cross-talk of O-GlcNAc with phosphorylation at Ser/Thr residues, and define the impact of O-GlcNAc on protein function and interactions in the context of breast cancer.

MUSC Mass Spectrometry Facility

Center for Redox Biology and Cell Signaling Proteomics Core

Focus: Mass Spectrometry

Expertise:
Instrumentation
nanoLC-MS/MS
Phosphorylation

Focus: Role of G-protein Regulatory (GPR) Proteins in Mammalian Cell Division and the Immune System

Pharmacology & Immunology
Teaching Scholar

Michael J. Bouchard, Ph.D., serves as Dean of the College of Graduate Studies, overseeing graduate education and postdoctoral training programs. He supports students and trainees in advancing their research, fostering meaningful mentorship relationships, and preparing for impactful careers in science and academia. He is also a professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Immunology.

Dr. De Cubas' research program is focused on 1) understanding how cancers interact with the immune system, 2) identifying molecular determinants of tumoral immunogenicity and antigenicity, and 3) understanding how commonly lost epigenetic modifiers (SETD2, PBRM1, and BAP1) modify the tumor microenvironment and contribute to progression of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC).

To accomplish these goals, the research program operates at both dry and wet lab levels and brings a balanced skillset in genomics and bioinformatics, as well as cancer biology and immunology. Successful completion of this research will contribute to our knowledge of the mechanisms behind response to ICB in ccRCC. These novel discoveries would provide critical biological insights that ultimately could lead to novel clinical treatment strategies for ccRCC.

Focus: Drug Discovery Focus in B and Plasma Cell Malignancies

Dr. Dolloff is a cancer researcher with expertise in experimental cancer therapeutics, high throughput drug screening (HTS), academic drug discovery, preclinical drug development, and faculty entrepreneurship. He is the founder and chief scientific officer of Leukogene Therapeutics. A general approach of his lab is to identify and target mechanisms of resistance to cancer therapy. Projects have included targeting mechanisms of hypoxia-induced resistance, TRAIL resistance, proteasome inhibitor resistance in multiple myeloma, and the widespread resistance of cancer cells to epigenetic drugs. More recent efforts include developing new approaches to treat cancers that are considered immunologically “cold” and resistant to immunotherapy drugs. He is the Director of Entrepreneurship for the MUSC Hollings Cancer Center and MUSC Office of Innovation. In this role he promotes the fundamental importance of commercialization and faculty entrepreneurship to the success of academic research programs.

Focus: Glycoprotein Biomarkers of Cancer and Mass Spectrometry Imaging

Since arriving at MUSC in 2011, I have strived to expand translational research opportunities within my department and throughout MUSC by combining clinical research, biorepository, and molecular pathology resources with an extensive biomedical proteomics and small molecule mass spectrometry facility. My primary research focus is in identifying glycoproteins, glycans, and glycolipids using human and animal model tissues and biofluids.

My laboratory developed the founding MALDI imaging mass spectrometry methodology to allow researchers worldwide to access N-glycosylation from the tissue microenvironment in both formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded and frozen tissues. The glycan tissue maps serve as guides to target tumor-localized glycoproteins for proteomic analysis, as well as provide molecular determinants for histopathology applications. This technology has recently been adapted and funded to develop tools to analyze cell lines, immune cells, and biofluids directly on slides. New research efforts are focused on developing new methods for investigating O-glycan, glycogen, and glycosaminoglycan oligomers, as well as expanding prior glycosphingolipid workflows.

Focus: Signal Transduction in Cancer Biology

My lab studies the role protein kinases and ubiquitin ligases in signal transduction and the regulation of tumor cell biology, particularly in the context of ovarian cancer, with collaborative projects in breast cancer. I have published works on the regulation of signaling through the ERK pathway by cell adhesion and how this regulation is disrupted in ovarian cancer cells, promoting anchorage-independent cancer cell survival and proliferation. Additionally, I have discovered novel substrates of ERK2, including the alternative mRNA splicing factor RBM17/SPF45 and identified SPF45 as the first splicing factor regulated by multiple MAP Kinase signaling cascades, with specificity dependent upon the extracellular stimulus.

My research efforts identified the E3 ubiquitin ligase UBR5/EDD as a novel substrate of ERK2. I am a member of the Gyn/Onc and Breast Cancer research teams in the Hollings Cancer Center. My work has been supported by the National Cancer Institute, the Department of Defense’s Breast and Ovarian Cancer Research Programs, the MUSC Center for Oral Health and the South Carolina Translational Research Institute. I am also heavily involved in Pharmacology teaching in the MUSC Dental and Medical Schools.

Focus: Designing and developing engineered immune cell therapies for autoimmune disease, cancer, and aging.

My goal is to control how the immune system recognizes self and non-self. This knowledge will allow us to reestablish immune tolerance in autoimmunity and organ transplant rejection, as well as to enhance immunity in cancer and persistent infections. My laboratory focuses on using engineered immune receptors to systematically study how specificity, affinity, and signaling modulate T cell function in autoimmunity and organ transplant rejection, as well as on using this knowledge to develop new cellular therapies.

Focus: Tumorigenesis and translational oncology

Xueliang Gao, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology & Immunology in the College of Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and a member of the Cancer Biology & Immunology Research Program at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center. His research advances the understanding of cancer biology with a strong focus on mechanisms that drive tumor progression and therapeutic resistance.

Dr. Gao’s laboratory investigates molecular pathways involved in prostate cancer progression, with particular emphasis on advanced diseases that no longer respond to standard hormone-based therapies. His work aims to identify novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets that can inform more effective and durable treatment strategies. By integrating molecular biology, translational research, and disease focused models, his research supports the development of precision driven approaches to cancer therapy.

He completed his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Cellular and Molecular Biology at Georgia State University and conducted postdoctoral research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School. Prior to joining MUSC, Dr. Gao served as an instructor in pathology at Harvard Medical School, where he contributed to both research and academic training.

Dr. Gao has authored peer-reviewed publications in leading scientific journals and collaborates with investigators across disciplines to translate fundamental discoveries into clinical impact. His work aligns closely with MUSC’s commitment to advancing cancer research and improving outcomes for patients through innovation and discovery.

Focus: Identifying regulatory mechanisms influencing centrosome structure & function, endocytic vesicular trafficking pathways & tumor suppression.

Focus: Antigen presentation, tumor immunobiology, inflammation, CNS disorders, autoimmunity

Focus: HIV pathogenesis, toll-like receptor and innate immunity, sex differences in human immune responses, and lupus pathogenesis

Focus: Traumatic brain injury

Focus: Biomarker discovery

A large part of my laboratory is focused on understanding and developing diagnostic methods and treatments for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a primary cancer of the liver that kills close to 1 million people every year. Our lab was one of the first to perform total serum glycan analysis for biomarker detection and one of the first to perform serum glycoproteomics. Through this we identified over 30 serum glycoproteins with increased levels of fucose in those with HCC.

Focus: Innate Sensor and Cell Death

Focus: Immune system in disease and treatment of disease. Specifically, we are interested in the role played by T cells and in developing ways to manipulate adaptive immunity, using engineered T cells as tools for therapy and for discovery. 

Focus: Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation, cancer immune tumor microenvironment, inflammation, alarmins, T lymphocyte biology

Dr. Paczesny's laboratory is internationally recognized for its expertise and achievements in the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) field. She has pioneered the study of proteomics/biomarkers for complications post allogeneic HSCT and is now transitioning the laboratory work into clinical practice. She also has extensive expertise in the cancer immune tumor microenvironment, inflammation and alarmins, T lymphocyte biology and mechanisms of immunity and tolerance as well as translating novel drug-targetable biomarkers to treatment.

Focus: Allotypes, Fcgamma receptor genes, ADCC, humoral immunity

Professor

Focus: Growth Factor Dysregulation in Cancer

Rosenzweig Lab 

Focus: Controlling acquisition of hospital acquired infections, pandemic preparations and disaster preparedness, bacterial pathogenesis

Michael G. Schmidt earned his Ph.D. from Indiana University, Bloomington and rose through the ranks of the Medical University of South Carolina earning the title of tenured professor of microbiology and immunology. He was elected to fellowship in the American Academy of Microbiology and the American College of Dentists. Currently, he is leading an inter-institutional/ interdisciplinary team of professionals investigating the role that microbes associated with objects present in the built clinical environment play in the acquisition of a healthcare associated infections (HAI). This interdisciplinary team of infectious disease specialists, infection control professionals, architects and engineers are building on the success of previous multi-center clinical trials where he and his colleagues established that by controlling burden in the built clinical environment, through the introduction of the limited and targeted placement of solid copper alloys, they were able to significantly reduce HAI acquisition rates by 58%. The results from this study were the basis of a talk he provided to TEDxCharleston and featured in articles in the Smithsonian Magazine and Vice.

Dr. Schmidt is active in the educational missions of the Colleges of Dentistry, Graduate Studies and Medicine at MUSC. He serves as an invited reviewer to the literature of his field and has served his professional society, the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) in a variety of roles. He is the immediate past Chair of the Council for Microbial Sciences (2019-2020) where he recently led, in concert with the Vice Chair, Suzanne Fleiszig COMS efforts in convening a global summit on SARs-CoV-2 in March 2020. He served 3 terms as the chair of the Branch Organization Committee, was a member the Communications Committee, co-chaired the development of their career poster, and facilitated the revision of the society’s public website, Microbeworld.org. He has led numerous, national workshops on the use of information technology in medicine, microbiology and infectious diseases (FEMA), has twice been a panelist on Science Friday, was the former content editor for Microbeworld radio, and for the past 9 years been a regular contributor to the internationally recognized podcast This Week In Microbiology (TWiM).

His most significant publications/patents have been in the area of the control of healthcare associated infections, phage therapy and the mineralization of vapor phase solvents. He has also published an OP-ED with the sitting Governor of AR and former Asst. Secretary of DHS, Asa Hutchinson, on the topic of crisis/disaster preparation. His work has been funded by the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, NIH , the private sector and most recently the Department of Justice where he is providing direction and service as a content expert in the areas of crimes involving biological, chemical, explosive, and/or radiological interventions to the Mass Violence Resource Center supported by the Office of Victims of Crime.

Focus: The complement system in inflammation, alloimmunity, cancer immunity and CNS injury.

Stephen Tomlinson, Ph.D., is a professor of the Department of Pharmacology & Immunology in the College of Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). He also has served in academic leadership roles focused on research strategy and faculty development. Dr. Tomlinson received his undergraduate training at the University of Leeds and earned his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in  from the University of Cambridge, followed by postdoctoral training at the University of Florida. He joined the MUSC faculty in 2000.

Dr. Tomlinson’s research centers on the complement system and its role in inflammation, tissue injury, and immune mediated disease. His work spans neuroinflammation, ischemic and traumatic brain injury, transplantation, autoimmunity, and cancer, with a strong emphasis on translational science. His laboratory is recognized for developing site targeted complement inhibitors designed to suppress harmful complement activation at sites of injury while preserving systemic immune function. His research has resulted in numerous peer reviewed publications, patents, and technologies advancing toward clinical application.

In addition to his research program, Dr. Tomlinson is actively involved in mentoring trainees and junior faculty and contributes to interdisciplinary collaborations across MUSC’s research enterprise.

Focus: The complement system in inflammation, alloimmunity, cancer immunity and CNS injury.

Tomlinson Lab

Focus: Mucosal immunology, gut microbiota-host interactions, immune tolerance mechanisms, and targeted therapies for autoimmunity and inflammation.

Associate Professor

Focus: Cell cycle proteins in cancer progression

Wang Lab

Focus: Enteric Nervous System, Host-Pathogen Interaction, Infection, Inflammation and Cancer