Researchers from City of Hope: 

Sumanta Kumar Pal, M.D.

Sumanta Kumal Pal, M.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Oncology & Experimental Theraputics at the City of Hope Comprehensive Medical Center.  He began his college career at the age of 13 through the Early Entrance Program at California State University Los Angeles.  He subsequently began medical school at the age of 17 at the University of California – Los Angeles.

While attending UCLA, Dr. Pal developed an immediate interest in cancer research and began working with Dr. Dennis Slamon, studying mechanisms of resistance to the breast cancer drug trastuzumab.  He carried on with these studies through the course of his residency.  After completing his residence, Dr. Pal transition to City of Hope, where he trained with Dr. Robert Figlin and worked with genitourinary cancer studies.

Dr. Pal has garnered numerous awards supporting his research, including support from the California Breast Cancer Research Program, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and the National Institute of Health.  Around his year anniversary working with City of Hope, Dr. Pal had already been extremely productive, with over 40 peer reviewed publications.

Hua Yu, Ph.D.

Dr. Yu is currently a professor of Cancer Immunotherapeutics & Tumor Immunology.  She is also a Full Member at Cancer Immunotherapeutics Program, Comprehensive Cancer Center.  Dr. Yu’s laboratory was the first to validate STAT3, a critical regulator of tumor cell survival and proliferation, as a molecular target for cancer therapy in animal models.  Yu’s team also unraveled a critical role of STAT3 in tumor angionesis and tumor immune evasion.

Dr. Yu attended Columbia University, where she obtained he Bachelor’s and PhD.  She went on to get her Post Doctorate at the University of Michigan, studying molecular biology.

Researchers from Cedars-Sinai: 

Neil Bhowmick, Ph.D.

Neil Bhowmick, PhD is an Associate Professor of Medicine and a member of the Uro-Oncology Research Program at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Center Institute at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Dr. Bhowmick’s laboratory studies focus on prostate cancer, including the roles of numerous agents in the disease’s growth and treatment. The research in Dr. Bhowmick’s lab is supported by the National Cancer Institute, the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration.

After earning his bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida, Dr. Bhowmick earned his doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Georgia. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cancer biology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN.

Hyung Lae Kim, M.D.

Hyung Lae Kim, MD is Associate Director for Surgical Research at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, Director of Academic Programs and Associate Program Director for the urology residency program.

Dr. Kim's clinical practice focuses on treating cancers of the prostate, bladder, kidney and testis. He has extensive experience applying minimally invasive and robotic surgical techniques, and has published methods for improving the surgical management of urologic cancers. He is actively involved in developing and running innovative clinical trials that utilize novel treatment approaches.

Dr. Kim graduated with a bachelors degree from the University of Michigan before earning his medical degree from the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine. He continued his training with a residency in urology at the University of Chicago before completing two fellowships at the University of California, Los Angeles, in urologic oncology and in minimally invasive surgery. Before joining the staff at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Dr. Kim was Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Urology at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York.