We aim to improve outcomes for children with rare and high risk cancers through translating discoveries in the lab to the clinic.

 

While we have made significant improvements in our ability to treat childhood cancers, there remains a number of cancers for which we have poor outcomes (e.g., rhabdoid tumor, renal medullary carcinoma, atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor, and relapsed Wilms Tumor). These are the cancers which our lab aims to identify new therapies for.

 
 
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Our research

Find out more about our research projects.



News from the lab:

4/2024 Congratulations to the lab (co-first authors, Karuna, Garrett and Benji along with co-authors Yongdong and Katie) for their hard work on bringing new models and therapeutic strategy for favorable histology Wilms tumor!

4/2024 Congratulations Frank Feng for successfully defending his Masters in the lab!

3/2024 Congratulations Jessica Yoon for being awarded highest honors for her Biology Honors thesis!

3/2024 Welcome Christopher Jang as an undergraduate researcher in the lab!

12/2023 Welcome Nikita Modi, MS, PhD as a new postdoctoral fellow in the lab!

12/2023 Congratulations Yongdong for being awarded the Fall 2023 Winship Postdoctoral Scholar Award!

11/2023 Congrats to Anna McKee, PhD for being awarded a Georgia Tech Computational Biology Faculty Research Award!

+ Older news from the lab

5/2023 Congrats to Sean Maholtra for being accepted into the Fred Hutch Cancer Center's Infectious Disease Sciences Summer Scholar Internship!

5/2023 Congrats Garrett Cooper for being selected for the ALSF Data Lab Single-Cell RNA-Seq Workshop!

5/2023 Congrats to medical school graduate Dr. Dami Taiwo, and undergraduates: Frank Feng, Antara Palkar and Josh Reimbauer!

4/2023 Congratulations Yongdong Su, MS, PhD for being awarded the DoD CDMRP KCRP Postdoctoral and Clinical Fellowship!

3/2023 Congratulations Antara Palkar for being awarded highest honors for her Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology Honors thesis!

3/2023 Congratulations Antara Palkar for being selected as an Emory 100 Senior Honorary member!

3/2023 Congratulations Jessica Yoon for being awarded the ALSF POST Medical Student Award!

3/2023 Thank you Garrett for being a part of the ATL Science Festival this year!

3/2023 Congrats Garrett Cooper for being asked to give an oral presentation at the 2023 Laney GDBBS Graduate Student Symposium!

3/2023 Congratulations Dami Taiwo on the NRMP Match and matching at Emory’s Neurology program!

3/2023 Congrats Katie Skinner for being selected for the ALSF Data Lab Advanced Single-Cell RNA-Seq Workshop!

1/2023 Welcome Juhye Yim as a PhD rotation student from the Cancer Biology Program!

12/2022 Feature on Dami’s work through ALSF on health disparities in ST/NO patients in the AJC!

12/2022 Grateful to the DoD CDMRP KCRP for recommending our grant for funding!

11/2022 Welcome Isabel Petrescu as a PhD rotation student from the Genetics and Molecular Biology Program!

08/2022 Welcome Frank Feng as a 4+1 CBTO student to the lab!

08/2022 Welcome Jessica Yoon as an undergraduate student researcher to the lab!

07/2022 Congrats Garrett on his published review on SMARCB1 deficient cancers!

07/2022 Congrats to Garrett for being appointed a 2nd year on the T32 Training Program in Genetics!

07/2022 Congrats Yongdong on his published review on renal medullary carcinomas!

07/2022 Welcome Frank Feng as a 4+1 CBTO rotation student from Cancer Biology!

07/2022 Welcome Victor Chen as a new Research Specialist to the lab!

06/2022 Welcome Sydney Nelson as a MD/PhD rotation student from the Genetics and Molecular Biology program!

5/2022 Congrats to Garrett for passing his PhD qualifying exam!

5/2022 Welcome Katie officially to the lab as a graduate student!

5/2022 Congrats to Benji who will be leaving for his MD/PhD program at UAB in the summer!

5/2022 Congrats to Simonne and Frances for graduating from Rollins School of Public Health!

4/2022 Congrats to Sean Malhotra for receiving Woodruff Scholars funds for his upcoming summer research!

4/2022 Welcome Sean Malholtra as an undergraduate student researcher to the lab!

4/2022 Incredibly grateful to Rally Foundation for funding our research in Wilms Tumor (a pediatric kidney cancer)! Read the announcement here.

3/2022 Congrats to Antara Palkar for being awarded the Jennifer Lea Evans - Memorial Scholarship from Emory College!

3/2022 Congrats to Dami Taiwo for being awarded the ALSF POST Medical Student Award!

2/2022 Excited to share our newest work on bioRxiv on developing models and identifying therapeutic targets in Wilms Tumor: https://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2022.02.23.481521v1

1/2022 Grateful to Winship Cancer Institute for Pilot Funding for our work in ATRT, MRT and RMC!

12/2021 Welcome Yongdong Su as a new postdoctoral fellow!

11/2021 Welcome Katie Skinner as a PhD rotation student from the Cancer Biology program!

10/2021 Congrats to Karuna for being named Director of Research & Development at PreludeDx! We will miss her but wish her success!

10/2021 Congrats to Andy for being named a William Guy Forbeck Research Scholar!

9/2021 Incredibly grateful to Ian’s Friends Foundation and the Grossenbachers for funding our research in ATRTs (a rare pediatric brain tumor)

7/2021 Congrats to Garrett for being appointed to the T32 Training Program in Genetics

7/2021 Congrats to Karuna for her DoD CDMRP Postdoctoral Fellowship being recommended for funding

7/2021 And it’s published - see the publications tab

6/2021 Excited to announce our first lab manuscript (collaborations with Children’s Oncology Group and Dr. Matthew Meyerson’s laboratory) has been accepted! More details to come in the next few weeks.

6/2021 Excited to announce that a manuscript based on our lab’s collaboration with the Broad Institute is out on biorxiv! https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.16.448102v3

5/2021 Congrats Xan for being selected to participate in the Winship Cancer Institute’s American Cancer Society Diversity in Cancer Research (ACSDICR) program

5/2021 Welcome Garrett officially to the lab as a graduate student!

4/2021 Welcome Cynthia Perez as a graduate student (Genetics and Molecular Biology) rotating in the lab!

4/2021 Congrats to Xan Wesley for being awarded a LGS-SOAR Summer Opportunity for Academic Research fellowship!

4/2021 Congrats to Microl Chen for being awarded the NIDDK Short-Term Research Experience for Underrepresented Persons (STEP-UP) summer research fellowship!

4/2021 Welcome to Antara Palkar and Microl Chen to the lab as undergraduate researchers!

4/2021 Laney Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences Genetics and Molecular Biology Seminar

4/2021 Incredibly grateful to Rally Foundation for funding our research in Wilms Tumor (a pediatric kidney cancer)!

3/2021 Incredibly grateful to Unravel Pediatric Cancer for funding our research in AT/RT (a SWI/SNF altered pediatric brain cancer)!

3/2021 Congrats Nate on getting into the Emory 4+1 Cancer Biology Masters program!

3/2021 Welcome Garrett Cooper as a graduate student (Genetics and Molecular Biology) rotating in the lab!

1/2021 Welcome to Nate Smyth and Josh Riembauer to the lab as undergraduate researchers!

10/2020 Welcome Brandy Bernarde as a graduate student (Genetics and Molecular Biology) rotating in the lab!

10/2020 Welcome Emma West as an undergraduate researcher!

9/2020 Welcome Miranda Adams as a graduate student (Cancer Biology) rotating in the lab!

8/2020 Excited to be having joint lab meetings with Dr. Jennifer Spangle’s lab in Radiation Oncology!

8/2020 Welcome Dr. Karuna Mittal to the lab as a new post-doctoral fellow!

7/2020 Welcome Xan Wesley to the lab as an undergraduate researcher!

7/1/2020 Our first lab meeting (virtually).

6/29/2020 Tissue culture hoods are up and running along with testing out our incubators with a few cell lines.

6/8/2020 Welcome to Benji Lee to the lab as a new research specialist!

5/22/2020 We have resumed our recruitment for post-doctoral fellows.

5/15/2020 We are in the planning and assessment stages of reopening the lab. We hope to be re-opening in the next few weeks.

5/12/2020 We have resumed our search for research specialists.

4/14/2020 Laney Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences Cancer Biology Seminar

3/23/2020 Due to COVID19, the lab is temporarily closed. Post-doc and research assistant/specialist recruitments are on hold.

3/16/2020 The Hong Lab officially opens at Emory University, Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, and the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

9/2023 Congrats to the lab and collaborators for the NIH X01 application being selected for the Gabriella Miller Kids First Pediatric Research Program (Kids First)!

9/2023 Congrats Katie on her published review on the genetics of ABCB1!

8/2023 Welcome Anna McKee, PhD who is pursuing a Masters in bioinformatics!

8/2023 Welcome Ian Morris as an undergraduate researcher in the lab!

7/2023 Congrats to Garrett for getting his Notice of Award (NOA) for the NCI Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA for Individual Predoctoral Fellows (F31) Award!

6/2023 Congrats to Katie for passing her PhD qualifying exam!