Director: Jenny Munson, Ph.D.
Professor
Director, Cancer Research Center - Roanoke
Jenny completed her Ph.D. at Georgia Tech in Bioengineering followed by postdoctoral research at l'Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland. She's a Fulbright and Whitaker Alumna and started at the University of Virginia in 2014, moving to Virginia Tech in 2017. She was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2020. Though she loves science and engineering, she also loves dancing with her daughters, Sadie, and June, travel, photography, and cooking.
Research Faculty and Staff
Raffae Ahmad
Postdoctoral Associate
Contact
Joined: August 2020
Raffae grew up in Miami, FL and earned his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Florida. He discovered his passion for research while volunteering in a spinal cord injury lab exploring electrical stimulation for neural repair. Raffae began his PhD at Virginia Tech studying the role of bacteria in pancreatic cancer and developing pulsed electric field therapies. He later transitioned to researching fluid flow in solid tumors and is currently focused on creating imaging biomarkers to track fluid dynamics within patients. Outside the lab, he enjoys cooking and baking for family and friends.
Skylar Davis
Research Associate
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Joined: August 2023
Skylar was born and raised in Alabama, where she earned her BS in biology at Jacksonville State University. Following college, she worked as a research technician at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) studying frontotemporal dementia. She then worked as a neurobiology lab manager at Duke University. After recently relocating to Virginia, she joined the Munson lab where she will use her expertise to develop and manage models across all projects. Outside of work, she enjoys anything outdoors including hiking, camping, playing with her dog, and nature photography.
Fariba Delavarbahr
Fariba was born and raised in Iran. She obtained her B.S. in Environmental Health Engineering from Iran University of Medical Sciences. She worked as a hygiene inspector at the West Tehran Health Center for 6 years. She moved to the US in 2013. She joined Virginia Western Community College in 2022 and received a career study certificate in Biotechnology. She joined Munson Lab as a research assistant in December 2023.
Daniel Howell, M.S.
Research Associate
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Joined: September 2024
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Daniel was born in Cincinnati, OH and has moved around a lot since: Asheville, Prairieville (LA), New Orleans, Atlanta, Minneapolis, and, since 2019, Roanoke. He received his bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Tulane University and his master’s in bioengineering from Georgia Tech, where his research focused on developing a system to apply multiaxial stress while culturing tissue engineered blood vessels. Prior to joining the Munson Lab, he worked in food and beverage quality control for over 5 years. In the Munson Lab, he primarily works on optimizing, validating, and extending our tissue engineered models of cancer. Outside of work, Daniel enjoys hiking, camping, and traveling with his wife, daughters, and dogs.
Yanping Liang
Research Associate
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Joined: May 2022
Yanping Liang was born and raised in China. She obtained her AS in Computer Science from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China and received her BS in Biotechnology from Worcester State University in United States. After becoming a research assistant in Dr. Deborah Kelly’s lab at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute (the former Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute) in Virginia, she studied a highly mutated tumor suppressor protein called BRCA1 using cryo-
Electron Microscopy. Later, she joined Dr. Michael Fox’s lab at Fralin Biomedical Research Institute as a research coordinator, where she developed immunopanning method to purify and culture visual neurons in vitro to investigate these neurons at cellular and molecular levels. In the Munson Lab, her major responsibility will be to maintain lab stocks of cancer cell lines. In addition, she is going to carry out diverse molecular and biological experiments across different projects. Outside of the lab, she enjoys spending her time with her family for a variety of outdoor/indoor activities such as hiking, gardening, and cooking.
Sharon Michelhaugh, PhD
Senior Research Scientist/Lab Manager
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Joined: November 2021
Sharon K. Michelhaugh hails from the Midwest with a BS in Life Science and Chemistry from Otterbein College, Westerville, OH, and her PhD from the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, in the laboratory of Margaret E. Gnegy. Her thesis work focused on changes of gene expression in dopaminergic circuits induced by psychostimulants in rats. This work was extended to humans in a postdoctoral fellowship followed by a permanent research position in the laboratory of Michael J. Bannon at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI by studying changes in the expression and activity of dopaminergic transcription factors in in vitro culture models and in cocaine overdose victims. Sharon then switched fields to neuro-oncology as the Research Scientist of the Translational Neuro-Oncology Research Lab at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, under the direction of Neurosurgeon Sandeep Mittal, MD where they developed cell culture and patient-derived xenograft models of primary and metastatic brain tumors. Sharon will use this expertise to contribute to the Munson Lab studies of glioblastoma and Alzheimer's Disease.
Caleb Stine
Caleb was born and raised in Ohio and attended Ohio University where he received a BS in Mechanical Engineering. Following school, he worked as an engineer in the automotive and construction fields, but his desire to improve lives brought him to the biomedical field. He is excited to bring his background and experiences to the Munson lab to study the cancer cell microenvironment. In his free time, Caleb enjoys being outside, spending time with his wife, daughter, and two cats, woodworking, and playing basketball.
Graduate and Medical Students
Nicole DeFoor
Graduate Student
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Joined: June 2024
Nicole grew up in Virginia Beach, VA, and earned her B.S. in Experimental Neuroscience at Virginia Tech. Throughout her undergraduate and post-baccalaureate research career, she discovered her passion for interdisciplinary research in various fields such as molecular biology, neuroscience, and linguistics. Continuing her education as a current graduate student in the Translational Biology, Medicine, & Health program at Virginia Tech, Nicole focuses her impact on creating opportunities to build public trust in science at local and regional levels. In the Munson Lab, Nicole studies how fluid flow interacts with molecular signaling in aggressive glioblastoma. Outside the lab, she enjoys playing video games with her friends, doing fabric craft, and spending time with her fiancé and cats.
Zixuan "Zoey" Gong
Graduate Research Assistant
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Joined: Spring 2024
Zoey grew up in Wuhan, China, and earned First Honor Degree of BSc in Applied Chemistry at University of Reading. After that, she completed her MSc in Advanced Material Science and Technology with Molly Stevens Group at Imperial College London.　She has been passionate about biochemistry, biomaterials, oncology, and neuroscience since her undergraduate years. She joined Munson Lab in January 2024 as a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering Program at Virginia Tech. Her research primarily focuses on fluid dynamics in the microenvironment of gliomas and the mechanisms by which these changes impact the efficacy of therapeutic drugs. Outside the lab, she loves R&B music and enjoys exploring nature, cooking and traveling around the world with her husband.
Samantha Howerton
Graduate Research Assistant
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Joined: June 2021
Samantha is a West Virginia native that has been asking questions about disease physiology since high-school A&P. She began studying cancer biology as an undergraduate at Concord University and has joined the Munson lab to characterize the glioblastoma microenvironment for treatment development. Samantha is pursuing her Ph.D. in Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health from Virginia Tech. Outside of the lab, Samantha greatly enjoys creative activities like colored pencil drawing and 3D modeling, but most of all adventuring with her husband and reading Tolkien together.
Rhea John
Graduate Student, Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics
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Joined: January 2022
Rhea is a fourth year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the Munson lab. Born and raised in Pune, India - she was always curious about the intricacies of the brain and how each brain disease was vastly different from the other. She did her undergrad in Electronics and Telecommunications engineering and M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from State University of New York. In the Munson lab she studies the impact of fluid flow on the meningeal lymphatics system and its involvement in the progression of Alzheimers Disease. In her free time she loves to explore cities with friends, exercise, play with her dog and watch horror movies with her husband.
Lincoln Kartchner
Medical Student Research Assistant
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Joined: February 2023
Lincoln is a second year medical student at VT-Carilion School of Medicine. He completed his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins.
Undergraduate Students
Hannah Beasey
Undergraduate Student
Joined: October 2023
