Research Team

As part of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Bladder Cancer Research Program has access to some of the most advanced technology and research infrastructure in the world.

The program brings together experts in molecular biology, pharmacology, bioinformatics and disease modeling to address long-standing questions in tumor biology and work toward the development of the next generation of therapies.

Our team has published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles in preeminent journals such as Nature, Cell, and New England Journal of Medicine, which have been cumulatively cited over 9,600 times.

Leadership

William Y. Kim

Basic/Translational Research Lead

William Kim, MD, is a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member involved with clinical research, the urologic oncology program and the cancer genetics program. The Kim Lab studies the genetics of bladder and kidney cancers.

Matthew I. Milowsky

Clinical Research Lead

Matthew Milowsky, MD, FASCO, is a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member, a medical oncologist, and clinical and translational researcher. His clinical interest is the treatment of patients with genitourinary cancers, including bladder, testicular, kidney and prostate cancer.

Jeffrey S. Damrauer

Computational and Bioinformatic Research Lead

Program Manager

Jeffrey S. Damrauer, PhD, is the program manager for the Bladder Cancer Research Program and leads the group’s bioinformatics efforts.

Contributing Faculty

Basic/Translational Research

Katherine A. Hoadley

Gene Expression Profiling

Katherine Hoadley, PhD, is a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member with research interest in the biology of cancer through gene expression analyses and integrative genomic approaches.

William Y. Kim

Disease Modeling and Translation Research

William Kim, MD, is a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member involved with clinical research, the urologic oncology program and the cancer genetics program. The Kim Lab studies the genetics of bladder and kidney cancers.

Brian C. Miller

Immunogenomics

Brian C. Miller, MD, PhD, is a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member with a research focus on how to better activate the immune system to fight cancer.

Benjamin Garrett Vincent

Immunogenomics

Benjamin Vincent, MD, is a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member with research focus in the areas of systems tumor immunology and immunogenomics, aiming to better understand anti-tumor immunity and translate this into curative immunotherapy strategies.

Bernard E. Weissman

Epigenetics

Bernard E. Weissman, PhD, is a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member whose research focuses upon the role of aberrant chromatin remodeling in cancer development.

Matthew Breen

Comparative Oncogenomics

Matthew Breen, PhD, is a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member with a research focus on genomics, genome mapping and the comparative aspects of canine cancer.

Clinical Research – Clinical Trials

Marc A. Bjurlin

Risk Factors

Marc Bjurlin, DO, MSc, FACOS, is a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member with a research focus on the clinical outcomes and techniques of genitourinary cancer treatment, including minimally invasive techniques in cancer surgery.

Matthew I. Milowsky

Clinical Trials and Immunotherapy

Matthew Milowsky, MD, FASCO, is a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member, a medical oncologist, and clinical and translational researcher. His clinical interest is the treatment of patients with genitourinary cancers, including bladder, testicular, kidney and prostate cancer.

Tracy L. Rose

Clinical Trials

Tracy Rose, MD, MPH, is a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member with clinical interest in treating patients with genitourinary cancers, including bladder, kidney, prostate and testicular cancers.

Clinical Research – Health Services

Ethan Basch

Health Outcomes

Ethan Basch, MD, MSc, is a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member and medical oncologist and health services researcher focused on developing methods to bring the patient perspective into cancer clinical research and routine care delivery.

Angela B. Smith

Outcomes

Angela B. Smith, MD, MS, FACS, is a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member with a clinical and research focus is in bladder cancer.

Matthew E. Nielsen

Patient Safety

Matthew Nielsen, MD, MS, FACS, is a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member and urologic oncologist with a clinical focus in the treatment of bladder, prostate and kidney cancer. He is actively engaged in quality improvement and patient safety efforts at UNC.

Hung-Jui (Ray) Tan

Optimizing Delivery of Care

Ray Tan, MD, MSHPM, is a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member with a research focus on the study of cancer care delivery and the translation of care improvements, especially for high-risk populations including the elderly. Tan provides care for urologic and bladder oncology patients.

Pathology

Sara E. Wobker

Variant Histology

Sara E. Wobker, MD, MPH, is a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member whose research involves the study of genitourinary malignancies, with the goal of translating histologic findings into molecular discoveries, with the ultimate aim of improving patient care.

Pharmacology/Drug Development

Daniel J. Crona

Therapeutic Development

Daniel J. Crona, PharmD, PhD, CPP, is a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member working to advance public health by integrating epigenetics, developmental therapeutics, and clinical pharmacology into clinical and translational research that optimizes treatment strategies for hematology/oncology patients.

Leaf Huang

Targeted Drug Delivery

Leaf Huang, PhD, is a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member with research interests in the area of gene therapy and targeted drug delivery.

Zibo Li

Therapeutic Development

Zibo Li, PhD, is a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member with an interest in molecular imaging and techniques for non-invasive detection of cancer at the earliest stage.

Epidemiology/Public Health

Rebecca Fry

Environmental Risk Factors

Rebecca Fry, PhD, is a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member with a research focus on understanding how environmental exposures to toxic substances are associated with human disease.

Andrew Olshan

Epidemiology

Andrew Olshan, PhD, is a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member whose research involves studies of the molecular epidemiology of cancers of the head and neck and evaluation of risk factors for childhood cancer.

Radiology

Ersan Altun

Ersan Altun, MD, is a radiologist and associate professor of radiology at UNC-Chapel Hill.