Hangauer Lab Members

Principal Investigator 

Matt Hangauer, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, UC San Diego Department of Dermatology

B.S. in Chemistry (Vanderbilt, 2003), Ph.D. in Chemistry (UC Berkeley, 2009), Postdoc at UCSF. Assistant Professor at UCSD 2018-present.

Brandon Mauch, Ph.D. Student (BMS program)

Prior to the Hangauer lab: Brandon completed his undergraduate studies at CSU Fullerton (B.S. 2019) and has performed research in biochemistry at CSU Fullerton (Nikolaidis lab) and cancer biology at Stanford (Sage lab). He began his graduate studies in the UCSD BMS program in 2019.

Brandon is currently supported by the UCSD Pharmacological Sciences Training Program (PSTP) T32 training grant (2022-2024).

Hangauer Lab Project: Immunotherapy-tolerant persister cells

Mike Wang, Ph.D. Student (BMS program)

Prior to the Hangauer lab: Mike studied liberal studies at Mansfield University (B.A. 2013) and bioprocess engineering at SUNY ESF (B.S. 2016). He has performed research in microbiology at SUNY ESF (Nomura lab) and congenital heart disease genetics at the University of Pittsburgh (Lo lab). Mike joined the UCSD BMS program in 2019 for his graduate studies.

Mike was supported as a UCSD BMS Sarah Rogers Fellow (2019-2020) and is currently supported by the UCSD Cancer Biology, Informatics and Omics (CBIO) T32 training grant (2023-2025).

Hangauer Lab Project: Immunotherapy-tolerant persister cells

August Williams, Postdoc

Prior to the Hangauer lab: August completed his undergraduate studies at UCSB (B.S. 2015) and has performed research in microbiology at UCSB (Low lab) and cancer biology at Massachusetts General Hospital (Benes lab).  He began his graduate studies at UCSD in 2018.

Gus was supported by the UCSD T32 Cancer Biology, Informatics and Omics (CBIO) training grant (2019-2021). He received his Ph.D. in 2023 and is continuing in lab as a postdoc.

Hangauer Lab Project: Cancer persister cell mutagenesis and acquired drug resistance

Anna Stuhlfire, Contiguous BS/MS Biology Student

Prior to the Hangauer lab: Anna was a UCSD undergraduate and joined the Hangauer lab in 2019. She completed her Contiguous Biology BS/MS degree in the Hangauer lab in 2021 and is continuing to pursue her research project as a lab scientist.

Hangauer Lab Project: Cancer persister cell vulnerabilities

Tania Barazande-Pour, Undergraduate Student

Hangauer Lab Project: Immunotherapy-tolerant persister cells

Tiffany Tran, Undergraduate Student

Hangauer Lab Project: Immunotherapy-tolerant persister cells

David Adrian Gervasio, Contiguous BS/MS Biology Student (2019-2020) and Laboratory Assistant (2020-2023)

Hangauer Lab Project: Cancer persister cell mutagenesis and acquired resistance

Current Position: Medical Student at Tulane University School of Medicine

Michelle Paw, Undergraduate Student (2021-2023)

Hangauer Lab Project: Cancer persister cell mutagenesis and acquired resistance

Current Position: Medical Student at California University of Science and Medicine

Claire Turkal, Laboratory Assistant (2018-2021)

Hangauer Lab Project: Cancer persister cell mutagenesis and acquired resistance

Current Position: Senior Research Associate at Seawolf Therapeutics

Masayoshi Higuchi MD, PhD, Postdoc (2018-2020) and Assistant Project Scientist (2020-2021)

Hangauer Lab Project: Cancer persister cell vulnerabilities

Current Position: Research Scientist at Stony Brook Cancer Center (Hannun lab)

Filipe Araujo Hoffman, Contiguous BS/MS Biology Student (2019-2021)

Hangauer Lab Project: Immunotherapy-tolerant persister cells

Current Position: Stanford Immunology PhD Program

Suejean Chon, Undergraduate Student (2020-2021)

Hangauer Lab Project: Cancer persister cell vulnerabilities

Current Position: Trauma Technician at Palomar Health

Runfan Yang, Undergraduate Student (2019-2020)

Hangauer Lab Project: CRISPR engineering

Current Position: UNC Chapel Hill Pharmacology Ph.D. Program (Sondek lab)

Cooper Lathrop, Laboratory Assistant (2018-2020)

Hangauer Lab Project: Immunotherapy-tolerant persister cells

Current Position: Medical student at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Mehrshad Hairani, Undergraduate Student (2018-2020)

Hangauer Lab Project: Cancer persister cell mutagenesis and acquired resistance

Current Position: UCLA School of Dentistry

Sophie Harris, Staff Research Associate (2017-2020)

Hangauer Lab Project: Immunotherapy-tolerant persister cells

Current Position: Medical student at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine