Katharina Lueckerath, PhD
Assistant Adjunct Professor, UCLA Molecular and Medical Pharmacology
Katharina is a biomedical scientist who obtained her PhD at the Institute for Tumor Biology and Experimental Therapy (Georg-Speyer-Haus, Frankfurt a. M., Germany). She served as head of the research group Experimental Oncology in Nuclear Medicine at the University of Würzurg (Germany) before transferring to UCLA. Dr. Lückerath’s research focuses on experimental and translational theranostics. Specifically, she investigates mechanisms underlying failure of radionuclide therapy with the goal to develop rationally chosen, translatable radionuclide therapy-based combination regimens that improve quality of life and survival of cancer patients.
Christine Mona, PhD
Assistant Adjunct Professor, UCLA Molecular and Medical Pharmacology
Christine received her Ph.D. in Pharmacology in 2016 from Université de Sherbrooke. She joined UCLA in 2016 as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in Nuclear Medicine in the research group of Professor Johannes Czernin. In early 2020, Dr. Mona was promoted to Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Ahmanson Translational Theranostic Division (ATTD). Dr. Mona is a translational researcher at the edge of Chemistry, Pharmacology and Nuclear Medicine. She is animated by applying modern scientific discoveries to the practice of medicine for the benefit of patients. Her program pioneers research in targeted nuclear medicine in different cancer paradigms and covers a broad field of preclinical research and translation to clinical discoveries.
Marco Taddio, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Marco received his doctorate in 2019 at ETH Zurich and has recently moved from Switzerland to the United States to join our group as a postdoctoral researcher. He has a strong interest in translational oncology and immunology. His expertise covers a broad field of preclinical research from organic chemistry, over various in vitrotechniques to radiolabeling and in vivostudies. He currently focuses on investigating the efficacy and immunological consequences of novel radionuclide therapy approaches, and how to exploit these effects by the combination with immunotherapeutic treatments.
Kyle Current
Senior Research Associate
Kyle obtained his B.A. in Biochemistry from the University of North Texas. Post University, he gained experience in antibody engineering while at both the UT Southwestern Medical Center and Texas A&M University, respectively. Currently at UCLA his research interests include studying metastatic prostate cancer using radiation, immunotherapeutics and small molecule drug approaches.
Firas Hikmat
Research Associate
Firas immigrated to the United States in 2013 in pursuit of becoming a physician. In 2019 he received his B.S. in Biology from UCLA. Throughout Firas’ undergraduate education his focus was directed towards gaining clinical and research experience in multidisciplinary areas. Currently he is working as a Staff Research Associate with Drs. Mona and Lueckerath while in the process of applying to medical schools.
Joel Almajano
Lab Manager
