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We are looking for individuals who are excited about what we do. 

Please email a description of your interest in our work and your CV to Dr. Ted Braun.
Theodore Braun, MD PhD

Principal Investigator

​Dr. Braun did his undergraduate work at Claremont Mckenna College. He then completed his MD/PhD at OHSU studying the neuroendocrine basis for Cancer Cachexia. His work established the critical role of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis as a major mediator of muscle loss in response to tumor growth. He then completed his residency training in internal medicine at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, WA. He then returned to OHSU to complete his fellowship in Hematology & Medical Oncology. His fellowship work defined the mechanism of oncogene synergy between mutations in CSF3R and CEBPA in Acute Myeloid Leukemia. This work demonstrated that CEBPA mutations alter the epigenetic landscape changing the manifestation of CSF3R mutations acquired later during disease development.
Dr. Braun sees patients with blood cancers at the OHSU Center for Hematologic Malignancies.
 
When not in the lab, Dr. Braun enjoys spending time with his wife and two children, and a multitude of outdoor activities in the beautiful pacific northwest including hiking, backpacking, kayaking and bicycling. 

Will Yashar

BS, MD/PhD Student
 Will earned his undergraduate degree in physics from MIT. He began his research career investigating translational radiotherapy devices at UCSD Moores Cancer Center. During his undergraduate education, he received training in a variety of scientific disciplines, including dark matter, bioinformatics, and medical devices. After graduating, Will went on to be a founding employee of a molecular diagnostics biotech start-up, Abreos Biosciences (now a wholly owned subsidiary of Aegirbio).

Will joined the OHSU MD/PhD Program in 2018 and has completed his clinical didactics training. He is now actively engaged in his PhD dissertation research in the laboratories of Drs. Theodore Braun, Brian Druker, and Emek Demir. Will's research interests include studying epigenetic mechanisms of leukemia initiation and therapeutic response, as well as developing computational techniques to better understand these phenomena.

​Outside of work, Will enjoys staying active with running, cycling, and swimming, cooking, and taking care of his buff tabby, Amelie.

Jommel Macaraeg

BS, Research Assistant
Jommel was born and raised in Hawaii on the island of Oahu. He earned his B.S. in Biology with a minor in Psychology from the University of Portland. During his undergraduate studies, Jommel studied cell cycle kinases under Dr. David Wynne and completed a senior thesis investigating the relationship between haspin and polo-like kinase in C. elegans. After graduating, Jommel joined the Braun Lab as a research assistant where he currently studies targeted combination therapies for acute myeloid leukemia.

In his free time, Jommel enjoys spending time with friends and family, playing Clue, and going on spontaneous food adventures.

Akram Taherinasab

MS, PhD, Postdoctoral Scholar
Akram completed her undergraduate degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Islamic Azad University of Tehran. She moved to Italy in August 2011 to start her master’s degree in Molecular and Industrial Biotechnology at the University of Pisa. During her master thesis at the department of experimental pathology of the University of Pisa, she focused on the excision of HIV-1 Provirus using Transcription Activator like Effectors (TALEN) gene editing technique. Upon graduating, Akram started to work on characterization of neurons derived from mouse ES cells at Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) of Pisa followed by a 4-month training at Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Cambridge where she learned a new technology called Laser-Tag for the space-specific recovery of biological molecules. In November 2017, she won a 3-year scholarship to start her PhD at the University of Sapienza. During her PhD, she worked on the characterization of adult Philadelphia negative B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (B-ALL) in cases enrolled in few national clinical protocols. Akram performed Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) on patient’s samples coming from all over Italy to better characterize these patients and get a better understanding of drug resistance and relapse in different ALL subtype patients. She also learned how to use a very sensitive technique called Digital Droplet PCR (ddPCR) in order to monitor patients for Minimal Residual Disease (MRD) and to detect mutations that confer resistance to targeted therapies in these patients. She spent 5-months of her PhD at the Catholic University of Leuven where she learned about single cell NGS techniques.

Akram loves traveling, working out, watching movies, camping, hiking, and spending time with her family and friends.
Itallia V Pacentine
BSc, PhD, MSc, Computational Biologist 2
Dr. Itallia V. Pacentine was born and raised in Southern California. After receiving concurrent BSc degrees in Neuroscience and Biology, she moved to Portland to pursue a PhD in Neuroscience. She joined Dr. Teresa Nicolson’s lab in 2014 to study a complex of proteins that are essential in hearing and balance. In 2018, she defended her dissertation titled "Molecular composition and protein interactions in the mechano-electrical transduction complex of zebrafish sensory hair cells." She then completed a postdoctorate with Peter Barr-Gillespie, in which she developed a novel technique for imaging myosin motor proteins in intact hair cells. In 2020, Dr. Pacentine received a postdoctoral fellowship in Biomedical Informatics through the National Library of Medicine, in which she trained in bioinformatic approaches. Dr. Pacentine joined the Braun lab in October 2022 to study Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). Her goal is to close the loop on wet and dry lab techniques, combining these traditionally disparate techniques into a single cohesive workflow. She is using this “humid” research approach on two major projects: 1. Characterizing Minimal Residual Disease post-chemotherapy, which is believed to cause relapse. 2. Characterizing AMLs with more mature cell presentation (“monocytic”), which is mainly seen in relapse after the standard-of-treatment Venetoclax/Azacitidine.

Itallia enjoys taekwon do, home renovations, bingeing new shows, tea, and hanging out with friends.

Alumni

Cody Coblentz

BS, Research Assistant
​Cody is a native Oregonian from Willamina. He earned his B.S. in biology at George Fox University, where he conducted undergraduate research with Dr. John Schmitt through the Richter Scholar's program. He characterized a recently-discovered relationship between P53 & Cam Kinase I in breast cancer.  His current research interests include mutation cooperativity and targeted combination therapies for acute myeloid leukemia.

When not caring for his mice, Cody and his wife Stephany enjoy hiking, game nights, and mixing new cocktail recipes. Cody also mixes as a DJ on the side and is slightly obsessed with birds.

Brittany Curtiss

BS, Senior Research Assistant
Brittany graduated from George Fox University with a BS in Cell and Molecular Biology and a minor in Chemistry. As part of the Richter Scholars program, she studied under Dr. Jim Smart and Dr. Anthony Barnes in the Knight Cardiovascular Institute at OHSU. During that time, she investigated the role of Rab7A in murine neurodevelopment. After graduating, she became a research assistant for Dr. Braun. Brittany's research interest include epigenetic changes due to combination therapy for leukemia. Additionally, she enjoys deploying computational tools to analyze the sequencing data she generates in lab.

Brittany likes playing board games, being outside, and spending time with family.