Adem Yildirim
Assistant Professor
Adem is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Oncological Sciences (DOS) at the Knight Cancer Institute. He is also a member of the Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research (CEDAR) center and adjunct faculty in the Biomedical Engineering Department. Prior to joining DOS as a faculty member, he was a Staff Scientist at CEDAR from 2018 to 2021, and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Colorado, Boulder, in the group of Andrew Goodwin from 2015 to 2018. He received his Ph. D. in Materials Science and Nanotechnology from the Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey.
Li Xiang
Assistant Scientist
Li Xiang received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Pohang University of Science and Technology, South Korea, and joined Oregon Health & Science University in 2022 as a postdoctoral researcher and became an Assistant Scientist in 2026. Her research focuses on developing peptide- and nanoparticle-based tumor-specific delivery platforms for the early detection and interception of pan-solid tumors.
Alexandra Tihomirov Bukchin
Postdoctoral Researcher
Alex joined our team as a postdoctoral researcher in 2024 with an experience in drug delivery to brain tumors. She is currently working on developing biorthogonal strategies for safe and effective drug delivery to solid tumors.
Kailin Mooney
Research Engineer
Kailin received her MS in chemistry from the University of Oregon in 2024 where she focused on synthesizing molecular probes to track mitochondrial health. She completed a postbac at the National Institute on Drug Abuse in 2023 and her BS in Chemistry at the University of Portland in 2021. Kailin’s current projects focus on developing tumor-targeting therapies for medulloblastoma and optical imaging agents for glioblastoma.
Morgan Stewart
Senior Research Assistant
Morgan joined CEDAR in 2021 as a research assistant. She worked on developing assays for protease activity detection in biological solutions for the detection pancreatic cancer. Her current research aims to develop peptide amphiphile based drug delivery systems. She also helps the team with sample synthesis and purification in addition to small animal model work.
Michael Henderson
Graduate Student
Michael earned his bachelor's degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Carroll College in 2021. As a research assistant, he led efforts to enhance the cold-chain stability of mRNA therapies during the COVID-19 pandemic, which piqued his interest in translating academic discoveries. He joined Oregon Health & Science University in 2022, and is now a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in Biomedical Engineering. His research focus is on advancing the efficacy of nanoparticle- and protein-based cancer immunotherapy.
Pintu Rathod
Graduate Student
Pintu is a second year Biomedical Engineering Graduate Student. He received his Bachelor's degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai. After graduation, he worked as a Junior Research Fellow, where he developed hydrogel-based systems designed to enable sustained drug release. His research interests include nanomedicine and drug delivery, with a current focus on nanoparticle-based approaches for cancer treatment.
Alumni
Sinan Sabuncu (Postdoctoral Researcher), 2021 – 2024
Iman Adem (M. S. Student), Biomedical Engineering, 2023 – 2026
Veronica Young (Undergraduate student), Equity Research Program Summer Intern, 2025
Amirah Ambell (High school student), Ted. R. Lilley CURE Program Summer Intern, 2025
Lily Pham (High school student), Ted. R. Lilley CURE Program Summer Intern, 2023, 2024
Ruth Javier Ramirez (Undergraduate student), Portland Community College, 2022
Lisa Truong (High school student), Ted. R. Lilley CURE Program Summer Intern, 2022
Tua'au Laolagi (Undergraduate student), Equity Research Program Summer Intern, 2022