Lab News
May 2025 – Biotechnology High School student Nadia Kim joins the Payne Lab as a research intern. Welcome Nadia!
May 2025 – Congratulations to Rinkee for receiving the Gallo Award for Outstanding Cancer Research at the 2025 Annual Retreat on Cancer Research in New Jersey, for her project, ‘Tumor Microenvironment Stress Modulates Membrane Trafficking to Regulate T Cell Receptor Complex Aggregation in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer’.
May 2025 – Congratulations to Rinkee, Elaheh, and Maria for presenting their work at the American Association of Immunologists IMMUNOLOGY2025™ Meeting in Honolulu, HI.
May 2025 – Adam and Shreya join the lab to pursue their doctoral research. We are excited to begin this adventure together!
January 2025 – PhD student Shreya Yadav begins her rotation in the lab.
August 2024 – PhD students Cierra Faries and Adam Robinson begin their rotation in the lab.
August 2024 – We welcome Francesca Osborn to the lab as an Undergraduate Research Assistant. Welcome Francesca!
July 2024 – Payne Lab welcomes Hafeezah Abdullah, our 2024 RUYES Summer Fellow.
May 2024 – Congratulations to Rinkee for receiving the Gallo Award for Outstanding Cancer Research at the 2024 Annual Retreat on Cancer Research in New Jersey, for her project, ‘Tumor Microenvironment-Induced Stress Response Pathway Regulates Antitumor CD8+ T Cell Activity in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer’.
May 2024 – We welcome Prisha Patel to the lab as our newest Undergraduate Research Assistant. Welcome Prisha!
April 2024 – Undergraduate Zachary Smith publicly defends his George H. Cook Honors Thesis: “Characterization of the Immunomodulatory Potential of Butyrophilin-Like Molecule 3 in the Ovarian Cancer Tumor Microenvironment.”
April 2024 – Dr. Payne delivers his invited talk, ‘Interrogating the Immunobiology of Ovarian Cancer’, at the New Jersey Medical School (NJMS) Seminar.
December 2023 – PhD student Emily Hyde begins her rotation in the lab. Welcome Emily!
December 2023 – We welcome Akil Anthony to the lab as an Undergraduate Research Assistant. Welcome Akil!
November 2023 – Lomaani Ranasinghe joins the lab as our new Research Teaching Specialist. Welcome Lomaani!
November 2023 – We welcome PhD student Jessica Rappaport as she begins her first rotation in our lab.
June 2023 – Dr. Payne is awarded the 2023 Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators in Cancer Research. This prize, awarded by the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance, provides substantial funding to exceptional young scientists in the greater New York City area with innovative ideas in the field of cancer research. Here, the lab will interrogate how dysregulated lipid trafficking impairs signaling domains in tumor microenvironmental T cells, thus impairing their ability to effectively eliminate cancer cells. Dr. Payne is hopeful that interrogating these mechanisms will catalyze the development of effective immunotherapies for ovarian cancer.
June 2023 – Elaheh gives a talk at the Rutgers CINJ Trainee Seminar Series, entitled ‘Antitumor immunity is orchestrated by a novel tumor cell-intrinsic cellular stress modulator’.
May 2023 – Maria and Chris join the lab to pursue their doctoral research. We are excited to begin this adventure together!
May 2023 – Dr. Payne delivers his invited talk, ‘Novel stress responses govern T cell-intrinsic suppressive programs in cancer’, at the 2023 i3D Research Symposium.
May 2023 – Rinkee is awarded first prize for her poster presentation, ‘Tumor-induced stress response pathways regulate T cell activity in ovarian cancer’, at the 2023 i3D Research Symposium. Congratulations Rinkee!
March 2023 – PhD student Christopher Alcott begins his rotation in the lab. Welcome Chris!
January 2023 – We welcome Ritika Jain, our newest undergraduate research intern!
December 2022 – PhD student Prateeksha Rout begins her rotation in the lab. Welcome Prateeksha!
December 2022 – Dr. Payne is awarded an Early Career Investigator Grant from the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance to interrogate the mechanisms by which mitochondrial stress impairs protective T cell immunity in ovarian cancer beds.
November 2022 – Dr. Payne and Kristen visit Linden High School to share their experiences in science with the Linden High School Science Club.
November 2022 – In collaboration, Drs. Payne and Shin-Heng Chiou, PhD are awarded a CINJ CoE internal grant to identify novel T cell receptor sequences in ovarian cancer. This work has the potential to drive novel TCR engineered T cell-based cellular therapeutic approaches for ovarian cancer patients.
November 2022 – Rinkee presents her recent discoveries at the New Jersey Commission on Cancer Research Annual Retreat.
September 26, 2022 – PhD student Maria Søgaard begins her first rotation in the lab. Welcome Maria!
August 26, 2022 – Dr. Payne presents the lab’s recent work detailing the regulation of adaptive immunity through cellular stress mechanisms at the CIO/CINJ Summit.
August 17, 2022 – Dr. Payne is granted a V Foundation – 2022 V Scholar Program award for his proposal entitled, “Elucidation of Tumor Cell-Intrinsic Mitochondrial Stress Signaling as a Novel Regulator of Antitumor Immunity.” This work will define how novel adaptive stress response mechanisms within cancer cells promote malignant progression through evasion of protective immune responses.
June 30, 2022 – Kristen lectures on ‘Ovarian Cancer Stress Responses’ to RUYES 2022 participants.
June 28, 2022 – Dr. Payne is named a recipient of a 2022 CINJ New Investigator Award.
June 28, 2022 – Rinkee is awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant from the New Jersey Commission on Cancer Research to investigate the impact of stress responses on antitumor T cell activity. Congratulations Rinkee!
June 27, 2022 – Payne Lab welcomes Tristan Mondesir, our 2022 RUYES Summer Fellow.
June 13, 2022 – Steven Wang joins the lab as our new Research Technician.
May 31, 2022 – Payne Lab welcomes Dr. Rinkee Kumari, PhD as a postdoctoral fellow.
May 5, 2022 – Graduate Student Elaheh Hosseini joins the lab to pursue her PhD studies.
April 15, 2022 – Dr. Payne presents at the New Jersey Medical School.
March 21, 2022 – Dr. Payne’s K22 Career Transition Award has been selected for funding by the National Cancer Institute.
March 21, 2022 – Dr. Payne lectures on Ovarian Cancer Immunobiology at the Rutgers Byrne Seminar Series.
March 17, 2022 – Dr. Payne presents the lab’s work at Virginia Commonwealth University.
March 16, 2022 – Payne Lab welcomes Kristen Warrington as our new Research Associate III.
March 3, 2022 – Dr. Payne presents at the i3D Faculty Retreat.
February 15, 2022 – New Jersey Health Foundation funds the Payne Lab to dissect the role of Butyrophilin-like molecules in Ovarian Cancer.
February 7, 2022 – Payne Lab welcomes Elaheh Hosseini for a graduate student rotation.
January 17, 2022 – Zachary Smith joins the lab as an Undergraduate Research Assistant.
January 3, 2022 – Payne Lab welcomes Tyler Milonas as our new Research Teaching Specialist V.
November 8, 2021 – Steven Wang joins the lab as an Undergraduate Research Assistant.
August 21, 2021 – Payne Lab opens at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey.