Department Name

Alex G Cuenca is a PGY-3 general surgery resident at the University of Florida. He will spend three years in the lab of Dr. Moldawer and be the 4th general surgery resident at UF to matriculate in the PhD program. Additionally, he is a trainee in the T32 Research Fellowship in Trauma and Burns in the Laboratory of Inflammation Biology and Surgical Science. His two areas of research focus will be in neonatal sepsis and sepsis in cancer patients. He plans to pursue a career in academic pediatric or vascular surgery upon completion of general surgery training.


PUBLICATIONS/PRESENTATIONS:

1) Cuenca AG and Beierle EA. Pulmonary Surgery in Cystic Fibrosis. Seminars in Pediatric Surgery 2008 Feb 17 (1): 60-5
2) Cuenca AG, Jiang H, Hochwald SN, Delano M, Cance WG, Grobmyer SR. Emerging implications of nanotechnology on cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. Cancer 2006 Aug 1: 107 (3) 459-66 Review
3) Horna P, Cuenca A, Cheng F, Brayer J, Wang HW, Borrello I, Levitsky H, Sotomayor EM.
In vivo disruption of tolerogenic cross-presentation mechanisms uncovers an effective T-cell activation by B-cell lymphomas leading to antitumor immunity.
Blood. 2006 Apr 1;107(7):2871-8. Epub 2005 Dec 8
4) H Wang, F Cheng, A Cuenca, P Horna, Z Zheng, K Bhalla, EM Sotomayor. Imatinib mesylate (STI-571) enhances antigen-presenting cell function and overcomes tumor induced CD 4+ T-cell tolerance. Blood 2005 105 (3): 1135-43
5) Alex G Cuenca, Fengdong Cheng, Lingping Gu, Harold Bien, Ivan M Borrello, Hyam I Levitsky, and Eduardo M Sotomayor. Extra-lymphatic solid tumor growth is not immunologically ignored and results in early induction of antigen-specific t cell anergy: dominant role of “ cross tolerance” to tumor antigens. Cancer Res. 2003 Dec 15;63(24):9007-15
6) F Cheng, A Cuenca, H Yu, R Jove, and EM Sotomayor. A Critical Role for STAT-3 signaling in immune tolerance. Immunity. 2003 Sep;19(3):425-36
7) Alex G Cuenca, W Douglass Cress, Robert A Good, Yasmin Marikar, Robert W Engelman. Calorie Restriction Influences Cell Cycle Protein Expression and DNA Synthesis during Liver Regeneration. Exp Biol Med (Maywood). 2001 Dec;226(11):1061-7.
8) EM Sotomayor, I Borrello, F Rattis, AG Cuenca, J Abrams, K Stanley-Ocarroll, and HI Levitsky. Cross presentation of tumor antigens by bon e marrow derived antigen presenting cells is the dominant mechanism in the induction of T cell tolerance during B cell lymphoma progression. Blood 2001 98 (4): 1070-1077
9) Cuenca AG, Wiggins A, Chen MK, Islam S, Kays DW, and Beierle EA. Equestrian Injuries in Children. Submitted (2008)

ABSTRACTS AND CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

1) AG Cuenca, A Wiggins, MK Chen, S Islam, DW Kays, and EA Beierle. Equestrian injuries in children. 4th Annual University of Florida Department of Surgery Research Day 2008.
2) AG Cuenca, F Cheng, H Wang, I Trindade, HI Levitsky, and EM Sotomayor. Tolerogenic Antigen Presenting Cells (APCs) represents a critical barrier for T cell adoptive immunotherapy of B cell malignancies. Oral Presentation. 43rd annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology 2001.
3) AG Cuenca, F Cheng, H Wang, J Green, WS Dalton, and EM Sotomayor. Modulation of antigen presenting cell (APC) function by aminobisphosphonates enhances T cell priming and prevents tumor induced T cell tolerance. 43rd annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology 2001.
4) F Cheng, AG Cuenca, H Wang, M huang, K H Shain, R Jove, H Yu, EM Sotomayor. Inihibition of JAK STAT3 Signaling in B cell lymphomas enhances antigen presentation and restores responsiveness of T cells from tumor bearing hosts: implications for immunotherapy of B cell malignacies. . 43rd annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology 2001.
5) F Cheng, AG Cuenca, H Wang, JP Allison, I Borrelo, HI Levitsky, and EM Sotomayor. In vitro blockade of CTLA-4 enhances the priming of Naïve T cells and Restores the Responsiveness of T cells from lymphoma bearing hosts: Implications for T cell adoptive immunotherapy of B cell malignacies. . 43rd annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology 2001.
6) H Wang, F Cheng, AG Cuenca, K Bhalla, and EM Sotomayor. STI-571, a selective tyrosine kinase inhibitor, significantly enhances antigen presentation by bone marrow derived APCs: Implications for immunotherapy of tumor derived from antigen presenting cells. . 43rd annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology 2001.
7) T Pyhel, G Tan, KA Noonan, AG Cuenca, EM Sotomayor, HI Levitsky, I Borrello. Autologous bone marrow transplantation delays lymphoma induced T cell tolerance and restores responsiveness of T cells from tumor bearing mice: evidence of an autologous graft vs Lymphoma Effect. . 43rd annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology 2001.
8) AG Cuenca and F Cheng. Novel strategies to break tumor-induced antigen specific tolerance. Oral presentation. Research in Progress Seminar H Lee Moffitt Cancer and Research Center 2001.
9) F Cheng, AG Cuenca, L Burdelya, M Huang, R Jove, H Yu, EM Sotomayor. Inhibition of STAT signaling by JAK-Kinase selective inhibitor tryphostin AG490 enhances antigen presentation function in vitro and in vivo. 42rd annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology 2000.
10) Alex G Cuenca, W Douglass Cress, Robert A Good, Yasmin Marikar, Robert W Engelman. Calorie Restriction Influences Cell Cycle Protein Expression and DNA Synthesis during Liver Regeneration. American Association of Cancer Research 2000.