BIG-TCR News and Events

McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth Houston, Genomics and Translational Cancer Research Training Program (BIG-TCR) has accepted three new fellows to join our program. The BIG-TCR program is designed to train the next generation of scientists in the field of cancer research by providing them with a highly interactive, innovative, and interdisciplinary training environment and skills to conduct cutting-edge research in cancer field.

The three new fellows, Tanjida Kabir, Dr. Avisha Das and Dr. Mahesh Prasad Bekal, were chosen from a competitive pool of applicants. They all have substantial knowledge and experience in biomedical and cancer research, and are excited to join the BIG-TCR program to further their education and research careers.

Ms. Tanjida Kabir received her undergraduate degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, and her master in Computer Science from Georgia Institute of Technology.  She currently is pursuing a PhD at McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth Houston.  She is interested in performing impactful research on complex human diseases like cancer through the integration of techniques from the fields of mathematics, machine learning, and computer vision.

Dr. Avisha Das received her undergraduate degree in Electronics Communication and Engineering from the West Bengal University of Technology, and her PhD in Computer Science from University of Houston. She has previously conducted research on exploring and studying techniques to understand and provide solutions to natural language-based tasks, and is interested in developing models as knowledge resources through extensive searching and mining of and biomedical literature.

Dr. Mahesh Prasad Bekal received his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Mangalore University, and his PhD in Biochemistry from Nitte University, India. His research focuses on radiation-induced cognitive dysfunction following radiation therapy. By analyzing fecal microbiome and metabolites, he hopes to understand how gut microbials and metabolites impact host immunologic profiles and cognitive functions.

The BIG-TCR program is funded by CPRIT and provides a comprehensive training curriculum for fellows, including courses in genomics, cancer biology, biomedical informatics, and translational research. Fellows also have the opportunity to work with leading researchers at UTHealth Houston, and to conduct independent research projects.

"We are thrilled to welcome Tanjida, Avisha and Mahesh to our BIG-TCR program," said Dr. Zhongming Zhao, Director of the program. "They all have impressive backgrounds in cancer research and informatics, and we are confident that they will make significant contributions to our research community. We look forward to working with them and helping them to achieve their career goals."