Salvador Alejo, Ph.D.
M.D./Ph.D. Student
Salvador (Sal) is a fourth-year medical student in the South Texas Medical Scientist Training Program (MD/PhD Program) and is preparing to complete his final year of clinical training, with an anticipated MD graduation in May 2025. He earned his PhD in May 2023 in the lab of Gangadhara Sareddy, PhD. His research utilized patient-derived primary tissues and mouse models to investigate the role of lysine-specific histone demethylase 1A (KDM1A/LSD1) in potentiating DNA damage response in glioma stem cells. His work explored the potential of small molecule inhibitors targeting KDM1A as a novel treatment strategy for GBM, showing promising therapeutic potential in preclinical models when combined with standard therapies such as radiation and chemotherapy. Sal is focused on pursuing a career in pathology as a clinician-scientist, with research interests in epigenetics, DNA repair, and drug discovery.
Hobbies/Interests
Sal is an avid sports fan who roots for his hometown Vegas Golden Knights and Raiders. He also loves watching baseball and hiking in Texas state parks. He dreams of one day being on Jeopardy! and moonlighting as an NFL referee.
Extracurriculars
2017-2020 Íø±¬³Ô¹Ï Medical Spanish Course Instructor
2018-2020 Frontera de Salud Medical Spanish Liaison
2018-2019 President - Student Pathology Association
Research Topic
Epigenetic regulation of DNA repair in Glioblastoma
Why I chose MD/PhD
To obtain training as a physician-scientist and make an impact in the lives of cancer patients by translating bench research to the clinic.
Post-bac work or other affiliations
2024-Present: Scientific Reports – Editorial Board Member
2023-Present: College of American Pathologists (CAP) – Medical Student Member
2020-Present: Society for Neuro-Oncology (SNO) – Student Member
2019-Present: American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) – Associate Member
2019-Present: Mays Cancer Center/MD Anderson – Affiliate Member
Education
Post-Baccalaureate, Biochemistry, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, 2017
B.A., Mathematics, Harvard University, 2010
Awards
2024 Gold Humanism Honor Society, Íø±¬³Ô¹Ï Chapter
2023 Frontiers of Translational Science Research Day Award Winner – IIMs at UTHSA
2023 1st Place Translational Poster Presentation – UTHSA Research Day
2023 AACR Minority Scholar in Cancer Research Award
2022 Society for Neuro-Oncology Women and Diversity Travel Award
Funding
2023-2024 T32 South Texas Medical Scientist Training Fellowship Award
2022-2023 CTSA Translational Sciences (TL-1) Fellow
2020-2020 Research Supplement to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research
Publications
Huang Y*, Li W*, Foo T, Ji JH, Wu B, Tomimatsu N, Fang Q, Gao B, Long M, Xu J, Maqbool R, Mukherjee B, Ni T, Alejo S, He Y, Burma S, Lan L, Xia B, Zhao W. DSS1 restrains BRCA2's engagement with dsDNA for homologous recombination, replication fork protection, and R-loop homeostasis. Nature Communications. 2024 Aug 17;15(1):7081. doi: . PMID: 39152168; PMCID: PMC11329725. *Equal Contribution
Chen Y, Johnson JD, Jayamohan S, He Y, Venkata PP, Jamwal D, Alejo S, Zou Y, Lai Z, Viswanadhapalli S, Vadlamudi RK, Kost E, Sareddy GR. KDM1A/LSD1 inhibition enhances chemotherapy response in ovarian cancer. Molecular Carcinogenesis. 2024 Jul 11. doi: . Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38990091.
Johnson JD, Alejo S, Jayamohan S, Sareddy GR. Lysine-specific demethylase 1 as a therapeutic cancer target: observations from preclinical study. Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Targets. 2023 Jul-Dec;27(12):1177-1188. doi: . Epub 2023 Dec 30. PubMed PMID: 37997756; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC10872912.
Venkata PP, Jayamohan S, He Y, Alejo S, Johnson JD, Palacios BE, Pratap UP, Chen Y, Liu Z, Zou Y, Lai Z, Suzuki T, Viswanadhapalli S, Weintraub ST, Palakurthi S, Valente PT, Tekmal RR, Kost ER, Vadlamudi RK, Sareddy GR. Pharmacological inhibition of KDM1A/LSD1 enhances estrogen receptor beta-mediated tumor suppression in ovarian cancer. Cancer Letters. 2023 Oct 28;575:216383. doi: . Epub 2023 Sep 14. PMID: 37714256.
Wang M*, Li W*, Tomimatsu N, Yu CH, Ji JH, Alejo S, Witus SR, Alimbetov D, Fitzgerald O, Wu B, Wang Q, Huang Y, Gan Y, Dong F, Kwon Y, Sareddy GR, Curiel TJ, Habib AA, Hromas R, Dos Santos Passos C, Yao T, Ivanov DN, Brzovic PS, Burma S, Klevit RE, Zhao W. Crucial roles of the BRCA1-BARD1 E3 ubiquitin ligase activity in homology-directed DNA repair. Molecular Cell. 2023 Oct 19;83(20):3679-3691.e8. doi: . Epub 2023 Oct 4. PMID: 37797621; PMCID: PMC10591799. *Equal Contribution
Alejo, S., Palacios, B. E., Venkata, P. P., He, Y., Li, W., Johnson, J. D., Chen, Y., Jayamohan, S., Pratap, U. P., Clarke, K., Zou, Y., Lv, Y., Weldon, K., Viswanadhapalli, S., Lai, Z., Ye, Z., Chen, Y., Gilbert, A. R., Suzuki, T., … Sareddy, G. R. (2023). Lysine-specific histone demethylase 1A (KDM1A/LSD1) inhibition attenuates DNA double-strand break repair and augments the efficacy of temozolomide in glioblastoma. In Neuro-Oncology (Vol. 25, Issue 7, pp. 1249–1261). Oxford University Press (OUP).
He, Y., Alejo, S., ., Johnson, J. D., Jayamohan, S., & Sareddy, G. R. (2023). Reticulocalbin 3 Is a Novel Mediator of Glioblastoma Progression. In Cancers (Vol. 15, Issue 7, p. 2008). MDPI AG.
He, Y., Alejo, S., Venkata, P. P., Johnson, J. D., Loeffel, I., Pratap, U. P., Zou, Y., Lai, Z., Tekmal, R. R., Kost, E. R., & Sareddy, G. R. (2022). Therapeutic Targeting of Ovarian Cancer Stem Cells Using Estrogen Receptor Beta Agonist. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 23(13), 7159.
Venkata, P. P., Chen, Y., Alejo, S., He, Y., Palacios, B. E., Loeffel, I., Liu, J., Pratap, U. P., Gray, G., Achuthan Pillai, S. M., Zou, Y., Lai, Z., Suzuki, T., Viswanadhapalli, S., Palakurthi, S., Tekmal, R. R., Vadlamudi, R. K., Kost, E., & Sareddy, G. R. (2022). KDM1A inhibition augments the efficacy of rapamycin for the treatment of endometrial cancer. Cancer Letters, 524, 219–231.
Sareddy, G. R., Pratap, U. P., Venkata, P. P., Zhou, M., Alejo, S., Viswanadhapalli, S., Tekmal, R. R., Brenner, A. J., & Vadlamudi, R. K. (2021). Activation of estrogen receptor beta signaling reduces stemness of glioma stem cells. Stem Cells, 39(5), 536–550.
Zhou, M., Venkata, P. P., Viswanadhapalli, S., Palacios, B., Alejo, S., Chen, Y., He, Y., Pratap, U. P., Liu, J., Zou, Y., Lai, Z., Suzuki, T., Brenner, A. J., Tekmal, R. R., Vadlamudi, R. K., & Sareddy, G. R. (2021). KDM1A inhibition is effective in reducing stemness and treating triple negative breast cancer. Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, 185(2), 343–357.
Zhang, C., Leng, F., Saxena, L., Hoang, N., Yu, J., Alejo, S., Lee, L., Qi, D., Lu, F., Sun, H., & Zhang, H. (2019). Proteolysis of methylated SOX2 protein is regulated by L3MBTL3 and CRL4DCAF5 ubiquitin ligase. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 294(2), 476–489.
Leng, F., Yu, J., Zhang, C., Alejo, S., Hoang, N., Sun, H., Lu, F., & Zhang, H. (2018). Methylated DNMT1 and E2F1 are targeted for proteolysis by L3MBTL3 and CRL4DCAF5 ubiquitin ligase. Nature Communications, 9(1), 1641.
Li, W., Xiong, X., Abdalla, A., Alejo, S., Zhu, L., Lu, F., & Sun, H. (2018). HGF-induced formation of the MET–AXL–ELMO2–DOCK180 complex promotes RAC1 activation, receptor clustering, and cancer cell migration and invasion. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 293(40), 15397–15418.
Zhang, C., Hoang, N., Leng, F., Saxena, L., Lee, L., Alejo, S., Qi, D., Khal, A., Sun, H., Lu, F., & Zhang, H. (2018). LSD1 demethylase and the methyl-binding protein PHF20L1 prevent SET7 methyltransferase–dependent proteolysis of the stem-cell protein SOX2. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 293(10), 3663–3674.