— Office of Graduate Studies — Programs — Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences (IGPBS) — IGPBS Faculty — Cancer Research Faculty

Cancer Research Faculty

Faculty Departments

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
College of Dentistry
College of Nursing
College of Pharmacy
College of Public Health
Eppley Institute
Genetics Cell Biology and Anatomy
Internal Medicine

Munroe-Meyer Institute
Obstetrics and Gynecology
Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
Pathology and Microbiology
Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience
Radiation Oncology
Radiology
Surgery

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Faculty

	Maher Abdalla, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology and Microbiology Research focus: Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), Heme Oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and immune cells in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and prostate cancer.
	Yazen Alnouti, PhD Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences Research focus: Drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK), with a focus on the application of Bioanalytical Chemistry, in vitro and in vivo animal models to support ADMET (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity) and pharmacokinetic (PK) studies; Biomarkers for hepato-biliary diseases based on bile acid metabolism by sulfation.
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	Hamid Band, MD, PhD Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Regulation of receptor signaling by endocytic traffic; Cbl-family and CHIP ubiquitin ligases; EHD-family endocytic recycling regulators; mouse genetic models; cancer and stem cell biology.
	Vimla Band, PhD Professor and Chair, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy Research focus: Delineate molecular mechanisms of early steps in transformation of mammary epithelial cells with the goal of identifying novel molecular diagnostic/prognostic markers and potential therapy targets of breast cancers.
	Janina Baranowska-Kortylewicz, PhD Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology Research focus: Radioimmunotherapy-related clinical studies in Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; molecular radiotherapy of peripheral T-cell lmphoma not otherwise specified using DNA-targeted agents.
	Surinder K. Batra, PhD Professor and Chair, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Structure/function analysis of tumor-associated genes; cancer diagnostics, cancer vaccines; monoclonal antibodies, genetic engineering of antibodies.
	Raymond Bergan, MD Professor, Department of Internal Medicine - Oncology & Hematology Research focus: Understanding how cancer cells regulate transformation to a high motility metastatic phenotype, and how that process can be therapeutically modulated.
	Ann Berger, PhD, APRN-CNS, AOCNS, FAAN Professor, College of Nursing Research focus: Symptom management, in particular fatigue and sleep/wake disturbances, in individuals with cancer; use of wrist actigraphy.
	Tadayoshi Bessho, PhD Associate Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Molecular mechanism of DNA interstrand crosslink repair in mammalian cells.
	Kishor K. Bhakat, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy Research focus: Understanding the molecular mechanisms and alter the damage repair pathways and gene expression in tumor cells to promote therapy resistance and tumor recurrence, and develop second line of interventions to prevent tumor recurrence and metastasis.
	Chengfeng (Andy) Bi, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine - Oncology and Hematology Research focus: Pathogenesis and molecular mechanism of hematological malignancies.
	Piero Bianco, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences Research focus: Stalled DNA replication fork rescue to maintain genome stability
	Adrian Black, PhD Assistant Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Tissue sciences; molecular biology; cell cycle; transcription; protein kinase C signaling in intestinal cells; endometrial cancer.
	Jennifer Black, PhD Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Colon cancer; endometrial cancer; pancreatic cancer; cell signaling (kinases and phosphatases) cell cycle regulation; control of protein translation in cancer; protein kinase C; PP2A.
	Gloria Borgstahl, PhD Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Structural biology, structure-based drug design, superoxide dismutase and double-strand DNA repair by homologous recombination.
	Sandipan Brahma, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy Research focus: Mechanisms regulating chromatin structure, how cells use these mechanisms to establish and maintain gene expression programs, and the implications of these mechanisms for human health.
	Siddappa Byrareddy, PhD Professor, Department of Pharmacology & Experimental Neuroscience Research focus: Understanding and developing therapeutics for emerging/re-emerging viruses, focusing on HIV, Zika and SARS-CoV-2.
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	W. Scott Campbell, MBA, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Pathology and Microbiology Research focus: Health informatics and pathology informatics.
	Kishore Challagundla, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Role of extra cellular vesicles (EV's) and the non-coding RNAs in affecting immunotherapy and escaping immune surveillance in pediatric cancers, in particular neuroblastoma and acute myeloid leukemia.
	Pi-Wan Cheng, PhD Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Study of the mechanism of altered glycosylation in human disease.
	Suyong Choi, PhD Assistant Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Phosphoinositide signaling pathways in cancer and immunology.
	Dahn Clemens, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Internal Medicine - Cardiovascular Medicine Research focus: Role of inflammation in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease; molecular mechanisms by which reactive oxygen species cause inflammation that leads to the initiation and profession of cardiovascular disease.
	Samuel M. Cohen, MD, PhD Professor, Department of Pathology and Microbiology Research focus: Urologic pathology, carcinogenesis and toxicology.
	Martin Conda-Sheridan, PhD Associate Professor, College of Pharmacy Research focus: Design of complex multifunctional biomaterials and bioactive small molecules for medicinal applications.
	Leah Cook, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Pathology and Microbiology Research focus: Investigation of immune interactions within the tumor bone microenvironment that contribute to bone metastatic prostate cancer; identifying novel immunotherapeutic targets for treating and curing metastatic cancer.
	Kenneth Cowan, MD, PhD Director and Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Tumor suppressor genes, breast cancer; mechanisms associated with development of multi-drug resistance and the regulation of expression of drug resistance genes in human tumor cells.
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	Kaustubh Datta, PhD Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Molecular mechanisms of cancer progression and metastasis.
	John S. Davis, PhD Professor, Director of Research and Development - Olson Center for Women's Health, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Research focus: Women's health; Reproductive endocrinology and cancer; Mechanisms of hormone action.
	Rebecca Oberley-Deegan, PhD Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Role of free radicals signaling to transform fibroblasts and inflammatory cells in normal tissue, which results in damage to these tissues; understanding the mechanisms by which ROS promote radiation induced fibrosis and prostate cancer progression.
	Punita Dhawan, PhD Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Development of novel therapeutic targets for Gastrointestinal Cancer progression and chemoresistance; Role of signaling pathways and cancer stem cells involved in this process using cell culture, mouse and organoid models.
	Jixin Dong, PhD Associate Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Hippo signaling and cancer; Chemotherapeutic drug resistance.
	Bin Duan, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Internal Medicine - Cardiology Research focus: Integrate novel biomaterials, advanced biofabrication of tissue engineering to create multi-scale complexity within engineered tissue to understand the fundamentals of cell-material interactions and mimic the native tissue for tissue regeneration.
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	Dalia Elgamal, PhD Assistant Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Pathogenesis of B-cell malignancies, including immunosuppressive microenvironmental interactions and the gut microbiome, and evaluating novel anti-tumor therapeutics strategies.
	James Eudy, PhD Associate Professor, Director of UNMC DNA Microarray and Sequencing Core Facility, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy Research focus: Next Generation DNA Sequencing strategies for rare Mendelian disease gene identification and functional genomic technologies; biomedical interest in cancer, cardiovascular disease and virology.
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	Kurt Fisher, MD, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology and Microbiology Research focus: Basic and transitional research with the goal of identifying and evaluating novel targets for therapy in gastrointestinal tumors with K-Ras mutations; GI tract, liver, and solid organ transplant pathology.
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	Jered Garrison, PhD Professor, College of Pharmacy Research focus: Targeted molecular imaging and radiotherapeutic agent design; development of cancer-specific prodrugs; polymer based drug delivery systems.
	Gargi Ghosal, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy Research focus: Understand the basic science underlying replication stress response in cancer and aging; identify new targets and bio-markers for cancer therapy and facilitate the development of strategies to overcome drug resistance and improve cancer therapies.
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	Kyle Hewitt, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology & Anatomy Research focus: Multidisciplinary approaches to identify gene regulation networks and cell signaling mechanisms that control blood production during development and/or regeneration following disease or injury. Transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms that cause hematologic disorders and mechanisms that regulate the function of hematopoietic stem and projenitor cells.
	Sarah Holstein, MD, PhD Professor, Department of Internal Medicine - Oncology and Hematology Research focus: Development of novel agents for the treatment of multiple myeloma and pancreatic cancer, with a particular focus on Rab inhibitors of the isoprenoid biosynthetic.
	Corey Hopkins, PhD Associate Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences Research focus: Design, synthesis and optimization of biologically active small molecules as in vivo probes, drug discovery lead compounds and preclinical candidates.
	R. Katherine (Kate) Hyde, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Understand the mechanisms that regulate leukemia development; develop treatments for hematological malignancies.
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	Javeed Iqbal, PhD Professor, Department of Pathology and Microbiology Research focus: Molecular signatures to improve diagnosis and outcome prediction in Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma; gene expression profiling and pathway targeted therapy in peripheral T-cell lymphoma; characterization of key molecular signatures in natural killer cell malignancies.
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	Maneesh Jain, PhD Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Development of genetically engineered antibody fragments for improved radioimmunotherapy for solid tumors; development of serum assays for the early diagnosis of lethal pancreatic cancer.
	Keith R. Johnson, PhD Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: The role the cell adhesion molecules (cadherins) play in metastasis.
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	Adam R. Karpf, PhD Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Ovarian cancer biology and therapeutics; Cancer epigenetics.
	So-Youn Kim, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Research focus: Oncofertility, cachexia, ovarian cancer.
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	Robert Lewis, PhD Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Defining intracellular mechanisms required for the epithelia-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and the formation and maintenance of cancer stem cells.
	Ming-Fong Lin, PhD Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Mechanism of cell growth regulation by steroids via cross-talk of ROS and tyrosine phosphorylation signaling.
	Yutong Liu, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Radiology Research focus: Neuroimaging and image processing.
	Matthew Lunning, DO Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine – Oncology and Hematology Research focus: Rare hematologic malignancies with a focus on early drug development and experimental correlates that leads to enhanced knowledge of how to treat hematologic malignancies.
	Xu Luo, PhD Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Molecular mechanisms and signaling pathways in cell death and survival in cancer cells.
	Quan Ly, MD, FACS Professor, Department of Surgery Research focus: Study of the role of cadherins in metastatic cancer cell signaling and effect of cadherin mutations on cell adhesion and cell motility. Evaluate NBL1 function by re-expressing NBL1 in cancer cells. Develop novel therapies for pancreatic cancers. Study the role of survivin in pancreatic cancers.
	Yuri Lyubchenko, PhD, DrSc Professor, College of Pharmacy Research focus: Nanoscale structure, dynamics and interactions – seeing and manipulating biomolecules.
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	Sidharth Mahapara, MD, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics Research focus: Elucidating pathophysiologic mechanisms triggering aggressive pediatric brain tumors using transcriptomic analyses to hone in on essential signaling pathways and to test synthetic inhibitors of these pathways; Repurposing FDS-approved drugs for treatment of aggressive pediatric brain tumors.
	Luis Marky, PhD Professor, College of Pharmacy Research focus: Biophysical chemistry and molecular forces that control the conformational stability and flexibility of nucleic acids, including Okazaki fragments, hairpin loops, intramolecular triplexes, G-quadruplexes, C-quadruplexes, and three- & four-arm DNA junctions and their interaction with drugs.
	Grinu Mathew, PhD Assistant Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Genetic and epigentic regulation of prostate cancer metastasis.
	Benita McVicker, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Internal Medicine - Gastroenterology-Hepatology Research focus: Alcohol liver injury and mechanisms.
	Aaron Mohs, PhD Associate Professor, College of Pharmacy Research focus: Development of new florescent imaging contrast agents to guide surgical removal of tumors; developing new drug delivery systems that multiple myeloma; developing pathogen biosensors.
	Justin L. Mott, PhD, MD Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Receptor tyrosine kinase and microRNA regulation of apoptosis in liver cancer and bile duct injury.
	DJ Murry, PharmD Professor, Department of Pharmacy Practice Research focus: Ways to individualize drug therapy using pharmacokinetic and pharmacogenomics information; from in vitro metabolism and transport studies, animal pharmacokinetic studies, to clinical studies evaluating drug therapy in patients.
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	Wasim (Mohd) Nasser, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Research focus: Novel therapeutic strategies for immunosuppressive and tumor-supportive microenvironments of metastatic breast and lung cancers.
	Amarnath (Amar) Natarajan, PhD Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Developing novel target and mechanism specific therapeutics.
	Ali Nawshad, PhD Professor, College of Dentistry Research focus: Transforming Growth Factor (TGF) ß signaling during palate development; mechanisms of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) by TGFß in HNSCC; role of TGFß signaling during dentinogenesis.
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	Gregory Oakley, PhD Professor, College of Dentistry – Oral Biology Research focus: DNA damage and repair involving signal transduction pathways that regulate the cellular response to DNA damage and how alterations in these pathways contribute to mutagenesis and, ultimately, carcinogenesis.
	Michael M. Ouellette, PhD Professor, Department of Internal Medicine - Gastroenterology and Hepatology Research focus: Molecular mechanisms that determine the lifespan of human cells, including telomeres and telomerase. Role of the small GTPases K-Ras and Rac1 in the development of pancreatic cancer and its response to conventional therapies.
	David Oupicky, PhD Professor, College of Pharmacy Research focus: Design on multifunctional nanoparticles and polymers withe applications in the treatment of metastiatic cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, and acute kidney injury.
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	Youri Pavlov, PhD Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Cellular systems of mutagenesis and antimutagenesis.
	Aimin Peng, PhD Professor, College of Dentistry Research focus: Cell cycle regulation and the DNA damage response (DDR); cellular recover process from DNA damage; protein phosphatase-dependent cell cycle and DDR regulation and its implication for cancer progression and therapy.
	Thomas Petro, PhD Professor, College of Dentistry Research focus: Using molecular immunobiology approaches to explore intrinsic pathways to or novel therapeutics for expression and control of cytokines to prevent chronic viral infections, autoimmune disease and/or inflammatory diseases.
	Armen Petrosyan, MD, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Mechanism of Golgi alteration in advanced prostate cancer: focus on aberrant glycosylation; role for non-muscle Myosin IIA in alcohol-induced Golgi fragmentation.
	Larisa Poluektova, MD, PhD Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience Research focus: Pathogenesis and treatment of HIV-1 associated dementia; translational mouse models for human-specific diseases.
	Moorthy Ponnusamy, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Cancer stem cells; metastasis; progression of pancreatic cancer.
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	Prakash Radhakrishnan, PhD Assistant Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Glycobiology of pancreatic cancer; autocrine and paracrine cell signaling mechanisms; developing therapeutics for pancreatic cancer.
	Subu Ramanathan, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy Research focus: Principles that underpin how cells with divergent sizes pack into epithelial tissue and how alterations in cellular packing influence tissue homeostasis.
	Angie A. Rizzino, PhD Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Molecular mechanisms that regulate the proliferation of cancer stem cells and pluripotent stem cells.
	Kerry Rodabaugh, MD Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Research focus: Gynecologic oncology.
	Jordan Rowley, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology & Anatomy Research focus: 3D organization of DNA within the nucleus.
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	Micah Schott, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Research focus: Cell biology of lipids in metabolic disease.
	Polina Shcherbakova, PhD Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Mechanisms controlling genome stability in eukaryotic cells, particularly the functions of DNA polymerases, DNA replication fidelity and the relationship between DNA polymerase defects and cancer.
	Jawed Siddiqui, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Bone metastasis, bone microenvironment, chemokines and cytokines, osteoimmunology, bone-muscle cross-talk, and cancer therapeutics.
	Amar Singh, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Molecular mechanisms of inflammatory bowel disease and colon cancer; renal pathobiology.
	Rakesh K. Singh, PhD Professor, Department of Pathology and Microbiology Research focus: Tumor growth and metastasis, angiogenesis, tumor immunology, cytrokine biology.
	Joyce Solheim, PhD Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Mechanisms regulating the immune response to tumors and infectious pathogens, and development of new immunotherapies.
	Paul Sorgen, PhD Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Advancing our understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of gap junction regulation in the heart, with particular interest and expertise in protein-protein interactions mediated by the carboxyl terminal domain of connexins.
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	Tahir Tahirov, PhD Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Reveal the structure basis of the mechanisms covering the key stages in the expression and duplication/repair of genes and to learn how the disease-related mutations in proteins disrupt these key processes.
	Melissa Teoh-Fitzgerald, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Role of oxidative tumor microenvironment in regulating the reciprocal tumor-stroma interactions.
	Paul Trippier, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences Research focus: Small molecule drug discovery for cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.
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	Joseph Vetro, PhD Assistant Professor, College of Pharmacy Research focus: Developing novel synthetic targeted drug and gene delivery nanocarriers for the anti-angiogenesis treatment of cancer; improving development paradigms for targeted bioimaging and drug delivery nanocarriers; developing subunit vaccines based on the novel adjuvant, EP67.
	Saraswathi Viswanathan, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine - Diabetes, Endocrine and Metabolism Research focus: Determine the role of obesity in modulating the pathogenesis of insulin resistance, alcohol-associated liver injury, and pancreatic cancer.
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	James Wahl, PhD Professor, College of Dentistry Research focus: Understand the role of desmosomes play in maintaining the normal phenotype of squamous epithelial tissues and to determine if their alteration during tumorigenesis influences cell motility, metastasis and signaling.
	Shibiao Wan, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy Research focus: Bioinformatics, machine learning and computational biology, especially in single cell analysis, multi-omics analysis, spatial transcriptomics, cancer research, intelligent healthcare and precision medicine.
	Guangshun (Gus) Wang, PhD Professor, Department of Pathology and Microbiology Research focus: Develop novel antimicrobials by combining structural biology and database with in vitro and in vivo toxicity and efficacy studies.
	Nicholas Woods, PhD Assistant Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Systems biology based analysis of cancer signaling pathways.
	Ashley Wysong, MD, MS Professor, Department of Dermatology Research focus: Skin cancer treatment and epidemiology.
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	Jingwei Xie, PhD Professor, Department of Surgery-Transplant Research focus: Synthesis, surface modification, self-assembly of materials at nanometer scale to address problems in the field of tissue engineering, regenerative medicine and drug/gene delivery.
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	Ying Yan, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology Research focus: Rac1 GTPase in chemo/radiation response of breast cancer; Protein Phosphatase 2A in oncogenesis and cancer progression.
	Jae Hyuk Yoo, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences Research focus: Uveal melanoma.
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	Chi (Kevin) Zhang, MD, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology Research focus: Development of novel strategies for delivery of therapies to brain tumors.
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