Canada
A multidisciplinary cancer biologist with long-term interest and strong background in tumor biology and metastasis. Have experience in a broad range of technical expertise in molecular biology, biochemistry, in vivo mouse models of human cancers, next generation sequencing and bioinformatics analysis.
My current work focuses on charactering and understanding how different cancer associated fibroblast (CAF) populations in high grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) contribute to the progression toward malignancy and metastasis of the disease, then identifying novel therapeutic interventions to target these CAF subtypes to treat HGSOC. With the integration of multi-omics analyses and single cell sequencing, my work aims to elucidate the composition of HGSOC tumor microenvironment (TME) and the relationships of various cell populations within this TME, and how that can affect clinical outcome of HGSOC.
My postdoctoral research is focusing on elucidating enhancer landscapes regulated by ΔNp63 in breast tumor progression.
I relocated to Moffitt Cancer Center with my advisor in the summer of 2016 to continue my thesis projects. I published my co-first author paper on Cancer Research that untangled tissue-specific transcriptional activities of two different p63 isoforms across a wide range of cancers using a pan-cancer analysis approach. Another part of my thesis project has uncovered the importance of the spatiotemporal regulation of the ΔNp63 isoform through TGFb signaling and a network of microRNAs during tumor initiation and metastasis. This work resulted in another first author publication on Cancer Research.
I worked as a graduate research assistant in the laboratory of Dr. Elsa Flores on multiple projects that aimed to decipher the complex pleiotropic roles of different p63 isoforms in development and cancers. Through the utilization of in vivo mouse models, next-generation sequencing and various cell culture systems, I contributed to unravel distinct functions of the p63 isoforms in skin wound healing, induced pluripotency and breast tumor initiation. These works resulted in two publications on PNAS and Oncogene in which I am a co-author.
In this position, I participated in the research group of Dr. Thuy-Duong Ho-Huynh. Our research focused on the generation and application of monoclonal antibodies against human papillomavirus oncoproteins E6 and E7 for early detection of human cervical cancer using various immunoassays, including ELISA, immunocytochemistry and immuno-PCR. Besides, I was also a teaching assistant in the Department of Genetics. On this duty, I was involved in teaching several courses on molecular biology and genetics, as well as guiding undergraduate students doing their research projects.