Instructor
MD Anderson Cancer Center
I study bone and soft tissue sarcoma at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Given over 100 different sarcoma subtypes, my range of scope is narrowed to desmoplastic small round cell tumors, Ewing sarcoma, and liposarcoma. To that end, my approach has been to comprehensively characterize these disease entities through a multi-modal omics approach using single-cell/nucleus RNA- and/or ATAC-sequencing, spatial transcriptomics/proteomics. Second, we aim to dissect biology and tumor microenvironment and determine signatures or drivers of tumorigenesis that could enable therapeutic targeted therapies. Third, instead of systemic cytotoxic therapies, we aim to propose methods to repair cancer cells. I am developing a mesenchymal stem cell differentiation model to determine the regulators that promote differentiation toward osteoblasts, myoblasts, and adipocytes. My hypothesis is that studying the regulators of differentiation can help us infer and target the error in differentiation amongst different sarcomas with possible mesenchymal origins.
My long-term career goal is to be a leader and principal investigator in sarcoma research with an independent research program at an academic medical center. Given the rarity of sarcomas, there is a need for more scientists to study and collaborate to translate basic science into therapies. My expertise is in bioengineering of platforms or tools and cancer biology. The marriage between these two areas of expertise puts me uniquely positioned to develop innovative tumor models to validate and generate new biological insights.
