The overall goal of my independent research program is to understand how transcription factors sustain the malignant state of cancer cells, shape the tumor microenvironment, and drive tumor progression and metastasis. One critical player is heat shock factor 1 (HSF1), a pleiotropic transcription factor that regulates key processes in cancer cells, including protein homeostasis, metabolism, and DNA repair. Due to these crucial functions, HSF1 is indispensable as cancer cells become ‘addicted’ to HSF1 for survival, leveraging its protective mechanisms against the cellular stresses unique to malignancy. My lab has identified new and critical functions of HSF1. In breast cancer, our work identified that HSF1 plays a crucial role in suppressing immune-mediated tumor cell killing. This suggests that inhibiting HSF1 in breast cancer could lead to enhanced immune cell infiltration, making these tumors more responsive to immunotherapy and addressing a major challenge in metastatic disease treatment. We also found that HSF1 plays a critical role in preventing protein aggregation during metastatic colonization. In ovarian cancer, we discovered HSF1 cooperates with MYC as approximately one-third of ovarian cancers exhibit gene amplification for both HSF1 and MYC. We found that this co-amplification serves as a biomarker in a precision medicine approach.
Post-doctoral Fellowship - Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston Salem, NC 06/2017
Post-doctoral Fellowship - Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC 06/2014
Ph.D. - Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA 05/2012
