My research aims to understand how cancer cells traffic from primary tumors and colonize distant organs to form metastases. Treatment of metastatic cancer has proven incredibly difficult across numerous cancer types. Better understanding of the rate-limiting steps in metastasis could open up new avenues for abating metastatic spread or growth.
My postdoctoral work with Dr. Kandice Tanner at the National Cancer Institute, U.S. National Institutes of Health focuses on real-time imaging of the metastatic cascade in larval zebrafish, an emerging model for cancer studies. The vasculature size and organization in these fish make it an ideal model to study capillary bed arrest and extravasation.
My graduate studies under Dr. Kostas Konstantopoulos at Johns Hopkins University focused on determining the mechanisms of cancer cell migration in diverse microenvironments. We demonstrated clear differences between 1D, 2D, and 3D cell migration. Cellular contractility and protrusion formation differentially regulate cell migration in these environments.