Awarded in 2014
Home Department: Bioengineering
Faculty Advisors: Fan Yang (Bioengineering and Orthopaedic Surgery), Gerald Grant (Neurosurgery), and Michelle Monje (Neurology)

Research Title: Engineering 3D cancer models to decipher brain tumor-niche interactions”

Research Description: Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and aggressive form of primary brain tumor, and medi-an patient survival is only 10-12 months. A major challenge in treating GBM is the extreme invasive-ness of tumor cells, which precludes complete surgical removal and may be responsible for even-tual tumor recurrence. The goal of Christine's project is to develop a novel 3D in vitro model that recapitulates the multi-factorial cancer microenvi-ronment, which would allow better prediction of brain tumor cell behavior in vivo. Such a model would enable researchers to test novel hypotheses of tumor progression and accelerate the discovery of new therapeutics.

WHERE IS SHE NOW?

Christine is a software engineer at Flatiron Health.