Home Department: Bioengineering
Mentor: Rogelio Hernández-López (Bioengineering and Genetics)

2024 Research Project:“Optogenetic Manipulation of Purkinje Cells to Evaluate Cerebellar Contribution to Oculomotor Integration in Mice”

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer in women, affecting women of color disproportionately. This project focuses on engineering cell therapies for a subtype of breast cancer that presents heterogeneity of the antigen HER2. Specifically, Andrea and the team will engineer T-cells that discriminate normal tissue from cancer cells to create targeted therapies for tumors. They will use a variety of cell lines expressing different levels of HER2 and co-culture them with human primary CD8 and CD4 T-cells, while assessing the killing activity by microscopy and flow cytometry. Overall, they will create therapies that can discriminate the differences in HER2 density for better cancer therapies.

2025 Research Project:"Engineering T Cell Therapies for Heterogenous HER2+ Breast Cancer"

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer in women, affecting women of color disproportionately. This project focuses on engineering cell therapies for a subtype of breast cancer that presents heterogeneity of the protein HER2. In continuation from her previous summer research, Andrea will engineer T-cells that discriminate normal tissue from cancer cells to create targeted therapies for breast tumors. Andrea will study the effect of the CD8/CD4 ratio in the efficacy of cell therapies by using a variety of breast cancer cell lines and coculturing them with different ratios of CD8 and CD4 T-cells. Andrea will assess killing efficacy through microscopy and flow cytometry.