![Headshot portrait of Carson Poltorack - Bio-X Undergraduate Fellow](https://biox.stanford.edu/files/styles/profile_thumbnail/public/carson_poltorack_2.webp?orig=png)
2018 Undergraduate Summer Research Program Participant
Home Department: Biology
Mentor: Scott Dixon, Biology
When normal tissues transform into cancerous ones, many sorts of adaptations help them evade the body’s natural anti-cancer defenses. Carson is studying the role of ferroptosis, a form of programmed cell death, as an anti-cancer mechanism, and investigating how tumors can use surrounding proteins as a nutrient source to simultaneously grow and evade ferroptosis.