Awarded in 2025
Home Department: Bioengineering
Faculty Advisors: Stephen Quake (Bioengineering and Applied Physics) and Ash Alizadeh (Medicine - Oncology)

Research Title: Genomic & Transcriptomic Monitoring of Immunosuppression-associated Lymphomas from Noninvasive Viral & Host Detection

Despite being ubiquitous in healthy adults, latent viral reactivation is associated with increased risks of cancer development and progression in immunosuppressed individuals. HIV infected hosts provide an ideal model to investigate the associations among immunosuppression, viral reactivation, and cancer development. There is a lack of methods for tracking viral expansion and immune response. The evolution of genomic and transcriptomic landscapes during chemotherapy in HIV-associated lymphomas is poorly characterized. To directly address these challenges, Shuyu will apply an integrated non-invasive viral & host profiling method and use multiple interdisciplinary techniques to bridge the critical intersections of cancer biology, immunology, virology, and clinical medicine.