Home Department: Computer Science
Mentor: Melanie Hayden Gelphart, Neurosurgery

2018 Research Project: The Gephart lab has found CEACAM6 to be an overexpressed gene in a specific type of lung tumor. Cells with overexpressed CEACAM6 inadequately adhere to their substrate and have shown to be resistant to programmed cell death. Stephanie’s project will define cellular-based assays to study the resistance of patient-derived lung tumor-cells to programmed cell death.

2019 Research Project: “Functional Dissection of the Meningeal Brain Tumor Niche Using Single-Cell RNA Sequencing”

Leptomeningeal disease (LMD) is the most aggressive type of brain metastasis that patients with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) have a high risk of developing. LMD is rapidly fatal, and patients have limited treatment options. Stephanie’s project will use bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing data to compare the differential gene expression between healthy and LMD-affected meninges in order to better characterize how transcriptional changes can affect diffuse TNBC growth into the leptomeninges and cerebral spinal fluid, and how they may facilitate the spread of LMD.