KaryoCreate: A new tool to engineer chromosome-specific gains and losses in human cells for cancer and beyond

Speaker:

Teresa Davoli, PhD
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Institute for Systems Genetics, NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Abstract:

What are the causes and consequences of genomic copy number alterations (i.e. aneuploidy) in cancer? How does aneuploidy affect patients’ response to therapy, especially immuno-therapy? How do protein complexes form in normal cells and how is this process affected by aneuploidy? These are among the main questions Dr. Davoli and her team are interested in. To answer these questions, they utilize a variety of experimental and computational approaches, from large-scale genetic screens in human cells to prediction of survival in cancer patients.

Dr. Davoli obtained her Ph.D. in 2013 from The Rockefeller University working with Dr. Titia de Lange to study how telomere dysfunction promotes aneuploidy during tumorigenesis. Subsequently she was awarded a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Scholarship and worked with Dr. Stephen Elledge using genomics approaches to understand the consequences of cancer aneuploidy for tumor formation and for therapy response in cancer patients. In May 2018, Dr. Davoli started her lab at NYU. Since then she was awarded a prestigious V Foundation Cancer Research Grant, the Melanoma Research Alliance Young Investigator Award, and the Breast Cancer Alliance Young Investigator Award. In addition to her academic work, Dr.  Davoli has been volunteering for more than 15 years with the School of Peace.