The ASPIRE Path in Molecular Medicine

I am interested in researching gastroenterology either from an immunological, microbiota, or cell developmental focus. Currently, my project deals with Colorectal Cancer. I am trying to understand if Tumor Stem Cells (TSCs) are the origin of tumorigenesis, of which there is great controversy. TSCs exhibit stem-like properties, many speculate that TSCs may be the progeny of and tumor counterpart to normal stem cells that serve as the tumor cell-of-origin. Colonic tumorigenesis serves as an important system to study this relationship since normal colonic stem cells and oncogenic mutations that give rise to tumors are well-characterized.