The ASPIRE Path in Molecular Medicine

I am an Immunology graduate student in the lab of Dr. Ivelin Georgiev. Our lab focuses on the B cell and antibody responses against HIV among other pathogens. My current thesis work focuses on characterizing B-cell function in non-small cell lung cancer. I use single-cell sequencing and mass cytometry technologies on human tumor resections to study lung cancer in the closest context to clinical disease. Overall, I hope to find mechanistic evidence of B-cell activity that may explain their association with positive clinical outcomes.

My clinical mentor is Dr. Elizabeth Davis in the Division of Hematology and Oncology. She helps run clinical trials for checkpoint inhibitor therapies specifically in melanoma cancer indications. Melanoma is one of the most responsive malignancies to these novel therapies and I’m hoping to get a first-hand experience of not only clinical trial design, but overall the kind of patient-physician interaction is required to treat cancer in the clinic.