EWS Collateral Sensitivity
The evolution of chemotherapeutic resistance often causes treatment failure in patients with Ewings sarcoma (EWS), a rare pediatric bone cancer that lacks a reliable second-line chemotherapy regimen for patients with recurrent or treatment-resistant tumors. As resistance to the first-line therapy evolves, tumors can develop sensitivities to other chemotherapeutic agents besides the active treatment. This concept is known as collateral sensitivity, and it presents an opportunity for medical providers to plan more effective treatment regimens. By identifying patterns in gene expression among disparate tumor populations, we extracted a collection of gene expression signatures that can predict states of collateral sensitivity against various existing chemotherapies.
Kristi Lin-Rahardja
PhD in Systems Biology & Bioinformatics
Hi, I’m Kristi! I recently completed my PhD in Systems Biology & Bioinformatics at Case Western Reserve University, where my research focused on exploiting cancer evolution for identifying predictive biomarkers of chemotherapy. I did my dissertation with Jacob Scott (MD, DPhil) at the Cleveland Clinic, where I utilized experimental and computational methods to explore the evolution of drug resistance and sensitivity in cancer, then exploiting these findings to predict drug response and personalize chemotherapy. I’m eager to continue contributing to translational research in oncology or other disease areas through bioinformatics, multi-omic analyses, and statistics.