Postdoctoral Research Fellow

• Jun 2013 - Apr 2017

The larger goal of my work is to identify protein indicators of neoplastic diseases of the gut in patient serum. We use mice that have been grafted with human tumor tissue to simulate the actual disease. Proteins leaked or secreted by the tumor in trace quantities into the mouse’s bloodstream are likely to be attributes of the disease, its presence and its intensity and progression. Mouse serum is collected after the tumor reaches a certain size, enriched for glycosylated proteins and analyzed… Show more The larger goal of my work is to identify protein indicators of neoplastic diseases of the gut in patient serum. We use mice that have been grafted with human tumor tissue to simulate the actual disease. Proteins leaked or secreted by the tumor in trace quantities into the mouse’s bloodstream are likely to be attributes of the disease, its presence and its intensity and progression. Mouse serum is collected after the tumor reaches a certain size, enriched for glycosylated proteins and analyzed in the mass spectrometer. Acquired tandem mass spectra are read by in-house software and a list of identifications is compiled. The process has yielded several protein markers, some of which are novel. The quantities of these proteins will be measured in collected sera from a large cohort of patients and healthy individuals. If the candidate marker is not present in equal measure in the two populations, after correcting for natural variation, it is deemed to have clinical value. Such proteins will be correlated with the duration and quality of patient survival to determine if one or more of them can aid disease prognosis. Show less The larger goal of my work is to identify protein indicators of neoplastic diseases of the gut in patient serum. We use mice that have been grafted with human tumor tissue to simulate the actual disease. Proteins leaked or secreted by the tumor in trace quantities into the mouse’s bloodstream are likely to be attributes of the disease, its presence and its intensity and progression. Mouse serum is collected after the tumor reaches a certain size, enriched for glycosylated proteins and analyzed… Show more The larger goal of my work is to identify protein indicators of neoplastic diseases of the gut in patient serum. We use mice that have been grafted with human tumor tissue to simulate the actual disease. Proteins leaked or secreted by the tumor in trace quantities into the mouse’s bloodstream are likely to be attributes of the disease, its presence and its intensity and progression. Mouse serum is collected after the tumor reaches a certain size, enriched for glycosylated proteins and analyzed in the mass spectrometer. Acquired tandem mass spectra are read by in-house software and a list of identifications is compiled. The process has yielded several protein markers, some of which are novel. The quantities of these proteins will be measured in collected sera from a large cohort of patients and healthy individuals. If the candidate marker is not present in equal measure in the two populations, after correcting for natural variation, it is deemed to have clinical value. Such proteins will be correlated with the duration and quality of patient survival to determine if one or more of them can aid disease prognosis. Show less