I became captivated by biomedical research in high school, through summer research programs sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Cancer Institute at Fort Detrick. I studied signaling pathways that allow cancer cells to survive when they should not. Subtle shifts in signal strength, seemingly minor perturbations, could irreversibly divert a normal cell toward cancer.  

I carried that curiosity across the country to pursue a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences at the University of California, San Diego, where my interests evolved toward cancer cell migration and metastasis. I joined the laboratory of Dr. Richard Firtel, a leader in chemotaxis research, to study how cells sense and migrate up chemical gradients. This was an exhilarating period in the field: rapid advances in livecell imaging and quantitative image analysis suddenly allowed us to watch signaling networks operate in real time, directly linking molecular dynamics to cell movement and behavior. Cell migration was no longer abstract—we could see it happen.

I returned to the East Coast for postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School with Drs. John Blenis and Gaudenz Danuser, pioneers in cancer signaling and quantitative cell biology. There, I made the discovery that oncogenic RAS/ERK signaling actively drives actin polymerization at the leading edge of cells, generating the mechanical forces that physically push cells forward. This work helped bridge the gap between intracellular signaling and physical force generation, providing new insight into how oncogenes directly reprogram cell behavior to promote invasion.

Today, my laboratory in the Department of Oncological Sciences at the Huntsman Cancer Institute sits at the intersection of cell signaling, mechanobiology, and cancer progression. We focus on understanding how signaling pathways normally operate to induce cell migration during development and wound repair and how oncogenic mutations and altered tumor microenvironments lead to invasive cancer. By integrating molecular biology and advanced, quantitative imaging, we are uncovering fundamental principles in cancer biology and identifying new vulnerabilities that could be exploited therapeutically.