Graduate Research Assistant
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX, United States
Daisy Diaz Rohena is a fourth year PhD student at Dr. Deepa Sampath's laboratory within the Department of Hematopoietic Biology and Malignancy at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Her research focuses in identifying drivers of CLL progression and aggressive transformation into Richter's Syndrome (RS) after treatment with the clinical BCL-2 inhibitor, venetoclax. Via single-cell multiomics, her overall goal is to identify therapeutically targetable vulnerabilities of CLL and RS cells, to improve patient outcomes. Currently, she is evaluating the potency and mechanism of action of novel BCL-2/BCL-XL protein degraders in models of venetoclax-relapsed CLL, including BCL-2 mutant cell lines and stromal-supported CLL cells. Her results will be presented in the 2023 YIM oral presentation and poster titled "Single-cell transcriptomic analysis of CLL cells at ibrutinib plus venetoclax relapse and targeting using BCL-2/BCL-XL PROTACs PZ18753b and WH25244". As a TL1 fellow, she shadows Dr. Nitin Jain at the Leukemia Department at MDACC, and along Dr. Jennifer Woyach (co-mentor and clinical mentor at Ohio State University), she continues to learn about the unmet challenges for the treatment of CLL. In the near future, Ms. Diaz Rohena aims to continue post-doctoral studies with a focus on target discovery and therapeutic development for leukemias facing critical clinical challenges. Long-term, she aims to etablish a translational cancer research program as an independent PI at an academic cancer center with the goal of improving disease outcomes. Moreover, she want to continue increase the accessibility to quality education in biomedical research, especially for scientists from historically underrepresented groups, through initiatives including mentoring and training.
Friday, October 6, 2023
10:45 AM – 10:55 AM EDT
