Victoria T
- Research Program Mentor
DVM/PhD candidate at California Institute of Technology (CalTech)
Expertise
Immunotherapy, Immunology, Cell Engineering, Cancer Biology, Comparative Medicine, Veterinary Science
Bio
Hi everyone! I'm Victoria, I'm a dual DVM/PhD student at UC Davis and Caltech. I'm interested in engineering our immune system to fight cancer. In undergrad, I worked in a lab developing T cell therapies for pediatric cancers. After graduating, I worked for three years in a lab at UCSF using CRISPR to edit the DNA of human T cells. While working in the lab, I started volunteering at an animal shelter and realized that dogs and cats get a lot of the same diseases as humans do. I've since become interested in developing new therapies to treat dogs with incurable cancers. This has the potential to both help our furry friends and teach us what therapies might work in humans! Outside of research, I like skiing, cooking, and thrift shopping. I've always enjoyed working with students and love mentoring others. I've been lucky to have amazing mentors get me to where I am today and I hope to pass on what I've learned!Project ideas
Engineering Immune Cells to Treat Disease
Immune cells are constantly monitoring our bodies, looking for pathogens and abnormal cells to kill. What if we could re-engineer these cells so they would kill whatever we tell them to, like cancer cells? Researchers are doing just this, using a variety of methods to rewire immune cells to target specific antigens. It could be fun to write a review about these different strategies!
A Comparative Study of Cancer Across Species
Just like humans, animals develop all kinds of cancers. In some species, like dogs, the disease mimics that in humans (for example they have similar mutations and patterns of metastases). Other species are interestingly more cancer-resistant, like elephants and naked mole rats. It could be fun to write a review comparing patterns of cancer in different species and exploring why some species might be more resistant than others.