Washington University in St. Louis (WU)
I am focused on cancer treatment-induced co-morbidities including bone loss, which significantly impact a patient’s quality of life because I believe it is important that we help patients live better with the time our therapies provide. Therefore, it is critical that we understand the mechanisms that drive these osteo-toxicities and develop approaches to mitigate their severity. Specifically, I am exploring the mechanisms by which chemotherapy-induced drives bone loss and have found the senescence is a major driver. My main research questions focus on 1) identifying the cell(s) that undergoes senescence; 2) how senescent cells drive bone loss; and 3) whether senescence is a local or systemic response to chemotherapy.