Biology Webinar | Molecular Mechanisms of Cancer Cell Invasion and Metastasis

Department of Biomedical Engineering, Heersink School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham AL, USA;Dr. Sewell-Loftin was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Alabama. In 2014, she completed her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt University. Afterwards, she moved to St. Louis, MO, while working as a post-doctoral researcher at both the Department of Biomedical Engineering and in the Internal Medicine Department in the School of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. During her early research career, Dr. Sewell-Loftin focused on studying biomaterials and the mechanobiology of developing heart valves. More recently, her work has investigating biomechanical behaviors of the tumor microenvironment that drive cancer progression and angiogenesis. In her spare time, Dr. Sewell-Loftin enjoys Broadway musicals and singing in a capella performing groups. She resides in Mountain Brook with her husband, Christopher, and her cat, Leopold.

Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA;University of Maryland Marlene & Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center, USA;Christina M. Ferrer, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and a member of the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center. Her laboratory studies the molecular and metabolic mechanisms that enable cancer cells to survive during metastatic progression, with a particular focus on pancreatic cancer. Her research examines how tumor cells adapt their metabolism in response to changes in their microenvironment and how these adaptations contribute to metastatic survival and therapeutic vulnerabilities. Dr. Ferrer’s work integrates molecular and cellular approaches, metabolomics, and preclinical models to identify metabolic dependencies that can be targeted to limit metastatic disease.