Carolina Perez Castro, Ph.D.

Research

My lab focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms responsible for the hierarchical cell organization, growth, and invasive responses of tumors. Tumor cells integrate intrinsic and extrinsic signals that control individual cell fate decisions and collective behavior. Many key signaling pathways and epigenetic regulators are functional in these cells. Still, their impact on regulating the highly adaptive and context-dependent responses of cells and tumor cell architecture and migratory capacity is not fully characterized. We carry a multidisciplinary approach combining different advanced microscopy methods to explore algorithms and biological models that mimic behavioral conditions found in living tissues, such as 3D cell culture technologies. Our experimental approaches involve human tumor samples and mouse xenograft models to study high-grade cellular hierarchy, tumor cell plasticity, dynamic organization, and cell invasion in vitro.