Yogesh Goyal, Ph.D.

Research

The Goyal lab studies how individual cells respond differently to various stimuli and take on distinct identities or characteristics, a capacity known as plasticity. In cancer, for instance, some cells do not respond to therapy and become resistant. Resistance poses a crucial challenge to achieving cures for many cancers. With our novel barcoding technology, FateMap, we recently discovered that seemingly subtle nongenetic variations among cells give rise to different degrees of resistance. Our group is taking multidisciplinary approaches—integrating theory, experiments, and computation—to track and manipulate fates in cancer at single-cell resolution. Our long-term goal is to build generalizable frameworks for predicting and controlling plasticity dynamics in resistance, ultimately leading to effective cures for cancer.