The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology

My research focuses on understanding treatment resistance and lineage plasticity in colorectal cancer through the integration of cutting-edge genomic, single-cell, and spatial technologies, applied to in vivo and in vitro tumor models. A major goal of my work is to uncover how cancer cells adapt to therapy and to identify actionable vulnerabilities that can be targeted to prevent or reverse resistance. I lead efforts to develop and apply functional genomic tools—including CRISPR knockout, base editing screens, barcode lineage tracing—to systematically interrogate genes and tumor populations that drive therapy adaptation, with a focus on signaling pathways (such as RAS, YAP, IFN), and transcriptional programs (such as regenerative and fetal reprogramming).

A significant portion of my lab’s work is devoted to modeling colorectal cancer in physiologically relevant systems, including patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) and patient-derived organoids. We use these models to trace clonal dynamics, assess transcriptional plasticity, and understand how regulatory circuits shift in response to targeted therapies, such as KRAS inhibitors. In parallel, we collaborate on clinical studies involving longitudinal tumor and liquid biopsy profiling in patients undergoing treatment, using cfDNA, RNA-seq, and genomic sequencing to map tumor evolution in real time in clinical samples. We are also developing approaches to engineer ecDNAs in mouse and human cancer models and to characterize their role in therapy resistance. Ultimately, our goal is to build a mechanistic understanding of resistance and plasticity in colorectal cancer that informs the development of next-generation therapeutic strategies designed to prevent or overcome tumor adaptations.

PubMed

MDACC Faculty

Education & Training

MD - Tecnologico de Monterrey, 2014