Grace F
- Research Program Mentor

PhD candidate at Northwestern University

Expertise

Reproductive biology, cancer, cancer immunology, health disparities, biology, genetics, genomics, molecular biology

Bio

Hi! I am a fourth year PhD candidate at Northwestern University where I study cancer and reproductive health. I am passionate about uncovering mechanisms of disease that may contribute to health disparities in cancer, especially endometrial cancer. Currently, I investigating how cancer cells evade the immune system. When I'm not in the lab, I love to go to my ceramics studio and make pottery! I also love to watch studio Ghibli films, practice yoga and pilates, and tell my cats how cute they are.

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

Identifying factors that may contribute to health disparities in cancer

Using the SEER cancer database, we could perform a correlation analysis to determine what factors influence survival statistics and gaps in survival between racial groups, patients of different sexes, or geographical areas.

Understanding immune differences between tumor types

In this project we would perform a literature search to identify important immune-related factors and then correlate those factors with data from the publicly available TCGA dataset and uncover if there are any meaningful differences in immune cell quantity or gene expression between cancer subtypes.

Coding skills

Teaching experience

I have previously trained new or rotating students that need help learning common lab techniques such as cell culture, PCR, running gels etc. Additionally, I have TA'd for a graduate level course on reproductive health and disease.