Computational Biology Seminar
Speaker
NYASHA CHAMBWE
Assistant Professor
Institute of Molecular Medicine
Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research
Northwell Health
When
-
Where
Virtual Presentation - ET
Description
The prevalence of cancer health disparities, the disproportionate disease burden and mortality indifferent population groups, is attributed to a complex interplay between environmental, behavioral, social, clinical, biological and genetic factors.Rapid technological advances in molecular profiling assays enable the comprehensive characterization of genetic and molecular disease landscapes that contribute to a better understanding of disease mechanisms by determining dysregulated genes and pathways, identifying potential biomarkers for diagnosis or prognosis and enabling patient stratification for clinical decision support.In this talk, I will discuss our nascent efforts to leverage multi-omics to investigate the genetic and molecular basis of cancer disparities between racial and ethnic groups defined by genetic ancestry. Our pan-cancer study determines genetic and molecular correlates of genetic ancestry in cancer andpoints to the need to augment existing population cohorts with more ancestrally-diverse individuals in order to better understand the impact of population of origin on cancer risk, presentation and outcomes. Determination of key molecular drivers of population differences in cancer will contribute to making clinically-relevant predictions that close the gap in differential outcomes according to population of origin.
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Nyasha Chambwe, PhD is an Assistant Professor at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research (FIMR) in the Institute of Molecular Medicine. Dr Chambwe graduated summa cum laude from Jackson State University, majoring in biology, and received her PhD in Computational Biology and Medicine from Weill Cornell Medicine. Her doctoral work, focused on understanding DNA methylation heterogeneity in Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma and assessing its clinical utility in identifying disease subtypes. She conducted her postdoctoral research with Ilya Shmulevich at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle where she performed genomic and molecular characterization analyses in preterm birth and pan-cancer studies as part of the Cancer Genome Atlas consortium. Upon the completion of her postdoctoral studies, she accepted a senior research scientist position in the Department of Pathology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis where she led molecular classification studies in pediatric ependymomas.
In 2022, she accepted a faculty position at FIMR where her group’s research will focus on understanding the biological basis for cancer health disparities experienced by understudied populations particularly those of African descent. The long-term goal of this work is to better understand molecular factors driving population differences in cancer, and to make better, clinically relevant predictions that close the gap in differential outcomes according to population of origin. Dr. Chambwe is heavily involved in global capacity building efforts to train the next generation of computational biologists, including encouraging black women to persist in the field and co-developing training modules for scientists in the Global South.
Faculty Host: Steven Smeal (CMU)
Zoom Participation. See announcement.