Join us for the Channing J. Der Annual Career Symposium featuring career-focused talks representing two different career paths: industry and academic research.
This event is an opportunity for graduate and postdoctoral students to listen to presentations and ask questions about research career paths.
Event Information
This will be a hybrid event with in-person and virtual attendance options. Lunch will be provided for in-person attendees.
In-person registration has closed. To attend virtually, please register here.
This event is coordinated by the UNC Lineberger Cancer Research Training & Education Coordination (CRTEC) team. Contact the CRTEC team at lccctraining@unc.edu with any questions.
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Speakers
Kirsten Bryant, PhD, assistant professor of pharmacology, UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine, member UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center
View Kirsten Bryant BioKirsten L. Bryant is an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received her PhD from Cornell University and completed postdoctoral studies at UNC-Chapel Hill in the laboratory of Channing Der. During her postdoctoral studies, she and colleagues found that the genetic suppression of KRAS increased autophagic flux, as did pharmacological inhibition of its effector, ERK MAPK. This finding led to the conclusion that concurrent inhibition of ERK and autophagy may be an effective PDAC treatment. Additionally, this study, along with a similar, co-published study from the University of Utah, invigorated interest in targeting autophagy for PDAC treatment and led to the initiation of clinical trials at MD Anderson Cancer Center (NCT04132505), UNC-Chapel Hill and Harvard/DFCI (NCT04386057). Kirsten established an independent laboratory in 2020 that is focused on understanding and therapeutically targeting nutrient scavenging processes in RAS-mutant cancers. She has been awarded an R37 MERIT award from the NCI, an Idea Award from the Department of Defense, and multiple foundational awards to support these studies, and is excited to build a team of passionate scientists who study new therapeutic approaches for pancreatic cancer.
Hui-Chia Yu-Kemp, PhD, Scientist II, Technology Development, Life Edit Therapeutics
View Hui-Chia Yu-Kemp BioHui-Chia Yu-Kemp is a scientist at Life Edit Therapeutics (Durham, NC). She initiated and leads RNA-engineering project in Life Edit to explore different approaches to improve RNA function and thus improve the editing of RNA-guided nucleases and base editors. Prior to Life Edit, she was a postdoc researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she studied the mechanism the epithelial cells use to maintain integrity. Hui-Chia received her BS in Life Science and MS in Structural Biology in Taiwan, and her PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology from the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, where she applied different biochemical assays to characterize protein function, and her postdoc training at UNC-Chapel Hill where she studied the mechanisms of epithelial junctions.
