Catherine Triandafillou, PhD

When an organism is developing, it must correct mistakes that might occur at the level of individual cells or tissues. Dr. Triandafillou aims to better understand how error correction systems work, and why they might not work in cases like cancer. To explore these developmental questions, she uses what are called gastruloids, 3D clusters of stem cells that can organize themselves and transform into the basic building blocks of an organism. She has developed a method using microscopy to trace the history of these cells and measure how much their past state influences what they become. Dr. Triandafillou seeks to illuminate how differences in individual cells might impact what those cells eventually turn into, and how such differences affect the correction of mistakes—like abnormal growth, bias in cell types, or missing cell types—as well as how the cells around an error react to it.