Gayathri Muthukumar, PhD

More than half of all FDA-approved biotherapeutics target proteins on the cell surface involved in intercellular communication. The vast majority of these proteins are decorated with post-translational modifications (PTMs), such as the addition of a sugar molecule, but our understanding of how individual PTMs affect communication in a disease context is poor. As aggressive tumors often have surface proteins thickly coated in sugar molecules, they are suspected to play a role in in driving oncogenic growth and tumor immune evasion. Dr. Muthukumar will map cell surface and intracellular membrane PTMs in cancer cells, and then interrogate the role each of these PTMs play in oncogenesis with precise mutational genomic screens. This will highlight the PTMs that drive tumor pathology, allowing for the development of new precision therapeutics and cancer diagnostic markers. Dr. Muthukumar received her PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, and her BA from Columbia University, New York.