ennifer is a doctoral student in the Department of Immunobiology, under the mentorship of Dr. Nikhil Joshi. Her current project is focused on understanding how cancer escapes the immune system during early-tumor development and through resistance to checkpoint blockade therapy. Specifically, how neoantigen heterogeneity amongst cancer cells impacts escape of T cell immunosurveillance. Her goal is to discover immunoediting pathways that tumors exploit to evade T cell control, identifying targets for the development of novel anti-cancer drugs. She is currently a trainee under the Yale Cancer Biology Training Grant for predoctoral students. She is also Chair of the Advancement Branch in the Yale Biological and Biomedical Sciences Diversity and Inclusion Collective (YBDIC). As a first-generation Mexican American scholar, Jennifer strives to empower historically-underrepresented students in science.
