Hunter Gaudio - Dr. Cristofanilli, Dr. Elemento - Summer Immersion Week 1

 The first week of the Summer Immersion term was very exciting and dynamic. We started with an introductory meeting on Monday morning, where we were presented with a general outline of the summer and the different opportunities that would be available to us. Tuesday morning, Dr. Robert Min met with us and explained his path and gave us tips to help make the most of the summer. 

Throughout the summer, I will be working with Dr. Olivier Elemento's team and Dr. Massimo Cristofanilli's lab on an analysis project evaluating whole exome sequencing (WES) data from the primary tumors of breast cancer patients. On Wednesday, I had a preliminary meeting with Dr. Carolina Reduzzi and Dr. Catalina Gianni, explaining the goals of this project. I then attended Dr. Cristofanilli's lab's weekly meeting where they discussed challenges faced during the implementation of a new assay for the isolation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs). 

On Thursday, I was in the clinic with Dr. Cristofanilli and Dr. Laura Muñoz-Arcos, seeing metastatic breast cancer patients for either initial consultations or scheduled appointments during their various ongoing treatments. Dr. Cristofanilli uses a variety of liquid biopsy tests for the management of his patients: Natera Signatera™ circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) assay, Guardant Reveal™ (ctDNA), Guardant360™ (ctDNA), and CELLSEARCH® (CTCs) for minimum residual disease monitoring. Additionally, Dr. Cristofanilli also collects blood for his lab, where CTCs are isolated and single-cell analysis can be completed downstream. 

Throughout the day, Dr. Cristofanilli explained to me which patients were eligible for each test and why, why he chooses one test over another for each patient, and how he explains the tests in a way that patients understand so that they feel comfortable providing consent. I am very interested to see how the results of these liquid biopsy tests help inform treatment decisions. 

Also on Thursday, I joined a Zoom call with Dr. Elemento's team, Dr. Cristofanilli's team, and the Natera team to discuss the data transfer for the project I will be working on. The data was generated during the clinical trial of Signatera that Dr. Cristofanilli helped lead. It was interesting to learn about the security and intellectual property considerations that go into external collaborations. 

On Friday, I read a few papers that Dr. Mara Serafini from Dr. Cristofanilli's lab sent me to review. In just one week, I have learned a great amount about cancer management, breast cancer pathology, and the power of liquid biopsy tests. 


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