Josselyn Barahona

Program: Immunology

Current advisor: Wayne M. Yokoyama, MD

Undergraduate university: Williams College, 2018

Enrollment year: 2020

Research summary
Efficacy of epigenetic drug regimens at limiting ovarian cancer cell survival

Epithelial ovarian cancer is one of the leading causes of gynecological death in the United States. Current treatment options are very limited for ovarian cancer, especially for chemotherapy-resistant disease. However, targeting the homologous recombination DNA repair process with Poly ADP ribose polymerase inhibitors (PARPi) and histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) has shown promising results in HR-proficient ovarian cancer. During my last rotation, I worked in the Khabele Lab where I studied the effects of Entinostat–a HDAC inhibitor–alone or in combination with Olaparib–a PARP inhibitor–at limiting tumor cell proliferation and inducing DNA damage in ID8 murine ovarian cancer epithelial cells. We hypothesized that co-cultures treated with both Entinostat and Olaparib would limit tumor cell survival the most compared to controls and co-cultures treated with just Entinostat or Olaparib. I analyzed the effectiveness of these treatments at limiting tumor cell survival through immunofluorescence staining as well as western blot analysis.  

Graduate publications