Biographical Profile
Interest Background
Facilities
Professional Preparation
Memberships & Professional Activities
Positions & Appointments
Websites
Pena, PhD, Maria Majorette
Associate Professor
My research interest is focused on understanding the complex interactions between tumor cells and its microenvironment and how these can be harnessed to enhance the efficacy of current therapies or develop novel therapies to block tumor progression and metastasis.
Biographical Profile
- College
- College of Arts and Sciences
- Department
- Biological Sciences
- Tenure Status
- Tenured
Interest Background
- Do you include students in your research?
- Undergraduates and Graduates
- Interest Keywords
- cancer, mouse models, tumor microenvironment, metastasis, Thymidylate synthase inhibitors
- Institutional Focus Areas
- Biomedical Sciences, Nanotechnology, Health Sciences
- Personal Focus Areas
- Cancer, Colon Cancer metastasis and the tumor microenvironment, Regulation of thymidylate synthase intracellular levels
Professional Preparation(Education & Training)
| Dates | Institution | Location | Degree | Field of Study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Michigan Medical School | Ann Arbor, Michigan | NIH Postdoctoral Fellow | ||
| 1995 | Bowling Green State University | Bowling Green, Ohio | PhD |
Memberships & Professional Activities
| Dates | Type | Description | Institution/Entity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 03/2010 | Membership | American Association for Cancer Research |
Positions & Appointments
| Dates | Description | Institution/Entity |
|---|---|---|
| 10/2000 - 05/2011 | Research Assistant Professor | |
| 10/2002 | Director, Mouse Core Facility, Center for Colon Cancer Research | |
| 06/2011 | Research Associate Professor |
The two sections below (Awards and Pending Proposals) are only viewable by PIs, business managers, chairs, and deans.
Facilities
- Laboratory
- My laboratory is in Room 620 of the Jones Physical Sciences Building. It is a Molecular Biology lab with facilities for tissue culture studies. In addition, I have a laboratory in the basement of the Graduate Science Research center which houses the Mouse Core Facility of the Center for Colon Cancer Research. It includes animal housing facilities and laboratories for animal surgery, experiments, and full genotyping of mouse colonies.
- Animal
- I use the ApcMin/+ mouse as a genetic model for colon cancer initiation and progression. My laboratory also uses an orthotopic model for colon cancer metastasis using surgical implantation of the colon adenocarcinoma cells into the cecum of immunecompetent mice.
- Clinical
- No.
- Other
- I use the Imaging and Histology Core (Instrument Resource Facility) at the School of Medicine.
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