University of California San Francisco
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https://betancurlab.ucsf.edu/
Dr. Paola Betancur is an expert in gene regulation and epigenomics. She received her undergraduate degree from Stony Brook University, NY in Biology, and her PhD from Caltech in Cell Biology. Paola performed her postdoctoral work at Stanford University, where she studied the genomic mechanisms that activate an immune evasion program in cancer cells through CD47 upregulation. At UCSF, her lab interests include understanding the mechanisms encoded in the DNA by which cancerous cells avoid being detected and destroyed by the host’s immune system. Currently her lab investigates whether clustered genomic regulatory regions, known as super-enhancers (powerful transcriptional enhancing regions) associate with immune suppressive genes, and play a role in the activation of an inflammatory-driven immune escape program in cancerous cells. Apart from research, Dr. Betancur also leads and participates in numerous DEI efforts. Paola is the Radiation Oncology Department DEI committee co-chair, Co-founder of Post-baccalaureate Research Opportunity for Equity in Science (PROPEL), and faculty advisor to Immuno Diverse all groups serving underrepresented populations in science.