Katherine Wai, MD, fifth-year chief resident at the UC San Francisco Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery (UCSF OHNS) was announced as a winner of a 2021 UCSF Clinical & Translational Science Institute (CTSI) Fall 2021 Resident Research Funding Award.
Dr. Wai's research project will focus on cytometry by time of flight (CyTOF)-based immune profiling of salivary gland cancers. She is proposing to analyze tumor microenvironments of salivary tumors (high and low grade) and benign tumors to better learn about potential immune targets for this cancer. This is a novel study of an understudied neoplasm using a complex but well-established methodology and will likely lead to additional interesting proposals.
She will be co-mentored by Matthew Spitzer, PhD and Patrick Ha, MD. Dr. Ha will serve as her clinical and translational Head and Neck Oncologic Surgery faculty mentor. Working with Dr. Spitzer allows Dr. Wai to learn from an expert in CyTOF, ensuring that the very complicated computational analysis necessary to accurately characterize the immune TME will be achievable.
Congratulations to Dr. Wai. The application process is very competitive, and we look forward to seeing the results of your project.
