Location (during time of takeover)
School/Institution
| Undergrad | University of the Philippines Diliman |
|---|---|
| Researcher | Abigail Wexner Research Institute |
Featured on May 30, 2020
Did you know that May is Neurofibromatosis Awareness Month? Now you do!
Neurofibromatosis, or NF, is a genetic disorder that causes tumors to form on nerve tissue. Fittingly enough, NF (or more specifically, NF2/NF type 2) is the research area of our current Pinoy Scientist, Krizelle Alcantara precisely because she has NF2 herself. In fact, she is deaf in her right ear because of it.
Krizelle graduated with a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from UP Diliman, with both of her theses investigating the regulation of the tumor suppressor gene Neurofibromin 2 (Mutations in these gene lead to neurofibromatosis!)
After graduating from her Bachelor’s, Krizelle helped establish the Philippine Genome Center as one of its first research assistants. She also worked as a research specialist in the Disease Molecular Biology and Epigenetics Laboratory in UP Diliman, where she worked on characterizing novel colorectal cancer mutations and optimizing assays for drug discovery.
Currently, Krizelle is a research assistant at the Center for Gene Therapy at the Abigail Wexner Research Institute in Ohio, USA. There, she still continues to work towards understanding her own disease – this time, by developing a gene replacement therapy for NF2. Let’s all welcome Krizelle to the growing Pinoy Scientists fam!
