Current Research
Mentor: Andrew Murray, PhD
María Angélica Bravo Núñez wants to understand the evolutionary role of aneuploidy, a state where cells have extra or too few chromosomes, which contributes to both cancer progression and drug resistance in fungal pathogens. Aneuploidy occurs when errors happen during the division of a cell’s nucleus. Bravo Núñez is investigating whether genes that play a role in creating sperm and egg cells, if turned on under the wrong conditions, can create aneuploid cells, and whether these cells may offer genetic advantages by increasing resistance to stressors.