Kristyna Kotýnková, PhD, Named 2018 Dahod International Scholar

COM_dahod scholar 2018Kristyna Kotýnková, PhD, has been named the 2018 Dahod International Scholar.

Kotýnková came to BUSM in fall 2016 as a postdoctoral associate in the laboratory of Neil Ganem, PhD, Pharmacology and Medicine, which focuses on cancer cell biology. She received her bachelor and master of science degrees in biochemistry from the Charles University, Prague, and her PhD in cell biology from the Francis Crick Institute, formerly known as the London Research Institute.

As a Dahod International Scholar, Kotýnková aims to mechanistically define how breast cancer cells adapt to possessing an abnormal number of chromosomes, a state known as aneuploidy. Though already abnormal, many aneuploid breast cancer cells continue to shuffle their chromosome content, often gaining and losing chromosomes with each cell division. This chromosome instability is known to fuel tumor progression, drug resistance, metastasis, and relapse. Her data suggests that loss of a gene, named SPINT2, is sufficient to promote the growth and proliferation of aneuploid cells. Kotýnková will use animal models to test if SPINT2 is a novel breast cancer tumor suppressor gene.

In August 2008 Shamim Dahod (CGS’76, CAS’78, MED’87) and her husband Ashraf gave $10.5 million to BUSM to establish the Shamim and Ashraf Dahod Breast Cancer Research Center, as well as endow assistant professorships and international scholar positions.