Erik Peterson

Erik Peterson

Graduate Student

Biography

I received my BS in Biology from Northern Michigan University in 2014 followed by an MS in Biology in 2017. During my MS, I trained in the Upper Michigan Brain Tumor Center at Northern Michigan University where I studied protein-protein interactions at the surface of glioblastoma brain tumor cells and worked as a Graduate Research Assistant. After my MS, I worked as a Research Technician at the Van Andel Research Institute in the Grohar Lab of Translational Sarcoma Therapeutics, characterizing drug candidates for the treatment of Ewing sarcoma. I joined the Cancer Biology Program here at the University of Michigan in 2019 and I will be completing my thesis work in the lab of Dan Wahl, studying adult and pediatric brain tumors. In my free time I enjoy playing with my daughter, cooking, video games, hunting, fishing, and frisbee golf.

Research Interests

My project is focused on identifying and capitalizing on metabolic phenotypes that promote radiation therapy resistance in a treatment-resistant and universally fatal form of pediatric brain cancer known as DIPG. I am also interested in the role of DNA damage repair proteins in radiation resistance.

Techniques

General wet lab techniques, cell and neurosphere culture, snapshot and stable isotope-tracing metabolomics, orthotopic brain tumor mouse models

Awards

Rogel Cancer Center PIBS Scholarship 2021