Erik Peterson

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.

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.

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

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34548481/

Rogel Cancer Center PIBS Scholarship 2021