Noah Puleo, Precision Health Certificate Student

Noah Puleo

Precision Health Program Certificate Student
Medical School, Molecular and Cellular Pathology PhD Student

Biography

Noah is a PhD student in the Molecular and Cellular Pathology program. Noah became interested in more than just the science behind disease in his undergraduate studies through interacting with patients and learning how important cancer research was to them. He also learned how to advocate for social policies and resources to meet basic human needs; create accessible, responsible, and accountable human service programs; and deliver quality services to those in need of support. His current thesis project involves repurposing a drug to treat chemotherapy-resistant ovarian cancer and understanding the unknown mechanism behind how the drug works to kill cancer cells. Noah strives for a research career that is patient driven and one thing that has stuck with him is that every patient is different and should be treated as such - “treat the cause, not the cancer.” This idea of personalized treatment has motivated Noah to expand his own project towards looking at different cancers and understanding why his drug may work in some but not in others. It is this type of work that he would like to do for his career: leading a team in either industry or as a PI in academia focusing on projects with direct clinical application for the betterment of patients. The Precision Health graduate certificate will help fill in the gaps that he needs to pursue a career in translational research.