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Ela Contreras-Panta, Ph.D.

Scientist I

Ela Contreras-Panta, Ph.D.

Ela received her B.Sc. in Genetics and Biotechnology at Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Peru. After that, she worked at the Peruvian National Cancer Institute as a research assistant working to adapt new sequencing techniques to detect point mutations in leukemia patients. In 2018, Ela became a student intern at Vanderbilt University studying early brain development using iPSCs and organoid models. After her internship, she pursued a Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology at Vanderbilt. Her doctoral research focused on the study of different microenvironment factors that could lead to the progression of early-stage stomach cancer, with a particular emphasis on fibroblasts and immune cells. As part of her doctoral studies, she gained extensive laboratory experience with GI organoid culture, immunostaining techniques, confocal microscopy, and single-cell RNA sequencing. Currently, at the Wyss Institute, Ela is studying potential space travel effects in human blood cell development using Bone Marrow organ-on-a-chip models.

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