Nikki Calabrese
Graduate Student
Nikki Calabrese is a graduate student pursuing her Ph.D. in the
Molecular and Cellular Biology program at Stony Brook University. She
received her B.S. degree in biology, with a concentration in molecular biology,
at Fairfield University. While at Fairfield, Nikki worked on determining
the effects of green tea polyphenols on Candida albican biofilm growth under
the guidance of Dr. Phyllis Braun. Her current work, under Dr. Cao,
involves characterizing the signaling mechanism by which a novel ER resident protein
enhances cancer cell migration and exploring the role of hypoxia in the
upregulation of this novel protein in cancer. Nikki is also using a novel
3D invasion assay to screen compound libraries for potential anti-cancer drugs.
Publications:
Nikki A. Evensen and Phyllis C. Braun (2009) The effects of tea polyphenols on Candida albicans: inhibition of biofilm formation and proteasome inactivation. Canadian Journal of Microbiology. Vol. 55:9, 1033-1039.
Maria Pavlaki, Stanley Zucker, Antoine Dufour, Nikki Calabrese, Wadie Bahou, and Jian Cao. (2010) Furin Functions as a Nonproteolytic Chaperone for Matrix Metalloproteinase-28: MMP-28 Propeptide Sequence Requirement. Biochemistry Research International. Vol. 2011.
Cem Kuscu, Nikki Evensen, Deborah Kim, You-Jun Hu, Stanley Zucker, and Jian Cao. (2012) Transcriptional and Epigenetic Regulation of KIAA1199 Gene Expression in Human Breast Cancer. PloS One. In Press.
