• B.Sc. in Chemical Biology, University of California, Berkeley

Coming from New Zealand, Kate joined the Varmus Laboratory in late 2021 after graduating from UC Berkeley. She was a lab assistant at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute working on AAV-based delivery systems for gene delivery, to target specific opsin-expressing cell types in the retina. After joining the Varmus Lab, she developed a particular interest in the unique role of AURKA inhibitors as a form of cancer treatment. Taking advantage of her strong organic chemistry background, she hopes to see the safe use of AURKA inhibitors for certain cancers in the near future.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

“Lineage-specific intolerance to oncogenic drivers restricts histological transformation.”  Science. 2024
Eric E. Gardner, Ethan M. Earlie, Kate Li, Jerin Thomas, Melissa J. Hubisz, Benjamin D. Stein,Chen Zhang, Lewis C. Cantley, Ashley M. Laughney, Harold Varmus

“Genome-wide CRISPR screens in spheroid culture reveal that the tumor suppressor LKB1 inhibits growth via the PIKFYVE lipid kinase.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2024
John R. Ferrarone, Jerin Thomas, Arun M. Unni, Yuxiang Zheng, Michal J. Nagiec, Eric E. Gardner, Oksana Mashadova, Kate Li, Nikos Koundouros, Antonino Montalbanod, Meer Mustafad, Lewis C. Cantley, John Blenis, Neville E. Sanjanad, and Harold Varmus.