Katalin Baksa

 

Positions
Assistant Professor

 

 

 

Research
I am currently exploring the systems biology of cancer in order to identify key context-dependent biomarkers to understand cancer evolution and progression.  I have high hopes that my work will lead to new personalized cancer therapies.  I am also modeling the epigenetics of cell differentiation over time to help understand both aging and the initiation of cancer.

I am participating in the Biorobot engineering project here at RSI, in which we are using synthetic biology and materials engineering to create hybrid devices. I believe biorobotic research will eventually lead to powerful new therapies for many, as of now, untreatable cancers.

Biography
I have a strong background in genetics, molecular and cell biology over a career spanning more than 20 years in Hungary and the United States.  I have worked with a diverse set of organisms and have been particularly impressed by the power of Drosophila genetics to uncover the shared pathways that underlie animal physiology and development.  A course on bioinformatics and systems biology offered at Harvard by George Church in 2000, convinced me that these disciplines were critical to understanding how animals are organized at the molecular and cellular levels.  With a broad background in the biological sciences, I am able to synthesize ideas across disciplines to arrive at unique insights.

Education and Fellowships
BS/MS, biochemistry, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
PhD, biochemistry József Attila University, Szeged, Hungary
Postdoctoral fellow, Princeton University
Postdoctoral fellow, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Postdoctoral fellow, Harvard University

 

Publications

• Pearson AM, Baksa K, Rämet M, Protas M, McKee M, Brown D, Ezekowitz RA. 2003. Identification of cytoskeletal regulatory proteins required for efficient phagocytosis in Drosophila. Microbes Infect. 5:815-24.
• Rämet M, Pearson A, Baksa K, and Harikrishnan A. “Pattern Recognition Receptors in Drosophila” in Innate Immunity ed. Alan Ezekowitz and Jules Hoffman 2003 Humana Press.
• Baksa K, Parke T, Dobens LL, Dearolf CR. 2002. The Drosophila STAT protein, stat92E, regulates follicle cell differentiation during oogenesis. Dev Biol. 243:166-75.
• Oh J, Baksa K, Steward R. Functional domains of the Drosophila bicaudal-D protein. Genetics. 2000 154:713-24.
• Baksa K, Morawietz H, Dombrádi V, Axton M, Taubert H, Szabó G, Török I, Udvardy A, Gyurkovics H, Szöör B, et al. 1993. Mutations in the protein phosphatase 1 gene at 87B can differentially affect suppression of position-effect variegation and mitosis in Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics.  135:117-25.