October 19, 2017

STAT — a Boston-based national publication focused on science and health news — has named a Drexel University College of Medicine postdoc one of the “brightest young minds in life science.”

Halley Oyer, PhD, was chosen from hundreds of nominees to become a 2017 STAT Wunderkind. She received her bachelor’s degree in biology from Drexel, and is now a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Felix Kim, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology.

The award “honors young scientists and doctors who are blazing new trails in research and public health at the start of what promise to be impressive careers,” according to STAT Managing Editor Stephanie Simon.

The publication had this to say about Oyer:

Oyer is now a postdoc at Drexel University studying Sigma1, a so-called “chaperone protein” that influences other proteins and pathways involved in the amount of stress cells endure. Cancer cells tend to be under greater stress than healthy cells, so Oyer and her colleagues are investigating whether manipulating Sigma1 can launch a downstream effect that cripples those cells’ stress response. If the cancer cells can’t alleviate the level of stress they’re under, they’ll die.

Read more at the Drexel News Blog