Cancer Prevention and Control Trainee
Email: sboi@uab.edu
Department: Graduate Biomedical Sciences - Immunology Theme
Primary Mentor: Lyse Norian, PhD
Co-Mentor: Laurie Harrington, PhD
Having grown up in Illinois, Ms. Boi received her B.S. in Biological Sciences with a minor in Chemistry in 2012 from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, IL. She remained at Northern Illinois University to complete her M.S. in Biological Sciences with a concentration in Biochemical and Biophysical studies. Her thesis research focused on tumor immunology in the laboratory of Dr. Sherine Elsawa. Here, she identified a novel interaction between the Toll-like receptor signaling pathway and the Hedgehog signaling pathway, and subsequently characterized the signaling mechanism. At Northern, she received two graduate student research grants, authored a review manuscript, attended and presented at several conferences, and taught both an introductory bacteriology lab and a section in an undergraduate immunology course. She received the “Innovation in Basic Science” Research Award in 2013 from the University of Illinois Rockford Medical School and was awarded honorable mention in the fields of Developmental Biology, Physiology, and Immunology from AAAS in 2014.
Email: sboi@uab.edu
Department: Graduate Biomedical Sciences - Immunology Theme
Primary Mentor: Lyse Norian, PhD
Co-Mentor: Laurie Harrington, PhD
Having grown up in Illinois, Ms. Boi received her B.S. in Biological Sciences with a minor in Chemistry in 2012 from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, IL. She remained at Northern Illinois University to complete her M.S. in Biological Sciences with a concentration in Biochemical and Biophysical studies. Her thesis research focused on tumor immunology in the laboratory of Dr. Sherine Elsawa. Here, she identified a novel interaction between the Toll-like receptor signaling pathway and the Hedgehog signaling pathway, and subsequently characterized the signaling mechanism. At Northern, she received two graduate student research grants, authored a review manuscript, attended and presented at several conferences, and taught both an introductory bacteriology lab and a section in an undergraduate immunology course. She received the “Innovation in Basic Science” Research Award in 2013 from the University of Illinois Rockford Medical School and was awarded honorable mention in the fields of Developmental Biology, Physiology, and Immunology from AAAS in 2014.After graduating in 2014, Ms. Boi started her Ph.D. in Immunology at the University of Iowa where she decided to complete her dissertation research in the laboratory of Dr. Lyse Norian. Upon recruitment of Dr. Norian to UAB in 2015, Ms. Boi transferred to the University of Alabama at Birmingham to continue her doctoral research. As one of the first laboratories to show striking decreases in immunotherapeutic efficacy to renal tumor challenge in obese mice compared to their lean counterparts, Ms. Boi’s dissertation research in the Norian lab focuses on identifying and understanding the mechanisms for obesity-induced immunotherapeutic failure in mice and humans in renal tumors. These results will then be translated in future studies into new approaches for improving immunotherapeutic efficacy in obese kidney cancer patients.
Her research interests primarily lie in cancer immunology and immunotherapy, to which she hopes that she can utilize her training to one day assist with therapeutic interventions for children with childhood malignancies. Her outside interests lie in challenging her labmates to pipetting races and developing the art of sharkjitsu.
Publications:
1. Boi, SK and Elsawa, SF (2013). Epigenetic regulation of Toll-Like Receptor signaling: Implications for Cancer Development. Medical Epigenetics. July 23, 2013;1:19-30.
2. Jackson DA, Smith TD, Amarsaikhan N, Han W, Neil MS, Boi SK, Vrabel AM, Tolosa EJ, Almada LL, Fernandez-Zapico ME, and Elsawa SF. Modulation of IL-6 Receptor α Underlies GLI2-mediated regulation of Ig Secretion in Waldenström Macroglobulinemia Cells. Journal of Immunology. 2015 August 03 [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed PMID: 26238488
3. Boi SK, Butcha CM, Pearson NA, Francis MF, Meyerholz D, Grobe JL, and Norian LA. Obesity alters immune and metabolic profiles: new insight from obese-resistant mice on high fat diet. Obesity. 2016 Oct;24(10):2140-9. PMID: 27515998.
4. Boi SK, Moore JX, Royston KJ, and Demark-Wahnefried, W. Letter to the Editor: Vagal Blocking (vBloc) Therapy: a New Era of Clinical Therapy for Extreme Obesity. Obesity Surgery. 2016. DOI: 10.1007/s11695-016-2484-6.
Selected Presentations:
1. Boi SK, Buchta CM, Miller BJ, Milhem MM, and Norian LA. Comprehensive systemic cytokine/chemokine analysis in sarcoma patients reveals decreasing Th2 response with increasing BMI. Autumn Immunology Conference. Chicago, IL (2015). (Abstract #128). Oral and poster presentation.
2. Boi SK, Orlandella RM, and Norian LA. Improving immunotherapeutic efficacy against metastatic tumors in a pre-clinical model of murine renal cell carcinoma. 18th Annual UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center Research Retreat. Birmingham, AL (2016). (Abstract #307). Poster presentation.
For more information, please refer to Ms. Boi's Curriculum Vitae.