{"id":35585,"date":"2025-06-27T13:55:25","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T17:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/?post_type=cri_scientists&#038;p=35585"},"modified":"2025-06-27T13:55:27","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T17:55:27","slug":"samantha-fernandez-phd","status":"publish","type":"cri_scientists","link":"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/es\/cri-funded-scientists\/samantha-fernandez-phd","title":{"rendered":"Samantha Fernandez, PhD"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Interferons (IFNs) are powerful immune molecules, but their use in cancer treatment remains a double-edged sword. While IFN signaling can powerfully activate immune responses against tumors, sustained IFN activity can paradoxically lead to immune evasion and cancer relapse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The key to resolving this contradiction may lie in interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs), a set of more than 300 poorly understood genes induced by IFN signaling. Dr. Samantha Fernandez aims to systematically characterize the immune functions of these genes, using an evolution-informed screening strategy coupled with structural biology and biochemical validation. \u201cBy taking a novel, evolutionary approach to studying ISG activity, my research will have a transformative impact on a variety of IFN-dependent cancer treatments and will open new opportunities to harness our immune system to combat disease,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Fernandez&#8217;s path into molecular biology began as an undergraduate student. \u201cI was unconventional in many ways as a community college transfer student at UC Berkeley, a first-generation Filipino immigrant, and the first in my family to pursue any kind of doctoral degree,\u201d she explains. With perseverance and self-motivation, she pursued evolutionary genomics and virology research at UC Berkeley and the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, respectively. During her graduate training at UC Berkeley, Dr. Fernandez developed genomics-based methods to study how cells control protein synthesis, and she discovered a new mechanism of translation regulation involving ribosome recycling. As a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Fernandez\u2019s focus is on decoding the molecular logic of immunity \u2013 where structure, function, and evolution intersect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sponsor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Philip Kranzusch, PhD<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Research Focus<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Immune responses, viral pathogenesis, interferon signaling<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Projects and Grants<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Discovering conserved mechanisms of interferon-dependent cancer immunity using cross-kingdom interactions<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Interferons (IFNs) are powerful immune molecules, but their use in cancer treatment remains a double-edged sword. While IFN signaling can powerfully activate immune responses against tumors, sustained IFN activity can paradoxically lead [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":35525,"template":"","tax_cancer_type":[455],"tax_grant_type":[486],"tax_award_year":[742],"tax_institutions":[495],"tax_location_states":[490],"class_list":["post-35585","cri_scientists","type-cri_scientists","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"scientist_subhead":"CRI Irvington Postdoctoral Fellow","quote":"","scientist_last_name":"Fernandez","show_on_landing":true,"scientist_publish_until":"20280629"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Samantha Fernandez, PhD - Cancer Research Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearch.org\/cri-funded-scientists\/samantha-fernandez-phd\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Samantha Fernandez, PhD - Cancer Research Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Interferons (IFNs) are powerful immune molecules, but their use in cancer treatment remains a double-edged sword. 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