Dr. Yaara Oren

The Oren lab studies non-Darwinian evolution in the context of cancer therapy. We focus on rare subpopulation of cancer cells, called persister cells, that can evade therapy through a non-mutational reversible mechanism.

We combine experimental and computational approaches to uncover the basic biology underlying the ability of cells to survive drug onslaught in the absence of a resistance-mediating genetic alteration. We develop new tools and systems to study reversible resistance in hope to pave the way for new therapeutic approaches that could prevent the emergence of genetic resistance.