Rachel Hongo
Program: Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Lab: Leonard Zon
Rachel is a 5th year Ph.D. student in the BBS program, and in the Zon lab, she's researching tumor initiation using zebrafish models of melanoma. She is particularly interested in why only a subset of oncogenically competent melanocytes transform and how secreted growth factors in the local skin microenvironment influence that fate.
Her thesis work is supported by a Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA for Individual Predoctoral Fellows (F31) Award from the National Cancer Institute. She is also a member of Harvard's Leder Human Biology and Translational Medicine program, which complements her goal of bridging basic discovery and clinical impact.
Rachel became involved with the LCBC Student Steering Committee to help foster community among current students and alumni through peer advising and resources for grant writing.