2023 Annual Report - Y. C. "Bert" Fung Interdisciplinary Award

Dr. Y. C. “Bert” Fung Interdisciplinary Award

The Dr. Y. C. “Bert” Fung Interdisciplinary Award in the Shu Chien-Gene Lay Department of Bioengineering. This award recognizes the superior scholarship of UC San Diego Bioengineering graduate students.

Must show evidence of outstanding scholarly/creative productivity as a graduate student collaborating and learning across the Jacobs School of Engineering and beyond. Applicants must show evidence of local and national visibility in research/creative activity (e.g., publications and presentations). This could also include honors in endeavors related to research and/or creative activities.

Award Recipient: Erik Bergstrom, Ph.D. ‘23

Nominated by Ludmil Alexandrov

Erik completed his Ph.D. thesis under the guidance of Professor Ludmil Alexandrov.

Thesis title: "Computational approaches for utilizing mutational signatures for cancer treatment and cancer prevention."

Reflections on the importance of mentorship

Erik was nominated by Professor Ludmil Alexandrov for his work in developing computational frameworks to allow researchers to better understand the mutational processes giving rise to cancer. Through their involvement in several large international consortia that included the Pan Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Project, the Mutographs Cancer Grand Challenge Project, and the National Cancer Institute’s Sherlock Lung Study, they were able to characterize a novel form of oncogenesis caused by the accelerated mutation of circular DNA bodies found within our cells due to the innate immune response.

This type of analysis provides opportunities for both cancer treatment and prevention strategies; however, the incorporation within clinical practice has been limited due to financial bottlenecks associated with sequencing diagnostics. Thus, under the mentorship of Dr. Alexandrov, he focused on developing artificial intelligence-based approaches to detect the failure of DNA repair processes and overall response to chemotherapy directly from routinely sampled tumor biopsies of cancer patients. Collectively, they are now devoted to engineering robust frameworks that will translate our knowledge of mutational signatures towards the clinical management of individual patients.

Home

Alumni

Faculty

EDI

Student