American Health Council Names Kristina A.Trujillo, Ph.D. to Education Board

    NEW YORK, NY, April 06, 2017 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Dr. Kristina A. Trujillo, Assistant Professor at the University of New Mexico Health Science Center (UNM-HSC), has been selected to join the Education Board at the American Health Council. She will be sharing her knowledge and expertise on Breast Cancer Research and Cancer Biology.

With over fifteen years in the field, Dr. Trujillo excels in her current role as an Assistant Professor at UNM-HSC, where she teaches metabolism, cancer biology and biochemistry. Her research is focused on understanding the human body's natural cancer defense mechanisms, and how these mechanisms go awry in cancer. She hopes to harness and fine tune these mechanisms as a novel way to develop therapeutics.

Dr. Trujillo began her science career by earning her PhD (2006, Molecular Biology) and Bachelor of Science (2001, Microbiology) from New Mexico State University. After receiving her Ph.D., she joined the lab of Dr. Jeffrey Griffith at the University of New Mexico as a postdoctoral fellow. During this time, she received an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship to investigate the role of the normal surrounding breast tissue in local recurrence of breast cancer. In 2011, she became a Research Assistant Professor. Shortly after, Dr. Trujillo secured an R21 grant from the National Cancer Institute to further investigate the molecular mechanisms in tumor adjacent tissues that may contribute to local recurrence. In 2015, she secured a 5 year R01 grant from the National Cancer Institute to investigate signaling molecules called exosomes that allow cells to communicate with cancer cells. Through this work, she has identified types of exosomes that promote cancer, and others that selectively kill cancer cells. Dr. Trujillo is working to develop the anti-cancer exosomes as potential therapeutic agents. In addition to her work on the normal tissue adjacent to tumors, she is also investigating an exercise-related molecule, called irisin, and its unique ability to sensitize cancer cells to chemotherapeutic agents.

Due to her commitment to research, Dr. Trujillo served as an Associate Chair for the Gordon Research Seminar and the Ambassador Constituent Team Lead for the American Cancer Society. She maintains affiliation with the American Cancer Society and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, and regularly gives talks at events such as Making Strides Against Breast Cancer.

Looking ahead, Dr. Trujillo hopes to develop her discoveries as a therapeutic agent. In her capacity as a therapeutic agent, she has worked with biotech companies such as Exovita Biosciences.

In her free time, Dr. Trujillo enjoys running and playing the guitar as well as camping with her husband and two sons.

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