Christina is a Dansville, New York native. She graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology in May of 2021 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Biomedical Engineering, a minor in Business Administration and a concentration in Cell and Tissue Engineering. She is in the Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. program at the University of Rochester and Dr. Bajaj’s first graduate student!

Outside of the lab, she enjoys reading, traveling, skiing, puzzling, birdwatching and gardening. She has an ever-growing plant collection and loves to cook and learn about new cuisines. She also enjoys spending time outdoors on the Finger Lakes in the summer boating, fishing, camping and hiking.

Dr. Bajaj has a long-standing interest in defining the role of cancer-niche interactions on promoting disease progression. As a graduate student at the National Center for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, she identified the adhesive molecule CD66 as a novel marker of metastasis associated cervical cancer stem cells. Since adhesive signaling is known to promote cell-cell as well as cell-matrix interactions, she became interested in determining the functional role of these interactions in sustaining the disease propagating cancer stem cells. As a postdoctoral fellow and an American Society of Hematology Scholar in Prof. Tannishtha Reya’s lab at UCSD, she identified a critical role for CD98 and Tetraspanin3-mediated adhesive interactions of aggressive myeloid leukemia stem cells (LSCs) with their niche on disease progression. These studies provide genetic and mechanistic support for the use of Tspan3 and CD98 inhibitory antibodies in adult and pediatric myeloid leukemias. In an effort to comprehensively define the biological regulators of aggressive leukemias, including those expressed on the cell surface and respond to cues from the niche, she carried out an ambitious genome-wide in vivo CRISPR/Cas9 screen in LSCs. This work not only identified known developmental and oncogenic signals essential for leukemogenesis, but also led to the discovery of several novel genes and programs essential for myeloid leukemia growth, such as the RNA-binding protein Staufen 2. Dr. Bajaj moved to the Wilmot Cancer Center at the University of Rochester Medical Center in November 2019 to start her independent laboratory focusing on defining LSC-microenvironmental interactions critical for leukemic growth and progression.

Awards and Honors
2021: American Society of Hematology Scholar Award (Junior Faculty)
2017: American Society of Hematology Scholar Award (Postdoctoral Fellow)
2014: National Cancer Center Post-Doctoral Fellowship

Erika is a Buffalo native, with a BS in Chemistry from Baldwin Wallace University. She worked as an EMT through the COVID pandemic to help people and gain experience working in health care. While the work was very interesting, she soon realized that she missed conducting medical research. She joined the Bajaj lab to grow as an academic researcher and hone her experimental skills. Excitingly, she will be attending Medical School at University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in the fall of 2022 to pursue a career as a physician.

Outside of the lab she enjoys many different hobbies. She is an avid hiker and has climbed 11 out of the 46 high peaks in the Adirondacks and looks forward to eventually hiking them all! She loves snowboarding, camping, reading, going out with friends, and following her favorite NFL team, GO BILLS!! Rochester, NY offers plenty of extracurricular activities that she enjoys, including the nation’s largest adult kickball league, trivia nights, and an incredible selection of restaurants to try. If you have any questions regarding her time working in the lab or throughout my career becoming a physician, please feel free to reach out!