Speaker Biosketches

Alexander Nikitin, MD, PhD, is a professor of Pathology at Cornell University and a cancer and stem cell biologist with more than 30 years of research experience. His work focuses on understanding how alterations in tissue development, regeneration, and cellular states contribute to cancer initiation and progression, particularly in ovarian and endometrial cancers. His laboratory has developed highly accurate mouse models of human cancers, identified cancer-prone stem and precursor cell populations in the female reproductive tract, and advanced understanding of p53-regulated pathways and stem cell pathology. Dr. Nikitin previously led the Cornell Stem Cell Program and has made extensive contributions to graduate, postdoctoral, and undergraduate education, and mentorship.

Virginia received her Bachelor of Science from the UCLA in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. She worked as a post-baccalaureate research fellow at the NIH developing induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) models of human hepatocytes to study and treat Hepatitis C Virus infection. In 2013, Virginia began her Ph.D. training at Northwestern University, beginning her journey in developing iPSC-based models for the investigation of reproductive and pregnancy disease. In 2021, she published her work deriving iPSC-derived decidual stromal cells (dESC) and a 3D coculture model with decidual epithelial organoids that was able to measure epithelial-stromal cell signaling. Virginia is currently an assistant project scientist in the Parast Lab at the UCSD. As a postdoctoral fellow, she continued to develop iPSC models of the maternal-fetal interface, with a focus on the maternal immune cells, decidual natural killer cells (dNK). She is now utilizing these iPSC-derived cells to model disease-associated functions of decidual cells and interactions between dNK, dESC, and iPSC-derived placental extravillous trophoblast cells.