Maithê Rocha Monteiro de Barros is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the Irving Institute for Cancer Dynamics, working under the supervision of Dr. Simon Tavaré. Maithê is also a visiting scientist at the New York Genome Center, in Dr. Nicolas Robine’s group (Senior Director, Computational Biology), and collaborates with Dr. Karol Nowicki-Osuch (Tumorigenesis and Molecular Cancer Prevention group) at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ).
Originally from Brazil, Maithê’s career began with a Bachelor’s degree in Veterinary Medicine at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro, where she developed a passion for science and the mysteries behind disease.
She went on to earn her PhD in Biological Sciences at Aberystwyth University in the United Kingdom, studying transcriptomic mechanisms and gene expression regulation in equine endometritis. Her research path has taken her across continents and disciplines, ranging from performing wet lab experiments to exploring computational data analysis. Before joining IICD, Maithê completed a postdoctoral fellowship at NYU Langone Medical Center, where she investigated the genetic mechanisms behind Keratoconus, a degenerative corneal disease, using both animal models and single-cell RNA sequencing.
At IICD, Maithê’s work focuses on single-cell sequencing-based assessment of gastric and esophageal cancer development. She is particularly interested in how technologies like RNA-seq, ATAC-seq, DNA-seq, and spatial transcriptomics can reveal the evolutionary dynamics of cancer at the single-cell level. Maithê is passionate about bridging her wet lab background with computational biology and is eager to continue learning and expanding her skills.
Find out what motivates Maithê, her advice for other scientists, and why St. Paul’s Chapel is her favorite place at Columbia by watching her Faces of IICD video feature.
