Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering
BEAT Cancer Lab
Led by Meghan Ferrall-Fairbanks · Biomedical Engineering
What we study
The BEAT Cancer Lab studies how tumors evolve and respond to treatments using computational models, math, and experiments. They apply ideas from ecology and evolution to find new ways to fight cancer.
What working here is like
- Wet lab
- Computational
- Cells in a dish
- Coding helps
- Projects
- 2
- Papers
- 6
What we're looking for
“Please contact Prof. Ferrall-Fairbanks directly with a cover letter describing your interest in joining the group and your CV to get more information on if there are current research opportunities available with the group.”
Current projects
Sensitivity of Pancreatic Cancer Cell Lines and Pancreatic Stellate Cells to Gemcitabine
The lab creates lab models of pancreatic cancer cells that are sensitive or resistant to the drug gemcitabine, and studies how nearby support cells called stellate cells affect drug resistance. Students will grow cell lines, expose them to increasing drug doses, measure cell survival, and build mathematical models of treatment response.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 400
Mathematical modeling of ovarian cancer cell growth to inform adaptive therapy
The lab measured how ovarian‑cancer cells that are drug‑sensitive or drug‑resistant grow over 8 days, taking pictures every 48 hours. The student fitted several growth equations and found logistic models best described the data, adding a death term for sensitive cells and a drug‑accumulation term for treatment effects. Ongoing work will test the models with mixed‑cell cultures to design new treatm
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 215
Summaries are written by AI in plain language from public symposium abstracts and may be imperfect.
Recent papers, explained
- Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Progression Is Associated With Reduced Stromal Organization and Adaptive Tumor Signaling at Single-Cell Resolution
2026 · microPublication biology
- Single-cell RNA editing identifies aggressive and favorable cellular states in chronic myelomonocytic leukemia
2026 · Haematologica
Uses single-cell editing to find different cell types in a blood cancer.
Show 4 more papersShow fewer
- XPO1 drives resistance to eprenetapopt and azacitidine and can be targeted in TP53 -mutated myeloid malignancies
2025 · Blood
Tests whether a protein helps cells resist cancer drugs in blood cancers.
- Development of an Automated Machine Learning-Driven Assay for Robust and Accessible Analysis of Cell Migration
2024 · GEN Biotechnology
Tests whether machine learning can track cell movement in 2D assays.
- RNA Shielding of p65 Is Required to Potentiate Oncogenic Inflammation in TET2 -Mutated Clonal Hematopoiesis
2024 · Cancer Discovery
Finds a protein that boosts inflammation in blood cancers linked to a gene mutation.
- Spontaneous Cell Fusions as a Mechanism of Parasexual Recombination in Tumor Cell Populations
2020
Plain-language summaries are AI-written and reviewed by us; check the paper for details.
How to reach out
Meghan Ferrall-Fairbanks hasn't set up this page yet. You can also look them up in the UF directory (search “Meghan Ferrall-Fairbanks”).