Kassi Stein

Graduate Student 
NSF Fellow
BS, Chemical Engineering
Northeastern University
kstein@mit.edu

Research
Altered redox biology is characteristic of several pathological states, including cancer. Redox therapeutics are thought to act by altering the intracellular concentrations of oxidants within cancer cells such that the levels can no longer be tolerated and the cells die. Currently, quantitative measurements of effective perturbations to achieve certain phenotypes (e.g. apoptosis) are lacking. My research focuses on understanding and quantifying what happens when the intracellular levels of hydrogen peroxide are altered, particularly when this perturbation is localized to certain organelles. This data will ideally contribute to the design of new treatments to combat cancer.

Publications

Kassi T. Stein and Hadley D. Sikes, in revision.

James F. Powers, Brent Cochran, James D. Baleja, Hadley D. Sikes, Xue Zhang, Inna Lomakin, Troy F.Langford, Kassi T. Stein, Arthur S. Tischler. “A unique model for SDH- deficient GIST: an endocrine related cancer,” Endocrine-Related Cancer, 2018. DOI: 10.1530/ERC-18-0115.

Beijing K. Huang, Kassi T. Stein and Hadley D. Sikes. “Modulating and measuring intracellular H2O2 using genetically-encoded tools to study its toxicity to human cells,” ACS Synthetic Biology, 2016, 5 (12): 1389–1395. DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.6b00120.

Beijing K. Huang*, Sohail Ali*, Kassi T. Stein, Hadley D. Sikes. “Interpreting heterogeneity in the response of cells expressing a fluorescent biosensor to stimulation with hydrogen peroxide,” Biophysical Journal, 2015, 109 (10): 2148–2158. DOI:10.1016/j.bpj.2015.08.053.