Adrienne Nugent, PhD Cancer Commons Scientist

Adrienne Nugent

Adrienne Nugent is a research scientist with expertise in functional, translational, and clinical oncology. She earned her PhD in genetics and genomics at Duke University, where she used cell cultures, mouse models, and patient tissues to identify and characterize the oncogenic role of genetic alterations in lymphoma. She completed fellowships at the National Institutes of Health, where she used CRISPR screening to investigate the functional underpinnings of multiple sclerosis, and Hampton University, where she explored the biases in next generation sequencing diagnostics and their role in exacerbating cancer health disparities. More recently, she was Associate Director of Somatic Oncology Development at Invitae, where she worked to develop a semi-quantitative somatic variant and biomarker interpretation platform. 

Throughout her career, Adrienne has focused on understanding the genetic complexity of cancer in order to identify avenues for targeting cancer biomarkers with novel therapeutics. Much of her scientific career has focused on developing interpretation systems to integrate genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic data in solid tumors and hematological malignancies. Her work has been published in numerous journals and has led to a better understanding of the role of genetics in disease pathology and treatment outcomes. Adrienne is passionate about improving the treatment of cancer patients by leveraging clinical and functional genomic information in a manner that is evidence-based and prioritizes the human patient rather than simply the tumor profile.