The following is reprinted from the October 10 issue of the UI Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Holden Highlights newsletter.

Investigator Spotlight: Karima Ait-Aissa, PhD
Research Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine – Cardiovascular Medicine
Program Affiliation: Free Radical Metabolism and Imaging

Karima Ait-Aissa is originally from Bejaia, Algeria, in North Africa. She is the oldest of four children and is proudly a first-generation college graduate. Her educational pursuit took her to France as well as the United States. She came to the United States in 2013, spending two years in Eastern Virginia Medical School followed by three years at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

Karima and her team are studying the effects of radiation therapy in cancer survivors. Specifically, the effects on the blood-brain barrier disruption which can lead to long-term cognitive decline in cancer survivors.

Broad collaboration is important in all aspects of life. The collaboration that Karima has been a part of through Holden, has been extremely valuable. There have been many experts that have given their input and provided broad expertise which helps her and her team to understand their findings more thoroughly. She received an American Cancer Society seed grant in 2020, which has been instrumental in her development of an R01 grant submission. The seed grant was very helpful to her as a junior faculty by allowing her to develop and expand her research.

Karima is planning for resubmission of the R01 grant very soon. She feels that the resubmission will put them in great shape to receive funding for further research.