Alexandra Massa

Leach lab

Alexandra is a graduate of Stonehill College and received a BS in Neuroscience and BA in Chemistry. She is a member of the Leach lab in the Cancer Biology Ph.D. program, a Dartmouth Ph.D. Innovation Fellow, a member of the Student Leadership Board for Dartmouth's Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship, and a Venture Fellow at Borealis Ventures. Her research focuses on the expression and regulation of endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), which are sequences of past viral infections that have become fixed in vertebrate genomes. Specifically, she is interested in how ERV dysregulation impacts the host immune system in disease states such as cancer and autoimmunity.  Alexandra's hobbies include snowboarding, reading, and listening to podcasts. 

Contact

Alexandra.L.Massa.GR@dartmouth.edu
2159320411
HB Hinman Box 7936

Selected Publications

  • Dhara S, Chhangawala S, Chintalapudi H, Askan G, Aveson V, Massa AL, Zhang L, Torres D, Makohon-Moore AP, Lecomte N, Melchor JP, Bermeo J, Cardenas A 3rd, Sinha S, Glassman D, Nicolle R, Moffitt R, Yu KH, Leppanen S, Laderman S, Curry B, Gui J, Balachandran VP, Iacobuzio-Donahue C, Chandwani R, Leslie CS, Leach SD. Pancreatic cancer prognosis is predicted by an ATAC-array technology for assessing chromatin accessibility. Nat Commun. 2021 May 24;12(1):3044. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-23237-2.

    Porichis F, Hart M, Massa A, Everett H, Morou A, Richard J, Veillette M, Hassan M, Ngoc N, Freeman G, Finzi A, Kaufmann D. Immune checkpoint blockade restores HIV-specific CD4 T cell help for NK cells. Journal of Immunology. June 22, 2018, ji1701551; doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1701551.

    Neumeyer AM, O'Rourke JA, Massa A, Lee H, Lawson EA, McDougle CJ, Misra M. Brief report: bone fractures in children and adults with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. March 2015; 45:881-7. doi: 10.1007/s10803-014-2228-1