Ethan Dickson

Background

     Ethan grew up in North Carolina where he earned a Genetics B.S. from North Carolina State University (2020) alongside research under Dr. Antonio Planchart generating zebrafish lines with ALS-linked mutations induced through CRSIPR-Cas9 gene editing. After completing undergrad, he worked for two years the National Cancer Institute under Dr. Thomas Gonatopoulos-Pournatzis where he utilized Cas13 and base editors to perturb exon inclusion within the transcriptome of cancer cells. He also generated two original genome-wide CRISPR gRNA libraries for pooled screening in cancer cells. The first was an optimized dual-targeting hybrid gRNA knockout library utilizing the CHyMErA (SpCas9 + LbCas12a) CRISPR system. The second was a transcriptome-wide exon exclusion library utilizing SpCas9 and SaCas9 cytosine and adenine base editors. 

Research

     Within the Wilson Lab, Ethan is utilizing optogenetics to investigate the Integrates Stress Response (ISR) within the NCI-60 suite of cancer cell lines. Through this optogenetic method in combination with fluorescent reporters of signals downstream of integrated stress response activation, Ethan is hoping to illuminate the effect specific activation of the ISR has on differing cancers and mortal cells with a focus on understanding its effect on age related characteristics.