"From Bellingham, Washington, I attended Whitman College in Walla Walla where I studied chemistry and music. I gained additional research experience at Washington State University in the area of radiopharmaceuticals, and also interned at NASA Ames Research Center in California. The next steps in my education took me across the country to West Virginia University, where I earned both MD and PhD degrees. My doctoral research characterized mechanisms governing stability of the GLI1 oncoprotein in pancreatic cancer, with implications towards cell fate and cancer stem cell phenotypes.  In addition, I explored the role of Kruppel-Like Factor 4 in the metastasis of breast cancer cells, including analyses of circulating tumor cells. I completed my first year of residency in the Transitional Year program at West Virginia University. In recent years, I have devoted my research efforts towards cancer genomics, utilizing methods of predictive modeling and unsupervised learning, and hope to continue this work throughout my residency and beyond." - Daniel Vanderbilt, MD, PhD