The UAB Department of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology (CDIB) has launched a new article series titled Meet the Minds of CDIB. The series spotlights the diverse faculty who power the department’s groundbreaking research. Through candid interviews, it gives readers a closer look at the career paths, passions, and real-world impacts of the researchers shaping the future of medicine.
In the inaugural feature, we meet Karina Yoon, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of CDIB, a cancer pharmacologist whose work centers on developing therapies for aggressive, drug-resistant solid tumors. She completed her postdoctoral training after earning her M.S. in Medicinal Chemistry and Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology from Florida A&M University. She served as a staff scientist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, where her fascination with cancer biology began.
“My long-term goal is to use observations made in the laboratory with preclinical models as a basis for developing therapies for patients with solid tumors,” she said.
Her lab investigates multiple facets of cancer biology, from drug resistance in ovarian and pancreatic cancers to the proteins that regulate metastasis. Her team also studies personalized treatments tailored to individual tumors’ genetic and molecular profiles.
“Promising data generated by our laboratory may have direct translational potential,” she said. “Effective combination strategies identified in preclinical models can be evaluated in future clinical trials.”
She credits her postdoctoral mentor for shaping her career path and showing her what it means to be a committed scientist and supportive mentor.
“She showed me how to be an outstanding researcher, provided me with honest feedback, fostered scientific discussion, and importantly, how to balance work and life.”
Now a proud member of the UAB CDIB community, she emphasizes the strength of the department’s collaborative spirit.
“I feel fortunate to participate in the CDIB collaborative environment and its focus on basic biomedical science,” she said.
To future scientists, she offers advice rooted in experience and humility: “Set a professional goal. Pursue this goal strategically, it will require passion, resilience, endurance, collaboration, adaptation and integrity. And perhaps, a sense of humor.”
Follow along with the Meet the Minds of CDIB series to discover more about the researchers’ advancing science at UAB.