Jessica Cunningham, Ph.D.
- Munson Lab
Jessica Cunningham was born in Michigan and traveled as far south as she could get to obtain a Bachelor of Science in applied mathematics / astrophysics and Master of Science in computer science from the Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Florida. Her doctorate in Mathematical Oncology from Maastricht University, Netherlands, and her time at the Integrated Mathematical Oncology department at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, focused on using mathematics as a bridge to study metastatic disease at the intersection of clinical oncology and evolutionary ecology. She is particularly interested in revolutionizing how we administer currently available drugs to delay or completely prevent evolution of resistance to available therapies, drastically reducing drug usage and lengthening the overall survival of patients with metastatic disease. In the Munson Lab she will be working across projects to develop new mathematical models and tools for the analysis and integration of therapeutic responses and interstitial fluid flow. Outside of the lab, she can be found playing with her daughters Penelope and Charlotte, sticking to her astronomy roots by using her 12-inch telescope, and Olympic weightlifting.
- Ph.D., Mathematical Oncology, Maastricht University, Netherlands
- M.S., Computer Information Systems, Florida Institute of Technology
- B.S., Applied Mathematics, Florida Institute of Technology
Zhang, J., Cunningham, J. J., Brown, J. S., & Gatenby, R. A. (2017). Integrating evolutionary dynamics into treatment of metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer. Nature communications, 8(1), 1-9.
Zhang, J., Cunningham, J., Brown, J., & Gatenby, R. A. (2021). Multidisciplinary analysis of evolution based Abiraterone treatment for metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer. medRxiv.
Cunningham, J. J. (2019). A call for integrated metastatic management. Nature ecology & evolution, 3(7), 996-998.
Lloyd, M. C.*, Cunningham, J. J.*, Bui, M. M., Gillies, R. J., Brown, J. S., & Gatenby, R. A. (2016). Darwinian dynamics of intratumoral heterogeneity: not solely random mutations but also variable environmental selection forces. Cancer research, 76(11), 3136-3144.