Karen Carmelina Crasta

Karen Carmelina Crasta

PhD

Research Assistant Professor

phscras@nus.edu.sg

Crasta Lab

ORCID

Affiliations

  • Research Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology, National University of Singapore
  • Healthy Longevity Translational Research Programme, NUS

Research Areas of Interest:

  • Therapy-induced senescence and tumour recurrence
  • Chromosome instability as driver of inflammation in age-related disease
  • Extracellular vesicles as means of systemic communication in healthy longevity
  • Impact of aged tumour microenvironment in cancers

Biography

After BSc Honours in Microbiology at NUS, Karen completed her PhD at A*STAR IMCB where she uncovered fundamental mechanistic regulation underlying centrosome separation and mitotic spindle formation.  She then undertook postdoctoral training at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, USA where she found a mechanistic link between mitotic errors and chromosomal breaks via micronuclei. She started her research group at the Centre for Healthy Longevity in 2021. Dr. Karen Crasta is a recipient of the NRF Fellowship, A*STAR International Fellowship and HHMI Research Associate Fellowship (USA).

Research Synopsis

Karen seeks to understand the impact of genomic instability-related stress response and adaptation in cancer progression and therapeutic resistance, while investigating the translational potential of targeting biological mechanisms of ageing.

Selected Publications

  1. Robert M, Kennedy BK, Crasta KC. Therapy-induced senescence through the redox lens. Redox Biol. 2024 Jun 6;74:103228. doi: 10.1016/j.redox.2024.103228.
  2. Robert M, Crasta K. Breaking the vicious circle: Extrachromosomal circular DNA as an emerging player in tumour evolution. Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2022 Mar;123:140-150. doi: 10.1016/j.semcdb.2021.11.015.
  3. Jakhar R, Crasta K. Exosomes as Emerging Pro-Tumorigenic Mediators of the Senescence-Associated Secretory Phenotype. Int J Mol Sci. 2019 May 24;20(10):2547. doi: 10.3390/ijms20102547.
  4. Wong A, Chen S, Yang LK, Kanagasundaram Y, Crasta K. Lipid accumulation facilitates mitotic slippage-induced adaptation to anti-mitotic drug treatment. Cell Death Discov. 2018 Nov 27;4:109. doi: 10.1038/s41420-018-0127-5.
  5. Jakhar R, Luijten MNH, Wong AXF, Cheng B, Guo K, Neo SP, Au B, Kulkarni M, Lim KJ, Maimaiti J, Chong HC, Lim EH, Tan TBK, Ong KW, Sim Y, Wong JSL, Khoo JBK, Ho JTS, Chua BT, Sinha I, Wang X, Connolly JE, Gunaratne J, Crasta KC. Autophagy Governs Protumorigenic Effects of Mitotic Slippage-induced Senescence. Mol Cancer Res. 2018 Nov;16(11):1625-1640. doi: 10.1158/1541-7786.MCR-18-0024.
  6. Shyu P Jr*, Wong XFA*, Crasta K#, Thibault G#. Dropping in on lipid droplets: insights into cellular stress and cancer. Biosci Rep. 2018 Sep 19;38(5):BSR20180764. doi: 10.1042/BSR20180764.
  7. He Q, Au B, Kulkarni M, Shen Y, Lim KJ, Maimaiti J, Wong CK, Luijten MNH, Chong HC, Lim EH, Rancati G, Sinha I, Fu Z, Wang X, Connolly JE, Crasta KC. Chromosomal instability-induced senescence potentiates cell non-autonomous tumourigenic effects. Oncogenesis. 2018 Aug 15;7(8):62. doi: 10.1038/s41389-018-0072-4.
  8. Luijten MNH, Lee JXT, Crasta KC. Mutational game changer: Chromothripsis and its emerging relevance to cancer. Mutat Res Rev Mutat Res. 2018 Jul-Sep;777:29-51. doi: 10.1016/j.mrrev.2018.06.004.
  9. Luijten MNH, Lee JXT, Chen S, Crasta KC. Generation of Micronuclei and Detection of Chromosome Pulverization. Methods Mol Biol. 2018;1769:183-195. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-7780-2_12.
  10. Cheng B, Crasta K. Consequences of mitotic slippage for antimicrotubule drug therapy. 2017 Sep;24(9): T97-T106. doi:1530/ERC-17-0147.

Awards

  • 2013-2019 NRF Fellowship
  • 2009-2011 A*STAR International Fellowship
  • 2008-2009 HHMI Research Associate Fellowship
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