Walker Nykia D

Dr. Nykia Walker is a stem cell biologist who works at the interface of cancer and regenerative medicine by studying the immunomodulation of mesenchymal stem cells. She was among the first to show how mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes modulate residential bone marrow macrophage to support cellular dormancy. As a postdoctoral fellow, she identified a novel mechanism used by primary breast tumors to program macrophages through exosome secretion that promoted metastasis and correlated with poor prognosis in triple negative breast cancer patients. Cellular communication has been the hallmark of Dr. Walker’s research with a particular interest in identifying critical regulators of metastasis that facilitates cellular dormancy. Her laboratory uses omic-generated data to build gene signatures to identify novel signaling modalities to predict metastatic potential. She has authored numerous publications, including original manuscripts, reviews, and book chapters. Dr. Walker is an active member of multiple scientific societies including AACR, ISEV and ISSCR. She has received numerous awards and has given several invited presentations at national and international meetings.