PHILADELPHIA (January 23, 2020) – Edna (Eti) Cukierman, PhD, an associate professor in the Cancer Biology program at Fox Chase Cancer Center, has been elected to the council of the American Society for Matrix Biology (ASMB). The mission of the organization is to promote basic, translational, and clinical research on the extracellular matrix, the noncellular portion of tissue that provides structural and biochemical support to surrounding cells.
“I’m greatly honored to be elected to the council by my colleagues,” said Cukierman, who is also co-director of the Marvin & Concetta Greenberg Pancreatic Cancer Institute at Fox Chase. “I would like to use this opportunity to broaden ASMB membership and our outreach to the scientific community.”
Her research in extracellular matrix biology began with a postdoctoral fellowship from 1997 through 2002 at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research at the National Institutes of Health. It was during this time that a system she developed rendered, for the first time, a multilayered fibroblastic cell-derived extracellular matrix (CDM). Today, CDMs are broadly used in research.
Cukierman came to Fox Chase in 2002 and has been funded by the National Cancer Institute continuously since 2004. Early in her career, she received a long-running Career Development Award from the American Association for Cancer Research and has also received the National Pancreas Foundation Award.
She served as a long-standing member of the American Cancer Society, with a focus on postdoctoral and young investigator awards. She is an active member of various professional organizations and serves as scientific editor of several journals, including Matrix Biology.
Born and raised in Mexico City, Cukierman immigrated to Israel in 1986 and earned her doctoral degree from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in 1997.
Cukierman said she is eager to share her teaching, mentoring, and professional sponsoring philosophy of “leading by example” as a Latina woman in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) with young trainees and established peers alike.