Our Research Group

My undergraduate training consisted in the study of melanoma biology, in the laboratory of Osvaldo Podhajcer and under the direction of Dr. LLera at the renowned Leloir Institute, Buenos Aires, Argentina where I focused on the characterization of melanoma secretome using proteomics. From this training phase I published a very complete story in Proteomics (Sosa MS, et al., Proteomics 2007). My Ph.D. training program was carried out at the University of Pennsylvania in a joint program with the University of Buenos Aires. This training was under the mentorship of Dr. Marcelo Kazanietz, a well-recognized scientist in cell signaling studies in prostate and breast cancer. During this time I focused on the study of P-Rex1, a Rac-GEF protein, and how this factor contributed to the malignancy of mammary tumor cells. We demonstrated that P-Rex1 was important for migration and tumor development of breast cancer cells (Sosa MS, et al., Mol. Cell 2010). In 2010, I joined Dr. Julio Aguirre-Ghiso laboratory as a postdoc and worked on understanding how tumor cell dormancy is established once tumor cell disseminate to secondary organs. During my postdoc I was able to link the orphan nuclear receptor NR2F1 to a novel function during tumor cell dormancy (Sosa et.al. Nat. Com 2015). I found that NR2F1 was required for malignant cells to undergo dormancy by regulating retinoic acid signaling and cell cycle arrest in tumor cells. During my postdoc, I also worked in deciphering the mechanisms of dissemination from pre-malignant lesions (those formed even before a primary tumor is detected, such as ductal carcinoma in situ lesions) in breast cancer as a new source of disseminated cancer cells. This research project led to the publication of two paradigm-shifting papers in Nature in 2016 (Harper&Sosa, Nature, 2016, Hosseini et. al., Nature, 2016). At the beginning of 2017, I started my lab in the Department of Pharmacological Sciences at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. I moved to Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the beginning of 2023. Diversity Statement: I am aware that being a scientist in academia not only involves being successful in my research but also being a role model for the students and being able to exert my responsibilities to transform my community. Thus, I strive to improve racial diversity and gender equity in science. To this end, in 2021, I created the Commission of Diversity and Equity Support (CoDES), in the Department of Pharmacological Sciences (DPS) at Mount Sinai. The mission of this commission was to increase diversity and promote inclusion and equity by creating an inclusive culture based on mutual respect and to firmly oppose any form of discrimination. Our efforts impacted the DPS community evidenced by the following achievements: 1- an increase in the number of women speakers in our seminar series to 49%; 2- identification of three internal women faculty as candidates for our department, 3- introduction of DPS faculty to underrepresented high school students through lectures and courses organized by CEYE (Center of Excellence in Youth Education); 4- creation of recreational events to promote cultural diffusion. I have been involved in URM Ph.D/MD admission board, networking panels for women scientists, communicating my career path in local urban high schools, and teaching to minority black male young scientists through CEYE (Center of Excellence in Youth Education) . I have also participated in “Coffee chat series” organized by the Susan G. Komen Advocacy group and in the Susan G. Komen campaign for Spanish community together with “Telemundo Hoy Dia News”. This campaign aimed to reach the breast cancer Latin community by providing conversations in Spanish between a researcher and an advocate suffering from the disease. Currently, I am the Associate Director of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) office for the Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center (MECCC). I work closely with Women’s Initiative Network (WIN), and ExCEL program at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.