Amber Habowski

Amber Habowski serves as a Research Fellow in the Tuveson group at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, investigating cancer and stromal cell state plasticity and heterogeneity with a focus on pancreatic cancer following her transition from colon cancer research in 2021.

Her academic foundation includes undergraduate degrees in Cellular & Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from Seattle Pacific University, followed by doctoral training at the University of California, Irvine under Dr. Marian Waterman. Her thesis examined loss of stemness in normal crypt homeostasis, intestinal wounding, and colon cancer pathogenesis.

Research interests center on dynamic cellular adaptations within tumor microenvironments, specifically exploring how cancer-associated fibroblasts and epithelial cells exhibit phenotypic plasticity during disease progression. This work bridges molecular oncology and stromal biology to address therapeutic resistance mechanisms in gastrointestinal cancers.

As part of the Tuveson Lab team, she collaborates with researchers including Astrid Deschênes, Claudia Tonelli, and Jeremy Nigri on pancreatic cancer models, contributing to the laboratory's mission of developing novel therapeutic strategies through advanced preclinical modeling.