Ayesha Shafi

Ayesha Shafi, PhD, serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) School of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland. Her research is anchored at the Center for Prostate Disease Research (CPDR) and Murtha Cancer Center Research Program (MCCRP), driving translational initiatives focused on prostate cancer therapeutics.

Her academic foundation includes a Ph.D. in Molecular & Cellular Biology from Baylor College of Medicine and a B.A. in Biology and Chemistry from Austin College.

Dr. Shafi's research program targets therapeutic resistance mechanisms in advanced prostate cancer, with three core thrusts: elucidating circadian factors (particularly CRY1) in tumor progression, developing patient-derived models to predict treatment response, and investigating co-activators CBP/p300 in disease advancement. This work directly addresses the critical unmet need for effective castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) treatments where androgen receptor pathways remain aberrantly active despite therapy.

Analysis of her publication record reveals a cohesive research trajectory centered on molecular drivers of CRPC, with increasing emphasis on circadian biology's role in DNA repair and metabolic reprogramming. Her studies consistently bridge basic science (e.g., CRY1-DNA repair interactions) with clinical applications (e.g., patient-derived model validation), demonstrating strong translational impact across oncology, urology, and molecular biology disciplines.

Key recognitions include:

• AACR NextGen Star award (2022)
• Prostate Cancer Foundation Young Investigator award
• Endocrinology Journal Early Career Reviewer designation

As a Young Investigator awardee, Dr. Shafi directs substantial grant-funded research while mentoring within CPDR's collaborative framework. Her work integrates wet-lab molecular techniques with clinical data analysis to identify novel therapeutic vulnerabilities in CRPC.

She operates within CPDR's multidisciplinary ecosystem at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, collaborating with surgeons, oncologists, and basic scientists to accelerate prostate cancer biomarker and therapy development through the Murtha Cancer Center's infrastructure.