Vivian Gama, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology. Her research focuses on modes of regulation of signaling pathways involved in cell fate. As a graduate student, Gama used biological and biochemical techniques to study how ubiquitination regulates Bax-mediated apoptosis in cancer cells. She then directed her studies into mechanisms of neuronal survival and later into how stem cells regulate cell death. Gama found that the apoptotic machinery undergoes extraordinary changes even at the earliest stages of differentiation. Her particular interest is in understanding how apoptotic proteins are involved in maintaining stem cell pluripotency, self-renewal, or in promoting differentiation. This is particularly relevant for cancer, as many of the properties of stem cells are maintained but deregulated in cancer stem cells. Gama plans to continue elucidating novel functions of apoptotic proteins in stem cell self-renewal and pluripotency and shed light into the mechanisms that become dysregulated during the acquisition of a cancer stem cell phenotype with emphasis on glioblastoma and medulloblastoma.