A family photo shows a young girl at home in Puerto Rico, sitting at a table, peering intently into a microscope her parents had given her.
That’s when “the science spark started,” says Daysha Ferrer Torres, PhD.
It was the beginning of a long journey that led to Ferrer Torres becoming an award-winning researcher dedicated to unraveling the complexities of esophageal cancer and other diseases. That journey has now brought her to the University of Colorado Cancer Center after several years at the University of Michigan.
Ferrer Torres recently joined the CU Cancer Center’s Katy O. and Paul M. Rady Esophageal and Gastric Center of Excellence as principal investigator. She also was appointed an assistant professor with the CU Department of Medicine’s Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
“I’m really excited to apply my expertise here, and also to gain from the research community,” she says. “And I’m in love already with Colorado. Being from the Caribbean, I’m excited to see the sun more often than I did in Michigan.”
Photos: Left, young Daysha Ferrer Torres peers through her microscope, a gift from her parents, at her childhood home in Puerto Rico. Right: Ferrer Torres in the present day, using a microscope. Photos courtesy Daysha Ferrer Torres.
Groundbreaking work
At CU, Ferrer Torres’s lab will explore the progression of esophageal diseases to cancer. She plans to use patient-derived organoids – she describes it as “modeling the human esophagus for each patient by growing mini-organs in a dish” – to study the mechanisms of esophageal development and cancer formation.
Sachin Wani, MD, executive director of the Rady Center of Excellence and a CU gastroenterology professor, says Ferrer Torres’ “groundbreaking work in cancer biology, particularly in understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms of esophageal cancer, aligns perfectly with our mission. Dr. Ferrer Torres’ extensive research, ranging from basic science to clinical applications, promises to bring invaluable insights and advancements to our team.”
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Ferrer Torres also is interested in racial and other disparities in cancer incidence, outcomes, and research. She says some disease mechanisms in minority populations have historically been understudied and underfunded.
“As humans, we’re a diverse genetic population,” she says. “Cancer affects different populations differently, and often we don’t know why. Unfortunately, in science, we have been biased to just study certain groups. I think it is important to study a diverse group of patients so we can understand how disease and treatments affect different people, not just a certain group of people.”
Photos: Left, Daysha Ferrer Torres, PhD, presenting at El Centro Comprensivo de Cáncer at the University of Puerto Rico. Right, Ferrer Torres and her family visit her new professional home on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus to help her inaugurate the Ferrer-Torres Lab. Photos courtesy Daysha Ferrer Torres.
Hooked on genetics
As an eighth-grader in Puerto Rico, Ferrer Torres marveled at the complex structures she could see through her microscope. “That was the key moment for me. I became fascinated by science,” she says.
While studying biology as an undergraduate at the University of Puerto Rico, she spent a summer in a cancer research internship program at the University of Michigan, studying neurofibromatosis type 1 and how a natural anti-cancer metabolite, 2-methoxyestradiol, could lead to drugs that could target the condition.
“I was hooked on being able to use genetics as a way to figure out human diseases and their progression,” Ferrer Torres says.
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After earning her bachelor’s degree in 2012, Ferrer Torres returned to the University of Michigan and entered its Program in Biomedical Science to study cancer biology as a PhD candidate, focusing on esophageal adenocarcinomas. She was particularly interested in understanding racial disparities in the incidence of these cancers.
By 2017, Ferrer Torres was a post-doc research fellow in the university’s Spence Lab, focusing on using single-cell RNA sequencing technologies to characterize human in vitro models that resemble the human esophagus. In 2022 she became a research investigator at the university.
‘Really meaningful’
The Rady Center of Excellence caught her attention as an esophageal cancer research specialist when she was invited to give a seminar two years ago at the CU Cancer Center’s annual Paul R. O'Hara II Esophagogastric Center Symposium.
“Seeing the community here at this campus – the patients’ involvement with scientists and oncologists, getting to speak to the patients, and getting to experience the ecosystem of all the pieces that come with fighting this disease – was really meaningful for me,” Ferrer Torres says. “It was a unique, valuable experience that I hadn’t had at any other center. It made me feel like I could have an impact here in Colorado and the community could impact me.”
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At CU Anschutz, Ferrer Torres says one of her research goals – supported by a National Institutes of Health grant – is to use models of a patients’ esophagus “to understand how reflux, which is one of the primary risk factors for esophageal cancer, affects the organ in each patient, and then how we can find potential druggable targets to prevent damage to the organ and hopefully prevent cancer development.”
One focus of that work, Ferrer Torres says, will be to better understand “huge racial disparities” in reflux damage, and why “some populations are more susceptible to damage.”
Says Wani: “Her dedication to uncovering new therapeutic targets and biomarkers will undoubtedly inspire and drive our efforts in cancer prevention and control. We look forward to the innovative contributions she will bring to our center and the broader field of cancer research.”
While engaged in research in the mainland U.S., Ferrer Torres has been a consultant at the University of Puerto Rico Medical Campus, where she helped to establish the island’s first patient-derived organoid biobank. It was hailed as a significant advancement in personalized medicine and tissue engineering.
“It was one of my proudest moments to be able to come back to my community and help them bridge that gap in expertise,” she says.
Photos at top: Foreground, Daysha Ferrer Torres, PhD, in her new CU Anschutz Medical Campus office. Background: Ferrer Torres stands in front of a campus entrance sign. Photos courtesy Daysha Ferrer Torres.
