Ayjha Brown

Ayjha Brown is a first-year MD-PhD student from Montego Bay, Jamaica. She earned her B.S. in Chemistry with Highest Honors from Emory University. As an undergraduate, Ayjha conducted oncology research under the mentorship of Drs. Curtis Henry and Christopher Porter at Emory University School of Medicine. Her senior research examined how the SEPT9::ABL1 gene fusion influences sensitivity to tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

In the summer of 2023, Ayjha joined Dr. David Braun’s laboratory at the Yale Center for Molecular and Cellular Oncology as an American Cancer Society Scholar. There, she investigated the use of cytokine stimulation to induce the presentation of endogenous retrovirus-derived antigens as potential targets for mRNA-based cancer vaccines. This work deepened her interest in the relationships among genomic instability, tumor immunology, and therapeutic response.

Ayjha subsequently returned to Yale as a postbaccalaureate research fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Faye Rogers. Over two years, she studied triplex-forming oligonucleotides as a targeted therapeutic strategy for HER2-amplified breast cancer. Her work focused on how sequence-specific DNA targeting and the resulting DNA damage shape apoptosis, inflammation, and immune signaling.

As an MD-PhD student, Ayjha hopes to investigate the molecular mechanisms that drive cancer progression and treatment response. She is particularly interested in genomic maintenance, immune evasion, and immunogenic cell death, as well as translating insights from cancer biology into new therapeutic approaches. Beyond the laboratory, she is passionate about cancer education and community engagement. She volunteers with Yale Cancer Center’s Collaborative Excellence community outreach initiatives and Sisters’ Journey, Inc.