Edgardo Castro Pérez, PhD

Education:

  • Doctorate (Ph.D.) in Cellular and Molecular Biology (neuroscience area), University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, PR, United States of America.
  • Postdoctoral Studies in Cancer Research: School of Medicine, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI., United States of America.
  • Bachelor of Science, Subject Biology, University of Panama, Panama City, Panama.
  • Postgraduate in Higher Education, Universidad Especializada de las Américas, Panama City, Panama.

Position:

Researcher

Research Area

Cancer

Main research lines
  • Mechanisms of drug resistance in cancer
Methodological innovation and implementation lines
  • Cancer stem cell pathways and cancer immunology in drug resistance
Collaborations
  • Instituto Oncológico Nacional, Panamá
  • Caja del Seguro Social, Panamá
  • Universidad de Panamá, Panamá
  • Centro Hemato Oncológico Panamá, Panamá
  • Hospital Santo Tomás, Panamá
  • Hospital Pacífica Salud, Panamá
  • Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá, Panamá
  • Universidad de Wisconsin, Estados Unidos de América
  • Universidad de Notre Dame, Estados Unidos de América

Awards

Member: Sistema Nacional de Investigación, SNI-SENACYT, Panama
  • Member: Sistema Nacional de Investigación, SNI-SENACYT, Panama

Publications

First author

  1. Castro-Pérez E, Singh M, Sadangi S, Mela-Sánchez C, Setaluri V. Connecting the dots: Melanoma cell of origin, tumor cell plasticity, trans-differentiation, and drug resistance. Pigment Cell Melanoma Res. 2023;36(5):330-347. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/pcmr.13092

  2. Castro-Pérez E, De Chial M, Chen O, Mayorga B, Ramos Delgado C. 2025 Estructura genética de la población panameña Genes ancestrales e implicaciones biomédicas. Editorial Portobelo. Publicado: 2024-11-30 Número de edición:1 Número de páginas:248 Tamaño:17.78×25.04cm. ISBN 978-9962-15-187-6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15121745;  

  3. Castro-Pérez E, Rodríguez CI, Mikheil D, Siddique S, McCarthy A, Newton MA, Setaluri V. Melanoma Progression Inhibits Pluripotency and Differentiation of Melanoma-Derived iPSCs Produces Cells with Neural-like Mixed Dysplastic Phenotype. Stem Cell Reports. 2019 Jul 9;13(1):177-192. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31231022

Publications

Second author

  1. de la Guardia V, Castro-Pérez E, Porcell AI, de Tena-Dávila SG, Pacheco M. Atypical cellular neurothekeoma: a case report with a novel NF1 mutation. DiagnPathol. 2024 Nov 22;19(1):151. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13000-024-01578-y

  2. Anu Prathap, Castro-Pérez E, JA Jiménez-Torres, V Setaluri, S. Gunasekarana. A flow-through microfluidic system for the detection of circulating melanoma cells. Biosensors and Bioelectronics Volume 142, 1 October 2019. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31336226

  3. Rodriguez CI, Castro-Pérez E, Longley BJ, Setaluri V. Elevated Cyclic AMP levels promote BRAFCA/Pten-/- mouse melanoma growth but pCREB is negatively correlated with human melanoma progression. Cancer Lett. 2018 Feb 1;414:268-277.

Publications

Collaborations

  1. Zúñiga-Núñez D, Gunther G, Querini Sanguillen WS, Otero Gonzalez JM, García M, Miranda Montenegro M, Castro-Pérez E, Ramos C. Toluidine Blue O DemethylatedPhotoproducts as Type II Photosensitizers. Photochemistry and Photobiology, 2025, Jan 20. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/php.14066 

  2. Singh MK, Krishnan A, Bhasker AI, Rodriguez CI, Castro-Perez E, Ndiaye M, Ahmad N, Khan H, Schieke SM, Setaluri V. 652 EPAC-mTORC1 signaling regulates proliferation of primary melanoma cells and loss of dependence on EPAC signaling correlates with melanoma progression. Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Vol. 142, Issue 8, Supplement, August 2022, Page S112. https://www.jidonline.org/article/S0022-202X(22)01104–6/fulltext#relatedArticles

  3. Krishnan A, Bhasker A, Singh M, Rodriguez C, Castro-Pérez E, Altameemi S, LaresM, Khan A, Ndiaye M, Ahmad N, Schieke S, and Setaluri V. 2022. EPAC Regulates Growth of Primary Melanoma Cells by Stimulating mTORC1 Signaling and Loss of Dependence on EPAC Signaling Correlates with Melanoma Progression. MolCancer Res. 2022 Jul 14;mcr.22.0026. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1158/1541-7786.MCR-22-0026.

  4. Sadangi S, Milosavljevic K, Castro-Pérez E, Lares M, Singh M, Altameemi S, Beebe D, Ayuso J, Setaluri V. (2022) Role of skin microenvironment in melanomagenesis: Epidermal keratinocytes and dermal fibroblasts promote BRAF oncogene-induced senescence escape in melanocytes. Cancers, 14 (5), 1233; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers14051233

Edgardo Castro, PhD

Edgardo Castro Pérez, PhD

Highest degree of studies:Doctorate (Ph.D.) in Cellular and Molecular Biology (neuroscience area), University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, PR, United States of America.

Category: Researcher

Contact information:

E-mail: ecastro@indicasat.org.pa

Edgardo Castro Pérez, PhD

Resume in English

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