Andriy Marusyk

Andriy Marusyk investigates how non-genetic intratumor heterogeneity and phenotypic plasticity enable cancer cell populations to adapt to therapy through reversible phenotypic switching rather than genetic resistance mutations, revealing that drug-tolerant persister states represent a major mechanism of treatment failure that is amenable to evolutionary therapeutic strategies. His research at Moffitt Cancer Center has demonstrated that the competitive fitness cost of drug resistance varies with microenvironmental context, providing the biological basis for adaptive therapy approaches that exploit fitness differences between sensitive and resistant populations. His work bridges molecular cell biology and evolutionary theory.