A day in the life of Rachel Dittmar, Ph.D.
A personal calling guides postdoctoral fellow to research tumor evolution in breast cancer
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September 15, 2025
For postdoctoral fellow Rachel Dittmar, Ph.D., cancer research is more than just business. It¡¯s personal.
Having lost her grandmother to metastatic breast cancer and her mother to duodenal cancer ¨C both died at age 53 ¨C Dittmar chose to focus her postdoctoral research on studying tumor evolution. She works in the Navin Lab at MD Anderson under the guidance and mentorship of , chair of Systems Biology.
¡°Cancer research is trying to make sense of why I lost my mom, who was my best friend,¡± says Dittmar. ¡°Just trying to put the puzzle pieces together, not only for my own family, but to help other people¡¯s families as well. That¡¯s why I chose to come to MD Anderson. Making Cancer History? is something I¡¯m extremely passionate about, and I plan to spend the rest of my life finding those answers.¡±
Tissue collection project helps fuel research
Dittmar¡¯s research seeks to understand how breast cancer evolves from tumors within the breast to spread to distant organs. To help with that research, Dittmar and her lab colleagues established The Final Gift Program, in which they collect tissue from consented metastatic breast cancer patients who pass away at MD Anderson.
¡°Tissue collection days are very long and extremely busy; I¡¯m usually here by 7 a.m. and often don¡¯t go home until 8 p.m.,¡± she says. ¡°On average, we have about 1 to 2 tissue collection days a month.¡±
Dittmar uses single-cell sequencing to read the DNA of primary tumors and metastatic sites, study their RNA and investigate the spatial arrangement of different cell types within a tumor and the surrounding tumor microenvironment. This allows her team to reconstruct a timeline and pattern of genetic changes that occurred throughout the natural history of the tumor.
¡°Studying the genetic changes required to support metastasis and interactions between different cell types will allow us to identify new drug targets that can help prevent metastasis and identify patients with localized disease who are most at risk of developing metastatic breast cancer,¡± she says.
Teamwork in the lab
Figuring out how to best treat metastatic breast cancer is a lofty task. But Dittmar and her colleagues in the Navin Lab are up for the challenge. She credits each of them for helping her learn and grow in her postdoctoral training.
This includes scientists Emi Sei, Ph.D., Shanshan Bai and Jianzhuo, Ph.D., who help with tissue collection and experiments; pathologist Aatish Thennavan, Ph.D., who helps review slides; Quantitative Sciences doctoral student Reem Elghaish, who helps with analysis; and, of course, Navin.
¡°Dr. Navin is an amazing boss and mentor,¡± she says. ¡°He does a wonderful job of providing the right amount of oversight while also letting me feel like I can take ownership of my project ¨C and even the program, to some extent. He¡¯s been nothing but supportive of my thoughts, ideas and goals for the future.¡±
Dittmar also works closely with patients in MD Anderson¡¯s Advanced Breast Cancer Support Group. They¡¯ve visited the Navin Lab and talked to Dittmar about her research. They even wrote a letter of support for her American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship.
¡°I know them personally, so it makes my research that much more real,¡± says Dittmar. ¡°Hearing patients with metastatic breast cancer saying what I do is valuable means a lot to me. Thinking of all they have endured is incredibly motivating and gives me a sense of urgency in the lab.¡±
Honoring her mother¡¯s legacy
Every day Dittmar works in the lab, she¡¯s honoring her late mother, Joan, who spent 25 years working as an oncology nurse.
¡°My mom fought hard for her patients,¡± recalls Dittmar. ¡°I remember when trastuzumab was first approved in 1998 to treat HER2 positive metastatic breast cancer. I was riding in the car with her, and she was so excited. She told me, ¡®Now we have a drug to treat these patients. It can help save their lives!¡¯¡±
Dittmar¡¯s long-term career goal is to be an independent principal investigator and professor with her own research lab at a major cancer center like MD Anderson. She hopes to help detect cancer earlier, identify patients most likely to develop metastatic cancer and find new targeted therapies to treat cancer.
¡°I cannot bring my mother back, but I hope my work makes her proud,¡± she says.
Rachel and her husband, Evan, with their two children, Hattie and Gabriel
Dittmar draws strength from her mom¡¯s memory as well as from her husband, Evan, and their two young children.
¡°I love being a mom, and Evan is the most wonderful and supportive person,¡± she says.
They work as a team, which helps Dittmar balance her career and family.
¡°I¡¯m really passionate about my cancer research, and I couldn¡¯t have picked a better place than the Navin Lab at MD Anderson to do my postdoc,¡± she says. ¡°I hope one day my findings can be translated to the clinic, and we can positively impact patients¡¯ lives.¡±
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