Dr. Zafira Castano-Corsino is an Instructor in the Department of Medicine at BWH/Harvard Medical School under the supervision of the Professor Sandra S. McAllister an the President and co-founder of the non-profit International Mentorship Foundation for the Advancement of Higher Education (IMFAHE).
As a researcher, Dr. Castaño studies the mechanisms of breast cancer progression with the desire to find better ways to diagnose and treat cancer patients. Dr. Castaño has co-invented a low cost tool, to identify patients who are at risk of developing metastasis, and has filed for a patent at BWH (BWH No.21719). She is the author and/or co-author of 14 scientific publications in high impact factor journals such as “Nature Biotechnology” or “Cancer Discovery”, reviewer from several journals, and lectured at Harvard Medical School. Since 2010, Dr. Castaño-Corsino has served as a mentor to undergraduate and graduate students at BWH/Harvard Medical School. In addition, she served as a round table facilitator during the mentor training event at the 2013 American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting (AACR-Women in Cancer Research) in Washington, DC. She has been involved in improving resources, policies, training and mentoring for the Brigham and Women’s Hospital community. In recognition of her dedication, Dr. Castaño received the “Postdoctoral Research Fellow Leadership Award” at BWH/Harvard Medical School in 2014, the “BWH Mentoring Award” in 2015 and the “Program Award for Culture of Excellence in Mentoring” in 2016 by Harvard Medical School.
At IMFAHE, Dr. Castano focuses on reversing brain drain via an international mentor program. This program, in collaboration with universities, connects students (primarily in Spain, and now starting the expansion to Portugal and Chile) with overseas mentors (primarily in STEM fields) to help develop mentorship and career opportunities locally and globally.