Aidan Cole

Postdoc

Aidan started his academic and scientific research career in organic chemistry. His first laboratory experience at St. Louis University with Dr. Chris Arnatt synthesizing small molecule G-protein coupled estrogen receptor ligands. Aidan continued working in organic chemistry throughout his undergraduate career at the University of Pittsburgh in the laboratory of Dr. Paul Floreancig and then in the chemical biology group at Merck Research Laboratories working on small molecule drug synthesis and chemical biology. After his internship at Merck solidified his desire to work in biomedical research in the areas of pharmacology and chemical biology, he worked as a technician in the lab of Dr. Gaya Amarasinghe at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis working on the mechanisms of viral infection and immune evasion. In 2021, Aidan joined the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Molecular Pharmacology PhD program, and he successfully defended in July 2025. His current work focuses on the molecular mechanisms connecting cellular senescence and metabolism through paracrine signaling in cancer.

Read Aidan’s preprint: The chemotherapy-induced senescence-associated secretome promotes cell detachment and metastatic dissemination through metabolic reprogramming.

Contact Aidan: acole@wistar.org