After graduating from Seton Hill, Christin Hanigan completed a postbaccalaureate fellowship in the Laboratory of Human Carcinogenesis at the National Institutes of Health.  During this time, she applied to graduate school and matriculated to The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in the Cellular and Medicine Program in 2003.  Christin completed her graduate research in cancer epigenetics, the study of heritable changes to gene expression without changes to the DNA sequence. 

During her thesis research, Christin discovered a novel mutation in a colon cancer gene, which leads to a resistance to a certain class of drugs.  Christin’s thesis dissected the mechanism related to resistance.  In 2008, Christin earned her Ph.D. and is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at Johns Hopkins.  She continues to in the field of cancer epigenetics but is focused on understanding the intersection of cancer epigenetics with another commonly dysregulated pathway in cancer, polyamine catabolism. 

Christin, who was recognized as a 2012 Distinguished Alumna of Seton Hill University, co-founded Araminta Freedom Initiative, an organization established to awake, equip and mobilize volunteers to eradicate domestic minor sex trafficking in the Baltimore region.