New Meyerson Lab Members in 2021
Zarin Mohsenin and Patrick Zhuang join the lab as Research Associates, Lior Kofman as an Associate Computational Biologist and Guanxi Qiao as a postdoctoral fellow.
Zarin joins us from Haverford College where she worked in the Johnson Lab developing an approach for editing the chloroplast genome of a single-celled algae. In the Meyerson Lab, she works with Alena Yermalovich to better understand the role of the gene CMTR2 in lung cancer. In her free time, Zarin enjoys reading, hiking, and playing soccer.
Patrick Zhuang is joining us from Williams College. He was a member of the Thomas Smith Lab in which he focused on using aldol reactions to stereoselectively synthesize molecules leading to the synthesis of enigmazole, a potentially tumor-suppressing molecule. In his free time, Patrick swims, plays the guitar, and enjoys spending time in a park. He is going to work with Tao Zou to develop novel therapeutic strategies to target innate immune signaling pathways that regulate cancer cell viability.
Lior Kofman is joining us from Tufts University. As a member of the Tufts Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Research Group, he modeled gene regulatory networks to understand gene interactions induced by neurological disorders and determined drug repositioning candidates using a recommender system. During his free time, Lior enjoys playing basketball, snowboarding, and reading books about the brain. Supervised by Andy Cherniack, he will be working with Blake Sanders to identify the role of Fusobacterium in colorectal cancer and with Gizem Karsli Uzunbas to identify potential gene targets in small cell lung cancer.
Guanxi is joining us from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. There, she was a Ph.D. student of Elizabeth Repasky’s lab where she studied how stress suppresses anti-tumor immune response. Outside of lab, Guanxi enjoys reading, playing piano, and exploring new restaurant. Her research will focus on how fusobacterium affects anti-tumor immunity in colorectal cancer.
Zarin Mohsenin and Patrick Zhuang join the lab as Research Associates, Lior Kofman as an Associate Computational Biologist and Guanxi Qiao as a postdoctoral fellow.
Zarin joins us from Haverford College where she worked in the Johnson Lab developing an approach for editing the chloroplast genome of a single-celled algae. In the Meyerson Lab, she works with Alena Yermalovich to better understand the role of the gene CMTR2 in lung cancer. In her free time, Zarin enjoys reading, hiking, and playing soccer.
Patrick Zhuang is joining us from Williams College. He was a member of the Thomas Smith Lab in which he focused on using aldol reactions to stereoselectively synthesize molecules leading to the synthesis of enigmazole, a potentially tumor-suppressing molecule. In his free time, Patrick swims, plays the guitar, and enjoys spending time in a park. He is going to work with Tao Zou to develop novel therapeutic strategies to target innate immune signaling pathways that regulate cancer cell viability.
Lior Kofman is joining us from Tufts University. As a member of the Tufts Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Research Group, he modeled gene regulatory networks to understand gene interactions induced by neurological disorders and determined drug repositioning candidates using a recommender system. During his free time, Lior enjoys playing basketball, snowboarding, and reading books about the brain. Supervised by Andy Cherniack, he will be working with Blake Sanders to identify the role of Fusobacterium in colorectal cancer and with Gizem Karsli Uzunbas to identify potential gene targets in small cell lung cancer.
Guanxi is joining us from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. There, she was a Ph.D. student of Elizabeth Repasky’s lab where she studied how stress suppresses anti-tumor immune response. Outside of lab, Guanxi enjoys reading, playing piano, and exploring new restaurant. Her research will focus on how fusobacterium affects anti-tumor immunity in colorectal cancer.
New Paper on the activity of Telomerase in Glioblastoma
Elisa Aquilanti, an Instructor in Medicine in the Meyerson Lab, recently published a review of telomerase as a therapeutic target in glioblastoma. Glioblastoma generally has few oncogenic mutations; however, TERT promoter mutations have been found in 80% of glioblastoma samples. These mutations allow tumors to gain cellular immortality, which could be combated by telomerase inhibitors through the maintenance of telomere length. Elisa, along with Lauren Kageler, Patrick Wen and Matthew Meyerson, presents clinical and genomic data suggesting telomerase as a potential "Achilles' heel" for glioblastoma, summarizes previous experience with anti-telomerase agents, and proposes new directions for this target. Read the article here!
Elisa Aquilanti, an Instructor in Medicine in the Meyerson Lab, recently published a review of telomerase as a therapeutic target in glioblastoma. Glioblastoma generally has few oncogenic mutations; however, TERT promoter mutations have been found in 80% of glioblastoma samples. These mutations allow tumors to gain cellular immortality, which could be combated by telomerase inhibitors through the maintenance of telomere length. Elisa, along with Lauren Kageler, Patrick Wen and Matthew Meyerson, presents clinical and genomic data suggesting telomerase as a potential "Achilles' heel" for glioblastoma, summarizes previous experience with anti-telomerase agents, and proposes new directions for this target. Read the article here!
2021 Summer Students
This summer the Meyerson Lab has had the pleasure of hosting four summer students: Elise Layne, Hope Wei, Emanuele Rovera and Max Garrity-Janger.
Elise is a rising senior at Swarthmore College. This summer she is working under the direction of Dr. Tiki Hayes and is focused on the characterization of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) variants in lung cancer. Outside of the lab she spends a majority of her free time sewing, playing tennis, and spending time with her dog, Walter.
Hope is currently a senior at Boston University working under Dr. Tao Zou on innate immune signaling in cancer cells and immunotherapy. A fun fact about Hope is that her favorite animal is the Great White Shark, and she is super passionate about mental health and wellbeing and ending the stigma around it.
Emanuele is working with Blake Sanders, and his research is focused on understanding the role of microbiota in colorectal cancer tumorigenesis, with the goal of elucidating its impact on patients' prognosis and response to therapies. He is currently attending the 5th year of the MD/PhD program at University of Turin, Italy.
Max is a rising junior (class of 2023) at Harvard College studying Applied Mathematics with an area of application in biology. This summer, under Kar-Tong Tan's guidance, he is using a combination of short and long read sequencing data to identify novel telomeric repeats in cancer cell lines. These repeats coincide with structural variants such as chromosomal breaks or arm fusions within these cell lines and play an important and poorly understood role in cancer genome chromosomal rearrangements. Outside of research and academics, he loves playing hockey and currently serves as the Vice President of Harvard's club hockey team.
All four of the summer students have been great additions to the lab, and have contributed to some really great projects! We look forward to hearing about their future accomplishments, in science and beyond!
This summer the Meyerson Lab has had the pleasure of hosting four summer students: Elise Layne, Hope Wei, Emanuele Rovera and Max Garrity-Janger.
Elise is a rising senior at Swarthmore College. This summer she is working under the direction of Dr. Tiki Hayes and is focused on the characterization of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) variants in lung cancer. Outside of the lab she spends a majority of her free time sewing, playing tennis, and spending time with her dog, Walter.
Hope is currently a senior at Boston University working under Dr. Tao Zou on innate immune signaling in cancer cells and immunotherapy. A fun fact about Hope is that her favorite animal is the Great White Shark, and she is super passionate about mental health and wellbeing and ending the stigma around it.
Emanuele is working with Blake Sanders, and his research is focused on understanding the role of microbiota in colorectal cancer tumorigenesis, with the goal of elucidating its impact on patients' prognosis and response to therapies. He is currently attending the 5th year of the MD/PhD program at University of Turin, Italy.
Max is a rising junior (class of 2023) at Harvard College studying Applied Mathematics with an area of application in biology. This summer, under Kar-Tong Tan's guidance, he is using a combination of short and long read sequencing data to identify novel telomeric repeats in cancer cell lines. These repeats coincide with structural variants such as chromosomal breaks or arm fusions within these cell lines and play an important and poorly understood role in cancer genome chromosomal rearrangements. Outside of research and academics, he loves playing hockey and currently serves as the Vice President of Harvard's club hockey team.
All four of the summer students have been great additions to the lab, and have contributed to some really great projects! We look forward to hearing about their future accomplishments, in science and beyond!
New Paper on Somatic and Germline Alterations in Renal Medullary Carcinomas
Kar-Tong Tan, a graduate student at Harvard in the Meyerson Lab, recently published a paper to determine the germline haplotypes and somatic alterations that occurred in Renal Medullary Carcinoma (RMC), a cancer restricted to young Africans and linked with the sickle cell trait. Using previously identified samples, Tan and his collaborators showed that the sickle cell haplotype in patients with RMC originated from three areas of Africa and found that the sickle cell mutation was the only candidate variant. They also found that structural variants in SMARCB1 with small or no regions of homology were the most common somatic alteration. This paper produced novel results in describing the founder population of the RMC haplotype and provides an example of how haplotype-based analyses can find high-risk variants and highly resolve structural variants. Along with Kar-Tong, group member Jian Carrot-Zhang and former member Hyunji Kim contributed to the paper. Find the article here!
Kar-Tong Tan, a graduate student at Harvard in the Meyerson Lab, recently published a paper to determine the germline haplotypes and somatic alterations that occurred in Renal Medullary Carcinoma (RMC), a cancer restricted to young Africans and linked with the sickle cell trait. Using previously identified samples, Tan and his collaborators showed that the sickle cell haplotype in patients with RMC originated from three areas of Africa and found that the sickle cell mutation was the only candidate variant. They also found that structural variants in SMARCB1 with small or no regions of homology were the most common somatic alteration. This paper produced novel results in describing the founder population of the RMC haplotype and provides an example of how haplotype-based analyses can find high-risk variants and highly resolve structural variants. Along with Kar-Tong, group member Jian Carrot-Zhang and former member Hyunji Kim contributed to the paper. Find the article here!
New paper on PDE3A and SLFN12 complex formation
Xiaoyun Wu, a senior scientist in the Greulich and Meyerson groups at the Broad Institute, collaborated with Colin Garvie of the Center for the Development of Therapeutics at the Broad Institute to characterize the small molecule-induced interaction between two cellular proteins, PDE3A and SLFN12, that results in killing of cancer cells expressing elevated levels of these two proteins. They furthermore discovered that SLFN12 is an RNase, that SLFN12 RNase activity is upregulated by PDE3A binding, and that SLFN12 RNase activity is required for cancer cell response to this family of small molecules, now called "velcrins". These results will facilitate therapeutic development of velcrins, currently in clinical trials. Additional current group members who contributed to this research include Sooncheol Lee, Stephanie Hoyt, Joseph McGaunn, and Andrew Cherniack. Read the paper here!
Xiaoyun Wu, a senior scientist in the Greulich and Meyerson groups at the Broad Institute, collaborated with Colin Garvie of the Center for the Development of Therapeutics at the Broad Institute to characterize the small molecule-induced interaction between two cellular proteins, PDE3A and SLFN12, that results in killing of cancer cells expressing elevated levels of these two proteins. They furthermore discovered that SLFN12 is an RNase, that SLFN12 RNase activity is upregulated by PDE3A binding, and that SLFN12 RNase activity is required for cancer cell response to this family of small molecules, now called "velcrins". These results will facilitate therapeutic development of velcrins, currently in clinical trials. Additional current group members who contributed to this research include Sooncheol Lee, Stephanie Hoyt, Joseph McGaunn, and Andrew Cherniack. Read the paper here!
New paper on oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma dependencies
Zhouwei Zhang, a graduate student with Dr. Meyerson, in collaboration with the lab of Dr. Adam Bass, identified key dependencies in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) using genomic dependency and pharmaceutical screening datasets. Zhouwei and colleagues found that ESCC cell lines are sensitive to ERBB inhibitors. They also found that combined inhibition of ERBB proteins and CDK4/6 (a known dependency) may synergize to kill ESCC cells, suggesting a clinical trial option that could be investigated using FDA-approved drugs. Furthermore, they showed that KLF5 facilitates activation of ERBBs in ESCC, making it a candidate biomarker for such a therapeutic strategy. Read the paper here!
Zhouwei Zhang, a graduate student with Dr. Meyerson, in collaboration with the lab of Dr. Adam Bass, identified key dependencies in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) using genomic dependency and pharmaceutical screening datasets. Zhouwei and colleagues found that ESCC cell lines are sensitive to ERBB inhibitors. They also found that combined inhibition of ERBB proteins and CDK4/6 (a known dependency) may synergize to kill ESCC cells, suggesting a clinical trial option that could be investigated using FDA-approved drugs. Furthermore, they showed that KLF5 facilitates activation of ERBBs in ESCC, making it a candidate biomarker for such a therapeutic strategy. Read the paper here!
Quinn McVeigh joins the Meyerson Lab!
Quinn McVeigh is joining us from University of Minnesota. There, she was a member of Nobuaki Kikyo’s lab where she studied the relationship between ER stress and fibroblast to neuron conversion. Outside of lab, Quinn enjoys baking, reading, and mountain biking. She will be working with Gizem Karsli Uzunbas to develop novel targeting approaches for lung cancer.
Quinn McVeigh is joining us from University of Minnesota. There, she was a member of Nobuaki Kikyo’s lab where she studied the relationship between ER stress and fibroblast to neuron conversion. Outside of lab, Quinn enjoys baking, reading, and mountain biking. She will be working with Gizem Karsli Uzunbas to develop novel targeting approaches for lung cancer.
Paper on germline EGFR mutation just published!
Netta Mäkinen, a post-doctoral fellow, and colleagues used high-throughput sequencing to study genomic evolution in tissues from a lung adenocarcinoma patient with a germline EGFR T790M mutation. Netta found that somatic EGFR mutations are early events in the pathogenesis of lung adenocarcinomas arising in the context of germline EGFR T790M. Furthermore, synchronous AAH lesions seem to represent independent neoplastic foci. Read the paper here!
Netta Mäkinen, a post-doctoral fellow, and colleagues used high-throughput sequencing to study genomic evolution in tissues from a lung adenocarcinoma patient with a germline EGFR T790M mutation. Netta found that somatic EGFR mutations are early events in the pathogenesis of lung adenocarcinomas arising in the context of germline EGFR T790M. Furthermore, synchronous AAH lesions seem to represent independent neoplastic foci. Read the paper here!
New paper on T cell epitope identification
Mark Lee, a post-doctoral fellow and MGH Transfusion Medicine physician, developed a new technique to identify T cell epitopes by combining cytokine-capturing antigen-presenting cells with highly complex DNA arrays encoding peptide libraries. Mark used this method to identify previously unknown targets of CD8+ and CD4+ T cell receptors that are commonly found in peripheral blood. Next step: identification of targets of tumor-infiltrating T cells. Read the paper here!
Mark Lee, a post-doctoral fellow and MGH Transfusion Medicine physician, developed a new technique to identify T cell epitopes by combining cytokine-capturing antigen-presenting cells with highly complex DNA arrays encoding peptide libraries. Mark used this method to identify previously unknown targets of CD8+ and CD4+ T cell receptors that are commonly found in peripheral blood. Next step: identification of targets of tumor-infiltrating T cells. Read the paper here!
New paper on SARS-CoV-2 transcriptomes!
Jason Nomburg, a joint graduate student with Dr. Meyerson and Dr. James DeCaprio, conducted an integrative analysis of SARS-CoV-2 transcriptomes to characterize the RNA species present during infection. Jason found that SARS-CoV-2 produces non-canonical RNA species in a variety of different infection settings. These alternative transcripts may be important in the virus life cycle. Read the paper here!
Jason Nomburg, a joint graduate student with Dr. Meyerson and Dr. James DeCaprio, conducted an integrative analysis of SARS-CoV-2 transcriptomes to characterize the RNA species present during infection. Jason found that SARS-CoV-2 produces non-canonical RNA species in a variety of different infection settings. These alternative transcripts may be important in the virus life cycle. Read the paper here!
New paper on relationship of Native American ancestry and EGFR mutations
Jian Carrot-Zhang, post-doctoral fellow, and colleagues developed a new technique to compare somatic genome alterations with ancestry analyses using tumor-only sequence data, working with Dr. Sasha Gusev in Dana-Farber’s Data Sciences Department. By studying 1,153 lung cancers from Latin American patients, in collaboration with Dr. Andres Cardona in Bogota, Colombia, and Dr. Oscar Arrieta in Mexico City, they determined that Native American ancestry in this patient population was associated with increased EGFR mutation frequency, regardless of smoking status. From this work, we can deepen our understanding of potential lung cancer risk factors. Next steps: see if we can find an inherited locus. Read the paper here!
Jian Carrot-Zhang, post-doctoral fellow, and colleagues developed a new technique to compare somatic genome alterations with ancestry analyses using tumor-only sequence data, working with Dr. Sasha Gusev in Dana-Farber’s Data Sciences Department. By studying 1,153 lung cancers from Latin American patients, in collaboration with Dr. Andres Cardona in Bogota, Colombia, and Dr. Oscar Arrieta in Mexico City, they determined that Native American ancestry in this patient population was associated with increased EGFR mutation frequency, regardless of smoking status. From this work, we can deepen our understanding of potential lung cancer risk factors. Next steps: see if we can find an inherited locus. Read the paper here!
Matthew Meyerson elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Matthew Meyerson was elected as a Fellow by the AAAS Council for his significant contributions to the advancement of science or its applications. Fellows are selected from a diverse array of fields, including technology, academia, research, and government. Read more about the honor here!
Matthew Meyerson was elected as a Fellow by the AAAS Council for his significant contributions to the advancement of science or its applications. Fellows are selected from a diverse array of fields, including technology, academia, research, and government. Read more about the honor here!