Research Fellows
Elisa Aquilanti, MD
Clinical Fellow
2017-
MD, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
I am a clinical fellow interested in developing novel therapies for glioblastoma, an aggressive brain tumor with 5-year survival rates of less than 5%. Telomerase reactivation, occurring as TERT promoter mutations, was found to happen in over 85% of glioblastoma tumor samples and was identified as a “clonal”, or early event in gliomagenesis. My work is focused on validating telomerase as a therapeutic target and generating novel biochemical tools for a telomerase drug discovery effort.
Clinical Fellow
2017-
MD, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
I am a clinical fellow interested in developing novel therapies for glioblastoma, an aggressive brain tumor with 5-year survival rates of less than 5%. Telomerase reactivation, occurring as TERT promoter mutations, was found to happen in over 85% of glioblastoma tumor samples and was identified as a “clonal”, or early event in gliomagenesis. My work is focused on validating telomerase as a therapeutic target and generating novel biochemical tools for a telomerase drug discovery effort.
Jian Carrot-Zhang, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
2016-
PhD, McGill University
Phone|Email|LinkedIn
My research interest relates to cancer epidemiology, particularly focusing on genetic ancestry that may contribute to the disparities in cancer genomes. I develop and apply computational approaches to better understand the germline-somatic interactions, and to open doors for novel cancer prevention and early detection strategies.
"大道至简: the greatest truths are the simplest." -- I Ching
Postdoctoral Fellow
2016-
PhD, McGill University
Phone|Email|LinkedIn
My research interest relates to cancer epidemiology, particularly focusing on genetic ancestry that may contribute to the disparities in cancer genomes. I develop and apply computational approaches to better understand the germline-somatic interactions, and to open doors for novel cancer prevention and early detection strategies.
"大道至简: the greatest truths are the simplest." -- I Ching
Will Gibson, MD, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
2020-
MD, Harvard Medical School
PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Email|LinkedIn
I hope to leverage emerging technologies from chemical biology to develop novel platforms for drugging some of the most intractable cancer driver genes.
Postdoctoral Fellow
2020-
MD, Harvard Medical School
PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Email|LinkedIn
I hope to leverage emerging technologies from chemical biology to develop novel platforms for drugging some of the most intractable cancer driver genes.
Lior Golomb, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
2017-
PhD, Weizmann Institute of Science
Email|LinkedIn
I am interested in understanding how tumors develop resistance to target therapy and specifically lung cancer tumors that harbor hotspot mutations in EGFR. I apply genome wide screening and genome engineering to study how genomic alterations drive resistance to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors.
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple” - Oscar Wilde
Postdoctoral Fellow
2017-
PhD, Weizmann Institute of Science
Email|LinkedIn
I am interested in understanding how tumors develop resistance to target therapy and specifically lung cancer tumors that harbor hotspot mutations in EGFR. I apply genome wide screening and genome engineering to study how genomic alterations drive resistance to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors.
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple” - Oscar Wilde
Tiki Hayes, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
2017-
I am interested in using a combination of high-throughput genetic screening and genomics to 1) understand mechanisms driving cellular plasticity and drug resistance and 2) evaluate the oncogenic properties of uncharacterized variants.
Postdoctoral Fellow
2017-
I am interested in using a combination of high-throughput genetic screening and genomics to 1) understand mechanisms driving cellular plasticity and drug resistance and 2) evaluate the oncogenic properties of uncharacterized variants.
Mark Lee, MD, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
2019-
MD, PhD, Harvard Medical School
Phone|Email
I am interested in discovering pathogens in clinical samples using next-generation sequencing, and applying experimental, high-throughput functional approaches to this problem.
Postdoctoral Fellow
2019-
MD, PhD, Harvard Medical School
Phone|Email
I am interested in discovering pathogens in clinical samples using next-generation sequencing, and applying experimental, high-throughput functional approaches to this problem.
Netta Mäkinen, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
2019-
PhD, University of Helsinki
Email|LinkedIn
I utilize various high-throughput sequencing technologies, such as whole genome and single-cell DNA sequencing, to better understand molecular mechanisms underlying the early phases of cancer development. My current research focuses especially on lung cancer and small intestinal neuroendocrine tumors.
“What is now proved was once only imagined.” -William Blake
Postdoctoral Fellow
2019-
PhD, University of Helsinki
Email|LinkedIn
I utilize various high-throughput sequencing technologies, such as whole genome and single-cell DNA sequencing, to better understand molecular mechanisms underlying the early phases of cancer development. My current research focuses especially on lung cancer and small intestinal neuroendocrine tumors.
“What is now proved was once only imagined.” -William Blake
Guanxi Qiao, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
2021-
PhD, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, the State University of New York at Buffalo
I have a background in cancer immunology. I am interested in understanding the impact of Fusobacterium nucleatum on immune contexture in colorectal cancer.
Postdoctoral Fellow
2021-
PhD, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, the State University of New York at Buffalo
I have a background in cancer immunology. I am interested in understanding the impact of Fusobacterium nucleatum on immune contexture in colorectal cancer.
Blake Sanders, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
2020-
PhD, Virginia Tech
My research focuses on understanding the impact of the microbiome in colorectal cancer. I am most interested in investigating the host-microbe interactions of Fusobacterium nucleatum.
Postdoctoral Fellow
2020-
PhD, Virginia Tech
My research focuses on understanding the impact of the microbiome in colorectal cancer. I am most interested in investigating the host-microbe interactions of Fusobacterium nucleatum.
David Walter, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
2020-
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
I have a background in mouse models of lung adenocarcinoma, a disease which has an extremely high mutational burden. I’m interested in understanding how many re-occurring, but understudied, mutations in the disease modulate tumor progression and metastasis, and how these changes might be exploited therapeutically.
Postdoctoral Fellow
2020-
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
I have a background in mouse models of lung adenocarcinoma, a disease which has an extremely high mutational burden. I’m interested in understanding how many re-occurring, but understudied, mutations in the disease modulate tumor progression and metastasis, and how these changes might be exploited therapeutically.
Doug Wheeler, MD, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
2015-
PhD, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Phone|Email|LinkedIn
I am interested in identifying genes that are altered in cancer that have not yet been previously identified as involved in tumorigenesis. I would like to use in vivo screening approaches in mice to find lung cancer genes that can drive tumor formation in the physiological context of the lung.
"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less." -Marie Curie
Postdoctoral Fellow
2015-
PhD, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Phone|Email|LinkedIn
I am interested in identifying genes that are altered in cancer that have not yet been previously identified as involved in tumorigenesis. I would like to use in vivo screening approaches in mice to find lung cancer genes that can drive tumor formation in the physiological context of the lung.
"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less." -Marie Curie
Alena Yermalovich, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
2018-
PhD, Harvard University
Email|LinkedIn
I study molecular pathogenesis of lung cancer by interrogating the FTSJD1 gene, which is subject to recurrent loss of function mutations in lung adenocarcinoma. I hope to discern new insights into the molecular pathways causing lung cancer to expose new potential targets for effective diagnosis and therapy.
Postdoctoral Fellow
2018-
PhD, Harvard University
Email|LinkedIn
I study molecular pathogenesis of lung cancer by interrogating the FTSJD1 gene, which is subject to recurrent loss of function mutations in lung adenocarcinoma. I hope to discern new insights into the molecular pathways causing lung cancer to expose new potential targets for effective diagnosis and therapy.
Meng Zhou, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
2019-
PhD, University of Southern California
Email|LinkedIn
I am interested in developing and applying computational approaches to study genomic alterations and rearrangements in cancer. My goal is to better understand genome rearrangement events in cancer progression and to integrate genomics, epigenomics and genome-editing data to identify potential therapeutic targets in the cancer genome.
Postdoctoral Fellow
2019-
PhD, University of Southern California
Email|LinkedIn
I am interested in developing and applying computational approaches to study genomic alterations and rearrangements in cancer. My goal is to better understand genome rearrangement events in cancer progression and to integrate genomics, epigenomics and genome-editing data to identify potential therapeutic targets in the cancer genome.
Tao Zou, MD, PhD
Clinical Fellow
2017-
MD, PhD, University of Pennsylvania
I am interested in innate immune signaling in cancer cells and cancer immunotherapy.
Clinical Fellow
2017-
MD, PhD, University of Pennsylvania
I am interested in innate immune signaling in cancer cells and cancer immunotherapy.