We are a young and vibrant lab and always looking to add to our team with creative and enthusiastic individuals from diverse prior backgrounds. I am deeply committed to ensuring rigorous training, productive mentorship, and an inspired scientific experience for all members of the lab. Research has borne out the value of mentorship in academia and I have been fortunate to benefit from fantastic mentorship as an undergraduate, graduate student, and postdoctoral fellow. I am committed to the mentorship and success of all trainees in their next endeavor, whether that be in academia, industry, or another path.
Dr. Viswanathan is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an attending medical oncologist in the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University. He subsequently received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Harvard Medical School, doing his graduate work in the lab of Dr. George Q. Daley and his medical training in the Harvard Medical School/MIT Health Sciences and Technology program. He completed residency training in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. His postdoctoral fellowship was with Dr. Matthew Meyerson at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Broad Institute.
Janet earned an Associate Degree in Science from Fisher College in Boston, Ma and a 2nd degree in Early Childhood Education at Middlesex College in Bedford, MA. She was in Executive Assistant at MIT Lincoln Laboratory affiliated with the DoD and held a position with the US Air Force prior. After 40 years of combined administrative service, Janet chose an early retirement to pursue a career in teaching at Trinity Christian Academy on Cape Cod. Recently, she has transitioned back into an administrative position at DFCI working for Dr. Srinivas Viswanathan and the Viswanathan lab.
Dharma received his Ph.D. in Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). His graduate and postdoctoral work in the lab of Dr. Otoniel Martinez-Maza focused on understanding the mechanistic and biomarker role for microRNAs in HIV/AIDS-related B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas. He subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Biogen leveraging next-generation sequencing of T-cell receptors and genome-wide functional screening to identify cellular and mechanistic features underlying the pathogenesis of autoimmune systemic lupus erythematosus. After Biogen, he joined Cue Biopharma, where he worked on developing precision immunotherapeutics for cancer and autoimmune diseases. Selected Publications:
Mingkee earned her Ph.D. in Life Sciences from the University of Warwick, UK. Her doctoral work, in the groups of Miriam Gifford and Sascha Ott investigated symbioses with rhizobium bacteria and root development in legume plants. She also received her MSc. degree in Agricultural Science (Plant Biotechnology) from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, India with research focused on the characterization of seed micronutrient content for marker-assisted breeding in common bean. Prior to joining Dana-Farber in 2021, she worked as a postdoctoral associate on potato-nematode interactions in Dr. Xiaohong Wang’s lab at Cornell. Selected Publications:
Simon Garinet, Ph.D., PharmD. Postdoctoral Fellow Arthur Sachs Scholarship Hometown: Toulouse, France Profiles: Twitter | LinkedIn
Simon received a PharmD from the University Paris Saclay, France, and performed a residency in Medical Biology specialized in Molecular Genetics. He spent 5 years as a Medical Biologist in the Molecular Oncology unit of the European Hospital George Pompidou, Paris. He obtained a MS degree in genetics with work on genomics of adrenocortical carcinoma and identification of ctDNA. His Ph.D in the lab of Professor Pierre Laurent-Puig, University Paris Cité, focused on the identification of transcriptomic biomarkers EMT-related in lung adenocarcinoma.
Shikha joined Dana Farber Cancer Institute in 2021 and is being co-mentored with Dr. Toni Choueiri on studies related to rare subtypes of kidney cancer. Shikha performed her PhD at University of Cambridge, UK with Dr. Cristina Pina where she worked at the intersection of experimental and computational biology. She utilized genetically engineered mice models and single-cell genomics to study transcriptional dynamics during leukemia progression. She is the recipient of multiple awards including studentships from Lady Tata Memorial Trust and an Abstract Achievement Award from the American Society of Hematology. Prior to this, she received her master's degree at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India where she worked on the role of non-coding RNAs in glioblastoma multiforme.
Prateek completed his medical school from University of Delhi, India and earned his MBBS (MD equivalent) degree in 2014. He joined Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in 2014 as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Rupal Bhatt's lab to work on elucidating mechanisms of resistance to VEGFR-TKI therapy in clear cell renal cell carcinoma. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Mount Auburn Hospital, Cambridge in 2021 and fellowship in geriatric medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in 2022. Prateek began his fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at DFCI Brighton at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in July 2022.
Prathyusha received a B.Tech. in Biotechnology from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (India) with research experiences in Cancer Biology and Epigenetics. Subsequently, she received a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from Dalhousie University in Canada where her thesis work focused on enhancing mass spectrometry-based tumor antigen discovery platforms and developing novel immunogenic photodynamic therapies for melanoma, with an emphasis on T cell-mediated anticancer immune responses.
Bingchen received his B.S in Chemistry from Shandong Agricultural University. His undergraduate research was focused on developing electrochemical and photoelectrochemical biosensors. He completed his Ph.D. from Stony Brook University. His doctoral work, in the lab of Erwin London, focused on the effects of asymmetry on liposomal drug loading and delivery efficiency.
Jiao received her B.S in Resources and Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine from Shanxi Agricultural University in 2013. Her undergraduate research was focused on the antibacterial effects of Paulownia flower extract. She completed her Ph.D. from Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2019. Her doctoral work, in the lab of Hongjie Yao, focused on the effects of epigenetics and higher-order chromatin architecture on gene regulation and cell fate determination.
Alessandro received his BS in Industrial Biotechnology at University of Cagliari in 2013. After 3 months at John Innes Centre in Norwich (UK), he moved to Pavia where he obtained his MS degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics in 2016. Subsequently, he earned his PhD in Molecular Oncology in 2021, working in Susanna Chiocca’s Lab at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan. During his PhD, he focused on the role of autophagy in HPV-mediated Head and Neck Cancers.
Selected Publications:
Medda A, Spini S, Compagnoni M, Citro S, Croci O, Campaner S, Tagliabue M, Ansarin M, Chiocca S. c-MYC-dependent transcriptional inhibition of autophagy is implicated in Cisplatin sensitivity in HPV-positive Head and Neck Cancer, 13 February 2023, PREPRINT (Version 1) available at Research Square [https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2468300/v1]
Cary is a clinical fellow in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at the Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. He received his B.A. in Biology and Environmental Studies at New York University. He subsequently received his M.D. and Ph.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He completed graduate training in the lab of Dr. Keisuke Ito, studying the role of microRNA-22 in regulating megakaryocyte differentiation. He subsequently studied the role of linker histone H1 in regulating the epigenetic landscape and chromatin compaction in the lab of Dr. Arthur Skoultchi. Cary completed residency training in Pediatrics in the Boston Combined Residency Program in Pediatrics in the Accelerated Research Pathway, prior to starting his fellowship in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. Cary’s clinical interests include pediatric solid tumors, particularly those effecting adolescents and young adults.
Selected Publications:
Willcockson MA*, Healton SE*, Weiss CN*, Bartholdy BA*, Botbol Y, Mishra LN, Sidhwani DS, Wilson TJ, Pinto HB, Maron MI, Skalina KA, Toro LN, Zhao J, Lee CH, Hou H, Yusufova N, Meydan C, Osunsade A, David Y, Cesarman E, Melnick AM, Sidoli S, Garcia BA, Edelmann W, Macian F, Skoultchi AI. H1 histones control the epigenetic landscape by local chromatin compaction. Nature. 2021 Jan;589(7841):293-298. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-3032-z. Epub 2020 Dec 9. PubMed PMID: 33299182; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8110206.
Riva received a B.S. degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in January 2024. At UMass-Amherst, she worked in Dr. S. Thai Thayumanavan’s laboratory. In the Thai lab, she worked on targeted protein degradation of human carbonic anhydrase and understanding the pathway of degradation. Furthermore, she worked on the expansion and optimization of this project to other proteins of interest, such as PDL-1 and histamine receptors (HRH1).
Kevin received a B.S. degree in biomedical engineering from Tufts University in 2023. At Tufts, he worked in both Dr. David Kaplan's lab and Dr. Madeleine Oudin's lab. In the Kaplan lab, he worked on 3D-printing bone and cartilage implants. In the Oudin Lab, he investigated the role of the neuronal genes MAPT and TUBB3 in triple-negative breast cancer.
Shanivi graduated from Harvard College in 2024 with an A.B. in Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology, high honors. At Harvard, she worked in the laboratory of Dr. David E. Fisher at Massachusetts General Hospital. In the Fisher Lab, her research focused on improving immune checkpoint blockade immunotherapy responses against primary and acquired resistance.
Meha graduated from UCLA with a B.S. in Computational and Systems Biology and a concentration in Neurosystems. At UCLA, she worked in the lab of Dr. Joe DiStefano to mathematically model immune system interactions with the thyroid gland in Hashimoto’s Disease. She also assisted on projects incorporating the immune system into mathematical models for other thyroid autoimmune disorders.
Adam is an undergraduate in the Harvard-Berklee Joint Studies program studying Chemical and Physical Biology at Harvard College and Film Scoring at Berklee College of Music.
Yantong is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School. She received a B.S. in Biological Sciences and a minor in Biometry & Statistics from Cornell University. During her undergraduate, Yantong worked in the Wei Lab on a project to infer demographic events using deep learning. She also worked with Dr. Yinghong Wang at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center to investigate cancer immunotherapy induced gastrointestinal toxicities.
Margaux is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Medical Technology at ETH Zürich in Switzerland, where she also obtained her Bachelor’s in Health Sciences and Technology. She previously worked at Dr. Alessandra Curioni-Fontecedro’s applied mesothelioma research lab at the University of Fribourg focusing on the development of new therapeutical approaches.
Julia is an undergraduate at Harvard College, studying molecular and cellular biology. She previously worked as a research assistant in Dr. Xiongbin Lu’s lab at Indiana University investigating T-cell cytotoxicity in cancer organoid models. In the Viswanathan Lab, her work focuses on the functional characterization of gene fusions in cancers.
Ananthan Sadagopan Undergraduate Research Associate
Ananthan is an undergraduate at MIT planning to major in biology. He previously worked as a research assistant in Dr. Soldano Ferrone’s lab at MGH investigating mechanisms of HLA class I downregulation in cancer cells. In the Viswanathan Lab, his current work is related to the characterization of sex-specific alterations in cancers.