Chief Scientific Officer, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

During his graduate training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Haigis studied the somatic genetics of intestinal tumor initiation under the guidance of Dr. William Dove. In his post-doctoral work, Dr. Haigis studied the oncogenic properties of the RAS GTPases in the laboratory of Dr. Tyler Jacks in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Cancer Research (now the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research).

Contact: kevin_haigis at dfci dot harvard dot edu

Executive Support Specialist I 
Contact: jennifer_thurber at dfci dot harvard dot edu
Work: 857-215-0447

Education:
S.B. in Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2003)
S.B. in Literature, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2003)
Ph.D. in Cancer Biology, Stanford University (2009)

Research Interests:
Throughout my education and training, my main interests have been in the development and study of mouse models of cancer, more specifically using mouse models to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in tumor evolution and the implications for potential therapies.

Contact: deborahl_burkhart at dfci dot harvard dot edu

Education:
B.S. in Biology, Sookmyung Women's University (2001)
M.S. in Biology, Sookmyung Women's University (2003)
Ph.D. in Biology (Genomics), Sookmyung Women's University (2007)
Research Topic: Regulation of Ras oncogenicity by post translational modification
Research Interests: Cancer biology, cell biology, posttranslational modification, cancer mouse model, CRISPR

Contact: moonhee_yang at dfci dot harvard dot edu

Education:
B.S. in Biology, UNC Asheville (2009)
M.S. in Molecular and Structural Biochemistry, NC State (2012)
Ph.D. in Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Northeastern University (2015)
Research Topic: Rare oncogenic mutations in K-Ras colorectal cancers
Research Interests: Models of cancer, oncogenic mutants of Ras, signal transduction, enzyme structure and kinetics
Project Description:
I study rare oncogenic mutations in K-Ras colorectal cancers using a combination of protein chemistry, molecular biology, and mouse modeling. Using these techniques, I hope to discover novel functions of K-Ras that can be targeted for the treatment of cancer.

Contact: christian_johnson at dfci dot harvard dot edu

Education:
B.S. in Biomedical Science, University of Marburg, Germany (2010)
M.S. in Biomedical Science, University of Groningen, The Netherlands (2012)
Ph.D. in Cancer Biology, University of Dundee, UK (2016)
Research Topic:  Analysis of proteome-wide changes in KRas-mutant cells and tissue by mass spectrometry (Co-advised by Steven Gygi, HMS)
Research Interests: Cancer biology, cell biology, proteomics
Project Description:
Title: Tissue-specific oncogenic activity of KRas.
Oncogenic KRAS mutations occur frequently in some human cancers (e.g. pancreas, colon, lung), but are rarely detected in other cancer types (e.g. liver, kidney, brain). Based on this and other observations we hypothesize that some tissues are sensitive to the oncogenic activity of mutant KRas whereas other tissues are resistant. To identify the tissue-specific mechanisms underlying KRas sensitivity and resistance I am measuring the effects of mutant KRas expression on the (phospho-)proteome by mass spectrometry in a variety of tissues from genetically engineered mice. In addition, I am using proximity labeling and AP-MS to better understand how post-translational modifications and the interactome of KRas contribute to its distinct signaling outputs in different tissue contexts.

Contact: olesja_popow at dfci dot harvard dot edu

Education:
B.S. Chemistry with Drug Discovery, University of Strathclyde, UK (2014)
Ph.D. Bionanotechnology, University of Strathclyde, UK (2018)
Research Topic: “Surface Enhanced Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy” (SESORS) for deep non-invasive optical imaging
Research Interests: Medical imaging, Raman spectroscopy, optics, theranostics, cancer biology
Project Description: 
In the field of optical imaging, the ability to image deep seated tumors with high selectivity and specificity remains a significant challenge. Surface enhanced spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SESORS) is an emerging molecular imaging technique which aims to detect cancerous lesions through depths far greater than what can be achieved using traditional Raman spectroscopy approaches. Having recently published the first demonstration of the use of SESORS for the detection of any disease in vivo, my research interests lie in optimizing the SESORS approach to enable non-invasive molecular imaging and long-term monitoring of a wide range of tumors types.

Contact: fay_nicolson at dfci dot harvard dot edu

Education:
BS Genetics and Bioengineering, Yeditepe University, Turkey (2012)
MS Biotechnology, Yeditepe University, Turkey (2013)
PhD Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Science, Universite Catholique de Louvain, Belgium (2019)
Research Topic: 
Research Interests: signal transduction and cell biology
Project Description:
Contact:  elif_kon at dfci dot harvard dot edu

Education:
BS in Biomedical Sciences, Barao de Maua University, Brazil (2013)
MS in Pathology, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil (2016)
PhD in Pathology, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil (2021)
Research Topic: Organoid engineering may help in the study of drugs selection to each kind of oncologic patient. Thus, our project aims to discover new possible target genes that could be used in the cancer therapy field.
Research Interests: Organoid engineering, heterozygous point mutations, CRISPR, cancer mouse model, cancer biology.
Project Description: Creating organoid lines carrying heterozygous point mutations in a variety MAPK signaling genes using next generation CRISPR tools.
Contact:  stefania_bovominto at dfci dot harvard dot edu

Education:
BA Biology, Saint John's University  (2019)
PhD Genetics and Genomics, Texas A&M University (2023) - including Graduate Certificate in Bioinformatics and Computation Biology
Research Topic: 
Research Interests: 
Project Description:
Contact:  michael_mcgill at dfci dot harvard dot edu

Education:
B.A. in Biology (Biochemistry Emphasis), University of California, Santa Barbara (2016)
Research Topic: Investigating novel methods to perturb the immune system in the treatment of Ras-driven cancers
Research Interest: Cancer immunology, therapeutic development, genetic screens, mutation allele analysis, tumor microenvironment
Project Description:
Despite the advances made in immunotherapy, only a small fraction of colorectal cancers respond to checkpoint blockade immunotherapies. I'm interested in exploring new genetic targets that can modulate the immunogenicity of syngeneic colorectal cancers in mice. By working on integrating our experimental mouse models with advances in CRISPR technologies to perform in-vivo CRISPR screens, I hope to find new avenues for promoting anti-tumor immunity

Contact: kdervishi at g dot harvard dot edu

Education: 
B.S. in Biology, Cornell University (2017) ; M.Eng. in Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University (2018)
Research Topic: Integration and functional annotation of omics datasets
Research Interest: Cancer and metabolic signaling, omics analysis methods
Project Description:
I am studying how genetic context (i.e. KRAS mutation) influences the phosphorylation of substrates by ERK2 and whether the phosphorylation of specific substrates by ERK2 is associated with tumor response to MAPK inhibitor treatment. Given the challenges of using conventional phospho-proteomic strategies to reveal direct kinase-substrate relationships, I am using an ATP analog-sensitive mutant of ERK2 (AS-ERK2) that is capable of uniquely thiophosphorylating substrates using an AS-kinase specific ATP analog to directly identify ERK2 substrates in cells and tissues.

Contact: bawasthi at fas dot harvard dot edu

Education:
B.A. in Biology, Berea College
Research Topic: The role of tumor microenvironment in metastasis of colorectal cancers.
Research Interest: Cancer Biology, Immuno-oncology, tumor immune microenvironment (TIME), metastatic cancers, Microsatellite instability (MSI)
Project description:
While MSI+ metastatic cancer patients have demonstrated high response rate to immune check point blockage (ICB) therapies, MSS colorectal cancers have long been considered resistant to immunotherapies. Also, approximately 95% of metastatic CRCs are classified as MSS and do not exhibit an immunogenic phenotype. Thus, I am interested in investigating the role of TIME on metastasis of colorectal cancers and in identifying therapeutic targets for combinatorial therapeutic approaches to enhance the efficacy of ICB therapies in MSS metastatic CRCs.

Contact: kidisth_ashami at dfci dot harvard dot edu

Education:
B.S. Duke University - Major Biology (Concentration in Pharmacology), minor in Chemistry (2021)
Research Topic: Cancer Pharmacology and Biochemistry
Research Interest: cancer, drug discovery, pharmacology
Project description:
To attempt to find promising therapeutic targets for the RAS mutant A146T, that will ultimately aid in cancer therapies.

Contact: amandae_may at dfci dot harvard dot edu

Education:
B.A. in Biology from Amherst College, (2022)
Contact: samuel_park at dfci dot harvard dot edu

Education: BA in Chemistry and Religion, Williams College (2023)
Project Description:
Contact: mohammad_faizaan at dfci dot harvard dot edu