Josie Robertson Investigators are appointed to five-year terms.
2023-2028
Human Oncology & Pathogenesis Program
Rachel Niec, MD, PhD
Physician-scientist Rachel Niec studies how cells and tissues communicate to promote health or drive inflammation and cancer.
Molecular Pharmacology Program
Xinbo Yang, PhD
Xinbo Yang’s lab applies structural biology and protein engineering to decode T cell receptor specificity in cancer and autoimmune disease.
2022–2027
Computational & Systems Biology Program
Kushal Dey, PhD
The Kushal Dey lab focuses on developing machine learning models and computational pipelines that integrate genomic and epigenomic data.
Immunology Program
Alexander Gitlin, MD, PhD
The Gitlin Lab studies the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying inflammatory cell signaling in health and disease.
2021–2026
Structural Biology Program
Melinda M. Diver, PhD
The Diver lab studies the physiological roles and molecular mechanisms of understudied membrane-embedded proteins with the goal of revealing novel therapeutic targets for diseases such as pain and cancer.
Human Oncology & Pathogenesis Program
Santosha Vardhana, MD, PhD
The Vardhana Lab studies how nutrient availability, uptake and metabolism regulates host immune responses during cancer development and immunotherapy.
2020–2025
Chemical Biology Program
Heeseon An, PhD
Heeseon An’s lab studies protein degradation in health and disease using chemical, biological, and proteomics tools.
Human Oncology & Pathogenesis Program
Chrysothemis Brown, MBBS, PhD
The Brown Lab studies how the tissue environment shapes immune cell fate and function during early life immune development, inflammation, and cancer.
2019–2024
Molecular Pharmacology Program
Karuna Ganesh, MD, PhD
Physician-scientist Karuna Ganesh studies stem cell plasticity in metastasis, therapy resistance and tissue regeneration.
Computational & Systems Biology Program
Thomas Norman, PhD
Systems biologist Thomas Norman develops new computational and functional genomics approaches for studying how genes interact to realize complex phenotypes.
2018–2023
Human Oncology & Pathogenesis Program
Samuel Bakhoum, MD, PhD
Physician-scientist Samuel Bakhoum studies the role of chromosomal instability in tumor evolution and metastasis.
Developmental Biology Program
Thomas S. Vierbuchen, PhD
The Vierbuchen laboratory directs the differentiation of mouse and human pluripotent stem cells to characterize fundamental mechanisms of neuronal cell fate specification and function.
2017–2022
Structural Biology Program
Richard Hite, PhD
The Hite laboratory studies the mechanisms of metabolite transport and the maintenance of genomic integrity.
Cancer Biology & Genetics Program
Tuomas Tammela, MD, PhD
Cancer biologist Tuomas Tammela investigates cellular heterogeneity in lung and pancreatic cancers.
Alumni
2016–2021
Chemical Biology Program
Yael David, PhD
Yael David’s lab develops and applies methods in chemical biology toward studying epigenetic regulation and its correlation with disease states.
Human Oncology & Pathogenesis Program
Piro Lito, MD, PhD
Physician-scientist Piro Lito studies oncoproteins that drive cancer cell growth.
2015–2020
Chemical Biology Program
Daniel Bachovchin, PhD
Chemical biologist Daniel Bachovchin designs selective inhibitors to study enzymes and pathways in cancer and immune system signaling.
Epidemiology & Biostatistics
Elli Papaemmanouil, PhD
Molecular geneticist Elli Papaemmanouil performs systematic interrogations of well-annotated clinical trial cohorts in leukemia and cancer to explore how the compound genetic and clonal architecture in patients' leukemias and tumors dictate clinical phenotype, disease progression, and clinical outcomes.
2014–2019
Immunology Program
Andrea Schietinger, PhD
Cancer Immunologist Andrea Schietinger investigates immune responses to cancer, molecular mechanisms underlying tumor-induced T cell dysfunction, and new approaches for cancer immunotherapy.
2013–2018
Molecular Pharmacology Program
Alex Kentsis, MD, PhD
Cancer biologist and pediatric oncologist Alex Kentsis leads research in the functional proteomics and molecular pharmacology of refractory childhood cancers.
Epidemiology & Biostatistics
Nikolaus Schultz, PhD
Cancer biologist Nikolaus Schultz uses computational tools to study the diversity of genomic alterations underlying different cancer types.
2012–2017
Molecular Pharmacology Program
Omar Abdel-Wahab, MD
Physician-scientist Omar Abdel-Wahab studies the functional genomics of hematopoietic malignancies.
Cancer Biology & Genetics Program
Richard White, MD, PhD
Cancer biologist and oncologist Richard White uses the zebrafish to dissect interactions between tumor cells and the microenvironment that promote metastasis.