Nayan was born and raised in Northern Virginia. She moved to New York City to attend Columbia University as an undergraduate, where she spent three years working in Dr. Eric Kandel’s lab and fell in love with neuroscience. After graduation, she moved to Boston to attend Harvard Medical School, where she discovered her passion for treating patients with brain tumors. She ultimately decided to pursue a career in Radiation Oncology, a field that would allow her to combine her interests in neuro-oncology, palliative care, and research.

Over the last 6 years, her research has primarily focused on characterizing the epidemiology, symptom burden, management, and clinical outcomes among patients with brain metastases utilizing large databases, such as SEER-Medicare. Moving forward, she is interested in studying not just clinical but also genomic factors associated with brain metastases-related outcomes, and she is currently working on conducting large-scale, molecular analyses to identify and validate candidate genomic drivers of disease pathogenesis and response to radiation among patients with brain metastases.

Fun fact: When Nayan is not in the hospital seeing patients or doing research, she can likely be found chasing her “baby” girl around their home, who may have just turned one but has the attitude of a teenage girl.

Favorite quote: Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game. -Babe Ruth

Hege was born and raised in Bergen, Norway and completed her MSc at the University of East Anglia, UK where she studied the role of matrix metalloproteinase 8 in breast cancer. Hege returned to Norway and earned her PhD at the University of Bergen where she developed and characterized organoid-based models for endometrial cancer. As a postdoctoral fellow, she is now studying resistance to carboplatin in endometrial cancer.

Fun fact: Hege was almost born with skis on her feet and loves cross-country skiing.

Favorite quote: “An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.” – Neils Bohr

Maria worked in the Beroukhim Lab for one year as a visiting postdoctoral fellow on a Fullbright award, studying novel dependencies in endometrial cancers. She is now a practicing gynecologist in Bergen, Norway.

Frederik received his MS in genetics and his PhD from the University of Hamburg, Germany. As a postdoc from the University of Bergen, Norway, he spent a year in the Beroukhim Lab as a visiting research fellow to work on understanding the effects of genetic alterations in endometrial cancers. Frederik is currently a research fellow in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria.

During his two years in the Beroukhim Lab, Peleg used whole-genome and whole-exome sequencing, array CGH, and Broad/TCGA algorithms to identify mutations and copy-number alterations responsible for driving development of skull base and neurologic tumors. He identified mutations in SMO and AKT1 in meningiomas and also collaborated with others on projects involving pediatric low-grade gliomas (identifying MYBL1 translocations), pituitary adenomas, schwannomas, and other tumor types. Peleg then completed his neurosurgical residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, followed by a one-year fellowship in skull base neurosurgical oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Currently he is an assistant professor of neurosurgery at the University of Chicago, with a focus on neurosurgical oncology and skull base tumors.

Favorite quote: “Pious harpooners never make good voyagers—it takes the shark out of ’em; no harpooner is worth a straw who ain’t pretty sharkish.” –Captain Peleg, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick

PK completed his medical school training at Harvard and his residency in neurosurgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. His research interests focus on functional genomics of skull base tumors, particularly schwannomas and NF2 tumor biology. Presently, he is completing a fellowship in skull base and open vascular surgery.

Fun fact: PK used to compete in bowling tournaments.

Favorite quote: “For the secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient.”  –Peabody

Linda received her BA from Harvard University and her MD/PhD from Yale University. During her time in the Beroukhim Lab, she studied the genomic landscape of skull base tumors, including pituitary tumors and meningiomas. Linda started her own laboratory at BWH in July of 2018.

Brenton received his PhD from Dartmouth Medical School in the laboratory of Dr. Mark Israel. His graduate work focused on understanding alterations in neuro-developmental pathways that contribute to brain tumorigenesis. In the Beroukhim Lab, he identified novel cancer vulnerabilities that result from copy-number alterations and elucidated tumor cell populations by single cell RNA-sequencing. Brent is now a research scientist within the Cancer Program at the Broad Institute, where he is working with the Dependency Map project.

Fun fact: Brenton was part of the first graduating class of the Dr. Seuss School of Medicine.

Favorite quote: “An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.” –Niels Bohr

Mimi trained as a pediatric neuro-oncologist in Melbourne, Australia, before pursuing a PhD in cancer biology. She moved to Boston to complete a further sub-specialty in pediatric neuro-oncology at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center before joining the Beroukhim Lab in 2012. Under Rameen’s mentorship, Mimi has studied genomic and epigenomic drivers of pediatric brain tumors and mechanisms of resistance to cancer therapeutics. Mimi started her own laboratory at DFCI in the fall of 2017.

Fun fact: Mimi’s favorite travel experiences include backpacking through Europe, snorkeling with wild pods of dolphins in New Zealand, hiking through gorges in Central Australia, star gazing in Uluru, horse-riding through tropical rainstorms in Daintree rainforest, and chasing the Northern Lights in Iceland.

Favorite quote: “Those who lose dreaming are lost.” –Australian Aboriginal proverb

Ofer received his PhD from the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department at MIT, where he was later appointed as a research scientist studying the interaction of light with matter at the nanoscale. Under Rameen’s mentorship, Ofer studied the mechanisms and selective processes that shape the landscape of somatic genomic rearrangements in cancer. He developed statistical and machine-learning models for large whole-genome sequencing datasets to identify genomic alterations that lead to the development and progression of cancer. Ofer is now the Senior Scientist in Computational Biology at Cedilla Therapeutics.