John worked on copy-number analysis of human prostate cancer as a research technician with Rameen, during Rameen’s postdoc. He is currently a clinical fellow in pediatric hematology/oncology at Boston Children’s Hospital and postdoctoral fellow with Todd Golub at the Broad Institute.

Steven received his BA from Hampshire College and MS from Brandeis University. Within the Beroukhim Lab, Steven developed computational infrastructure to study large datasets describing somatic genetic alterations in cancers.

Meredith received a BA in molecular biology and genetics from Skidmore College. In the Beroukhim Lab, she studied novel vulnerabilities associated with copy-number and allelic losses in cancer. As of August 2017, she has been pursuing a PhD at Dartmouth University.

Ryan received a Bachelor of Science in animal science from the University of Vermont in 2014. In the Beroukhim and Bandopadhayay Labs, Ryan studied resistance mechanisms in pediatric brain tumors. He is currently a research scientist at Elstar Therapeutics.

Tricia received her BA from Williams College, where she majored in biology and music. For her undergraduate thesis, she studied the effect of sublingual immunotherapy on lung tissue-resident T cells in allergic asthma. In the Beroukhim and Bandopadhayay Labs, she researched mechanisms of drug resistance in pediatric brain tumors.  As of July 2018, she is an MD-PhD student at Columbia University Medical School.

Fun fact: Tricia plays cello and piano! Fun musical moments have included a play where she was stranded alone with her cello on a stairless platform for three hours, an orchestra rehearsal briefly attended by Sting, and a wedding proposal at the top of a hill that almost happened until bad weather occurred. (NB from Rameen: youtu.be/rnC18X1oqDI)

Favorite quote: “I don’t really have any quotes off the top of my head, though a close friend recently said to me, ‘Lolita, light of my life, fire of my covfefe.’ Is that inappropriate? No one knows what it means anyway.”

Noah received his BA in biophysics from Harvard University. He focused on applying next-generation sequencing techniques to discover genetic drivers of brain tumors. As of August 2017, he is pursuing a PhD at Stanford University in cancer biology.

Fun fact: Palo Alto has 30% more days of sunshine per year than Boston. (NB from Rameen: We have Tom Brady)

Favorite quote: “Give a man a program, and you will frustrate him for a day; teach a man to program, and you will frustrate him for a lifetime.”

John received his BS from Boston College, where he majored in biology and was a member of the van Opijnen Lab.  In the Beroukhim Lab, John’s main research focus was on the role of MYB-QKI fusions as drivers of angiocentric gliomas, a subtype of pediatric low-grade gliomas.  John was also involved in research addressing the presence of clustered deletions near the BRD4 promoter and how this influences BRD4 expression in various cancer types. John is currently a clinical bioinformatics analyst at LinkedIn.

Favorite quote: “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” Alan Watts

Galen received his BS in bioengineering from the California Institute of Technology. In the past, he worked on projects in synthetic biology and in image analysis of chromatin rearrangement in D. melanogaster development. While in the Beroukhim lab he studied pan-cancer patterns of DNA damage and immune response, and worked on biomarker prediction for novel therapeutic compounds.  As of August 2018, he is a medical student at the University of Texas, Southwestern.

Favorite quote: “Do not believe everything you read on the internet.” –George Washington

Naomi is originally from Mauritius, and received her BA in Biology from Williams College. At Williams, Naomi worked with Zebrafish, and investigated the cardioprotective role of small heat shock proteins. In the Beroukhim lab, she is studying ways to therapeutically target cancers that harbor mutations in the Mismatch Repair pathway.

Fun Facts: Naomi loves dogs. Her best dog memories include going kayaking with her dog Ella (who lived for 17 years), and doing dog agility with her dog Zoon, who was twice Naomi’s weight, and probably three times her strength.

Favorite quotes: Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.” – Isaac Asimov
“Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” – Pablo Picasso

Kiran received her BA in Mathematics with a minor in Classics from Williams College. She is developing computational methods to detect recurrent driver rearrangements, including complex rearrangements, in cancer genomes. She is applying these methods across all cancers, with a deep dive into the most deadly brain tumors in children.

Fun Fact: Kiran writes short stories in her spare time! Coincidentally, shortly before she applied to the Beroukhim Lab, she wrote a short story about a young girl with brain cancer.

Favorite Quotes: “You must do the thing you think you cannot do” –Eleanor Roosevelt

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” – John Lennon