Nancy grew up in a small city outside of Los Angeles before moving to an even smaller town in Massachusetts for college. She graduated in 2020 with a B.A. in Biological Sciences from Smith College and joined the Sellers Lab right next door to the Beroukhim Lab at the Broad Institute. There, she ran high-throughput dual-guide CRISPR screens to identify novel paralog
dependencies in ovarian cancers, and in her free time, worked on a project seeking to elucidate conditional pathway activation as a synthetic lethality. As a Ph.D. student in the Beroukhim lab, she is interested in developing computational methods to discern and characterize mono-allelic expression in cancer.

Favorite quote: “I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart.” ― Vincent van Gogh

Fun fact: I was named after Nancy Pelosi, and she ended up being my undergrad commencement speaker!

Yossef grew up in Staten Island, New York before moving to Baltimore to attend Johns Hopkins University. There he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry and conducted research in the Sfanos lab looking at the effect of the inflammatory microenvironment on TMPRSS2-ERG fusions in prostate cancer. After graduating in 2019 he joined the Neal Lab at the Broad Institute as a research associate using CRISPR base editor- and ORF-based screening approaches to study genetic variants in cancer. Now as a PhD student in the Beroukhim Lab, Yossef is interested in studying structural variants in brain cancers that can be useful therapeutic targets. When he’s not looking (and failing) to find good bagels or pizza in Boston, Yossef likes to play soccer and basketball, listen to modern rap and R&B music, and watch a Sci-Fi movie or TV show.

Fun fact: From growing up in New York to living in Boston now, Yossef’s team loyalties are very contradictory since he roots for the New York Yankees and the Boston Celtics.

After being spoiled with daily access to baguettes, Nico’s family decided to move from Paris to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2010, where the sourness of the bread would provide him an opportunity for real character growth. As a leukemia survivor, Nico developed an early interest in cancer biology. He received his BS in Biology from Stanford in 2019 and did his undergraduate research work in Irving Weissman’s lab, developing fluorescence-based tools for lineage tracing. He joined the Harvard MD/PhD program in 2020 to pursue a career in pediatric oncology and became a Beroukhim lab member in 2023. Nico is thrilled to leverage molecular biology techniques to better understand mechanisms of DNA-damage repair alterations in pediatric gliomas.

Fun fact: Despite holding the Poux family record for largest number of mosquito bites in a single night (63!), in the 12 years since receiving his bone marrow transplant Nico has only been bitten once by a mosquito. He is proud to have exacted revenge on the mosquito that broke his bite-less streak.

Favorite quote: “That might sound boring, but I think the boring stuff is the stuff I remember the most.” — Russell, from the movie “Up”

Peter was born in Shanghai, China and came to the states for college in 2014. He graduated from Emory University with a double major in biology and computer science, after which he worked as a computational biologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering cancer center in New York City for two years. Peter is excited to continue his scientific training in the Beroukhim lab and figure out how to properly draw on the electronic whiteboard in Rameen’s office. (Rameen’s edit–that would actually be the 65″ TOUCHSCREEN MONITOR in Rameen’s office.)

Fun Fact: Peter has an identical twin!

Favorite Quote: ‘Be curious, not judgmental’ — Ted Lasso quoting Walt Whitman

Marta was born and raised in Stavanger, Norway. She earned her BSc in Biology and an MSc in Biomedicine at the University of Bergen. Marta is a visiting graduate student from the Gynecological Cancer Research Group led by Prof Camilla Krakstad at the University of Bergen and Haukeland Hospital. In the Beroukhim lab, Marta is performing  CRISPR Cas12 knock-out screens on organoids to understand carboplatin resistance in endometrial cancer.

Fun fact: Marta was a scout and a volunteer mountain rescuer for 16 years. However, she has never sold a single girl scout cookie.

Favorite quote:  “If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?” – Albert Einstein

Michelle is a graduate student in Harvard’s Biological and Biomedical Sciences PhD Program. She received her BA in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2019. There, she studied the oncogenic role of certain signaling molecules in the Hedgehog signaling pathway, and became extremely interested in advancing cancer therapy research. In the Beroukhim Lab, Michelle is using computational efforts to better characterize pediatric brain tumors.

Fun fact: Michelle’s birthday is Christmas Day

Favorite quote: “I have the loftiest idea, and the most passionate one, of art. Much too lofty to agree to subject it to anything. Much too passionate to want to divorce it from anything” – Albert Camus

Born in Rehovot, Israel, Greg traveled to the US when he was 8 (his parents and siblings tagged along). He attended the University of Michigan, earning a BS in Mathematical Biology and Biochemistry. In the Beroukhim lab, he is interested in developing computational methods for studying patterns of structural variation in cancer.

Fun Fact #1: Greg grew up with 4 siblings, a goat, dogs, cats, fish, turtles, chickens, parrots, a horse, and a pony (not all at the same time).

Fun Fact #2: Sean’s fun fact #1 is correct

Quote: Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else. – Margaret Mead