Alumni

Catherine Landers, B.A.

​Kiki was a Research Associate working with Dr. Tothova between 2016-2018. She was instrumental in developing different model systems of myeloid malignancies using CRISPR genome engineering and explored potential therapeutic vulnerabilities of cohesin mutant leukemias. Kiki is currently pursuing a PhD degree in Nutritional Sciences at University of Connecticut. 
Anastasia Tishena

Anastasia was a recipient of the Williams-Whitehead scholarship to work in the Tothova lab during the summer of 2018. She investigated therapeutic vulnerabilities of cohesin-mutant leukemias in the context of combination treatments. Anastasia has since graduated from Williams College and is matriculating in medical school in the summer of 2021.
Liana Tellez, B.A.

​Liana was a research associate in the Broad Genomics Scholar program. She received her BA in biological sciences from Northwestern University, where she worked on elucidating mechanisms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in the context of C9orf72 and NEK1 mutations using iPSC-derived motor neurons. In the Tothova lab, Liana performed super-resolution microscopy of cohesin complexes.

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Mounica Vallurupalli, M.D.

​Mounica was a hematology/oncology fellow in the Tothova lab prior to her chief medical residency at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. Mounica's work in the lab was focused on understanding the role of DNA damage repair as a therapeutic vulnerability in cohesin-mutant cancers. She was instrumental in the development of new models of cohesin-mutant MDS and AML using syngeneic transplants and patient-derived xenografts. 

Ben Maron

Ben was a Williams-Whitehead fellow during the summer and winter of 2019-2020. He is a rising senior at Williams College majoring in biology and mathematics, where he also studies the role of ASAP1 in regulating integrin adhesion complex dynamics. His project in the Tothova lab focused on understanding the effect of cohesin complex mutations on nascent transcription. Ben is originally from Sudbury, MA. In his spare time, he is an on-call firefighter in Williamstown, plays the viola, and enjoys hikes and long distance running. 
Rebecca Gorelov, B.A.

Rebecca Gorelov was a Research Associate in the Tothova Lab from 2018-2020. Prior to joining the Tothova lab, Becca graduated from Williams College where she majored in biology. At Williams, she was a biology teaching assistant as well as a tour guide at the Williams College Museum of Art. In the lab, Becca made significant contributions to our team's investigation of the basic biology of cohesin complexes and their role in transformation of hematopoietic stem cells. Becca is currently pursuing a PhD in Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Harvard Medical School.
Florence Verbeek, B.A.

​Florence Verbeek was a visiting graduate student from the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. She completed her masters degree in Biomedical Sciences in our lab and is currently in the process of completing her degree in medicine in the Netherlands. Her work in the lab focused on therapeutic targeting of cohesin-mutant MDS and AML. 
Marisa Winkler, M.D., Ph.D.

​Marisa joined the lab as an internal medicine resident at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She grew up in Western Pennsylvania and completed her undergraduate work at Bryn Mawr College. She completed her MD/PhD at Case Western Reserve University where she studied antibiotic resistance mechanisms in multi-drug resistant Gram-negative rods. In the lab, Marisa was interested in evaluating the relationship between chromatin mutations and the development of leukemia as well as the response to therapy. Marisa is currently pursuing fellowship training in infectious disease in the combined BWH/MGH fellowship program.
Margaret Zimmer, B.S. 

Margaret was a second-year Harvard BBS PhD rotation student whose general scientific interests include cancer biology, immunology, and genetics. Outside of the lab, she is a proud dog mom of an Australian cattle dog mix named Ace and an avid sports fan.
Sana Shareef

Sana was a junior student at Harvard College who joined our lab to perform her independent study. Her work in the lab focused on developed of the switch-over system for in vivo mouse transplant studies.
Dylan Millson, B.A.

Dylan was a research associate in the Tothova Lab from 2020-2021. He grew up in North Carolina and graduated from Williams College in 2020 with degrees in chemistry and biology. He was a four-year member of Williams wrestling team. Dylan completed his undergraduate thesis in the lab of Prof. Ben Thuronyi, where he developed a modular DNA toolkit to enable fluorescent proteins to form phase condensates in E. coli. In the Tothova lab, Dylan made significant contributions in setting up and validating a system for protein degradation. He joined Trinity Partners, LLC as an associate consultant.
Karin Golan, PhD

Karin was a Postdoctoral fellow in the Tothova Lab from 2019-2022. She received her B.A. in Medical sciences from Tel-Aviv University and then joined the Weizmann Institute of Science for her M.Sc. and PhD studies in biology. At the Weizmann Institute she worked in the lab of Prof. Tsvee Lapidot on the role of Sphingosine 1-Phosphate in hematopoietic stem cell motility, and the influence of light and darkness on the dynamic physiological function of hematopoietic stem cells and on mitochondrial transfer between hematopoietic stem cells and their bone marrow microenvironment. In the Tothova lab, Karin investigated the role of cohesin mutations as progression lesions in RUNX1-mutant familial platelet disorders. She is currently a principal scientist at Surface Oncology.
Will Doyle, BA

Will was a research associate in the Tothova Lab from 2020-2022. He grew up in Arlington, MA and graduated from Williams College in 2019 with a major in biology. For his undergraduate thesis in the lab of Prof. Lois Banta, he studied the connected roles of a plant defense hormone and the bacterial type VI secretion system in Agrobacterium tumefaciens infection. In the Tothova lab, Will led and contributed to countless projects focused on understanding of epigenetic dysregulation in leukemia development, in addition to steering the lab through the pandemic and a move. Will is currently pursuing a PhD in biology at Rockefeller University.
Amy Wang, BA

Amy was a computational research associate in the Tothova Lab from 2020-2022. Originally from Seattle, she graduated from Brown University in 2020, where she majored in computational biology and completed an undergraduate thesis involving a comparative analysis of various genetic fusion detection programs. Amy made significant contributions to multiple projects in the lab as a computational lead. She is currently pursuing an MD at Washington State University.