Lab Alumni

Ozen was a graduate student at Koc University in Istanbul, Turkey. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to complete the last year of her graduate studies working in our lab and in Mike Hemann's lab at MIT. During that time, she used our functional genomics assays to characterize an unexpected mechanism of drug synergy for combinations of EGFR inhibition and DNA damage in gastric cancer cells. Ozen graduated with her PhD in the summer of 2023 and is in the process of finding an academic postdoc to continue her studies of drug-drug interactions.

Rachel's thesis work explored how mechanisms of drug action vary across drug doses. She contributed to the development of our drug GRADE algorithm, and also made critical observations about the regulation of parthanatos, an understudied form of cell death. Prior to joining the lab, Rachel attended Northeastern University and worked at EMD Serono. 

Hannah's thesis work was focused on improving pre-clinical evaluation of drug responses. She led our development of the drug GRADE algorithm and also worked towards the development of an in vitro assay for profiling immune checkpoint inhibitors in the context of other cancer chemotherapies. Prior to joining our lab, Hannah was an undergraduate at Tufts, where she studied Biochemistry and worked in Josh Kritzer's lab. She was also a member of the Tufts Equestrian Team. She is currently a postdoc at Merck.

Anitha came to our lab after completing her PhD at the University of Udine, in Italy. As a PhD student she created new assays for studying RNA binding proteins. In our lab, she was interested in learning computational biology, functional genomics, and mechanisms of non-apoptotic cell death. She worked on understanding mechanisms that control parthanatotic death. She is currently a postdoc in the Castaneda Lab at Syracuse University.

Peter was the second student to join our lab (formally joining a few weeks after Ben). His thesis studies were focused on non-genetic mechanisms of drug resistance. Using genome-wide CRISPR screens, he found that the ELP complex drives drug resistance in TNBC by enabling "translational buffering" when growth factor-mediated gene expression is inhibited. Peter is a native of Puerto Rico, and studied at Duke and at the Broad Institute prior to joining our lab. After finishing the MD portion of his MD/PhD, Peter became a Neurosurgery Resident at OHSU in Portland, Oregon. 

Anna worked with us while she was finishing her studies at Clark University, where she was a math major and also a member of the Field Hockey and Lacrosse teams. In the Lee Lab, she was a member of "Team Double Sigmoid" (an early version of the idea that became the GRADE algorithm). Anna received her bachelor's degree in Mathematics in 2021 and master's degree in Finance in 2022. She currently works as a Financial Representative at Fidelity Investments.

Ryan did a short, but very productive postdoctoral fellowship in our lab. In three years he published 3 first author papers. He discovered SAD combos, created the FLICK assay, and helped generate the drug GRADE algorithm. Prior to joining our lab, Ryan was a PhD student with Rob Dempski at WPI, and an undergrad at UMass-Lowell, where he was a member of the soccer team. He's remembered fondly as a lover of all things New England, including fall weather and bland food. He is currently a Senior Scientist at AstraZeneca.  

Mariah was a technician in our lab. Prior to joining us, she was an undergraduate at Millsaps College where she studied Biology... and Chemistry... and Neuroscience... and Archaeology (and she was also a member of the golf team). In the lab she helped generate new regents for studying apoptotic and non-apoptotic forms of cell death, which are used in our study of "SAD Combos". She is currently pursuing a PhD in Pharmacology at UNC Chapell Hill and is a member of Jonathan Schisler's lab.

Thomas helped start our lab as our first hire and lab manager. Prior to joining us, he worked for Cosette Wheeler at U. New Mexico, and for Bob Horvitz at MIT. Thomas is a molecular biology guru and helped perfect a number of sequencing and genome-wide screening approaches for studying cell death. He currently works as a research associate at Beam Therapeutics. 

Ben was our lab's first graduate student. He was previously an undergrad at WPI and a research technician in Jenny Benanti's lab. In our lab he pioneered our studies of the tumor microenvironment and became an expert in culturing primary material, quantitiative high-throughput assays for evaluating drug sensitivity, and the biology of cancer associated fibroblasts. He also authored a really excellent review on OMIC strategies for studying signal transduction. He is currently a Scientific Support specialist at STEMCELL.

Gary worked in our lab during the summer after his junior year in high school. He helped Ben Landry characterize the functional state of cancer associated fibroblasts and how this is influenced by interaction with cancer cells. His contributions earned him authorship on our study of tumor-stroma interactions and how these alter drug sensitivity. Gary is currently at student at UMass-Amherst studying biomedical engineering.

Kentaro came to our lab after a successful graduate career at Keio University in Japan. His research interests were focused on inflammatory signaling and diseases that result from chronic inflammation. He is currently a medical science liaison at Eli Lily.

Liam joined our lab for the summer of 2016. While in the lab he studied SOX family transcription factors and their role in driving adaptive responses to growth factor targeted therapies. He's currently a medical student here at UMass Chan.

Anne Margriet was a graduate student in the lab of our collaborator Marcel van Vugt, at the University of Groningen. She finished a portion of her PhD studies in our lab, resulting in a very nice paper that explored mechanisms driving resistance to cisplatin. She's now a postdoc in Dan Durocher's lab in Toronto.