Team
Ethan Cerami
Ethan Cerami, Ph.D. is the Director of the Knowledge Systems Group and Principal Scientist in the Department of Data Sciences at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Prior to joining Dana-Farber, Ethan was the Director of Computational Biology at Blueprint Medicines, and Director of Cancer Informatics Development at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). While at MSKCC, Ethan co-founded the cBioPortal for Cancer Genomics, and the group remains active in its continued development.
Jen Altreuter
Jen Altreuter, M.D. is a Scientist within the Knowledge Systems Group. She is the Scientific Program Manager of the Cancer Immunological Data Commons (CIDC). Jen obtained her undergraduate degree in Computer Studies at Northwestern University and earned her MD from the University of Pennsylvania of Medicine. She has a diverse set of work experiences in the fields of basic science research and education as well as medical and bioinformatics.
Guruprasad Ananda
Guruprasad Ananda, Ph.D., is a Lead Scientist and the Director of the NGS Bioinformatics Group at DFCI. His group is primarily involved in bioinformatics research, analysis, and tool/pipeline development for the Profile project, one of the most comprehensive precision cancer medicine initiatives in the US. The group also works closely with pathologists, oncologists, and research scientists at DFCI, MGB, and Harvard Medical School on the development, validation, and translation of bioinformatics tools and algorithms into the clinical space. Prior to joining DFCI, Guru was a Scientist and Manager of the Clinical and Translational Informatics Team at the Jackson Laboratory, where he made key contributions to setting up multiple NGS based clinical tests for cancer. During his graduate studies, Guru was involved in the development and maintenance of diverse bioinformatics and statistical tools as a core team member of the Galaxy project, an open-source, free web-based genomics portal with a substantial user base.
Michael D’Eletto
Michael D’Eletto is the Lead Software Engineer for the Profile team within the Knowledge Systems Group. Mike possesses a Masters in Bioinformatics from NYU. Prior to joining the Knowledge Systems Group, he led the bioinformatics group within the Tumor Profiling Laboratory at Yale New Haven Hospital, and was responsible for developing custom bioinformatics workflows and applications to support clinical sequencing efforts. His expertise lies strongly in the realm of clinical bioinformatics, which poses its own unique regulatory challenges that require additional consideration during the devops process. He is very excited to contribute to KSG, and has a passion for creating software that will help to translate data into meaningful observations.
Ian Dryg
Ian Dryg, Ph.D. is a Scientist within the Knowledge Systems Group. Ian received his Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Washington where he studied inflammatory effects of novel biomaterial implants in the brain. During this time, he gained extensive experience with ImmunoFluorescence (IF) Microscopy and some image analysis. Ian expanded on these skills during his postdoc at New York University, where he utilized CODEX multiplexed IF and single cell RNA Sequencing to study melanoma. At Dana-Farber, Ian supports the Center for Immuno-Oncology and the Tissue Biomarker Lab with computational and bioinformatics analyses. Ian is especially interested in digital pathology, spatial biology, and multiplexed and single-cell technologies.
Zhaoyuan (Ryan) Fu
Zhaoyuan (Ryan) Fu is a software engineer in the Knowledge Systems group. He is primarily working on the public cBioPortal and the local cBioPortal @ DFCI. Ryan joined KSG after earning his M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Boston University. He brings skills of a full-stack developer, such as React for frontend, Spring Boot for backend, as well as knowledge for databases and containers.
Gufran Gungor
Gufran Gungor is a software engineer in the Knowledge Systems Group. His background lies in Molecular Biology and Genetics. Prior to his position at DFCI Gufran worked at Yale New Haven Hospital, Exact Sciences, and Genomize in bioinformatics. Throughout his career he has specialized in clinical bioinformatics with an emphasis on NGS pipeline development both on premise and on the cloud.
Erica Holdmore
Erica Holdmore, Ph.D. is a Computational Biologist in the NSG Bioinformatics Group. Erica earned a bachelors degree from Florida State University, a master from California State University Northridge, and a doctorate from Yale University. She has hands-on experience with every step of the NGS pipeline, from sample collection to library prep to data analysis. Erica applies her expertise in developing and implementing bioinformatics pipelines for a variety of sequencing technologies to her work at DFCI, primarily for the Profile Project.
Matthew Galvin
Matthew Galvin is a software architect within the Knowledge Systems Group. His expertise lies in bioinformatics pipelining, data analysis, and full-stack web development. Prior to joining Dana-Farber he worked at Invitae, the Providence Cancer Institute, and Illumina. At KSG, Matthew primarily contributes to the MatchMiner project. He has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Oregon State University, and his interests include human health, computer science, and philosophy.
Jason Hansel
Jason Hansel is a software engineer in the Knowledge Systems Group. He works primarily on MatchMiner, developing tools to connect patients with precision medicine clinical trials. Prior to joining Dana-Farber, Jason worked at Amazon, where he helped to launch Amazon Pharmacy. Jason has a B.A. in Computer Science and Philosophy from Williams College.
Harry Klein
Harry Klein, Ph.D. is a Scientist within the group. Prior to joining Dana-Farber, Harry received his Ph.D. in Plant Biology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst where he studied programmed cell death in grass flower development. Harry conducts outreach and impact studies for MatchMiner, a platform for algorithmically matching genomic profiles to clinical trials. In a retrospective study conducted by the MatchMiner team, they found MatchMiner reduced time to trial consent by 22%!
Alex Lash
Alex Lash, M.D. joined the KSG in 2023 as the Scientific Program Manager for the Data Coordination Center for the National Cancer Institutes’s Human Tumor Atlas Network (HTAN). He was awarded an M.D. degree from Baylor College of Medicine in 1994, and completed his residency training in anatomic pathology in 1998 at the National Cancer Institute, where, among other awards, he was recognized by the Arthur Purdy Stout Society of Surgical Pathologists. From 1998 to 2003, Lash was a staff scientist at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at NIH. From 2003 to 2012, he was the scientific director of the bioinformatics core facility at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where he supported both clinical and basic research and participated in numerous collaborative grants. He was the Chief Informatics Officer at the Simons Foundation from 2012 to 2023, where he lead the development and dissemination of the foundation’s extensive scientific data assets — particularly those related to autism spectrum disorders — and oversaw the automation of its scientific administration infrastructure.
Rochelle Levy
Rochelle Levy is the Program Coordinator for KSG as well as the HTAN DCC Scientific Project Coordinator. Prior to joining KSG, Rochelle was the executive assistant to Dr. George Demetri in the Sarcoma department within DFCI where she coordinated events, acted as a liaison between patients and physicians and assisted in managing academic appointments and day to day operations for all Sarcoma physicians. Rochelle holds a bachelors degree in business management and graphic design and has over ten years in healthcare and business administration. Rochelle wears many hats and also assists in various projects by utilizing her unique organization and management techniques as well as graphic and web design skills to propel projects forward.
James Lindsay
James Lindsay, Ph.D. is Associate Director and Chief Software Architect within the Knowledge Systems Group. Prior to joining Dana-Farber, James was a Co-founder of Smpl Bio, a bioinformatics company which builds web based tools that simplify complex statistical and analytical tasks for bench biologists. He brings expertise in software architecture, bioinformatics, genomics and machine learning. Within the Knowledge Systems Group, James leads several initiatives, including translating molecular tissue imaging research into clinical tests, software systems for enterprise bioinformatics and integration of machine learning to enhance research and clinical systems at Dana-Farber.
Emily Mallaber
Emily Mallaber is a bioinformatics analyst working primarily on MatchMiner within KSG. She holds a BA in Neuroscience and in Computer Science from Boston University. Prior to KSG, she has worked as an EMT and in clinical research positions. She hopes to continue to develop her expertise here and is excited to contribute to such important projects while she does!
Tali Mazor
Tali Mazor, Ph.D., is an Associate Director and Lead Scientist within the group. Prior to joining Dana-Farber, Tali received her Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of California San Francisco where she studied the heterogeneity and evolution of brain tumor genomics and epigenomics. She brings expertise in genomics and translational cancer research. Within the Knowledge Systems Group, Tali leads the MatchMiner project. She also works with the cBioPortal for Cancer Genomics, leading training and outreach as well as local cBioPortal@DFCI efforts.
Satyakam Mishra
Satyakam Mishra is a Computational Biologist in the KSG, working primarily on the Profile Project. He completed his Masters from CWRU in Systems Biology and Bioinformatics. He then worked in a lab at Case where he helped develop AWS based analyses and containerization of various NGS pipelines for the lab. He brings a mixture of biological, statistical and programming skills which he aims to develop further by contributing to the exciting ongoing research in Profile and in KSG.
Allison Nau
Allison Nau is a Computational Biologist within the group, working on projects in collaboration with the Center for Immuno-Oncology’s Immune Assessment Laboratory and Tissue Biomarker Laboratory. Allison has her M.S. in Bioinformatics from Boston University, with wet lab experience in CyTOF, FACS, TCR sequencing, and peptide-MHC tetramers.
James Provencher
James Provencher is a software engineer in the Knowledge Systems group. He is working on the Cancer Immunological Data Commons (CIDC) until its transfer to the NCI and is transitioning to work on simplifying data sharing processes within the Institute. James joined the group after earning his M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts Lowell and is interested in facilitating research through his engineering efforts.
Tiarah Thomas
Tiarah Thomas is an Administrator Support Specialist within the Knowledge Systems Group. Prior to joining Dana Farber, Tiarah acquired over 10 years of support experience from working in a number of industries. Tiarah holds a B.A. in Applied Psychology and Studio Arts from Boston College.
Pavel Trukhanov
Pavel Trukhanov does modern software engineering within the Knowledge Systems Group, working on number of major projects at KSG, namely CIDC, MatchMiner, Profile and also focusing on ML applications. Prior to joining Dana Farber, Pavel was a Co-founder of a software and server monitoring and reliability startup company. He is a Linux and web systems expert with background in theoretical physics, who is also passionate about bioinformatics and biotechnology.
Stephen C. Van Nostrand
Stephen C. Van Nostrand is a Software Engineer, who came to the Knowledge Systems Group with a Master’s in Biological Engineering from MIT, with experience with both the technological and biological aspects of cancer research. Stephen is the technical lead for the Cancer Immunological Data Commons (CIDC) until its transfer to the NCI. They’re now excited to continue contributing to cutting-edge scientific advancement by simplifying data sharing and analysis within Dana Farber.
Jason L. Weirather
Jason L. Weirather, Ph.D. is a Lead Scientist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) where he leads the Computational Biology Group and provides informatics support to the Center for Immuno-Oncology (CIO). His group focuses on analyzing data from immuno-oncology trials to understand which patients will benefit from immunotherapies by examining the tumor-immune microenvironment and overall state of the patient’s immune system. With data from specialized assays such as multiplexed immunofluorescence (tissue imaging) and mass cytometry (peripheral blood, immune populations), Dr. Weirather and his team work to provide clinicians and researchers with the most informative data and collaborate with the larger DFCI community to improve these analysis methods.
Joyce Yu
Joyce Yu, M.B.A. is a Program Manager within the Knowledge Systems Group. Prior to joining KSG, Joyce was a Project Analyst for Research Administration in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She brings clinical research project expertise, from patient recruitment and data collection, all the way to grants management and leading large research projects. Currently within KSG, Joyce is working on the Cancer Immunological Data Commons (CIDC).