Our Lab Members
Henning Willers, MD
PI, Associate Professor
“I have been a PI in this lab since 2005. It has been fun to shift from an initial focus on basic mechanisms of DNA repair/recombination to more translational studies that perhaps one day can impact patient care. Our findings thus far have informed 3 clinical trials with possibly a 4th one materializing in 2022. Stay tuned! Outside the lab/clinic I enjoy time with my family and on Cape Cod.”
Xiao Pan, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
“My main interest is in screening and validating of molecular targeted radiosensitizers. In collaboration with the MGH Center for Molecular Therapeutics, I am involved in high-throughput drug screening across a panel of ~100 annotated cancer cell lines using 3D formats. An important goal of ours is to identify predictive genomic biomarkers for several of these sensitizers.”
Anie D. Alindogan, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
“I am a Filipino postdoc who graduated from the University of the Philippines with a B.Sc. in Biochemistry degree, and from Tokyo Institute of Technology with Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Nuclear Engineering. My research focuses on the DNA damage response of cancer cells treated with proton radiation aiming to identify novel therapeutic approaches. Outside of the lab, I am a proud mother and wife. New to Boston, I look forward to what life here awaits.”
Pooja Chauhan, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
“I am an experienced researcher with a Doctoral degree in Life Sciences from JNU, India and post-doctoral research experience from Hebrew University, Israel. In the past, I have worked upon understanding the role of chromatin dynamics in DNA damage sensitivity, nucleotide excision repair and molecular mechanisms for cisplatin resistance in human cancers. Currently, I am working on a joint project with Dr. Henning Willers and Dr. David Miyamoto on developing and applying genomic sequencing techniques to characterize the DNA damage caused by proton radiation. This will include investigations into the mechanisms of how cancer and normal cells repair proton damage to their DNA with the aim to identify novel cancer biomarkers for precision cancer therapies”
Liliana Gheorghiu, MS
Senior Research Technologist
“I have been in the lab for > 15 years. I am doing a fair amount of lab management and training of new hires. I am also providing experimental input. One of my main goals is to study radiosensitization by analyzing DNA repair responses after drug/X-ray vs X-ray alone treatments in ex vivo human tumor explants.”
Nicola Barbesino, BS
Lab Technician
“I graduated from Northeastern with a degree in Biology and Political Science. I am thrilled to work with both Dr. David Miyamoto and Dr. Willers to build a research specimen bank and Biomarker Program in our joint labs.”
Olivia Benson, BS
Lab Technician
“I graduated from the University of New Haven in 2021 with a degree in Forensic Science. I am very excited to be working in the labs of Dr. Willers and Dr. Miyamoto helping with building out the Radiation Biomarker Project and gaining experience working with nucleic acids. Outside of the lab I love watching sunsets on Cape Cod and traveling to new places.”
Eva Volckova, BA
Lab Technician
“I graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 2022 with a degree in Biological Sciences. I am excited to be joining the lab’s project of high-throughput drug screening to identify sensitizers and predictive genomic biomarkers in cancer cell lines.”
