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 2023. Stay tuned! Outside the lab/clinic I enjoy time with my family and on Cape Cod.”
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.”
Eva Volckova, BA
Research Technologist
“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.”
Rea Pittie, BS
Lab Technician
“I graduated from Boston University with a degree in Cell Biology, Molecular Biology and Genetics. I am excited to be working with Dr. Willers and Dr. Miyamoto on the Radiation Biomarker Project and to build a tumor BioBank in our joint lab. Outside of lab, I enjoy cooking and exploring the New England area.”
Sky Fuller, BS
Lab Technician
“I finished my undergrad with a degree in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University as well as degrees in Biophysics and Mathematics from St. Lawrence University. I look forward to the opportunity to be working with Dr. Willers on a high throughput screening platform to test radiosensitizing drugs on 3D cancer cell cultures. Outside of the lab you might find me at Fenway or the TD Garden cheering on the local Boston teams.”
Gavan Dagnese, BA
Lab Technician
“I graduated from Oberlin College with a degree in Biology. I am so grateful and excited to be working with Dr. Willers and Dr. Miyamoto on the Biobank and Biomarker projects. Outside of the lab, you might find me in my kitchen cooking or at a local bookstore!”
Leon el Baya
Student Researcher
“I am a medical student at the University Medical Center Hamburg Eppendorf in Germany, with a special interest in everything Oncology-related. I am excited to be working in the Willers lab for 10 months as part of a collaboration with the Borgmann lab at my hometown university, where I have been trained in the skills necessary to take on the KRAS project. I will, as the basis for my medical thesis, study the effects of recently discovered KRAS inhibitors as potentially radiosensitizing agents, and hopefully be able to detect the associated underlying mechanisms.
I‘d like to thank Prof. Willers and Prof. Borgmann for this great opportunity.”
Leonardo Nguyen
Summer Student
“I am a rising senior at Boston College, majoring in Biology B.S. I am very excited to work in the lab this summer with such amazing people! Grateful to the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center YES for CURE Program for making it happen. Outside of the lab, I enjoy trying new restaurants, exploring the city of Boston, and playing basketball!.”
We are looking forward to more new lab members in 2023!!
Anjali Shinde
Felix Ehret
Jing Wang