Englander Institute for Precision Medicine

Our Team

The Englander Institute’s multidisciplinary team of clinicians, scientists, and computational biologists apply a collective expertise to pinpoint the molecular underpinnings of disease and spur the discovery of novel therapies.  

A Multidisciplinary Approach

Through active collaboration among clinical and research departments across Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Brooklyn Methodist Hospital and NYP Queens, the institute aims to bring precision medicine to every patient.  This inclusive, team approach to patient care and medical research is critical to speeding the handoff from discovery to clinical implementation.    

The Englander Institute is home to over 200 faculty, staff, and trainees.

Executive Core

Alicia Alonso
Alicia AlonsoPh.D., MSc
  • Director of Innovation, Englander Institute for Precision Medicine
Bhavneet Bhinder
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Bhavneet BhinderMS
  • Senior Research Associate in Computational Biomedicine

Bhavneet is a computational biologist interested in understanding the varied aspects of cancer biology that influence tumor initiation and progression, with a focus on immunogenomics. She studies diverse factors (e.g., somatic alterations, neoantigens, infiltrating celltypes) that shape the tumor microenvironment and that may eventually explain heterogeneity in patient responses to therapy. She uses multivariate and predictive modeling approaches for her analyses.

Jeff Catalano
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Jeffrey CatalanoMBA
  • Associate Director, Englander Institute for Precision Medicine

Jeff Catalano is the Associate Director of the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine for IPM Administration.

Accomplished healthcare professional with over 10 years of demonstrated success in program development, clinical operations, and administrative management. Highly resourceful and trusted leader with a proven track record of success achieving goals while navigating complex healthcare environments. Recognized and respected for problem-solving ability, generating measurable results and implementing processes and strategies that have proved to be both operationally and financially efficient.

Jeff holds a MA in Psychology and an MBA from Louisiana State University.

Peter Cleary
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Peter Cleary
  • EIPM Communications Manager

Peter Cleary is the EIPM Communications Manager and is responsible for promoting the Institute, it’s professional staff and their research to internal and external audiences. He co-manages the EIPM website and social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and creates print and digital communications for news media outreach, legislative and development opportunities. He has extensive experience promoting health, medical and science communications having worked with leading private sector and nonprofit organizations. Peter can be reached via ptc4001@med.cornell.edu or (347) 322-9695.

Massimo Cristofanilli
Massimo Cristofanilli M.D.
  • Scientific Director, Englander Institute of Precision Medicine
Victoria Cummings
Victoria Cummings
  • Administrative Specialist, Olivier Elemento Ph.D.
Pinkal Desai
Pinkal DesaiM.D.
  • Clinical Director, Englander Institute Precision Medicine Molecular Aging Institute
Olivier Elemento
Olivier ElementoPh.D.
  • Director, Englander Institute for Precision Medicine
Bishoy Faltas
Bishoy FaltasM.D.
  • Director, Bladder Cancer Research, Englander Institute for Precision Medicine
Dr. Hopkins
Benjamin D Hopkins Ph.D.
  • Director of Ex Vivo Models, Englander Institute for Precision Medicine
Shauna Houlihan
Shauna HoulihanPh.D.
  • Director of Translational Research, Englander Institute for Precision Medicine
SJ headshot
Suzanne Jlelaty, MPA
  • Project Coordinator
Kasi Pashtoon
Pashtoon KasiM.D., M.S.
  • Director, Colon Cancer Research
  • Director, Liquid Biopsy Research
Theresa MacDonald
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Theresa MacDonaldMBA
  • Director, Strategy & Business Development

Theresa MacDonald is Director of Strategy at the Englander Institute. In this role, she is responsible for developing strategic plans and new initiatives for the institute. Current plans include expanding patient access to precision medicine to new clinics and WCM sites and forming industry partnerships focused on genomics-driven drug discovery and clinical utility assessment of genomic medicine.

Ms. MacDonald has 15 years’ experience in academic centers including Weill Cornell Medicine and Beth Israel Deaconess.  She graduated from McGill University with a BA in English Literature and obtained her MBA from Johns Hopkins University Carey School of Business.

Jyothi Manohar
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Jyothi Manohar MPH
  • Clinical Research Manager-EIPM

Jyothi supports the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine as a Clinical Research Manager, facilitating clinical research and managing clinical trial operations and research project management for EIPM. In this capacity, she leads efforts to develop processes and initiatives for patient recruitment and enrollment, biospecimen collections and biobanking, clinical outcomes data management and database design and building. With a strong background in molecular epidemiology and global health, and a keen interest in data science and population health, Jyothi is driven by a desire to engage under-represented populations in clinical research, examine and address drivers of healthcare disparities, and develop innovative and strategic initiatives to improve the health of at-risk populations.

Juan Miguel Mosquera
Juan Miguel MosqueraM.D., M.Sc.
  • Director of Research Pathology at the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine
Jenna Moyer
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Jenna Moyer
  • Laboratory Manager

Jenna Moyer is the Platform Manager (Ex vivo models) at the EIPM at Weill Cornell Medicine. She manages the 3D organoid model development and biorepository pipeline. Her primary goals include: 1) optimizing and validating model generation conditions to further develop models of scientific and clinical relevance and 2) to establish industry standard workflows and quality control processes to support a growing biorepository. She also performs experimental research using the 3D organoid models and coordinates additional research collaborations for the Ex vivo models platform.

Marie Normile
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Marie Normile MBA
  • Program Manager

Marie Normile supports the Englander Institute as a Program Manager, engaging clinicians, research scientists, staff and students through educational programs. With experience in message development, investor narratives, executive visibility and thought leadership at the Abernathy MacGregor Group, she promotes the Institute’s mission and vision to multidisciplinary teams. A graduate of Providence College, Ms. Normile recently obtained an MBA at St. John’s University.

Hiranmayi Ravichandran
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Hiranmayi RavichandranMS
  • Director of Spatial Biology, Senior Research Associate, Englander Institute for Precision Medicine

Experienced Senior Research Associate and Director of Spatial Biology with a demonstrated specialization in mass cytometry and flow cytometry based proteomic assay development to augment the research. Skilled in Microsoft Word, Mammalian Cell Culture, Multi-color Flow Cytometry, Biotechnology, and Market Research. Strong research background with a Master’s Degree in Pharmacology from Northeastern University.

Andrea Sboner
Andrea SbonerPh.D.
  • Director of Informatics and Computational Biology, Englander Institute for Precision Medicine
Dr. Alexandros Sigaras
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Alexandros SigarasMS
  • Assistant Professor of Research in Physiology and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine

Alex, is an Assistant Professor of Research in Physiology and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine. He develops software solutions for the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine and Institute for Computational Biomedicine with projects spanning over healthcare system design, LIMS and pipeline design for computational genomic analysis. His research interest focuses on data visualization and interaction of healthcare and genomic data using new emerging technologies including augmented and virtual reality such as Hololens, Oculus Rift and Google Glass.

A Fulbright scholar recipient, Alex earned his masters in Computer Science from Columbia University. While at Columbia, Alex worked as a researcher at Prof. Allen’s Robotics Lab focusing on medical robotics for surgery and brain computer interfaces.

As an undergrad, Alex gave numerous invited talks on his research to universities and conferences including the prime minister of Greece and chair of Microsoft Bill Gates. Parallel to his studies, Alex worked at Microsoft’s education division helping universities transition to the cloud and as a technical editor in a computer magazine.

Michael Sigouros
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Michael Sigouros
  • Senior Research Operations Manager

Michael Sigouros, B.S. Tufts University, is the EIPM Laboratory Manager. He leads cross-functional research platforms to achieve key program objectives, manages high impact, translational research projects, and directs the EIPM Specimen Processing Platform. He previously managed the Beltran Lab, and helped develop genomic platforms for biomarker development in studying clonal evolution of castration resistant prostate adenocarcinoma (CRPC) to a neuroendocrine resistance phenotype through liquid biopsies.

Cora Sternberg
Cora SternbergM.D.
  • Clinical Director, Englander Institute for Precision Medicine
Ms. Ilkay Us
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Ilkay Us
  • Director, High Throughput Drug Screening

Experienced researcher in the field of drug discovery/development, cell biology, and robotics. Specific experience in high throughput screening includes: programing, operating, and troubleshooting of liquid handling platforms or integrated robotic systems, such as Hamilton, HighRes Biosolutions, MultiFlo FX, Operetta CLS HCI. Experienced in assay development; ELISA, Mirrorball, Octet ForteBio, flow cytometry assays for antibody screening; GloSensor cAMP assay, CellTiter-Glo (Luminescent Cell viability) assay for small molecule screening; fluorescent based biochemical high throughput screening assays for proteinase activity of an enzyme in the higher education industry. Strong research professional with a Master of Science (M.S.) focused in Pharmacology/Toxicology, from Long Island University.

Academic Faculty

Omar Abdul- Rahman
Omar Abdul- RahmanM.D.
  • Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Nasser Altorki
Nasser AltorkiM.D.
  • Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery
Niroshana Anandasabapathy
Niroshana Anandasabapathy M.D., Ph.D.
  • Associate Professor of Dermatology in Microbiology and Immunology
Eleni Andreopoulou
Eleni AndreopoulouM.D.
  • Professor of Clinical Medicine
Dr. Karla Ballman
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Karla Ballman
  • Division Chief for Biostatistics

Karla Ballman, Ph.D., specializes in designing clinical trials, analyzing complex data, and developing molecular signatures that can help predict whether or not a cancer patient will respond to targeted therapies. She most recently was a professor of biostatistics at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and a consultant in the Division of Biomedical Statistics and Informatics at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. She is also a former chair of the Division of Biostatistics at Mayo.

Dr. Ballman, who is also an associate editor for the high-impact Journal of Clinical Oncology, has spent the last 16 years working in medical statistics, 13 of them in cancer biostatistics. She’s received research grants from the National Cancer Institute and National Institutes of Health and served as biostatistics core director for a prostate Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant and for a brain cancer SPORE.

Christopher Barbieri
Christopher BarbieriM.D., Ph.D.
  • Peter M. Sacerdote Distinguished Associate Professor in Urologic Oncology
  • Walter B. Wriston Clinical Research Scholar in Urology
Doron Betel
Doron BetelPh.D.
  • Associate Professor of Computational Biomedicine in Medicine
Kristy Brown
Kristy BrownPh.D.
  • Adjunct Associate Professor of Biochemistry in Medicine
  • Emilie Lippmann and Janice Jacobs McCarthy Research Scholar in Breast Cancer
Rohit Chandwani
Rohit ChandwaniM.D., Ph.D.
  • Assistant Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
  • Assistant Professor of Surgery
Christopher Cunniff
Christopher Mccord CunniffM.D.
  • Clinical Professor of Pediatrics
Howard Fine
Howard FineM.D.
  • Professor of Neurology in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
  • Professor of Neurology in Medicine
Sillvia Formenti
Silvia FormentiM.D.
  • Chair of Radiation Oncology
Richard Furman
Richard FurmanM.D.
  • Professor of Medicine
Dr. Lorenzo Galluzzi
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Lorenzo Galluzzi

Lorenzo Galluzzi, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Cell Biology in Radiation Oncology with the Department of Radiation Oncology of Weill Cornell Medical College.

Dr. Galluzzi is best known for major experimental and conceptual contributions to the fields of cell death, autophagy, tumor metabolism and tumor immunology. In particular, he provided profound insights into the links between adaptive stress responses in cancer cells and the activation of a clinically relevant tumor-targeting immune response in the context of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Lorenzo Galluzzi has published more than 500 scientific articles in international peer-reviewed journals.

The current interest of our team is to elucidate the links between cellular pathways of response to stress – including (but not limited to) autophagy, cellular senescence and multiple variants of regulated cell death – and the preservation of organismal homeostasis, with a particular focus on anticancer immunity. More specifically, we are interested in dissecting the complexity of the tumor microenvironment with respect to the mechanisms through which malignant as well as non-malignant components of the tumor exposed to chemotherapy, radiation therapy and immunotherapy emit danger signals that are involved in the initiation and perpetuation of robust immune responses. The detailed characterization of these molecular and cellular circuitries may identify stress-responsive mechanisms of adaptation in malignant or non-malignant cells as novel targets for the pharmacological manipulation of anticancer immune responses. Ultimately, these findings may translate into novel clinical studies based on combinatorial therapeutic regimens aimed at maximizing immunostimulation within the tumor microenvironment. Most recently, we have delineated a molecular mechanism whereby autophagy and apoptotic caspases inhibit the secretion of type I interferon by irradiated cancer cells, de facto limiting their ability to initiate therapeutically relevant anticancer immune responses.

Paraskevi Giannakakou, Ph.D.
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Paraskevi GiannakakouPh.D.

The laboratory of Paraskevi Giannakakou, Ph.D., focuses on the study of the microtubule cytoskeleton of cells and the anti-tumor drugs that target microtubules. Our research is focused on developing an understanding of the molecular mechanism(s) of action of these drugs and of resistance to them, as well as the little-understood functional consequences of drug-induced microtubule disruption and cell death. Microtubules are unique in that they fill the entire cytoplasm from just outside the nucleus all the way to the plasma membrane, providing ample surface for protein-protein interactions; and also in that they have inherent polarity, allowing for the directional flow of information within the cell. As a result, small molecules that target microtubules will disrupt all of these interactions and signal cascades, in addition to affecting mitosis.

Dr. Jeffrey Greenfield
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Jeffrey Greenfield

Dr. Jeffrey Greenfield, co-director of the Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM) Children’s Brain Tumor Project, is a board-certified neurosurgeon and neuroscientist specializing in pediatrics at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medicine, Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Columbia University Medical Center. Research, education, and compassionate clinical care are all central to his philosophy as a scientist, surgeon, and physician.

Dr. Greenfield is named Vice Chairman of Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Pediatric Neurosurgery at WCM. In 2012, he co-founded the Children’s Brain Tumor Project laboratory with Dr. Mark Souweidane to carry out their shared purpose of improving outcomes for children with brain tumors by advancing scientific research and developing novel approaches to care.

Dr. Greenfield is the principle investigator on a large-scale precision medicine program and the Gift from a Child rapid autopsy donation program. He founded two rare brain tumor registries for thalamic gliomas and gliomatosis cerebri (a highly invasive glioma) and directs several additional research projects with particular interests in the pediatric brain tumor microenvironment and pediatric brain tumor immunology. His research has been widely published—he has contributed to more than 100 peer-reviewed publications (PubMed)—and he has received various awards from neurosurgical societies.

Dr. Greenfield graduated from Amherst College magna cum laude in Neuroscience before receiving his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Following completion of his neurosurgical residency and chief residency at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center, Dr. Greenfield received further training in surgical treatment of brain and spinal cord tumors at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

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Daniela Guevara, M.D.
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Daniela Guevara

Daniela Guevara, M.D. is a Fellow in Medicine at the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Dr. Guevara attended the University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine where she received her Doctor of Medicine degree. She is certified by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG).  Dr. Guevara started her training as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Garlock Division of Minimally Invasive Endocrine and Bariatric Surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital where she focus her research in surgical endocrine oncology. She was then selected as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Initiative in Science and Medicine TL-1 NRSA NIH funded program in the Department of Oncology at the Icahn school of Medicine at Mount Sinai where she gained extensive experience in clinical translational research.

Dr. Guevara is currently a team member at the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine where she serves as a liaison between oncologists, pathologists, surgeons, computational biologists, and basic scientists, in order to facilitate the use of next-generation sequencing of tumor genomes and pre-clinical models in high impact research studies.

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Dr. Monica Guzman
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Monica Guzman

Monica Guzman, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Pharmacology in Medicine, appointed in the Division of Hematology & Medical Oncology in the Department of Medicine. She was recruited to Weill Cornell Medical College in 2009 from the University of Rochester.

As the first scientist to identify dysregulated gene networks in leukemia stem cells and capitalize on this dysregulation to develop therapies to destroy them, Dr. Guzman is widely viewed as one of the world’s foremost experts in therapeutic targeting of leukemia stem cells. She has authored or co-authored numerous papers in the field and has received funding from the NIH, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, V Foundation, and other organizations.

Dr. Guzman’s passion is to perform world-class translational research through close interactions between research and clinic to accelerate the development of new and more effective leukemia treatments that ablate leukemia stem cells.

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Iman Hajirasouliha, Ph.D.
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Iman Hajirasouliha

Iman Hajirasouliha, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Computational Genomics in Computational Biomedicine and an Assistant Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, Physiology and Biophysics. Dr. Hajirasouliha and his lab team are passionate about developing new algorithms, machine learning and deep learning methods, and their applications to genomics, metagenomics and cancer research. Some of the current projects in the lab include characterizing human genomes and metagenomes sequenced by exciting new technologies, quantifying cancer evolution, study of tumor heterogeneity using genomics and digital pathology images. 

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Benjamin David Hopkins, Ph.D.
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Benjamin David HopkinsPh.D.
  • Director of Ex Vivo Models
Director of Ex Vivo Models at the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine. 
Giorgio Inghirami, M.D.
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Giorgio InghiramiM.D.

Giorgio Inghirami, M.D., is a practicing hematopathologist and a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and an Attending Pathologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Inghirami has contributed more than 160 peer-reviewed publications, mostly in the area of lymphoma research, to the medical and scientific literature. His laboratory has used a variety of techniques including deep sequencing, Doplet PCR, qRT-PCR, high-density tissue microarrays, SNP arrays, and expression of cDNA arrays and shRNA lentiviral libraries. His group has gained experience using gene knockdown strategies in a variety of in vitro models, and they have generated several mouse models and a large library of human Patient Derived Tumorgrafts from primary T-cell lymphoma (PTCL), B-cell disorders and Non – Small Lung Cancers (NSCLC). He is the recipient of both the Benjamin Castleman Award by the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology recognizing his contributions to the field of pathology and the Shannon Award from the National Cancer Institute.

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Francesca Khani
Francesca KhaniM.D.
  • Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
  • Associate Professor of Pathology in Urology
Ekta Khurana
Ekta KhuranaPh.D.
  • Associate Professor of Physiology and Biophysics
Michael Kluk
Michael KlukM.D., Ph.D.
  • Associate Professor of Clinical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Jan Krumsiek
Jan KrumsiekPh.D.
  • Assistant Professor of Physiology and Biophysics
  • Assistant Professor of Computational Genomics in Computational Biomedicine
Dolores Lamb
Dolores LambPh.D.
  • Robert S. Dow Professor of Urology
Dan Landau
Dan Avi LandauM.D., Ph.D.
  • Associate Professor of Medicine
  • Associate Professor of Physiology and Biophysics
Ashley Laughney
Ashley LaughneyPh.D.
  • Assistant Professor of Physiology and Biophysics
John Leonard
John LeonardM.D.
  • Acting Chair of Medicine
  • Richard T. Silver Distinguished Professor of Hematology and Medical Oncology
Steven Lipkin
Steven LipkinM.D., Ph.D.
  • Professor of Medicine
Peter Martin
Peter MartinM.D.
  • Professor of Medicine
Timothy E. McGraw, Ph.D.
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Timothy E. McGrawPh.D.

Timothy E. McGraw, Ph.D., and his lab team study endocytic membrane trafficking.  Eukaryotic cells internalize extracellular ligands such as proteins and nutrients by a process called endocytosis. Endocytosis also mediates the internalization of cellular membrane proteins, such as transporters and receptors, into tubular-vesicular structures called endosomes.  In addition to playing a key role in many constitutive cellular functions (i.e., nutrient uptake), the endocytic system is involved in a number of important regulated processes.   Membrane trafficking is the subject of intense study.  There are two main projects ongoing in my lab.  For a discussion of these projects please click on the links below.

Jason Mezey
Jason MezeyPh.D.
  • Professor of Computational Biomedicine
  • Professor of Genetic Medicine
Vivek Mittal
Vivek Mittal Ph.D., MS.c
  • Ford-Isom Research Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery
Ana Molina
Ana MolinaM.D.
  • Assistant Professor of Medicine
David Nanus
David NanusM.D.
  • Mark W. Pasmantier Professor of Hematology and Oncology in Medicine
Lisa Newman
Lisa NewmanM.D.
  • Professor of Surgery
Allyson Ocean
Allyson OceanM.D.
  • Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine
Pathak
Jyotishman PathakPh.D.
  • Professor of Population Health Sciences
David Pisapia, M.D.
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David PisapiaM.D.


David Pisapia, M.D., is a neuropathologist committed to treating every surgical specimen received with the utmost care and attention.  Patients and their treating physicians rely on an accurate and comprehensive pathology report that often serves as the foundation for devising the most effective treatment strategy.  Dr. Pisapia is constantly thinking about ways to improve the handling and analysis of surgical specimens with the goal of providing the most clinically meaningful information to patients and their treatment team.

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Geoffrey Pitt
Geoffrey PittM.D., Ph.D.
  • Professor of Neuroscience
  • Professor of Medicine
Shahin Rafii
Shahin RafiiM.D.
  • Professor of Reproductive Medicine
  • Professor of Medicine
  • Professor of Genetic Medicine
Hanna Rennert
Hanna RennertPh.D.
  • Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
David Rickman
David RickmanPh.D.
  • Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Brian Robinson
Brian D. RobinsonM.D.
  • Associate Professor of Pathology in Urology
  • Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Dr. Ross
Margaret Elizabeth RossM.D., Ph.D.
  • Professor of Neuroscience
  • Professor of Neurology
Laura Santambrogio
Laura Santambrogio M.D., Ph.D.
  • Professor of Radiation Oncology
  • Professor of Physiology and Biophysics
Asish Saxena
Ashish SaxenaM.D., Ph.D.
  • Madeline and Stephen Anbinder Clinical Scholar in Hematology/Oncology
  • Assistant Professor of Medicine
Manish Shah
Manish ShahM.D.
  • Bartlett Family Professor in Gastrointestinal Oncology
Ravi Sharaf
Ravi SharafM.D.
  • Associate Professor of Medicine
  • Associate Professor of Population Health Sciences
Yiwey Shieh
Yiwey ShiehM.D.
  • Assistant Professor of Population Health Sciences
  • Assistant Professor of Medicine
Momin T. Siddiqui
Momin T. Siddiqui M.D.
  • Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Karsten Suhre
Karsten SuhrePh.D.
  • Professor of Physiology and Biophysics
Scott Tagawa
Scott TagawaM.D.
  • Professor of Medicine
  • Professor of Medicine in Urology
Dr. Wayne Tam
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Wayne TamM.D., Ph.D.

Wayne Tam, M.D., Ph.D., received his undergraduate education at The Johns Hopkins University with honors and subsequently graduated from the Cornell-Rockefeller-Memorial Sloan-Kettering Tri-Institutional combined M.D. and Ph.D. program.

Dr. Tam was then recruited to the pathology residency training program here at NewYork Presbyterian Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. After his residency training in anatomic pathology,  he completed a hematopathology fellowship at Cornell and served as a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society research fellow in the Institute of Cancer Genetics, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, under the tutelage of Dr. Riccardo Dalla-Favera.

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Dr. Tam was appointed as Instructor in Pathology in February 2001 and subsequently promoted to Assistant Professor in July 2002. Dr. Tam’s clinical responsibilities are concentrated in hematopathology while he pursues his translational research program in hematopoietic malignancies.

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Jenny Zhaoying Xiang
Jenny Zhaoying XiangM.D.
  • Professor of Research in Microbiology and Immunology
Haiyuan Yu, Ph.D.
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Haiyuan YuPh.D.

Haiyuan Yu is a Tisch University Professor in the Department of Computational Biology and a member of the Weill Institute for Cell & Molecular Biology.  The Yu lab’s researches the broad area of Biomedical Systems Biology, aiming to understand gene functions and their relationships within complex molecular networks, and how perturbations to such systems may lead to various human diseases.

Johnathan Zippin
Johnathan ZippinM.D., Ph.D.
  • Associate Professor of Dermatology

Staff

Majd Al Assaad
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Majd Al AssaadM.D.
  • Fellow in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Majd Al Assaad, M.D. is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and a Member of the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine. He worked as an Oncology Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the American University of Beirut Medical Center before completing one year of pathology residency at the same institution. Dr. Al Assaad has research experience in basic science and organic and inorganic chemistry.

Omar Alawa
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Omar Alawa
  • Research Technician II

Omar currently holds a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering. Currently, his main focus lies in automating high throughput drug screening experiments and meticulously analyzing the resulting data by employing computational methods and models. Omar’s objective is to extract meaningful insights from the data and contribute to impactful research in precision oncology.

Maitri Anegondi
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Maitri Anegondi
  • Translational Research Specialist

Maitri is a research specialist on the Organoid team that focuses on developing personalized ex-vivo models for cancer by culturing patient derived cell lines in 3D. Her research focuses are rare tumor optimizations and exploring new growth medias and new synthetic hydrogels to develop organoids.

Olivia Baldanza
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Olivia Baldanza
  • Laboratory Administrative Assistant

Olivia Baldanza is the Laboratory Administrative Assistant at the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine.

 In their college career, Mx. Baldanza became fascinated with the study of the mind and the research that propelled discoveries. They became interested in cognitive studies and neuroanatomy and took classes to learn more about the field. This propelled Mx. Baldanza to get involved in research on campus. They began by interning in a physical therapy lab studying physical interventions for treating abnormal muscular development in children with autism. Graduating soon after the start of the pandemic, Mx. Baldanza began their role at BioIVT as Clinical Operations Coordinator. They managed the distribution of thousands of samples and shipments to hundreds of pharmaceutical companies, universities, and research institutions. Their career there solidified their desire to be in the research field as well as strengthened their abilities in lab management, project management, teamwork, and domestic and international shipment coordination.

 Now, they're working with Weill Cornell Medicine in the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine as an organizational, innovative support, managing the laboratory, handling shipments for collaborative projects, recuperating funds, and improving organization to aid research project development.

 Olivia Baldanza graduated from the University of Delaware with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Neuroscience.

Thomas Caiazza
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Thomas Caiazza
  • Research Technician I

Thomas Caiazza is a research technician in the EIPM organoid lab. He’s part of a team of technicians that process tissue into organoids and maintain them — routinely splitting and nourishing them. His duties also include running DNA tests for mycoplasma testing and DNA screening, making cell culture media and data entry.

He is a graduate of Brooklyn College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Biology. Thomas has lived in Queens, New York his entire life after being born at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, about three blocks from where he currently works in the Belfer Research Building. In his free time Thomas enjoys reading fantasy novels, he also writes short stories on his commute into the city. Thomas is an Eagle Scout, and for his Eagle project he collected used eyeglasses from three local churches in his neighborhood and donated them to less fortunate people in Guatemala.

Pooja Chandra
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Pooja Chandra
  • Bioinformatics Analyst

Pooja Chandra is a Bioinformatics Analyst at the Englander Institute of Precision Medicine. Her work involves data analysis for Whole Exome sequencing data.
When she’s not working, she enjoys painting and spending time with friends and family.

Cynthia Cheung
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Cynthia CheungM.S.

Cynthia Cheung M.S. has a degree in Chemistry. She is part of the organoid team at Englander Institute of Precision Medicine that works with personalized ex-vivo models for cancer, developing organoids for drug screens.

Katerine Claudio
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Katerine Claudio
  • Research Program Specialist-Blood Biobank

Katerine Claudio supports the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine as a Clinical Research Program Specialist. She provides direct support to the Whole Genome Sequencing study in both the Endocrinology and Cardiovascular departments at WCM. In this capacity, she provides support in all enrollment processes, biological sample collection and clinical workflows, while helping to expand the future of medicine alongside the blood biobanks at WCM, where human samples are stored for continuing research.

This work includes coordinating patient research appointments, streamlining communication with patients and staff involving all research study information/data, and all administrative duties that help support each team.

Katerine enjoys spending time with her family, going to the movies, and traveling on her free time.

Roberto De Gregorio
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Roberto De GregorioPh.D.
  • Senior Research Scientist

Roberto De Gregorio, Ph.D., is an EIPM Senior Research Scientist who collaborates with the WCM Epigenomics Core in the establishment, testing, and implementation of new spatial transcriptomic platforms for the EIPM and the entire WCM community. 

Ashley Stephen Doane, Ph.D.
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Ashley Stephen DianePh.D.

Ashley Stephen Doane, Ph.D. is a member of the Institute for Computational Biomedicine as well as the Tri-I Program in Computational Biology &  Medicine. As part of the Elemento Lab, he focuses his research in Computing in Mathematics, Natural Science, Engineering and Medicine, Oncology and Cancer Research. Ashley’s current project, ‘CREBBP in lymphoma’ is in progress.

Jamal Elkhader,  Ph.D.
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Jamal ElkhaderPh.D.

Jamal Elkhader, Ph.D. works under the mentorship of Dr. Olivier Elemento. He is a member of the Tri-I Program in Computational Biology & Medicine, as well as the Institute for Computational Biomedicine. As part of the Elemento lab, Jamal’s research focuses on applying machine learning and other computational techniques to traditional drug development.

Ahmed Elsaeed
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Ahmed ElsaeedM.D.
  • Fellow in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

 Ahmed Elsaeed obtained his MD degree from Mansoura University- Egypt (Class 2020). He had 1-year home experience in molecular pathology before joining the EIPM as a pathology research fellow in December 2021. He is currently working on projects related to molecular genomics of cancers and digital pathology.
In his free time Ahmed loves reading, writing, and sports like soccer and basketball.

Evan Fernandez
Evan Fernandez
  • Senior Bioinformatics Analyst
Valerie Gallegos
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Valerie Gallegos
  • Graduate student

Valerie is a graduate student in the BCMB program at Weill Cornell. She is currently focused on senescence in the context of tumor response and is studying ways to decrease the potential senescent fibroblast population in the tumor microenvironment.

Kathryn Gorksi
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Kathryn Gorski
  • Bioinformatics Analyst

Kathryn primarily manages, processes, and analyzes EIPM’s RNA-seq data. She enjoys drawing and pastel painting in her free time.

Noah Greco
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Noah Greco MBA
  • ClinicResearch & Compliance Manageral Research Manager-Precision Med

Noah Greco, MBA, is the Research & Compliance Manager for the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine. He manages the regulatory compliance processes and plays a key role in downstream data management and distribution.

Yanira Guerra
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Yanira Guerra
  • Graduate student

Yanira is a graduate student in the BCMB program at Weill Cornell Medicine where she is co-mentored by Drs. Olivier Elemento and Melissa B. Davis. Yanira’s research involves using precision medicine to address biological determinants of cancer health disparities in triple negative breast cancer.   

Daniela Guevara
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Daniela GuevaraM.D.
  • Fellow in Medicine

Daniela Guevara, M.D. is a Fellow in Medicine at the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Dr. Guevara attended the University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine where she received her Doctor of Medicine degree. She is certified by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG).  Dr. Guevara started her training as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Garlock Division of Minimally Invasive Endocrine and Bariatric Surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital where she focus her research in surgical endocrine oncology. She was then selected as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Initiative in Science and Medicine TL-1 NRSA NIH funded program in the Department of Oncology at the Icahn school of Medicine at Mount Sinai where she gained extensive experience in clinical translational research.

Dr. Guevara is currently a team member at the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine where she serves as a liaison between oncologists, pathologists, surgeons, computational biologists, and basic scientists, in order to facilitate the use of next-generation sequencing of tumor genomes and pre-clinical models in high impact research studies.

Casey Hebding
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Casey Hebding
  • Laboratory Operations Specialist

Casey Hebding is a Laboratory Operations Special for the EIPM research laboratory and has been at the institute since 2016. Casey's primary focus is supporting the laboratory team with new solutions in the form of custom systems and streamlined, more automated, processes that help to ease some of the burden of repetitive work for the researchers. Casey attended Quinnipiac University and graduated in 2012 with a BS in Biomedical Science. 

Sean Houghton
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Sean Houghton
  • Senior Bioinformatics Analyst

Sean is a Senior Bioinformatics Analyst for the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine. His research background includes investigating and overcoming checkpoint blockade immunotherapy, characterizing SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis through disease models, and the mechanism which critical transcription factors maintain cellular identity in certain endothelial cell and stem cell populations.

Troy Kane
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Troy Kane

Troy is a Clinical Research Assistant supporting the Specimen Processing platform at the EIPM. His focus is coordinating sample intake and processing from various projects, and utilizing these research samples for downstream genetic sequencing via nucleic acid extraction.

He graduated from Boston University with a B.A in Biology and minor in Environmental Science.

Abigail King
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Abigail King
  • Translational Research Technologist II

Abigail is a Research Technician at EIPM. She works collaboratively with the EIPM team to use samples for genetic sequencing in pursuance of finding therapeutic options for a wide variety of cancer types. She is responsible for sample extraction, quantitative analysis, and sequencing coordination.
She graduated from The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with a BS in Biology.

Helen Kuo
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Hui-Hsuan Kuo
  • Graduate student

Hui-Hsuan (Helen) Kuo is a Ph.D Candidate in the Weill Cornell Graduate School Pharmacology Program. She is working in the Organoid Platform at Englander Institute for Precision Medicine under the mentorship or Dr. Olivier Elemento. 

Zichan Li
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Zichan Li
  • Bioinformatics Analyst

Zichan Li is a bioinformatics analyst. Her research focus is on applying data and computational analysis to understand the mechanism of clonal hematopoiesis and related diseases.

Areeb Lutfi
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Areeb LutfiMBBS
  • Research Associate

Areeb Lutfi, MBBS, is a Clinical Research Associate at EIPM. Dr. Lutfi works closely with the Department of Heme/Oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine and his research focus has been on liquid biopsies and early-phase clinical trials.

Justin McLee
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Justin McLee
  • Translational Research Technologist II

Justin Mclee is a Translational Research Technologist supporting the Specimen Processing platform at the EIPM. His primary focus is coordination of the intake and distribution of various samples for multiple projects.In 2020, he graduated from the University at Albany with a B.S. in Human Biology.

John Mills
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John Mills
  • Lab Courier

John Mills works at EIPM in the Belfer Research Building. He is responsible for safely delivering and picking up biological lab specimens and consent documents throughout the research clinics.

mehrnaz
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Mehrnaz Moghimi MS
  • Laboratory Supervisor, Englander Institute for Precision Medicine

I am a laboratory supervisor at the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine (EIPM) at Weill Cornell Medicine, where I oversee the daily operations and quality control of different projects and pipelines. I have a master's degree in biology from the University of North Texas, where I also received two honors for my research and teaching excellence. I have more than two years of experience in the biotechnology industry, having worked as a laboratory supervisor at GenScript, a leading gene synthesis company. I have extensive skills in Sanger sequencing, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), gel electrophoresis, and other molecular biology techniques. I am passionate about applying precision medicine to improve human health and well-being, and I am always eager to learn new technologies and methods in this rapidly evolving field. I also have a scuba diving certification and a swimming coach certification, which reflect my interest in aquatic ecology and conservation.

Alexandria Norton
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Alexandria Norton
  • Research Program Specialist-CCTO

Alexandria is Research Program Specialist for Englander Institute for Precision Medicine. In this role she supports efforts in enrollment, coordination of research specimen collection and data entry.

John Otilano
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John Otilano
  • Senior Clinical Research Assistant

John works as part of the data collection and management for the clinical-research program of EIPM.

Shilpa Parmar
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Shilpa Parmar
  • Senior LIMS Specialist

Shilpa is the clinical Laboratory Information Management System Specialist (LIMS) at Weill Cornell Medicine. She performs system administration, application support, user account setup and maintenance activities for the day-to-day operations of the Exemplar LIMS for the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine (EIPM) for Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) assays. She manages computer system validation documentation, training documents related to LIMS, implementation and testing of workflows for the Clinical Genomics laboratory. She also acts as a liaison between the business, EIPM Core team and IT service providers in order to coordinate enhancements, provide integration and resolve issues. She works with end users and business managers to understand, verify and develop requirements or enhancements for the Clinical Genomics laboratory.

Enrique Podaza
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Enrique Podaza
  • Postdoctoral Associate

Enrique Podaza has a Ph.D. in Medical Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires. He is a Biologist with a solid background in tumor immunology and cancer immunotherapy. His goal as a Postdoctoral Associate at the EIPM organoids platform is to develop and optimize co-culture systems of organoids with different types of immune cells to identify new potential molecular targets as well as evaluate current immunomodulatory drug’s efficacy in a patient-specific manner.

Florencia Rowdo
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Florencia RowdoPh.D.
  • Postdoctoral Associate

Florencia Madorsky Rowdo, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine. She is a cellular and molecular biologist with a background in melanoma research. Her research focuses in the identification of novel therapeutic targets for precision medicine using patient-derived tumor organoids.

Alissa Semaan
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Alissa SemaanM.S.
  • Research Specialist-FISH

Alissa Semaan is working as a Research Specialist-FISH at the Englander Institute of Precision Medicine. Her responsibilities include carrying out and optimizing ISH-based research protocols, interpreting FISH assays using a fluorescent microscope and image analysis.

Alissa graduated with a Maters of Science in Chemistry at the Lebanese University.

Ryan Smith
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Ryan SmithMPH
  • Project Manager-Genome Sequencing

Ryan Smith is a Project Manager at the Englander institute. In this role, he is responsible for managing clinical Whole Genome Sequencing operations and relationships with industry collaborators.
 
Ryan has 7+ years’ experience in project management, health care operations, and access to care initiatives. He graduated from Clemson University with a BS in Biological Sciences and obtained his MPH from Boston University School of Public Health.

Sandhya Sriram
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Sandhya Sriram
  • AI-XR Engineer



Jeffrey Tang
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Jeffrey Tang
  • Senior Programmer Analyst

Jeff Tang is a Full Stack Software Engineer at the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine. He holds a MS degree in Computer Science from John Hopkins University. At EIPM he is involved in numerous projects focusing on improving daily operations and productivity for the lab including LIMS, Dashboard etc. In the past, Jeff has been involved in various projects including the Translational Research Program, SPORE, Profiler, Hemebank database, and other projects for Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.

Kassianne Tofani
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Kassianne Tofani
Kassi Tofani is a Translational Research Technologist at the Englander Institute of Precision Medicine. Her responsibilities include accessioning and biobanking, cell culture tissue processing, and managing Distribution Lot 3D Models.
Kassi graduated from Gannon University with a Bachelor of Science in biomedical engineering.
Marvel Tranquille
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Marvel Tranquille M.S.
  • Research Technician II

Marvel Tranquille, M.S., holds a master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences with a concentration in Physiology and Biophysics. He currently works on the organoid team as a research technician at the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine. He is a part of a team that is developing the technology for personalized, ex-vivo models for cancer. He works specifically with the optimization and maintenance of organoids that are being developed for drug screening and other experiments.

Xiaofei Wang
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Xiaofei Wang
  • Senior Bioinformatics Analyst

 Xiaofei is a Senior Bioinformatics Analyst for the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine.
Her research interest is to reveal the mechanism of cancer occurrence and development via exploring big data, such as transcriptome data, methylation data, Transposable Elements, and etc.

David Wilkes
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David Wilkes
  • Senior IPM Lab Coordinator

David’s research focus is on investigating gene mutations in cancer, and the role of epigenetic changes in advanced cancer.  He also run high-throughput DNA extraction and blood fractionation robots at EIPM.

Liron Yoffe
Liron Yoffe
  • Research Associate in Computational Biomedicine
Nicole Young
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Nicole Young
  • Organoid Biorepository Expansion Technician 

Nicole is the Biorepository Expansion Technician on the Organoid team. She grows and expands organoid cell lines that are distributed to collaborators. She’s been working on streamlining the organoid distribution process and working with collaborators. 

Pantelis Zisimopoulos
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Pantelis Zisimopoulos
  • Senior Software Engineer

Pantelis Zisimopoulos is a Full Stack Software Engineer at the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine. He is working on developing innovative software systems that support the institute in their mission to efficiently match new, biologically-targeted therapies to patients who need it. He has a MSc. in Software Engineering from the University of Amsterdam. He has experience in building a big variety of software systems and integrations with them so to create a more complete solution; SaaS applications, web-based enterprise solutions, phone and desktop applications. He is driven by developing software on time, within budget, build with the end user in mind and makes an impact.

To become a member of the Englander Institute, contact:
Marie Normile, MBA
Program Manager
Englander Institute for Precision Medicine
man3014@med.cornell.edu

Weill Cornell Medicine Englander Institute for Precision Medicine 413 E 69th Street
Belfer Research Building
New York, NY 10021