The Ellisen Lab

Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Program Director, Breast Medical Oncology
Investigator, Ludwig Center at Harvard
lellisen@mgh.harvard.edu
Dr. Leif Ellisen is Breast Cancer Program Director and a senior Investigator at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is also co-Leader of the Breast Cancer Program at the Dana-Farber Harvard Cancer Center. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University, MD and PhD degrees from Stanford University, and completed residency training, oncology fellowship training, and postdoctoral research training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and MGH, respectively. The Ellisen laboratory’s research is focused on pathogenesis of breast and other cancers, with a particular focus on triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), incorporating studies of tissue-specific development, transcription factor networks and DNA repair. Through a detailed molecular understanding of these factors we seek to improve diagnosis, therapeutic prediction, and treatment efficacy. Our published work within the last five years has revealed fundamental new genetic mechanisms in HR+ breast cancer (Reinbay et al, Nature 2017; Matissek et al, Cancer Discovery 2018) and discovered a new and therapeutically relevant signature of homologous recombination deficiency (Polak et al, Nat Genet 2017). Our work on a DNA damage response pathway led directly to a national clinical trial for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) at 10 major cancer centers (Isakoff et al, J Clin Oncol 2015), and to the discovery of a new oncogene controlling the tumor epigenome (Saladi et al, Cancer Cell 2017). We were among the first to define the intra-tumoral heterogeneity of TNBC (Karaayvaz et al, Nature Comm, 2018), and recently discovered that DNA damage and altered signaling precede histologic abnormalities in noncancerous breast tissues of BRCA2 mutation carriers (Karaayvaz et al, Science Advances, 2020).
The Ellisen lab is uniquely positioned to work at the interface of basic tumor biology and therapeutic application. The lab’s work is strongly supported by a network of collaborators and by the extensive research and clinical infrastructure of the MGH Cancer Center and Harvard Medical School.

Sarah Mueller
Postdoctoral Fellow
I am originally from St. Louis, Missouri and received my undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis. I completed my MD and PhD in Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at Duke University. I came to Massachusetts General Hospital for my residency in Clinical Pathology and fellowship in Molecular Genetic Pathology. My current research involves characterizing early changes in precancerous breast tissue from patients with defects in homologous repair pathways (e.g., BRCA1 mutations) with the goal of developing biomarkers that predict progression to cancer and identifying targets for cancer prevention in this population.

Sheng Sun
Instructor

Shufeng Zhou
Aylin Dedeoglu
Clinical Research Coordinator
I am originally from Massachusetts. I received my Bachelor of Science degree in Neurobiology and my Certificate in Global Health from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. I am interested in preventive medicine and improving disparities in cancer care, while learning how research and clinical care inform one another. My future plan is to further my education in medicine and public health.

Nayana Thimmiah

Natalie Moffit

Zuen Ren
Postdoctoral Fellow
I am originally from China and received my medical degree in medicine from Capital Medical University in Beijing, where I completed my medical residency training in cardiothoracic surgery in Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University. I later earned an M.S. and a Ph.D – both in Biomedical Science (concentration: oncology and pathology), from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. My current work focused on using multi-omics approach to deconvolute tumor heterogeneity of triple negative breast cancer for further powering therapeutic discovery across multiple levels of cancer biology.

Nicole Malalage Peiris
Postdoctoral Fellow
Coming Soon…

Ilze Smidt
Research Assistant
Coming Soon…
Coming Soon…

Chanyce Kane
Laboratory administrator

Nicole Smith
Laboratory Manager
Coming Soon…

Taisha Joseph
Bioinformatics Analyst
I am originally from Haiti. I received my Bachelor of Science degrees from Brandeis University in Neuroscience, Biology, and French & Francophone Studies with a minor in Chemistry. I am currently interested in investigating genetic patterns involved in intratumoral heterogeneity and treatment resistance in different types of breast cancers. I have been accepted into the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago, and hope to become a physician-scientist in the future.

Bogang Wu
Postdoctoral Fellow
I am originally from China and received my undergraduate degree from Liaocheng University, master’s degree from Jinan University in China. I completed my PhD in Cancer Biology at The George Washington University. I came to Massachusetts General Hospital for my postdoctoral fellowship in cancer biology and therapeutics. My current research interests include studying tumor microenvironment and mechanisms of novel antibody drug conjugate.
Alumni
Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School
Assistant Professor, Cleveland Clinic Genomic Medicine Institute
Assistant Professor, University of Bristol, UK