April Apfelbaum (Postdoctoral Fellow)
April received her BS in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Beloit College in 2017, where she worked in the lab of Dr. Amy Briggs studying the role of fpgs genes in Arabidopsis thaliana. She then obtained her the PhD from Cancer Biology PhD program at the University of Michigan in 2022. Working under the mentorship of Dr. Beth Lawlor, April focused on understanding how hijacking of normal developmental pathways lead to heterogeneity and cell state plasticity in Ewing sarcoma. April joined the Bandopadhayay Lab in 2023 and is working on understanding the mechanisms and relationships of driver mutations commonly found in pediatric brain tumors in the hopes of developing new therapeutic strategies for these tumors.
Fun fact: April does not drink coffee or tea (which perplexes Mimi) and loves milk and the whole lab likes to make fun of her for it. She also loves Michigan sports (maybe too much!) and Mimi is determined to introduce her to cricket and Aussie footy (AFL).
Michelle Boisvert (Graduate Student)
Michelle is a graduate student in Harvard’s Biological and Biomedical Sciences PhD Program. She received her BA in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2019. There, she studied the oncogenic role of certain signaling molecules in the Hedgehog signaling pathway, and became extremely interested in advancing cancer therapy research. In the Bandopadhayay Lab, Michelle is interested in using computational efforts to better characterize pediatric brain tumors.
Fun fact: Michelle is a huge Stephen King fan. She also loves sleeping in, making guacamole, and reading about art history.
Anna Borgenvik (Postdoctoral Fellow)
Anna developed a fascination for cancer biology while working towards her bachelor’s degree at Lund University, Sweden. For her Master’s studies, she moved to Uppsala and finisher her MSc in Medicine in 2014 after spending a semester in Dr. Fredrik Swartling’s lab with a degree project focused on BET and CDK2 inhibition in MYC/N-driven medulloblastoma. She immediately transitioned into a PhD program, still working with Dr. Swartling to continue her work on mouse models and medulloblastoma treatments. In October 2021, Anna defended her PhD thesis (and Mimi had the honor of being her faculty opponent!!). Anna moved to Boston in 2022 to continue her career as a scientist focused on pediatric neuro-oncology and hopes to make a difference for the young patients affected by this diverse group of devastating diseases. In the Bandopadhayay Lab, Anna will be expanding her skills to apply genomic approaches to understand the mechanisms through which gliomas develop, and to develop strategies to overcome therapeutic resistance.
Fun fact: Anna is a gardening nerd on hold, as she does not have a garden in Boston. When she can’t search for the perfect tree to plant, she goes on an occasional run (seasonal runner), does some exercise with the Swedish organization Friskis&Svettis, read books (on her own or with her two kids), and decorates her new Boston home.
Kelly Cai (Research Associate)
Born in Taishan, China and raised in California, Kelly completed her undergraduate studies at the University of California, Los Angeles where she graduated with a BS in Molecular Cell Developmental Biology (’23). During her scientific journey, she completed a co-op at Moderna, where she worked on developing cell-based immunoassays to better understand the innate immune activation pathways in response to mRNA and DNA based therapeutics. She also worked in the Jonas Lab, a pediatric hematology oncology-based research group, where she contributed to the development of a new cell transfection method called filtroporation. Despite being terrified of New England winters, Kelly moved across the country to join the Bando Lab for the next installment of her science career. She is excited to be applying single cell sequencing and CloneSifter barcoding technologies in the Bando Lab to better characterize pediatric brain cancers and different modes of drug resistance within tumors.
Fun fact: In her free time, Kelly can be found exploring local climbing gym, running along the esplanade, or perusing the aisles of Trader Joe’s.
Jacqueline ‘Jackie’ Caplan (Research Associate)
Jackie is from Santa Barbara, California, a coastal city known for its beautiful beaches and sunny weather. She graduated from UCLA in 2025 with a degree in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology. While at UCLA, she worked in the O’Neill Lab, developing microscopy technologies to image GPCR activation as part of a larger effort to better understand opioid addiction, chronic stress, and chronic pain. In the lab, Jackie is researching mutations in Diffuse Midline Gliomas to better understand their development and mechanisms of treatment resistance.
Fun fact: Jackie loves to cook, hike, and go to concerts. She once spent a summer working at Glacier National Park in Montana. If she could do another seasonal job, it would definitely be in Yosemite
Timothy ‘Tim’ Chang (Postdoctoral Fellow)
Tim grew up in sunny SoCal (next to Disneyland!) before going to almost-as-sunny Stanford University where he received his BS in Biological Sciences and studied the effects of maternal inflammation on fetal neurogenesis in Dr. Theo Palmer’s Lab.
While at Stanford, Tim became interested in small RNAs and so he went to the not-as-sunny University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School to pursue an MD/PhD. For his graduate work in Dr. Phillip Zamore’s lab, Tim studied how piRNAs, germline small RNAs that are created from repetitive sequences such as transposons, are created and required for genome stability.
During his MD/PhD training, Tim became interested in pediatric hematology/oncology and stayed in Massachusetts (he is now accustomed to snow!) for Pediatrics residency at the Boston Combined Residency Program at Boston Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center, before joining the Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s CAncer and Blood Disorders Center where he is currently training as a pediatric hematology/oncology fellow. Tim joined the Bando Lab in 2023 to study the role of senescence and repetitive elements in pediatric brain tumors.
Fun fact: Tim enjoys learning about trains with his two sons, growing carnivorous plants, playing fantasy baseball (especially getting into advanced stats) and football. He has recently really gotten into listening to audio books – and is constantly looking for recommendations!
Daniel Christen (Postdoctoral Fellow)
Daniel grew up in a small village near Trier, Germany’s oldest city, founded by the Romans in the late 1st century BC. He began his academic journey in Stuttgart, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Sports Science, followed by a Master of Science in Giessen. Inspired by his master’s thesis experience in the lab, he decided to pursue a second bachelor’s degree, this time a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Medicine in Freiburg.
Staying in Freiburg, Daniel completed his PhD in December 2024 in the lab of Tilman Brummer, where he focused on the characterization of the KIAA1549::BRAF fusion (and the regulation of a phosphorylation site of BRAF).
In the Bando Lab, Daniel is continuing to study pediatric low-grade gliomas, and is expanding his research into broader areas within the field of pediatric neuro-oncology.
Fun fact: Daniel has a bit of a solar hobby (some would call it obsession), he set up a mini balcony power plant back in Germany using three solar panels. Since May 2023, his setup has cranked out over 440 kWh of clean energy (and counting!). Even from Boston, he checks in on it through an app, proudly watching his tiny power station soak up the sun from across the ocean.
Adam Kebede (Postdoctoral Fellow)
Adam grew up in Ethiopia and moved to Bremen, Germany where he received his B.Sc and M.Sci in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from Jacobs University which was his very first exposure to the exciting field of epigenetics. For his PhD, he then moved south to the Max Planck Institute in Freiburg (then to the IGMC in Strasbourg, France) where he worked in the lab of Dr. Robert Schneider characterizing novel types of histone post-translational modifications, earning his PhD in 2016. Adam then moved to Boston for his postdoc in the lab of Dr. Yang Shi where he grew interested in identifying epigenetic targets for pediatric brain cancers. In the Bando Lab, Adam is studying how alterations in chromatin factors lead to pediatric gliomagenesis with the ultimate goal of discovering novel therapeutic approaches.
Fun fact: Outside the lab, Adam is an avid soccer fan and enjoys watching the English Premier League. He can also be found doing crossword puzzles at odd hours.
Ria Kedia (Research Associate)
Ria was raised in Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts, a place known for its beautiful mountains. She graduated from Williams College with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology and a concentration in Public Health. During her time at Williams, Ria worked in the Loehlin Lab, where she studied the effects of tandem duplication on gene expression in Drosophilia melanogaster. She also worked in the Dean Lab, where she studied the genetic and molecular basis for seizure disorders in Drosophilia melanogaster. For her Senior Thesis, Ria worked in the Bowman Lab, which is a new lab studying the metabolic adaptions occurring the cardiovascular system of mice during pregnancy. Ria has always had an interest in cancer biology, and will now study the mechanisms through which cellular senescence and repetitive elements may play a role in the formation of Diffuse Midline Gliomas.
Fun fact: Ria is a huge fan of music. She plays the piano, violin, and has just started learning how to play to tabla, a percussion instrument that is originally from the Indian subcontinent.
Sarah Lamson (Research Associate)
Sarah grew up outside of Boston. After high school, she completed her Bachelor of Arts at Dartmouth College with a major in Biology. While in college, she worked in the Shoemaker Lab and wrote a thesis on the interplay between ferroptosis and mitophagy. Throughout college, she also interned in the Moses Lab research the relationship between obesity and triple-negative breast cancer. In the Bandopadhayay Lab, Sarah is studying the characteristics and mechanisms of pediatric brain tumors that have FGFR alterations with the goal of finding new therapeutic strategies. She will also work to apply genomic approaches to study the paths through which infant brain tumors become resistant to chemotherapy.
Fun fact: Sarah likes to explore the outdoors, go to concerts, and do jigsaw puzzles. One day, she hopes to learn how to play the banjo.
Joohee Lee (Research Associate)
Joohee was born in South Korea and grew up in Delhi, India. After high school, she moved to the United States to complete her BS at UMass Amherst, focusing on biology. During her time at UMass, Joohee worked as an undergraduate research assistant in two labs: the Pallas and the Govind Lab. In the Pallas Lab, she researched the influence of early sensory experience on GABAergic signaling, and the maintenance of visual refinement throughout adulthood. In the Govid Lab, she investigated irreversible electroporation as a method to induce cell death in tumor cells, and studied macrophage function in adjusting the tumor micro-environment. In the Bando Lab, Joohee will be contributing to efforts to understand evolution of pediatric gliomas, with the goal of identifying therapeutic vulnerabilities associated with this.
Fun fact: Joohee loves traveling and exploring new places, but she hates flyings. She speaks three languates, and has a pet Shihtzu. She also loves cooking Indian food, and claims the best Butter Chicken in the lab – a skill that makes Mimi jealous as Mimi cannot cook!
Sean Misek (‘Adopted’ Postdoctoral Fellow)
Sean was born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan. After graduating high school, Sean decided to travel the world, but didn’t make it very far — he only made it as far as East Lansing, Michigan where he earned a BS in chemistry at Michigan State University. Sean earned a PhD in physiology from Michigan State University where he studied drug resistance in melanoma. He is now interested in identifying new therapeutic vulnerabilities in pediatric gliomas.
Fun fact: Sean is from Michigan, the greatest state on earth – although Mimi thinks he should reassess this now that he has had the chance to visit Melbourne.
Sangita Pal (Senior Scientist)
Sangita, hailing proudly from West Bengal, India, took an interesting path to where she is today. After earning her Bachelor’s degree in veterinary medicine on Kolkata, she decided to cross over to the other side of the world – to the USA – for her graduate studies. She received her PhD in Biomedical Sciences from UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, under the supervision of Dr. Jessica Tyler. However, true to her adventurous spirit, Sangita took a scenic deter through Weill Cornell Medicine in Manhattan during her PhD for a few years due to a lab relocation, where she uncovered the molecular mechanism behind the decline in genomic stability due to replicative aging in budding yeast. Sangita’s postdoctoral work led her to DFCI, where, under the mentorship of Rameen Beroukhim, she spent countless days (and years!!) identifying genetic and chemical dependencies in mismatch repair-deficient (chemotherapy resistant) recurrent gliomas, with the goal of identifying new targeted therapies. Now, as part of the DFCI Pediatric Low-Grade Glioma Program, and as part of the Bando Lab, Sangita is diving headfirst into the world of pediatric low-grade gliomas, with the hope of finding new therapeutic targets tailored to individual tumor biology, and ultimately achieving better treatment outcomes for kids.
Fun fact: Sangita can claim to be an avid Disney fanatic and has proved that ‘Frozen’ can be watch more than 40 times (she lives with a four-year-old-empress)!! (Mimi aside – the four-year-old-empress is very cute)
Fun fact 2: Sangita has undergone some unknown LOH, losing her Indian genes associated with enjoyment of spicy food. She can still prepare savory Indian dishes very well (credit goes to her family recipes and long training in following detailed protocols) but rarely eats them herself!!
Brittany Parker Kerrigan (Director of Strategic Operations, Dana-Farber PLGA Program)
Brittany earned her biology degree from UC Irvine and began her career as an industry scientist at Allergan. She completed a Ph.D. in neuroscience at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where her dissertation characterized the first recurrent gene found in glioblastoma, FGFR3-TACC3. As a T32 fellow between Rice University and MD Anderson, she focused on translational therapeutics for FGFR3-TACC3+ patients. Recognizing her strengths in leadership and strategy, she transitioned into scientific administration as Director of Cancer Neuroscience at MD Anderson. She was later recruited to Lindonlight Collective to build and manage a $100M global research portfolio advancing pediatric brain cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. At DFCI, she leads strategic operations for the PLGA Program, coordinating efforts across the institute and international collaborators.
Fun fact: As a mom to three young sons, Brittany is intent on instilling a “do-it-yourself with a sense of urgency” mindset, and believes she was a Navy Seal in her past life. When she’s not working, practicing baseball, fishing with her sons, or buying the newest power tool at Home Depot, you can find her landscaping, digging trenches, refinishing furniture, power washing, or detailing her car.
Nico Poux (Graduate Student)
After being spoiled with daily access to baguettes, Nico’s family decided to move from Paris to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2010, where the sourness of the bread would provide him an opportunity for real character growth. As a leukemia survivor, Nico developed an early interest in cancer biology. He received his BS in Biology from Stanford in 2019 and did his undergraduate research in Irving Weissman’s lab, developing fluorescence-based tools for lineage tracing. Nico joined the MIT-Harvard MD/PhD program in 2020 to pursue a career in Pediatric Oncology and became a Bando Lab member as a BBS PhD student in 2023. Nico is thrilled to leverage molecular biology techniques to better understand mechanisms of pediatric brain tumor growth and maintenance.
Fun fact: Despite holding the Poux family record for the largest number of mosquito bites in a single night (63!), in the 12 years since receiving his bone marrow transplant, Nico has only been bitten once by a mosquito. He is proud to have exacted revenge on the mosquito that broke his bite-less streak.
Shriya Rangaswamy (Computational Biologist)
Shriya grew up in a small but lively suburb of Dayton, Ohio located about an hour and a half south of Columbus. She later moved to Massachusetts for undergrad at MIT, where she majored in Biological Engineering and minored in Math. During her undergrad, she was involved with the Traverso Lab, where she helped build machine learning models to predict the performance of esophageal drug delivery platforms developed in the lab. Shriya is excited to embark on this new phase of her scientific journey in the Bando Lab, where she will be using computational tools to analyze genomic and transcriptomic data in the context of pediatric gliomas.
Fun fact: Outside of work, you can find Shriya exploring new cafes, experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen, or enjoying a good nonfiction book.
Jenna Robinson (Postdoctoral Fellow)
Jenna grew up in a small village in the middle of England before moving for her undergraduate degree at the University of Cambridge. Here she studied natural sciences and became interested in the intersection between biology and chemistry. Jenna then moved to Imperial College London to complete her biology in chemical biology, where she focused on how DNA structure changes as ovarian cancer cells develop drug resistance. Her project involved lots of genomics, synthesis of fluorescent DNA probes and many long days in dark microscopy rooms. Now in the Bando Lab, Jenna is interested in the evolution of pediatric brain cancers and how epigenetic and microenvironment changes can activate/deactivate oncogenic mutations.
Fun fact: In her spare time, Jenna loves to dance and has spent an unbelievable number of hours learning Beyonce’s dance routines. She also enjoys painting, reading and long walks.
Apichaya ‘Proud’ Sethaudom (Research Associate)
Proud grew up in Bangkok, Thailand, before moving to Ann Arbor, Michigan, for college, where she realized she would rather be too hot than too cold. At the University of Michigan, Proud studied Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, and was first introduced to research while working in Dr. Ruma Banerjee’s lab to study epigenetic changes in colon cancer cells following hydrogen sulfide exposure. The summer before her senior year, Proud interned with Merck’s Oncology Discovery team to develop a cell line for studying the synthetic lethal nature of paralogs in cancers. After graduation, following her interest in cancers and their molecular basis, Proud joined the Bando Lab where is she studying derivers of Diffuse Midline Gliomas.
Fun fact: Proud refuses to use Fahrenheit and pounds as units of measure, and she did not know how to count American coins until 2024. On a different note, she loves listening to jazz/bossa nova, and she likes to collect cute papers and postcards from her travels!
Tanaz Sharifnia (Lead Scientist)
Tanaz is a lead scientist within the Bandopadhayay and Beroukhim Labs where she is working to characterize novel therapeutic targets in pediatric brain tumors. Prior to her current role, Tanaz was a senior research scientist and principal investigator in the Chemical Biology and Therapeutics Science Program at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. There, her research applied systematic functional genomic and small-molecule-based approaches to uncover vulnerabilities in rare and intractable bone tumors. Outside of her academic research, Tanaz has consulted for early-stage biotech companies, advising on preclinical target validation strategies. Tanaz received her Ph.D. in the field of cancer genomics from Harvard University under the mentorship of Dr. Matthew Meyerson.
Fun fact: Tanaz and Mimi have shared countless hours in the tissue culture room at the Broad Institute!
Kee Kiat ‘Aaron’ Yeo (Affiliated Faculty)
Aaron was born and raised in Kuantan, a small beach town on the east coast of peninsular Malaysia. He went to college in Malaysia before moving to Philadelphia. Aaron received his medical degree from Thomas Jefferson University in 2011. He completed his internship and pediatric residency training at Children’s National Medical Center, before immersing himself in pediatric hematology/oncology training followed by subspecialty Pediatric Neuro-Oncology training at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles/University of Southern California. Aaron is an Attending Pediatric Neuro-Oncologist at the Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center.
Ethan Vangosen (Research Associate)
Ethan was born in Plano, Texas, and has since lived in the Seattle and Chicago metro areas. He attended Tufts University, initially focused on international relations with a focus on conflict and diplomacy. However, his interests shifted toward the “battles” taking place at the cellular level, and he ultimately graduated with a BS in Biology and Biotechnology.
At Tufts, Ethan worked in the lab of Dr. Ralph Isberg, where he completed a senior thesis focused on identifying critical regions of MavN, a Legionella pneumophila effector protein required for iron acquisition. He also interned at Northwestern University in Dr. Alan Hauser’s lab, where he helped develop a Galleria mellonella model to study the virulence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates.
In the Bando Lab, Ethan is excited to contribute to research on pediatric gliomas and help uncover new therapeutic targets.
Fun fact: Ethan is an Eagle Scout and has a fraternal twin brother who also attended college in Massachusetts. He’s a big fan of thrifting and all things cyberpunk/dystopian (games, movies, shows, and books)!
Ray Wang (Research Associate)
Ray was born in Miami, FL and has lived in five different US states (FL, OK, NJ, VA and now MA) throughout his life. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry at Williams College, where he completed a senior thesis project in the Gehring Lab. There, nestled int he purple valley, he studied the kinetic characteristics of a phosphodiesterase produced by a species of Streptomyces, a genus of antibiotic-producing, soil-dwelling bacteria, to better understand its role in regulating the production of bioactive metabolites. During his summers, he interned at the NIH, where he worked in the Huang lab to optimize a small molecule antimalarial drug and studied late-stage fluorination reactions of nitrogen-containing heterocyles.
Eager to apply his foundation in basic research to a more translational research setting, Ray joined the Bandopadhayay lab in the summer of 2025 where he is working to map proteins that are necessary for transformation induced by brain tumor related oncogenes, and to identify new therapeutic targets.
Fun fact: Ray has been playing the viola since he was 9, which is also when he started getting grey hairs (coincidence?).
Alexander ‘Alex’ Zhang (Research Associate)
Alex received his BS in Biology and a minor in business in 2023 from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. While at Brandeis, he worked in Dr. Avi Rodal’s lab and studied the effects of valency and the cellular environment on liquid-liquid phase separation using Drosophilia endocytic proteins. In the Bando Lab, Alex is working to identify novel genetic dependencies in pediatric low-grade gliomas, and to optimize efficacy of small-molecule MAPK pathway inhibitors across pediatric gliomas.
Fun fact: Alex likes taking long walks, working out, and climbing so he can eat more food.