Haber & Maheswaran Labs
Meet our team!
The team includes our principal investigators, postdoctoral fellows, instructors, graduate students, technicians and our lab manager.
Principal Investigators
Daniel Haber MD PhD
Principal Investigator
Director, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center
Kurt J. Isselbacher Professor of Oncology, Harvard Medical School
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Shyamala Maheswaran PhD
Principal Investigator
Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School
Mary Saltonstall Chair in Oncology, Mass General Hospital
Scientific Director, MGH Center for CTC Biology.
Current Lab Members
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Ezgi received her Ph.D. degree in Biotechnology in METU Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Center in Turkey after a B.Sc. in Molecular Biology and Genetics. She has a multi-disciplinary background at the interface of engineering and life sciences including in engineered surfaces at micro/nano scale, microfluidics, biomaterials, tissue engineering and imaging.
She is recently working as a postdoctoral researcher both in Haber/Maheswaran Lab on CTC-immune cell interactions and in Toner Lab on CAR-T cell manufacturing on microfluidics devices.
She loves imaging, using any type of microscopes and exploring colorful world of the cells!
Outside of the lab, she enjoys visiting museums, trying new restaurants and hiking with friends. She loves fencing, scuba diving and painting a lot!
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Risa Burr joined the lab as a postdoc in 2017 after completing her PhD at Johns Hopkins. Her main research interests include cell-cell and cell-environmental communication in the establishment of metastasis, but she has also worked on projects about early lung cancer diagnosis and mechanisms of multifocal lung cancer development.
Risa is also a major contributor to the MGH and CCR community, having served as chair of the MGH postdoc association from 2020-2021 and being an active member of the CCR D&I committee and SUCCrEED steering committee.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Charlie received his M.D. from the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine (Case Western Reserve University). During medical school, he spent two years with the HHMI Medical Research Fellows Program, where he worked on pathways of androgen biosynthesis and androgen receptor activation in prostate cancer. Following this, he completed his internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital.
He is currently a medical oncology fellow in the Dana-Farber/Mass General Brigham program. His scientific interests at the moment include the role of AR in breast cancer as well as mechanisms of steroid nuclear receptor cross-talk.
In his spare time, Charlie enjoys playing soccer, rooting for F.C. Barcelona, and going on hikes with his wife and dog.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Doug received his PhD from Duke University in 2020 before joining the Haber/Maheswaran lab as a postdoc. He is studying tumor heterogeneity and tumor cell plasticity to better understand cell states that promote metastasis and therapy resistance.
Outside the lab, Doug enjoys the
great outdoors, dogs, and sports.
Research Technician
Sara joined the Haber-Maheswaran Lab as a research technician in 2022. She graduated from the College of the Holy Cross with a degree in biology and a concentration in biochemistry.
Outside of the lab, she enjoys snowboarding, traveling with her family, and reading fiction.
Executive Assistant
Celia Harris is the executive assistant of the lab. Extremely dedicated and highly organized, Celia allows the lab to run as smoothly as possible.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Megan received a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of New Hampshire, and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from UMass Chan Medical School. As a doctoral student, her research focused on developing new experimental and computational methods to identify death-regulatory genes from chemo-genetic profiles.
Megan joined the Haber-Maheswaran lab as a postdoc in 2024. She is currently exploring the biology of circulating tumor cell clusters, with the long-term goal of improving treatment options for aggressive cancers.
Outside of the lab, she enjoys baking, painting, reading, and working on turning her brown thumb into a green one.
Technology Director in
Molecular CTC Lab
Shih-Bo finished his PhD at UT Health San Antonio and a 2 year-postdoc training at Weill Cornell Medicine before joining the lab as a Technology Director of Molecular CTC Lab in 2022.
He manages technological resources related to the CTC Program and develops molecular assays for CTC-related projects. He works in close collaboration with bioengineers in the Toner Lab and clinical fellows at the MGH Cancer Center. Shih-Bo also helps oversee lab technicians assigned to various projects.
Outside the lab, he loves to explore new things, different places and restaurants in NYC & Boston.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Elad received his PhD at Hebrew University in Israel. As a postdoc in the lab, Elad is looking into how breast cancer tumor cells can survive chemotherapy and later regrow. He is studying this on CTC cultures that we have in the lab.
As a dad, Elad studies Harry Potter-related issues (mostly herbology, occlumency and DADA). He also occasionally goes to get served some additional poundings at the Muay Thai gym next door.
Research Technician
After graduating from Boston University with a degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Ji Eun joined the lab as a Research Technician in the summer of 2023.
Outside of the lab, Ji Eun loves to see musicals, cook Korean food, explore restaurants, and drink bubble tea - either bought or homemade.
Research Technician
Madison joined the Haber-Maheswaran lab in the fall of 2024 as a research technician. She graduated from the University of Connecticut with a degree in Diagnostic Genetic Sciences.
Outside the lab, Madison is an avid reader, loves to cook and try new restaurants, and crochets.
Lab Manager
Manager of the Haber-Maheswaran Lab since 2008, Laura Libby received an M.S. degree in Biotechnology from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and previously worked as a Research Technician at both The Jackson Laboratory and the Maine Medical Research Institute.
Laura enjoys being part of the Lab's dynamic team and witnessing all of its amazing discoveries.
Outside the lab, Laura loves spending time with her family, running, reading, and scrapbooking.
Instructor
Douglas Micalizzi received his medical degree from University of Colorado School of Medicine, completed internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and medical oncology fellowship in the joint Dana Farber/MGH Oncology Fellowship Program.
Doug Micalizzi is currently an instructor in the Haber-Maheswaran laboratory.
He is also a breast medical oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital specializing in cancer risk assessment and hereditary cancer syndromes.
Research Technician
Zach joined the Haber-Maheswaran lab in the summer of 2023 as a research technician. He graduated from the College of the Holy Cross with a major in biology and concentration in biochemistry.
Outside of the lab, Zach enjoys taking care of plants, reading, music, and playing games with friends
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Ajinkya received his Ph.D. from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland in 2018 and joined the Haber-Maheswaran lab as a postdoctoral researcher in October 2020. He is currently interested in understanding how senescent tumor cells contribute to treatment-resistance, disease progression and metastasis.
He enjoys playing soccer which he is not good at and confusing the players as to which team he is playing for! He also likes to explore newer places to visit in and around Boston and try new restaurants.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Cem received his medical degree from Koç University School of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey in 2022. He joined the Haber & Maheswaran Labs as a postdoctoral research fellow in June 2023. He is fascinated by translational research, particularly in exploring innovative treatment modalities and unraveling the mechanisms underlying drug susceptibility and treatment resistance in cancer cells. Additionally, he is interested in studying the molecular processes involved in cancer development.
Outside of the lab, Cem enjoys supporting his beloved sports club, Fenerbahçe. He also finds delight in exploring the world of art and culture by visiting museums, watching movies, and indulging in the culinary delights offered by various restaurants.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Yan Fang joined the Haber/Maheswaran lab as a postdoctoral fellow in 2024 after earning her Ph.D. in Cancer Immunology from UT Southwestern Medical Center. Her research focuses on how cancer cells evade immune surveillance and developing strategies to overcome these challenges.
Yan is particularly inspired by the intelligence and specificity of immune cells, which form complex layers of protection that are difficult for other ways to replicate. She aims to treat metastasis in her future research, driven by a passion for translating scientific discoveries into clinical applications that can benefit patients.
Outside of the lab, Yan enjoys reading novels, especially those written in dialect—a fun fact is her name in Chinese also means “dialect.” She finds that the diversity in language enriches her understanding of the world and fuels her creativity. Yan also appreciates tea, coffee, podcasts, and meditation, which help her maintain a balanced and mindful lifestyle.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Min Yang received her Ph.D. degree in 2022 at Peking University in China. During her PhD, she mainly focused on the embryo development through bioinformatics. Then, she joined as a postdoc of both Haber/Maheswaran lab and Lawrence lab. Her scientific interests recently include the mechanism of ER dynamic expression during breast cancer development and the microenvironment of metastasis tumors.
Outside the lab, Min likes running and climbing mountains, trying new things with friends, and cooking with her husband at home.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Weikun received his Ph.D. from Tsinghua University in China in 2019 and joined the Haber-Maheswaran lab in 2023. He is currently trying to understand the epigenome of CTCs and epigenetic regulations during cancer metastasis, and hopes to contribute to cancer early detection.
Outside the lab, Weikun is a big fan of badminton.
He also enjoys exploring various restaurants and
immersing himself in music.
Haber & Maheswaran Labs Alumni
Nicola Aceto, PhD. (2015)
Daphne Bell, PhD. (2004)
Francesca Bersani, PhD. (2015)
Sean Bong Lee, PhD. (2001)
Alexa Burger, PhD. (2013)
Naokazu Chiba, MD. (2010)
Valentine Comaills, PhD (2019)
Christina Costantino, MD. (2019)
Sven Diedrichs, PhD. (2008)
Taronish Dubash, PhD. (2022)
Richard Ebright, MD PhD. (2020)
Leif Ellisen, MD, PhD. (2001)
Christoph Englert, PhD. (1996)
Hongshan Guo, PhD. (2022)
Nadia Godin-Heyman, PhD. (2007)
Young Han Song, PhD. (2003)
Paul Harkin, PhD. (1997)
Tetsu Hayashida, MD, PhD. (2009)
Xin Hong, PhD. (2020)
Woo Jae Kim, PhD. (2015)
Sarah Javaid, PhD. (2015)
Mark Kalinich, MD, PhD. (2019)
Michael Krainer, MD. (1997)
Eunice Kwak, MD, PhD. (2005)
Mingzhu Liu, PhD. (2014)
Xi Luo, PhD. (2014)
Shyamala Maheswaran, PhD. (1997)
Satoru Matsuda, MD (2018)
David Miyamoto, MD, PhD. (2018)
Stefanie Morgan, PhD. (2022)
Brian Nahed, MD. (2014)
Kim Nichols, MD. (1999)
Rachel Palmer, PhD. (2003)
Charles Paulding, PhD. (2003)
Paul Reynolds, PhD. (2003)
Miguel Rivera, MD. (2007)
Michael Rothenberg, MD PhD. (2008)
Anurag Singh, PhD. (2011)
Gromek Smolen, PhD. (2010)
James Sullivan, PhD. (2015)
Tilak Sundaresan, MD. (2017)
Ken Tajima, MD, PhD. (2014)
Fumiyuki Takahashi, MD, PhD. (2009)
David Ting, MD. (2013)
Tanya Todorova, PhD. (2017)
Nicole Vincent Jordan, PhD. (2017)
Weihong Wang, PhD. (2001)
Julie Wells, PhD. (2008)
Jenise Wong, PhD. (2002)
Min Yu, PhD. (2015)
Marcus Zachariah, MD, PhD. (2017)
Hong Zhang, PhD. (2004)
Jianmin Zhang, PhD. (2010)
Yu (Eric) Zheng, PhD. (2016)
Joanna Vuille, MD. PhD. (2024)
Justin Kelly. (2024)
Ben Wittner, PhD. (2024)
University of Basel; ETH Zurich, Switzerland
National Institutes of Health
University of Turin, Italy
Tulane University, New Orleans
University of Zurich
Keio University School of Medicine, Japan
Aecc @ Cabimer, Spain
Surgery resident, MGH
German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg
Inzen Therapeutics
Medical resident, MGH
Harvard Medical School
Leibniz Institute, Jena, Germany
Zhejiang University, China
Cancer Research, UK
Ilsong Institute, Hallym University, Korea
Queen’s University, Belfast, N. Ireland
Keio University School of Medicine, Japan
Southern Medical University, China
Sola Biosciences
Merck Pharmaceuticals
Medical student, Harvard Medical School
University of Vienna, Austria
Novartis Institute Biomedical Research
Liberty Mutual Insurance
Illumina
Harvard Medical School
Keio University School of Medicine, Japan
Harvard Medical School
Cellino
Harvard Medical School
St. Judes Children’s Hospital, Memphis
Genzyme-Sanofi
Regeneron
Univ. of St. Andrews, UK
Harvard Medical School
LOXO Oncology/ Lilly
Boston University
Agios Pharmaceuticals
Verily Life Sciences
Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco, CA
Keio University School of Medicine, Japan
Juntendo University, Japan
Harvard Medical School
Clovis Oncology
Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research
Amgen, Boston
Jackson Laboratory
UCSF
University of Southern California
University of Alabama
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing; HHMI
Roswell Park Cancer Institute
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
UNIL-CHUV, Switzerland
TBD
Retirement