Laboratory Alumni
Gyulnara Kasumova, M.D
Gyulnara Kasumova, MD is a general surgery resident at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. She has experience with clinical data analysis and outcomes work. During her time with the Boland lab, she was focused on correlative analysis of molecular data in melanoma patients treated with immunotherapy. She oversaw data collection/capture, clinical data analysis, and use for correlative studies. She was also focused on parallel analysis of multiple blood-based elements such as cell-free DNA, circulating exosomes, and serum plasma proteomics.
Amelie Franken
Amelie Franken is a graduate student working towards her Master’s in Biomedical Sciences from The Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. She is interested in molecular cancer biology, immunology, and stem cell biology. Her research with the Boland lab focused on targeted therapy and immunotherapy resistance in advanced melanoma. Specifically, she examined the role of neural crest stem cells in minimal residual disease by multiplex IF staining. In the fall of 2019, she will start her PhD in the lab of Dr. Jean-Christophe Marine.
Anise Applebaum
Anise worked as a research technician with the Boland lab from June 2018- May 2019. She processesed and collected blood and tissue samples from melanoma and gastrointestinal cancer patients. She graduated from Tufts University in 2018 with Bachelor’s degree in Biology. She is currently attending USC Keck School of Medicine.
Tommy Kim
Tommy played an integral role in collection and processing of patient blood and tissue samples from July 2018-June 2019. In addition, Tommy oversaw the construction and management of a research and clinical database. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a Bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and is currently a student at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Daan Rauwerdink
Daan Rauwerdink is a medical student at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands. During his medical studies, he completed a research minor addressing novel molecular target therapies in melanoma. This led to a project for which he conducted clinical data analysis and outcomes.
Daan’s research with the Boland lab in 2019 and 2020 focused on analyzing patterns of surgical utilization in melanoma patients who received systemic immunotherapy and targeted therapy.
Susannah Phillips
During her time with the Boland lab, Susannah’s work primarily focused on collection and processing of blood and tissue specimens from patients with melanoma and gastrointestinal cancers. She left the Boland lab to start medical school in the summer of 2020.
J. Harrison Carmichael
Harrison graduated from Bowdoin College with his B.A. in Neuroscience in 2017. He spent a year with the Boland lab, focusing on tissue and blood collection and database management. He started medical school in the summer of 2020.
Nihaarika Sharma
Nihaarika primarily worked to collect and process blood and tissue specimens from patients with melanoma and gastrointestinal cancers. She graduated from Tufts University in 2018 with Bachelor’s degrees in Biology and Peace & Justice Studies, and hopes to combine these passions through a career in public health.
Marta Díaz Martínez, PhD
Marta obtained her PhD in 2017 from the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. As the first part of her PhD, she focused on the role of Src kinases in melanoma cell invasion and metastasis. In the second part, she studied the mechanisms of melanoma resistance to targeted therapy, with special attention to microRNAs contribution.
She joined Boland’s lab in March 2019, where she is working to expand her studies in microRNAs and their potential in cell-to-cell communication through exosomes and microvesicles regarding their role in melanoma resistance to both targeted therapy and immunotherapy. The ultimate goal is to translate results to the clinic, and find new biomarkers as predictors of resistance.
Mohsen Maleh Mir, PhD
Mohsen obtained his PhD in 2018 from University of Zurich, Switzerland. For his PhD thesis, he mechanistically delineated the role of Platelets in conditions associated with metabolic disease and also liver disease. Mohsen and colleagues showed that platelet recruitment to the liver contributes to development of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) through platelet glycoprotein Ibα (GPIbα).
Since immunotherapy is not curative for most patients with metastatic melanoma owing to the innate or acquired resistance, Mohsen aims to investigate different aberrations that lead to resistance. He is interested in investigating the mechanisms contributing to melanoma tumor progression or response following immunotherapy. A number of previous studies have yielded mechanistic insights underlying response or resistance in clinical cohorts and in vivo studies. Using a comprehensive transcriptomic profiling study of ICI response and resistance in a clinical cohort which provides novel evidence to existing hypotheses regarding ICI response or resistance mechanisms, he aims to potentially uncover molecular insight into the underlying mechanisms of immunotherapy response and resistance.
Benchun Miao
Benchun’s background is anti-cancer pharmacology. He has been a part of many drug-resistance related studies, especially in the field of melanoma therapy. He works as a member of the tissue banking team, and is involved in collecting, processing, storing and transporting patient tumor, tissue and blood samples. He plays an integral role in providing patient tumor, DNA, RNA, plasma, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) samples to support collaborating researchers in their work.
S. Alireza Rabi, MD, PhD
Ali is a general surgery resident at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He completed his combined MD/ PhD training at Johns Hopkins University. For his PhD thesis, he was mentored by Dr. Robert Siliciano, and he worked on delineating the mechanism by which protease inhibitors, a potent class of anti-retroviral drugs, achieve their anti-HIV-1 inhibitory potential.
For his research, he is interested in controlling the site of integration of lentiviruses. Lentiviruses integrate their genetic cargo into the genome of their host cells thus ensuring long-term and stable viral protein synthesis by the infected cells. In addition, they are capable of infecting non-dividing cells. These features make them very attractive for gene therapy applications. However, the genomic site of integration is largely unpredictable. This unpredictability can (and has) lead to oncogenesis which limits their use in in vivoapplications. His current project aims to control the site of lentiviral gene integration, thus rendering them safer for use in vivo.
Clinically, he is enrolled in the cardiac surgery track of the cardiothoracic integrated training program at MGH. He hopes to focus his fellowship training and subsequent career on heart and lung transplantation.
Asrar Alimohamed, MD
Asrar Alimohamed, MD worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Boland lab, in conjunction with the David Liu Lab at DFCI, from July 2022 – July 2023. His project involved investigating patterns of treatment response in patients receiving adjuvant/neoadjuvant treatment for resectable stage III and IV melanoma. He is currently an internal medicine resident at the University of Virginia.
Nick Stratigakis
Clinical Research Coordinator
James Fahey
Research Technician