Kara Bernstein
Lab Head
B.A. Bryn Mawr College, 2000
Ph.D. Yale University, 2006 (Advisor Susan Baserga)
Post-doctorate Fellow, Columbia University, 2006-2011 (Advisor Rodney Rothstein)
Anna Palovcak
Post-Doctorate Fellow
July 10, 2023 - current
B.S. West Chester University of Pennsylvania, 2014
Ph.D. University of Florida, 2023 (Advisor Yanbin Zhang)
Kristie Darrah
Post-Doctorate Fellow
September 20 2021- current
B.S. Bloomsburg University, 2014
Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh, 2021 (Advisor Alex Deiters)
Lab Publications:
Prakash, R.#.*, Rawal, Y.#, Sullivan, M.R.#, Grundy, M.K., Bret, H., Mihalevic, M.J., Rein, H.L., Baird, J.M., Darrah, K., Zhang, F., Wang, R., Traina, T.A., Radke, M.R., Kaufmann, S.H., Swisher, E.M., Guerois, R., Modesti, M., Sung, P., Jasin, M.*, Bernstein, K.A.* (2022) Homologous recombination-deficient mutation cluster in tumor suppressor RAD51C identified by comprehensive analysis of cancer variants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In press #Equal contribution, *Co-corresponding
Mohd Azrin Jamalruddin
Graduate Student
July 1, 2019 - current
B.S. Michigan State University
Lab Publications:
Bai, S., Taylor, S.E., Jamalruddin, M.A., McGonigal, S., Grimley, E., Yang, D., Bernstein, K.A., Buchanovich, R.J. (2022) Targeting therapeutic resistance and multinucleate giant cells in CCNE1-amplified HR-proficient ovarian cancer. Molecular Cancer Therapy. 21(9): 1743-1484.
Brunette, G.J., Jamalruddin, M.A., Baldock, R.A., Clark, N.L., Bernstein, K.A. (2019) Evolution-based screening enables genome-wide prioritization and discovery of DNA repair genes, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 116(39): 19593-19599.
Tanis Dorwart
Graduate Student
June 1 2024 - current
B.S. Arcadia University, 2020
Gayatri Ganesan
Research Technician
August 14, 2023 - current
B.A. Princeton University, 2023
Zoe Moosbrugger
Research Technician
June 1, 2024 - current
B.S. Ursinis College, 2024
Jehan Mody
Research Technician
October 1, 2024 - current
B.A. Gettysburg College, 2024
Isabela Contreras
Undergraduate Researcher
October 3, 2023 - current
University of Pennsylvania
Funding/Fellowships: 2023 Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society Undergraduate Scholarship; 2023 Basser Summer Scholars Program
Zara Kahn
Undergraduate Researcher
January 24, 2024 - current
University of Pennsylvania
Arjun Kumar
Undergraduate Researcher
January 24, 2024 - current
University of Pennsylvania
Funding/Fellowship: Roy and Diana Vagelos Scholars Program in the Molecular Life Sciences; 2024 CURF Summer Fellowship
Emmanuel Tawiah
Undergraduate Researcher
June 28, 2024 - current
University of Pennsylvania
Funding/Fellowship: 2024 Basser Summer Scholars Program
Former Graduate Students:
Stephen Godin (2012 - 2015)
Current Position: Senior Scientist I at Tango Therapeutics
Meghan Sullivan (2014 - 2020)
Current Position: Review Analyst-Variant Scientist at GeneDx
Braulio Bonilla (2016 - 2020)
Current Position: Investigator Adjunto Istitute Pasteur de Monevideo (Staff Scientist) INIA Institute Nacional de Investigaciones Agropecuaria, Uruguay
Thong Luong (2017 - 2022)
Current Position: Postdoctoral research fellow at NCI
Hayley Rein (2019 - 2023)
Current Position: Clinical Genomic Scientist I at Baylor Genetics
Adeola Fagunloye (2021 - 2024)
Current Position: Position at FDA
Cheryl (Clauson) Kozina (2012 - 2013)
Current Position: Associate Professor (with tenure) at St. Leo University, FL
Stefanie Bohm (2012 - 2015)
Current Position: Scientific Coordinator, Department of Molecular Sociology, Max Plank Institute of Biophysics, Frankfort, Germany
Julieta Martino (2015 - 2018)
Current Position: Variant Scientist, GeneDx
Robert Baldock (2016 - 2018)
Current Position: Senior Lecturer of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, England
Sarah Hengel (2017-2023)
Current Position: Assistant Professor (Tenure-track) at Tufts University, Boston, MA
Former Medical Students:
Yoav Karpenshif (2012-2015)
Current Position: Advanced Fellow in Critical Care, University of Pennsylvania
Zhuying Zhang (2013-2015)
Current Position: M.D.
Anton Khodakov (2015-2017)
Current Position: Corporate Strategy Consultant, Humana
Dominique Bratton-Palmer (2012-2015)
Current Position: Business Analyst Myers-Holum
Christina Hornack (2011-2013)
Current Position: Board Certified Emergency Medicine Physician at HCA Fawcett Memorial Hospital, Port Charlotte, FL
Faiz Kabbinavar (2011-2015)
Current Position: M.D. Family Medicine, Southampton, NY
Cynthia Thomas (2012)
Current Position: Laboratory Technician at the Citizen Science Lab, Pittsburgh, PA
Robert Caro (2012-2013)
Current Position: Associate Dentist at Kaye Dentistry, NY, NY
Morgan "Casal" Butrovich (2013-2014)
Current Position: Ph.D. Clinical Pharmaceutical Sciences; Office of Clinical Pharmacology - Division of Cancer Pharmacology I (solid tumors)
Shahm Raslan (2013-2014)
Current Position: Medical Student at Florida International University
Alison Lee (2013-2014)
Current Position: Ph.D. Student at University of Texas Austin
Jared Baird (2014-2015)
Current Position: Anesthesiology Resident at Wake Forest
Ashita Vadlamudi (2014-2015)
Current Position: M.S. Health Care Analytics and Information Technology Candidate at Carnegie Mellon University
Catherine Pressimone (2015-2018)
Current Position: Internal Medicine Resident, University of Pittsburgh
Gannon Rooney (2016)
Current Position: Medical Student, University of Pittsburgh
Chelsea Smith (2017-2020)
Current Position: Graduate Student UNC Chapel Hill
Nickolas Pudik (2017)
Current Position: Medical Student Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University
Ella Roberts (2019-2021)
Current Position: Thomas Jefferson University, Doctorate in Health Sciences and a Masters in Physician Assistant Studies
Katherine Oppenheimer (2020-2022)
Current Position: Ph.D. Student at Harvard University
Reagan Russell (2021-2022)
Current Position: Medical Student at the Cleveland Clinic
Caroline Smelko (2021)
Current Position: Undergraduate at Penn State
Megan Pauly (2022)
Current Position: Clinical Research Associate at Labcorp
Phoebe Parker (2021-2022)
Current Position: Ph.D. candidate at Washington University
Alexa Mihaita (2023)
Current Position: Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pennsylvania
Former Technicians:
Michael Mihalevic (2011-2018)
Current Position: R.N.
Benjamin Herken (2015-2017)
Current Position: Post-doctorate at the ARC Institute
Gregory Brunnette (2016-2019)
Current Position: Ph.D. student at Harvard University
McKenzie Grundy (2018-2020)
Current Position: Ph.D. student at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Kyle Rapchak (2019-2020)
Current Position: Ph.D. student at University of Iowa
Phoebe Parker (2022-2024)
Current Position: Ph.D. student at Washington University, Saint Louis, MO
Leah Furman (2012)
Current Position: Ph.D. candidate at the Wietzmann Institute of Science, Jerusalem, Israel
Kyle Yoshida (2013)
Current Position: Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, UCLA
Yael (Istkowitz) Colton (2014, 2016)
Current Position: FSO Assurance Staff at EY, New York, NY
Brian Kang (2016)
Current Position: Director of Make Ventures Princeton, Atlanta, GA
Ashani Shah (2016-2017)
Current Position: Undergraduate student, B.S./M.D. Program at Rutgers University, NJ
Zehra Mehdi (2017)
Charles Burton (2019)
Current Position: Undergraduate student at University of Virgina
Benjamin Friedman (2023-2024)
Current Position: Incoming Undergraduate student at University of Maryland