Our Team
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David Feldser
David is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cancer Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, Associate Investigator of the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute, and Chair of the Cancer Biology Program in the Cell and Molecular Biology graduate group. David started the Feldser Laboratory in 2013 with the goal of understanding the causal effects of oncogene and tumor suppressor gene mutations in cancer.
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Keren Adler
Keren is a Postdoctoral Fellow and recent graduate of the Cancer Biology Program at the University of Pennsylvania. Keren’s work aims to determine how the cancer cell genotype impacts immunogenicity and immune surveillance. Keren has been funded by the Lung Cancer Research Program of the DOD.
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Amy Gladstein
Amy is a student in the Genetics and Epigenetics Program at Penn. Amy graduated from Rutgers University in 2019 with a degree in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. Her work focuses on understanding the biology of the SETD2 tumor suppressor in lung adenocarcinoma. Amy is funded by a T32 training grant in Tumor Virology for this work.
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Katie Doerig
Katie is a student in the Cancer Biology Program at Penn. She graduated from the University of Rochester in 2016 and worked at the Rockefeller University for three years prior to coming to Penn. Katie’s work focuses on understanding synthetic lethal gene interactions in lung cancer. She is funded by an F31 fellowship from the NCI.
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Maggie Robertson
Maggie graduated from West Virginia University in 2023 and joined the Feldser Lab as Research Specialist in August thereafter. Maggie’s independent research project is focused on the role of the Retinoblastoma tumor suppressor gene in lung adenocarcinoma.
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Valerie Irizary-Negron
Valerie is a student in the Cancer Biology Program the University of Pennsylvania and graduate of the University of Puerto Rico - Mayagüez. She joined the Feldser Lab in March of 2024. Her work aims to determine the consequences of epigenetic deregulation in lung adenocarcinoma.
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Akino Mercy Charles Solomon, Ph.D.
Akino obtained her Ph.D. from Bharathidasan University, Trichy, India. She moved to the Feldser lab in July 2024 where she works on signaling pathways active in lung adenocarcinoma development.
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Dain Ruiz
Dain is a student in the Cancer Biology Program at Penn. He joined the Feldser Lab in 2025 and is currently exploring projects related to the overlapping biologies of key tumor suppressor genes in lung adenocarcinoma.
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Gayatri Mahajan
Gayatri is a masters student in the Biotechnology Program at Penn SEAS. She is a graduate of the Dr. DY Patil Biotechnology and Bioinformatics Institute in Pune India. Gayatri joined the Feldser Lab in the Fall of 2024 and is working to better understand signaling dependencies in EGFR-driven lung adenocarcinoma.
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Sydney Oliver
Sydney is a student in the Cancer Biology Program at Penn. She joined the Feldser Lab in 2025 and is developing tools to interrogate mechanisms of oncogene induced cell lethality in cell culture and in the mouse.
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Tony Tao
Tony is a Masters student in the Biotechnology Program at Penn SEAS. Tony is a graduate of the University California, Davis with degrees in Music Composition and Molecular and Medical Microbiology. Upon joining the lab in the Fall of 2025, Tony became interested in understanding the biology of p53-mediated tumor suppression.