Our Team

  • 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.

  • Trini Ochoa

    Trini Ochoa Ph.D.

    Trini obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania studying plasma cell depletion strategies. He moved to the Feldser lab in July 2023 where he works on signaling dependencies for lung adenocarcinoma development.

  • Maria Solares

    Maria Solares Ph.D.

    Maria obtained her Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University where she provided the first high resolution images of full-length p53 protein assemblies for her thesis work. Maria will join the Feldser Lab in October 2023 working to understand cyclophilin-dependent p53-mediated cell death.

  • Keren Adler

    Keren is a student in the Cancer Biology Program at the University of Pennsylvania. She moved to Penn after graduating from Brandeis University in 2018 with a degree in Biology. Keren’s work aims to determine how the cancer cell genotype impacts immunogenicity and immune surveillance. Keren is funded by the Lung Cancer Research Program of the DOD.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Maggie Robertson

    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.

  • Faaiz Quaisar

    Faaiz is a Vagelos Molecular Life Sciences Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in Biochemistry and Computational Biology. His work in the Feldser Lab centers on understanding oncogene signaling dependencies in lung adenocarcinoma.