Faculty
The CDI is comprised of accomplished faculty members who have been recruited from leading academic centers including Weill Cornell Medicine, Columbia University, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Boston University, Rutgers University, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the National Institutes of Health. Areas of expertise include genomics, epigenetics, drug resistance, stem cell biology, drug discovery, diagnostics, vaccines and pharmacology. These areas confront critical unmet needs in targeting multiple myeloma, lymphoma, breast cancer, brain tumors, and other deadly cancers, and address crucial medical problems in diabetes, sepsis, and opportunistic bacterial, fungal and viral infections. In total, the inaugural faculty have published more than 1,800 peer-reviewed papers in leading journals such as Science and Nature, New England Journal of Medicine, mBio and Lancet. In addition, they bring approximately 25 NIH and other government grants to the CDI, as well as numerous contracts with foundations, Pharma and biotech companies.
Lab Heads

Rena Feinman, Ph.D.

Martin Gengenbacher, Ph.D.

Barry Kreiswirth, Ph.D.

Sivia Lapidus, M.D.

Olivier Loudig, Ph.D.

Alvin Makohon-Moore, Ph.D.

Liancai Mu, M.D., Ph.D.

Jyothi Nagajyothi, Ph.D.

David S. Perlin, Ph.D.

Rachel Rosenstein, M.D., Ph.D.

Byungwoo Ryu, Ph.D.

Erika Shor, Ph.D.

Kevin Tong, Ph.D.

Benjamin Tycko, M.D., Ph.D.

Hai-Hui (Howard) Xue, M.D. & Ph.D.

Johannes Zakrzewski, M.D.

Yi Zhang, M.D. & Ph.D.

Yanan Zhao, M.D., Ph.D.
Research Faculty

Emmanuel Dumont, Ph.D.

Claudia Manca, Ph.D.

Natalia Kurepina, Ph.D.

Milena Kordalewska, Ph.D.

Jansy Sarathy, Ph.D.
Affiliated and Emeritus Faculty

Jason Butler, Ph.D.

Robert Korngold, Ph.D.

Jenny Zilberberg, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellows
Postdoctoral researchers comprise a vital aspect of the CDI research enterprise. The highly collaborative culture of discovery provides an outstanding training experience in which intellectual curiosity and interdisciplinary teamwork is encouraged and nurtured.
Postdocs have access to a variety of training resources to acquire new skills that facilitate career development. Mentoring is provided for development of grants and contracts, manuscript preparation, poster and research presentations, and research ethics, and science management. Furthermore, postdocs are exposed to a range of external basic and translational academic scientists, as well as industry leaders. The collective experience will help position them for a successful job search and career path.