People of the Toker Lab
Alex Toker, PhD
Alex Toker received a BSc from King's College, University of London, UK in 1987 and a PhD from the National Institute for Medical Research, London, UK in 1991. He conducted his post-doctoral research in the laboratory of Prof. Lewis Cantley, first in the Department of Physiology, Tufts University School of Medicine, then in the Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School and Division of Signal Transduction, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. His first faculty appointment was as Staff Scientist at the Boston Biomedical Research Institute in 1997, where he was promoted to Principal Scientist in 1999. In 2000 he joined the faculty of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology. In 2003, he was promoted to Associate Professor and joined the faculty of the HMS PhD program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences. In 2010, he was promoted to Professor of Pathology at HMS. In 2014, he was appointed Chief of the Division of Signal Transduction in the Departments of Pathology and Medicine and Cancer Center at BIDMC. In 2020, he was appointed Associate Director of the Cancer Research Institute at BIDMC.
Other Activities:
- Editor-in-Chief, JBC
- Member of Faculty of 1000
- Ludwig Center at Harvard
Research Fellows and Instructors
Gilbert Salloum, PhD
Gilbert received his PhD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the laboratory of Jonathan Backer. His work focuses on identifying targetable vulnerabilities in high grade serous ovarian cancer
Tashbib Khan, PhD
Tash received his PhD from the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, in laboratory of John Hooper. His current work focuses on the interplay between glycogen metabolism and oncogene addiction to the PI3K/AKT pathway
Alissandra Hillis, PhD
Alissandra Hillis received her BS degree from MIT, MA, and PhD from HMS. Her research focuses on metabolic dependencies in cancer cells. She is a recipient of the Landry Cancer Research Fellowship and is supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program
Adrija Navarro
Adrija Navarro received her BS degree from Princeton University. Her research focuses on dependencies on protein glycosylation mechanisms in human cancers. She is supported by an NIH F31 grant.
Students
Josefina Mendez
Josefina Mendez received her BS degree from Yale University, CT. Her research focuses on the regulation of chromatin remodeling factors by the PI3K/AKT pathway in breast cancer. Josefina is a recipient of an NSF Graduate Research fellowship and a Landry Cancer Research award.
Margaret Dreishpoon
Margaret Dreishpoon received her BS degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Her research focuses on the regulation of lipid metabolism by the AKT pathway.
Isabella Del Priore
Emmalyn Lecky
Isabella Del Priore received her BS degree from Bates College. Her research focuses on targeted protein degradation of AKT and the underlying biology and therapeutics.
Emma Lecky received her BS degree from University of Connecticut. Her research focuses on the role of the PI3K and AKT pathway in stress kinase signaling
Research Assistants
Isabella Ranieri
Isabella Ranieri received her BS degree from the University of Southern Maine. She is a Research Assistant in the Toker Lab
Former Lab Members
Students
Post-Docs
Technicians
Sokha Nhek (PhD 2009)
Maribeth Wert
Heike Doeppler
Jessica Fry (PhD 2009)
Antonio Mazzocca
Amy Carr
Claudine Cohick (PhD 2011)
Gary Yiu
Heather Gardiner
Jessica Gasser (PhD 2013)
Merav Yoeli-Lerner
Casey Stottrup
Whitney Henry (PhD 2015)
Maria Mancini
Hannah Anthony
Evan Lien (PhD 2016)
Colin White
Kali Ferrell
Renee Geck (PhD 2020)
Aura Kaunisto
Tiffany Tsang
Sam Barritt (PhD 2022)
Alissandra Hillis (PhD 2023)
Emily Erickson (PhD 2021)
Rebecca Chin
Sivan Elloul
Emilie Clement
Kristin Brown
Ozlem Senol-Cosar
KangKang Yang
Laura Ghisolfi
Amber Chopelas
Grace Perry
Taylor Woodward
Francisco Beca
Christian Dibble
Emily Cohen
