Collaborators

Shalin Kothari, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine who treats patients with Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma. His research focuses on the mechanistic understanding of lymphoma therapeutics for the development of rationale-based combination strategies. Yale New Haven Hospital & Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT. Collaborative published commentary: Cancer Discovery 2024.

Mina Xu, MD, is a Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine and expert in biomarker discovery for hematologic malignancies. She is also Director of Yale Lymphoma Biobank and is the lead pathologist in mapping human B cell lymphomas through novel spatial assays at Yale (biospecimen PI of the Center for Human Lymphoma Spatial Atlas thru NCI HTAN). Yale New Haven Hospital & Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT. Co-funding: Mark Foundation for Cancer Research and Follicular Lymphoma Foundation ASPIRE award 2025.

Sylvia Kurz, MD PhD, is an Associate Professor of Neurology and neuro-oncologist. She has been involved in clinical and translational studies to develop novel therapies for Central Nervous System (CNS) malignancies, including recent clinical trials evaluating Tirabrutinib (Bruton Tyrosine Kinase inhibitor) in combination therapies for patients with primary CNS lymphoma. Yale Cancer Center & Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.

Thomas Oellerich, Prof Dr Med, is the Director of the Department of Hematology/Oncology at University Medical Center Frankfurt. His lab investigates oncogenic B cell receptor signaling, therapy resistance and proteogenomics of lymphoma and leukemia to help develop targeted and cellular therapies. University Hospital Frankfurt/Main, Germany. Collaborative publication: Cancer Cell 2026.

Markus Müschen, MD PhD, is the Arthur H. and Isabel Bunker Professor of Medicine (Hematology) and Professor of Immunobiology. His laboratory studies signal transduction, metabolism and immune checkpoints in B-cell leukemias and lymphomas to identify lineage-specific vulnerabilities and develop therapeutic strategies for drug-resistant B-cell malignancies. Yale Cancer Center & Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT. Collaborative published commentary: Cancer Discovery 2024.

Stephanie Halene, MD, Dr Med, is the Arthur H and Isabel Bunker Professor of Medicine (Hematology) and Professor of Pathology. She cares for patients with hematologic malignancies, and her laboratory studies hematopoiesis and myelopoiesis, particularly how mutations in splicing factors and perturbations in RNA modifications contribute to myelodysplasia and leukemia. She directs the Hematology Tissue Bank and the Animal Modeling Core of the Yale Cancer Center. Yale Cancer Center & Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.

David Hafler, MD, is the William S. and Lois Stiles Edgerly Professor of Neurology and Professor of Immunobiology. His research has transformed our understanding of autoimmune disease pathogenesis and immune mechanisms within the central nervous system. His work identified key roles for autoreactive and regulatory T cells in multiple sclerosis and uncovered genetic and environmental factors that influence inflammatory immune responses. Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.

Joe Craft, MD, is the Paul B. Beeson Professor of Medicine (Rheumatology) and Professor of Immunobiology. His research explores T cell biology, autoimmunity and host responses to infection. His pioneering work includes understanding the role of T follicular helper cells and immune mechanisms underlying systemic lupus erythematosus. Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.

Eric Song, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences and of Immunobiology. His laboratory studies immune privilege and immune regulation in the eye and brain, specifically how lymphatic and neuroimmune pathways influence inflammation, neurodegeneration, cancer and ocular disease. Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.

Marcello DiStasio, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Pathology and the Co-Director of the Yale Legacy Tissue Donation Program. He studies neuroimmunology with a focus on immune cell populations and microenvironmental interactions at the CNS borders, by applying machine learning and computational pathology to neurological diseases. Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.

Zeynep Erson-Omay, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery and Biomedical Informatics and Data Science, as well as the Computational Lead for Yale Brain Tumor Clinical Sequencing. She develops integrative multi-omics and bioinformatics approaches to understand brain tumor heterogeneity and molecular mechanisms and to implement precision medicine strategies. Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.

Emre Kocakavuk, MD, PhD, is an Emmy Noether Group Leader who specializes in computational oncology and cancer genomics, particularly glioma and CNS lymphoma. He uses large-scale genomic and multi-omics analyses to understand cancer evolution and treatment resistance. West German Cancer Center & Institute for AI in Medicine (IKIM), Essen, Germany.

Wei Wei, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology & Hematology) with expertise in cancer biostatistics. He has taken a leading role in pre-clinical animal studies, machine-learning methods applied to translational research and meta-analysis. He also directs the biostatistical team at the Yale Cancer Center. Yale Cancer Center & Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.