Tavazoie Lab Members
Sohail Tavazoie MD PhD
Head of Laboratory
Sohail is the Leon Hess Professor and Head of the Meyer Laboratory of Systems Cancer Biology at The Rockefeller University. He is the director of the Black Center for Metastasis Research. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley and his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard Medical School. Following internship and residency training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and postdoctoral training at Harvard, he conducted oncology fellowship training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Sohail has been the recipient of the NIH Innovator Award, the NCI Outstanding Investigator Award and the DOD Era of Hope Award. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the past president of the American Society of Clinical Investigation.
King Faisal Yambire PhD
Postdoctoral Associate
King grew up in Ghana and obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of Ghana. He completed his PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Goettingen in German, studying signaling between the lysosome and mitochondria. King joined the Tavazoie lab in 2020 and is excited to study the roles of mitochondrial tRNAs in physiology and cancer metastasis. He is a super fan of Real Madrid and Arsenal. He engages in most sporting activities, especially soccer and volleyball. He also likes to travel and try new things when not at the bench.
Veena Padmanaban PhD
Postdoctoral Associate
Veena is originally from India and received her undergraduate training from SRM University in Chennai, India. She then conducted graduate training in the lab of Andrew Ewald at Johns Hopkins where she used imaging methods to elucidate the mechanisms underlying breast cancer adhesion, invasion and progression.
Alexandra Pinzaru PhD
Postdoctoral Associate
Alexandra was born and raised in Romania, where she developed a passion for studying biology. She moved to Germany for her undergraduate studies and received her BSc in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from Jacobs University Bremen. Alexandra migrated further west to the US, for her PhD. During her graduate studies, she investigated the impact of telomere dysfunction on cancer development in the lab of Dr. Agnel Sfeir at NYU Langone Health. In November 2018, Alexandra joined the Tavazoie lab as a postdoc associate, in order to decipher the regulation of tRNA isoacceptors in cancer metastasis. Outside of lab, Alexandra enjoys visiting museums, browsing bookstores, cooking and dancing.
Mai Takahashi MD MPH
Postdoctoral Associate
Mai was born and grew up in Chiba, Japan where she attended medical school. She moved to the US and obtained MPH at Harvard School of Public Health, and completed internal medicine training at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. She has previous clinical research experiences in the area of head and neck cancer. She joined the Tavazoie lab in 2022 to study cancer metastasis mechanisms and explore potential cancer therapeutic targets.
Qiushuang Wu PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Q grew up in China, she received her undergrad degree from Wuhan University. She did her PhD training with Dr. Ariel Bazzini at Stowers Institute for Medical Research. During her PhD, she studied the function of ribosome to regulate gene expression, at both mRNA decay and translation regulation. In Aug 2022, she joined Tavazoie lab, trying to apply her knowledge at post-transcriptional regulation into cancer biology.
Neil Neumann MD PhD
Postdoctoral Associate
Neil grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, and spent summers and winter breaks in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. He received his B.A. in Biophysics from Johns Hopkins University where he studied regulation of the L-arabinose operon under Dr. Robert Schleif. He attended Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in the physician-scientist training program where he received his medical degree. In the laboratory of Dr. Andrew Ewald, Neil conducted his graduate studies where he utilized three-dimensional organoid, timelapse imaging, and computational mechanical modeling to understand organogenesis of breast ductal epithelium and how that can eventually inform our understanding of breast cancer metastasis. In his spare time, Neil enjoys spending time with his wife and toddler, traveling, backcountry camping and hiking, as well as making special cooked meals and baked goods.
Jess Posada MD
Postdoctoral Associate
Jess is originally from San Francisco, CA and received her BS and MS in Cell and Molecular Biology. While in medical school at the University of Colorado, she participated in the Rockefeller University’s Year-Off Training Program for Medical Students in the laboratory of Dr. Tavazoie studying cancer metastasis. Jess helped establish a new therapeutic target in melanoma and found that administration of liver-X nuclear hormone receptor beta (LXRb) agonists led to the transcriptional activation of Apolipoprotein E (ApoE), thereby suppressing melanoma metastasis. After her medical degree, she completed the Anatomical Pathology residency program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Jess rejoined the Tavazoie lab in 2023 to study mechanisms by which ApoE regulates cancer progression.
Alon Millet
Graduate Student
Alon was born in Israel but grew up in New Jersey, and he completed his joint B.S./M.S. in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from Yale University in 2020. He joined the Tavazoie Lab in 2021 with the Tri-Institutional Program in Computational Biology and Medicine and aims to leverage both wet and dry lab approaches to study central questions in tumor systems immunology. If he's not in the lab, Alon can be found either cooking and baking in the kitchen or playing piano in the most hermetically soundproofed room he can find.
Ethan Seltzer
Graduate Student
Ethan is originally from New Jersey and received his B.S. in biological sciences from Cornell University with a minor in business. As an undergraduate, he studied membrane fusion in the ciliated protozoan Tetrahymena. He then relocated to New York City where he performed post baccalaureate research at The Hospital for Special Surgery studying the role of photosensitivity in autoimmune disorders such as lupus. In 2023, he joined the Tavazoie lab as a graduate student where he seeks to better understand the role of innervation in cancer metastasis. Ethan is an avid marathon runner, traveler, and lover of dogs.
Behnam Ebrahimi PhD
Postdoctoral Associate
Behnam earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Kerman, Iran, where he focused on adult dental pulp stem cells and neural regeneration. He then pursued research in stem cell biology at Yazd Medical University, Iran, for several years. Subsequently, he completed his PhD at the University of Texas Health San Antonio, where he investigated how chemical inhibition of Leukemia Inhibitory Factor in ovarian cancer induces Ferroptosis. In 2025, he joined the Tavazoie lab to study the metabolic vulnerabilities of colorectal cancer metastases to the liver.
Francesca Di Cristofano
Graduate Student
Originally from Pelham, New York, Francesca grew up in and out of her father’s lab, where she first became passionate about cancer biology. She later attended Brown University and graduated with an Sc.B. in Neurobiology in 2023. Now a Ph.D. student in the Tavazoie lab, Francesca is interested in intersecting these two fields as she seeks to understand how tumor-nerve interactions promote cancer metastasis. When she’s not in the lab, Francesca loves to cook, collage, watch movies, travel, and explore the city.
Nitay Ad-El
Graduate Student
Nitay grew up around Jerusalem, Israel, and later moved to the Tel-Aviv area. He was a paramedic for a few years until deciding to focus on science, doing a BSc in Biology in Tel-Aviv University. He later worked in the lab of Prof. Dan Peer, researching mRNA delivery systems. He joined the Tavazoie lab in 2024 to study interactions between metastatic cancers and the Central Nervous System.
Wenbin Mei
Graduate Student
Wenbin grew up in Guangzhou and completed his undergraduate training in Biology and Mathematics at Peking University. For his PhD, he is applying computational and functional approaches to study the regulation of metastasis. In his spare time, he enjoys joining his girlfriend in New Haven.
Nandan Mandayan
Laboratory Manager
Nandan has conducted past research in the areas of oncogenesis and stem cell biology. He is lab manager and assists lab members in molecular and animal studies.
Michelle Wilson
Administrative Assistant
Michelle is an English major with a background in cultural studies, born in Costa Rica and raised in Texas. She specializes in organizational skills with the purpose to simplify the lives of others. Michelle loves warm weather, swimming in the ocean and watching movies with her family along with travel, yoga and holistic wellness.
Bryan Perez
Animal Technician
Bryan was born in Peru and grew up in New York City. He attended Borough Manhattan Community College and Hunter College and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. During Bryan’s undergraduate studies, he joined the lab of Dr. Thomas Preuss and studied neuroethological questions in African Cichlid fish. He joined the Tavazoie Lab as an Animal Technician where he works on maintaining the mouse colony, genotyping, and helping lab members with their daily tasks. He also contributes to a project focused on genetic mouse models of Apo-E and lipoprotein metabolism. During his free time, Bryan likes to explore NYC and beyond, listen to all kinds of music, play sports, and spend time with his dog Maximus and his birds (Cockatiels).
Emilie Wang PhD MBA
Grants Administrator
Emilie is a Canadian-New Yorker who completed a PhD program at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and received an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business. Before joining the Tavazoie Lab, she worked for a tech startup focused on transforming care for cancer patients and abroad for Médecins sans Frontières.