Computational & Systems Biology Program

The Dana Pe'er Lab

Research

Dana Pe'er, PhD
Dana Pe'er, PhD
Chair, Computational and Systems Biology Program, SKI; Scientific Director, Alan and Sandra Gerry Metastasis and Tumor Ecosystems Center; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Alan and Sandra Gerry Endowed Chair

Professor

The Pe’er lab is an interdisciplinary group that combines advanced genomics approaches with machine learning to address fundamental questions in biomedical science. Empowered by potent technologies such as single-cell genomics and imaging-based molecular profiling, we analyze complex data to understand basic biology and disease. Our group is interested in how organisms develop from a single cell to generate a vast diversity of cell types, how epigenetic control over these processes rewires over the course of development, and how cells communicate to execute multicellular responses. We have a longstanding interest in cellular plasticity, the consequences of intra-tumor heterogeneity, the evolution and metastasis of cancer cells, and the mechanisms by which regulatory circuits go awry in disease. By understanding the mechanisms that different cancers use to initiate, progress, spread and interact with the immune system, we can spur the development of personalized therapies and immunotherapies.

Peer Lab

Publications Highlights

Supervised discovery of interpretable gene programs from single-cell data. Kunes RZ*, Walle T*, Land M, Nawy T, Pe’er D. Nat Biotechnol. 2023 Sep 21. PMID: 37735262.

Epigenetic plasticity cooperates with cell-cell interactions to direct pancreatic tumorigenesis. Burdziak C*, Alonso-Curbelo D*, Walle T, Reyes J, Barriga FM, Haviv D, Xie Y, Zhao Z, Zhao CJ, Chen HA, Chaudhary O, Masilionis I, Choo ZN, Gao V, Luan W, Wuest A, Ho YJ, Wei Y, Quail DF, Koche R, Mazutis L, Chaligné R, Nawy T, Lowe SW†, Pe’er D†. Science. 2023 May 12;380(6645):eadd5327. PMID: 37167403.

The emergent landscape of the mouse gut endoderm at single-cell resolution. Nowotschin S*, Setty M*, Kuo YY, Liu V, Garg V, Sharma R, Simon CS, Saiz N, Gardner R, Boutet SC, Church DM, Hoodless PA, Hadjantonakis AK†, Pe’er D†. Nature. 2019 May;569(7756):361-367. PMID: 30959515

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People

Dana Pe'er, PhD

Dana Pe'er, PhD

Chair, Computational and Systems Biology Program, SKI; Scientific Director, Alan and Sandra Gerry Metastasis and Tumor Ecosystems Center; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Alan and Sandra Gerry Endowed Chair

Professor

  • Computational biologist Dana Pe’er combines single-cell and spatial profiling technologies with machine learning approaches to address fundamental questions in gene regulation, cellular plasticity and cell-cell communication in the contexts of cancer, immunity and development.
  • PhD, Hebrew University, Jerusalem Israel
[email protected]
Email Address

Members

Dana Pe'er
Dana Pe'er

Principal Investigator

Cassandra Burdziak
Cassandra Burdziak

Postdoctoral Researcher

Ronan Chaligné
Ronan Chaligné

Assistant Lab Member and Director of SAIL

Doron Haviv
Doron Haviv

PhD Student

Alejandro Jiménez-Sánchez
Alejandro Jiménez-Sánchez

Postdoctoral Researcher

Kate Kornblum
Kate Kornblum

Assistant to Chair

Monica Moeun

Administrative Assistant

Andrew Moorman
Andrew Moorman

Computational Biologist II, SAIL

Tal Nawy
Tal Nawy

Senior Program Manager

Sitara Persad
Sitara Persad

PhD Student

José Reyes
José Reyes

Postdoctoral Researcher

Samuel Rose
Samuel Rose

Postdoctoral Researcher

Roshan Sharma
Roshan Sharma

Comp Bio Manager, SAIL

Thomas Walle
Thomas Walle

Physician Scientist

Yang Yang
Yang Yang

Postdoctoral Researcher

Jo Adams
Josephine Adams

Computational Biologist, SAIL

Thomas Dougherty

PhD Student

Tobias Krause
Tobias Krause

Bioinformatics Engineer I, SAIL

Patrick McGillivray
Patrick McGillivray

Physician Scientist

Arnav Mehta
Arnav Mehta

Physician Scientist

Lucinda Paddock
Lucinda Paddock

Computational Biologist

Jin Park
Jin Park

Physician Scientist

Nikhita Pasnuri
Nikhita Pasnuri

Research Scientist

Rahul Saha
Rahul Saha

Computational Biologist, SAIL

Luis Soto
Luis Soto-Ugaldi

PhD Student

Lab Alumni
Joseph Chan
Joseph Chan

Assistant Member

Tin Yi Chu
Tin Yi Chu

Postdoctoral Researcher

Jaeyoung Chun
Jaeyoung Chun

Manager, Computational Biologist, SAIL

Russell Kunes
Russell Kunes

PhD Student

Max Land
Max Land

Computational Biologist, SAIL

Noor Sohail
Noor Sohail

Computational Biologist, SAIL

Esther Wershof
Esther Wershof

Postdoctoral Researcher

Yubin Xie
Yubin Xie

PhD Student

Maria Avdeeva
Maria Avdeeva

Postdoctoral Researcher

Elham Azizi
Elham Azizi

Postdoctoral Researcher

Ambrose Carr

PhD Student

Kristy Choi

Undergraduate Student

Jonathan Fisher
Jonathan Fisher

Postdoctoral Researcher

Adam  Gayoso
Adam Gayoso

Computational Biologist

Herman Gudjonson
Herman Gudjonson

Postdoctoral Researcher

Simon Joost, PhD
Simon Joost

Postdoctoral Researcher

Pooja Kathail

Undergraduate Student

Vaidotas Kiseliovas
Vaidotas Kiseliovas

Postdoctoral Researcher

Sanjay Kottapalli
Sanjay Kottapalli

Computational Biologist, SAIL

Ashley Laughney
Ashley Laughney

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Vincent Lavallée
Vincent Lavallée

Physician scientist

Jacob Levine

PhD Student

Vincent Liu
Vincent Liu

Computational Biologist

Linas Mazutis
Linas Mazutis

Director of SAIL

Awni Mousa
Awni Mousa

Senior Bioinformatics Engineer

Sandhya Prabhakaran
Sandhya Prabhakaran

Postdoctoral Researcher

Manu Setty
Manu Setty

Postdoctoral Researcher

Deena Shefter
Deena Shefter

Computational Biologist, SAIL

Lisa Sikkema
Lisa Sikkema

Computational Biologist, SAIL

Caitlin Trasande
Caitlin Trasande

Senior Program Manager

David van Dijk

Postdoctoral Researcher

Julia Zhao
Julia Zhao

Undergraduate Student

Lab Affiliations

Achievements

  • 2023 Class of 2023 Inductee - American Academy of Cancer Research (AACR) Academy
  • 2023 Innovator Award - International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB)
  • 2021 Fellow - International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB)
  • 2019 Ernst W. Bertner Memorial Award - University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
  • 2016 Lenfest Distinguished Faculty Award - Columbia University
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  • 2014 Director’s Pioneer Award - National Institutes of Health
  • 2014 Overton Prize - International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB)
  • 2012 Test of Time Award - Research in Computational Molecular Biology (RECOMB)
  • 2010 Innovator Award - Stand Up 2 Cancer/American Academy of Cancer Research (AACR)
  • 2009 Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering - The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
  • 2007 NIH Director's New Innovator Award - National Institutes of Health
  • 2005 Breakthrough of the Year Runner-up - Science Magazine
  • 2005 Career Award at the Scientific Interface - Burroughs Wellcome Fund

Open Positions

To learn more about available postdoctoral opportunities, please visit our Career Center

To learn more about compensation and benefits for postdoctoral researchers at MSK, please visit Resources for Postdocs

Bioinformatics Engineer II - Genomics Algorithm Development

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PhD student and postdoctoral positions

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Disclosures

Doctors and faculty members often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community.

MSK requires doctors and faculty members to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public.

Dana Pe'er discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

  • Insitro, Inc.
    Equity; Professional Services and Activities

The information published here is a complement to other publicly reported data and is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.


This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2023 through disclosure submission in spring 2024). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.

Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at [email protected].


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