Rohit Chandwani, M.D., Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
A surgeon-scientist, Rohit is an Assistant Professor of Surgery and of Cell & Developmental Biology at Weill Cornell Medicine and is the Frank Glenn Faculty Scholar in Surgery. He is also the Mildred L. and John F. Rasweiler Scholar in Cancer Research as well as Co-Program Leader in Cancer Therapeutics in the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Cornell.
He earned his Ph.D. from the The Rockefeller University in 2013 in the laboratory of Sasha Tarakhovsky, working on the role of chromatin modifiers in innate immune and inflammatory responses. Following completion of his clinical training, Rohit did his postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Steven Leach in the David Rubinstein Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he applied his background in chromatin biology to pancreatic cancer. He moved to Weill Cornell and opened the laboratory in 2017..
David Falvo, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
David is a postdoctoral fellow at Weill Cornell Medicine, and has become particularly interested in how inflammation alters the cell fates and functional states of epithelial cells in ways that ultimately permit tumorigenesis. More specifically, David is interested in investigating how memories of previous inflammatory insults can be encoded in distinct tissue compartments, and how this distributed inflammatory memory dictates future homeostatic responses to cellular stress. The identification of inflammatory memory has been observed in a number of diverse contexts and in his graduate studies, David defined the functional significance of this inflammatory memory in driving lineage plasticity, and its targetable role in driving pancreatic cancer.
YINUO (CATHY) MENG, B.S.
Graduate Student
Cathy is a graduate student in the BCMB program at Weill Cornell Medicine, where she studies the determinants of malignant progression in pancreatic cancer. Cathy obtained her undergraduate degree in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from the University of California-San Diego in 2019 and has diverse biological interests and even more diverse interests in snacks.
WILLIAM FALL, B.S.
Graduate Student
William grew up in Mahopac, NY and attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he earned a B.S in Biochemistry and Biophysics. Upon graduating from RPI, he joined the BCMB program at Weill Cornell. William has had a long-standing interest in the epigenetic regulation of gene expression and its role in cancer. After joining the Chandwani lab in 2022, William became interested in understanding how environmental signals result in chromatin changes that dictate cell fate. William is working to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of inflammatory injury within the pancreas. Outside the lab, William enjoys running, practicing jujitsu, and playing for the Weill Cornell ICE-otopes hockey team.
KORIN SAHINYAN, PH.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Korin is originally from Montreal, Quebec, where she did both her B.Sc. and PhD at McGill University. As a graduate student, Korin defined epigenetic regulatory mechanisms controlling muscle stem cell identity and refined innovative approaches to low-input epigenomics. In the Chandwani laboratory, she focuses on cell-extrinsic control of inflammatory memory.
FRANCISCO SANTOS, M.S.
Laboratory Manager / Research Technician
Francisco was born and raised in Puerto Rico, where he did his undergraduate studies at the InterAmerican University of Puerto Rico, graduating cum laude with a degree in Biotechnology. He then went on to get a Master’s degree from New York University, building a foundation in systems biology and bioinformatics. Francisco now has a hand in everything the Chandwani lab does.
Adrien Grimont, Ph.D.
Emeritus Member
A native of France, Adrien moved to Belgium to join the laboratory of Prof. Patrick Jacquemin and Prof. Frederick Lemaigre at the de Duve Institute (University Catholique de Louvain) for his Ph.D. Adrien worked on the role of transcription factors in the initiation of pancreatic adenocarcinoma, completing his Ph.D. in December, 2013. He then pursued his postdoctoral research with Steven Leach at the David Rubinstein Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center on the maintenance of PDAC. In January 2018, Adrien joined the laboratory to continue his studies on the intersection of Ras mutations and effector pathways.
After five years in the laboratory, Adrien moved back to Europe and to start a new position at Merus in Amsterdam. He remains an Emeritus Member of the laboratory.