Current Lab Members

Ekta Khurana, PhD


Principal Investigator

Ekta Khurana is an Associate Professor of Computational Genomics at Weill Cornell Medical College. She is the WorldQuant Foundation Research Scholar since 2021, Co-Director of the Tri-Institutional PhD Program in Computational Biology & Medicine and Co-Leader of the Genetics and Epigenetics Program at Meyer Cancer Center. Dr. Khurana's research expertise is in Computational Biology/Bioinformatics, Genomics, Cancer Genomics and Systems Biology.



Alexander Martinez Fundichely, PhD


Instructor in Computational Biomedicine

Postdoctoral Associate (Jul, 2015 - Jun, 2021)

Instructor (Jul, 2021 - )





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Weiling Li, PhD


Research Associate (Aug, 2022 - )

Weiling received her PhD degree in Computer Science from The Pennsylvania State University in 2018. Her current research focuses on developing data mining, machine learning and computational methods for the analysis and management of cancer genomic data.



Elvire Roblin, PhD


Postdoctoral Associate (May, 2024 - )

Elvire Roblin is a postdoctoral associate at Weill Cornell Medicine. She received her PhD degree in 2023. Her current work focuses on applying deep learning methods to analyze cancer genomic data.



Gizem Yayli-Vokshi, PhD


Postdoctoral Associate (Oct, 2024 - )

Gizem Yayli-Vokshi earned her Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Master of Science and Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from Ege University in Turkey. She then joined Dr. Laszlo Tora’s group at the Institute of Genetic and Molecular and Cellular Biology (IGBMC) in France and later moved to the United States to pursue another postdoc.



Marjorie Roskes


PhD Student, Tri-I CBM (Jun, 2020 - )

Marjorie is a graduate student in the Tri-Institutional Computational PhD training program between Cornell University, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and the Rockefeller University. Before Tri-I, as an undergraduate at Yeshiva University in a joint BA/MA program in mathematics, Marjorie majored in mathematics and minored in computer science. Since joining the Khurana Lab in June 2020, Marjorie uses mathematical modeling to build noninvasive approaches to detect and classify prostate cancer, using precision medicine to maximize likelihood of a favorable outcome in patients.



Tonatiuh Gonzalez


MD-PhD student, Tri-I CBM track (Aug, 2024 - )

Tonatiuh (Tona) is an MD-PhD student in the Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program and Tri-Institutional PhD Program in Computational Biology and Medicine. Prior to Tri-I, Tona graduated from Harvey Mudd College with a B.S. in Mathematical and Computational Biology and a Concentration in Linguistics. Tona’s research interests are in cancer epigenomics and he hopes to apply this research in his future work as a physician scientist.



Anisha Tehim


Undergraduate student at Cornell University (Oct, 2023 - )



Surya Vishnubhatt


MS-CB student (Jul, 2023 - )

Surya Vishnubhatt is a researcher at the Khurana Lab. He received his Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from the University of California, Davis in 2022. He also holds a Master of Science in Computational Biology from the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences.



Sree Kolla


Undergraduate student at Hunter College (Oct, 2024 - )

Sree is an undergraduate student at Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College. She majors in Computer Science with a concentration in Bioinformatics and has an interest in pursuing a medical degree.



Sandra Cohen


Lab Manager (Mar, 2019 - )

Sandra Cohen is a Lab Manager at Weill Cornell Medical College (WCM). She worked as a Chemist at NCI,NIH and as a Research Scientist at NYU Department of Pathology. She also worked as a Senior Research Specialist at the WCM Meyer Cancer Center.



Former Members

Postdoctoral Associates
  • Priyanka Dhingra (Dec, 2014 - Jul, 2017). Current: Director of Bioinformatics and Strategic Innovation, Envisagenics, Inc. LinkedIn

  • Tuan Trieu (Jan, 2018 - Nov, 2019). Current: Senior Algorithms and Machine Learning Scientist, Walgreens Boot Alliance. LinkedIn

  • Tawny Cuykendall (Jan, 2016 - April, 2020). PubMed

  • Erica Duo Xu (Jun, 2018 - Jun, 2023). Current: Senior Computational Biologist at Pathos. LinkedIn

Graduate Students
  • Eric Minwei Liu (Jan, 2016 - Jan, 2020). Current: Research Fellow, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center LinkedIn

  • Fanying Tang (Sep, 2017 - May, 2021). Current: Senior Scientist I, AbbVie LinkedIn

  • Austin Dixon (MS; May, 2020 - Apr, 2021). Current: Bioinformatics Analyst at Children's National Hospital LinkedIn

  • Andre Forbes (Jan 2017 - May 2022). Current: Senior Computational Biologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center LinkedIn

  • Yuqi Cheng (MS; Jan 2021 - Mar 2022). Current: Georgia Tech LinkedIn

  • Annabel Azziz (MS; Jun 2021 - May 2022)

Medical Students
  • Ann Palladino (Sep, 2019 - May, 2023). Current: Resident at Mount Sinai LinkedIn

Bioinformatics Associate
  • Nawaf A. Alomran (Oct, 2020 - Oct, 2022). Current: LinkedIn

Research Technicians
  • Tatiana Karadimitriou (Aug, 2020 - Jun, 2021). Current: Medical Student at USC Keck School of Medicine LinkedIn
  • Priya Pancholi (Jun, 2021 - Nov, 2021). Current: LinkedIn

Rotation/Visiting Students
  • Andrew Schaumberg, Tri-I CBM (Rotation student; Jun, 2015 - Nov, 2015)

  • Xiaotong Yao, Tri-I CBM (Rotation student; Jan, 2016 - May, 2016)

  • In Sub Mark Han, PBSB (Rotation student; Feb, 2016 - May, 2016)

  • Akram Hossain, NYMC (Research Intern; Jun, 2016 - Jul, 2016)

  • Matthew MacKay, Tri-I CBM (Rotation student; Jul, 2016 - Dec, 2016)

  • Chirag Krishna, Tri-I CBM (Rotation student; Jul, 2016 - Dec, 2016)

  • Cassandra Burziak, Tri-I CBM (Rotation student; Jul, 2016 - Dec, 2016)

  • Shana Bergman, PBSB (Rotation student; Sep, 2016 - Dec, 2016)

  • Rajesh Bollapragada (Computational Biology Summer Program student from Cornell, Ithaca; Jun, 2017 - Jul, 2017)

  • Stella Kim, PBSB (Rotation student; Jan, 2018 - Mar, 2018)

  • Madison Darmofal (Computational Biology Summer Program student from MIT; Jun, 2018 - Aug, 2018)

  • Aditi Dam (Summer intern from George W. Hewlett High School; Jul, 2018 - Aug, 2018)

  • Karen Lai Lin Chu, Pharmacology (Rotation student; Oct, 2018 - Nov, 2018)

  • Rafe Batchelor (Computational Biology Summer Program student from Bucknell University; Jun, 2019 - Aug, 2019)

  • Mikaela Matera-Vatnick (Gateways to the Laboratory Summer Program student from Cornell, Ithaca; Jun, 2019 - Aug, 2019)

  • Shengyu Li (Duke University; Jun, 2019 - Aug, 2019)

  • Wanyi Chen, PBSB (Rotation student; Jan, 2020 - Mar, 2020)

  • Yajas Shah, PBSB (Rotation student; Jan, 2020 - Mar, 2020)

  • Haotan Zhang, PBSB (Rotation student; Apr, 2021 - Jun, 2021)

  • Tonatiuh (Tona) Gonzalez (Computational Biology Summer Program student from Harvey Mudd College; Jun, 2020 - Aug, 2020)

  • Ashwitha Surabhi (Summer intern from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology; Jun, 2021 - Aug, 2021)

  • Sanjana Kotha (Computational Biology Summer Program student from University of California Berkley; Jun, 2022 - Aug, 2022)

  • Devin Gee (Gateways to the Laboratory Summer Program student from Emory University; Jun, 2022 - Aug, 2022)

  • William Phu, Tri-I CBM (Rotation student; July, 2022 - Sep, 2022)

  • Berk Turhan, Tri-I CBM (Rotation student; Nov, 2023 - Jan, 2024)

  • Shahd ElNaggar (Computational Biology Summer Program student from Columbia University; Jun, 2023 - Aug, 2023)

  • Hao Xu (Summer volunteer from McGill University; May, 2023 - May, 2024)

  • Susie Shuyan Cheng (MS Health Informatics student; Aug, 2023 - May, 2024)

We are looking for graduate students and more outstanding postdocs to join the lab. Please see Jobs.