Lab Members
Volker Hovestadt, PhD
Assistant Professorvolker_hovestadt[a]dfci.harvard.edu
@hovestadt
Google Scholar
Volker is a computational biologist, cancer researcher, and principal investigator of the Hovestadt lab at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. His main research interest is the genomic characterization of childhood brain tumors, with the goal to better understand their developmental origins and tumor driving mechanisms.
Volker grew up in southern Germany and studied Biochemistry and Systems Biology at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. He then performed his PhD research with Dr. Peter Lichter at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany. Volker set foot in Boston when joining the lab of Dr. Brad Bernstein at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute as a postdoctoral fellow in 2016. When not studying cancer genomes, Volker is often found outside enjoying American life with his three little kids.
Lisa was born in the northern part of Austria and studied biomedical sciences and molecular immunobiology at the University of Vienna, Austria, where she then also did her PhD at the Center of Cancer Research. In January 2022, Lisa moved to Boston to become the first postdoc of the Hovestadt lab. Lisa’s research is primarily focusing on computational biology, precision medicine, and translational brain cancer research. She is interested in intercellular communication networks and wants to understand how these interactions promote tumor growth. In her leisure time, Lisa is a passionate volleyball player and loves to enjoy nature and travel the world.
Salvatore Benfatto, PhD
Postdoctoral fellowsalvatore_benfatto[a]dfci.harvard.edu
@SaBenfatto
Google Scholar
Salvatore is a bioinformatic researcher and computational biologist. His scientific interests orbit around cancer genomics, personalized medicine and complex systems.
He grew up in southern Italy where he studied Biology and obtained his PhD at the University of Messina. After that he moved to Verona in the Functional Genomics Lab of Prof. Massimo Delledonne and then he joined the "DDC - DNA Damage in Cancer" team led by Dr. Balca Mardin at BioMed X Institute in Heidelberg, Germany. As postdoc in the Hovestadt Lab at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute he works at the edge of explainable artificial intelligence and cancer research, aiming to disentangle the DNA methylation patterns in brain tumors.
Sabina is a post-doctoral fellow in the Hovestadt lab, working on applying machine learning techniques to better prognosticate patients with medulloblastoma. She earned her PhD from Brown University in biomedical engineering under Prof Jonghwan Lee where she developed computational tools to gather insight from various forms of data, particularly related to the brain and cortical vasculature. In her free time, you’ll likely find her running, lifting, or playing with her pup.
Fabio is a computational scientist interested in the use of statistical and machine learning techniques to study and characterise complex diseases such as cancer. He received both his B.Sc. (2016) and M.Sc. (2018) in biomedical engineering from Politecnico di Milano (Italy). During his studies, he had various experiences in Industry and Academia and contributed to highly multidisciplinary and collaborative projects at the forefront of biomedical innovation. Fabio completed his doctoral studies at the Technical University of Munich, where he developed new methods and approaches for patient stratification in precision oncology. Sport enthusiast and youth activist, he was selected as Italian delegate to the G7 Youth Summit 2021, one of the official engagement groups of the G7, in the Digital and Technology track. Currently, he is a postdoctoral researcher in the Hovestadt Lab at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute working on how to exploit single cell sequencing technologies to advance our understanding of childhood brain tumors.
Til is a fourth-year medical student and a Master's student in experimental medicine at the University of Münster (Germany). He joined the Hovestadt lab in April 2023 to work on his MD thesis, supported by a BIF MD Fellowship. Before coming to Boston, he completed research stays at the University of Cambridge and the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, as well as an internship at the German Parliament. In his free time, he enjoys spending time outside with friends, playing soccer, or going for a run.
Sander is a researcher from the Netherlands with a keen interest in Pediatric Oncology. He obtained his PhD for his work on Embryonal Tumors with Multilayered Rosettes that was carried out in the Group of Stefan Pfister at the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) in Heidelberg. After obtaining his PhD he moved to Vancouver to work on pediatric acute leukemia as a postdoc in the lab of Marco Marra at Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre. Currently, having moved to Boston he continues his work on both Embryonal Tumors with Multilayered Rosettes and Acute Leukemia using single cell epigenetics in the Hovestadt lab.
Sizhu (Evelyn) Jiang
Master's studentsizhu_jiang[a]dfci.harvard.edu
Evelyn is a Master's student in the Computational Biology and Quantitative Genetics program at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is currently exploring the intricate relationship between gene expression and DNA methylation in medulloblastoma. Outside the lab, Evelyn has a passion for travel, seeking new experiences in diverse cultures, and has fun with friends.
Amelie Amann
M.D. student, visitingamelie_amann[a]dfci.harvard.edu
Amelie is a medical student from LMU Munich, Germany. As she is especially fascinated about neuroscience, she opted to join the department of pediatric neurology at LMU clinics during her second year of medical school, where she focused on research projects investigating migraine and hemiparesis after stroke. She became a member of the Hovestadt lab in November 2023, undertaking research for her M.D. thesis. During her time at DFCI she leverages deep learning techniques to analyze survival data in childhood brain tumor patients. In her free time, she loves doing Taekwondo, photography and travelling the world.
Ida Larsson
Postdoctoral fellowida_larsson[a]dfci.harvard.edu
Ida is a computational biologist from Sweden. She received her MScEng in Medical Biotechnology from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm in 2018 and then moved on to doctoral studies at Uppsala University under the supervision of Professor Sven Nelander. She earned her PhD in 2023, which focused on modeling the intratumoral heterogeneity and plasticity of the adult brain tumor glioblastoma. Ida joined the Hovestadt Lab in January 2024 as a Postdoctoral Fellow, supported by a fellowship from the Swedish Research Council. Her work will leverage single cell technologies to understand the clonal evolution of medulloblastoma. In her free time, Ida enjoys outdoor activities like skiing, skating or hiking. She is also an avid foodie and looks forward to exploring all that Boston's food scene has to offer.
Liv Jürgensen
M.D. student, visitingliv_juergensen[a]dfci.harvard.edu
Liv is a fourth-year medical student at Charité Berlin with a keen interest in oncology, neurology, immunology, and bioinformatics. She joined the Hovestadt Lab in January 2024, supported by the Ingeborg-Rapoport Fellowship. Before coming to Boston, she conducted research in immunology and pediatric rheumatology for her MD thesis at the German Rheumatism Research Center (DRFZ) in Berlin in the Mashreghi/Kallinich Lab. Using molecular biological techniques such as single-cell transcriptomics and flow cytometry, she investigated the pathomechanism of a previously undescribed gain-of-function mutation causing autoinflammation and immunodeficiency. In the Hovestadt Lab, Liv aims to enhance diagnostics for brain tumors. She is leveraging advanced computational techniques to develop a single-cell guided epigenetic classification tool for pediatric low-grade gliomas.
We are hiring!
Postdoctoral fellow / Graduate student / Research assistantyour_email[a]dfci.harvard.edu
We currently have openings for creative and aspiring computational biologists, physician scientists, and experimental biologists to join our team. If you are interested in studying pediatric cancer using single-cell genomics and computational algorithms, please get in touch with Volker at volker_hovestadt[a]dfci.harvard.edu.
Lab Alumni
Estelle Pfitzer
Master's student, visitingEstelle graduated with a Bachelor's degree from EPF Lausanne in life science engineering and is currently a medical-technologies Master's student at ETH Zurich. She has a strong interest in cancer research and computational analyses in the biomedical field. As a visiting student in the Hovestadt Lab she will be working on models to predict medulloblastoma patients' survival outcome. Estelle spends most of her free time in the Swiss alps hiking, biking or skiing.
Bjarne is a medical student from Berlin with keen interest in neuro oncology. He grew up in Northern Germany. During his studies at the Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin he discovered quite rapidly his fascination for neuroscience and joined the department of neurosurgery for focusing on epilepsy research. He joined the Hovestadt lab in 2022. His work at DFCI centers around concretizing medulloblastoma's molecular characteristics using AI driven cancer genomic tools. He spends most of his free time in swimming pools since he used to be a competitive swimmer.