Principal Investigator
Daniel Faden, MD FACS
Assistant Professor, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Harvard Medical School
Attending Surgeon, Mass Eye and Ear, Mass General Hospital
Associate Scientist, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Daniel Faden M.D., F.A.C.S., is a head and neck surgical oncologist and scientist in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Harvard Medical School. After completing medical school he was a Howard Hughes Research Scholar in the National Human Genome Research Institute studying cancer genomics. He then completed residency training in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at UCSF where he was embedded in the laboratory of HHMI Investigator Joe DeRisi studying viral oncogenesis. He completed three fellowships at the University of Pittsburgh in head and neck surgical oncology, in cranial base surgery, and a T32 research fellowship in the laboratory of Robert Ferris, MD PhD. In 2018 he returned to Boston where he is an attending surgeon in the division of head and neck surgical oncology at Mass Eye and Ear and Mass General Hospital and an associate member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. The Faden lab is a translational research laboratory focused on head and neck cancer biomarker discovery. The lab is currently funded by three NIH grants, as well as industry and foundation awards, to utilize tissue and blood-based approaches for studying head and neck cancer genomics with a focus on development of liquid biopsies for detecting, diagnosing, and monitoring HPV-associated cancers.
Lab Members
Alan Ling
Research Scholar
Alan is a medical student at Shanghai Medical College. He is interested in computational cancer genomics and works in NGS liquid biopsy analysis. During his spare time, he enjoys swimming and jogging.
Daniel Ruiz
Postdoc Research Fellow
Daniel first joined the lab while a final year medical student at Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá, Colombia, studying biomarkers for immunotherapy response in head and neck cancer. After completing his year as a Research Scholar, he briefly returned home to graduate from medical school and has returned to Boston as a post-doc, continuing his work on multiplexed immunofluorescence and circulating tumor cells in head and neck cancer, in close collaboration with Dr. Shannon Stott at MGH. In his spare time he enjoys outdoor activities and spending time with family and friends. He plans to pursue a career in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.
Dipon Das, PhD
Staff Scientist
Dipon received his PhD in cancer biology from KIIT University, India where he studied DNA damage/repair pathways. He completed post-doctoral training at Philips Institute for Oral Health Research, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia, USA. His postdoctoral training focused on identifying the host factors essential for Human Papillomavirus (HPV) replication in cervical and head & neck cancers and delineating their mechanism of action. Before joining the Faden Lab he worked as a Senior Research Associate 2 at the University of Miami, Florida, USA. In the Faden Lab, Dipon manages the lab and leads the development of novel approaches for detecting HPV in the blood.
Elba Marie González
Program Coordinator
El received her bachelor’s degree in Biology at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, were she helped establish various multidisciplinary research teams. After college, she joined the MGH Cancer Center as a member of the Cellular Immunotherapy program, were she managed operations of the Immune Monitoring Lab, focusing on CAR-T cell therapies. In the Faden Lab, El manages lab operations and plays a role in project management. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, crafting, and spending time with her dog, Dr. Chester.
Julia Mendel
Clinical research Coordinator
Julia attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, graduating with a major in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and a minor in Microbiology. She wrote her honors thesis on constructed genetic networks of differentially expressed genes, focusing on synthetic lethal interactions. When not at work, she enjoys going on long runs, hikes, and reading new books.
Michael Bryan
Research Scholar
Michael is a student medical doctor from the United Kingdom, serving as a pre-doctoral fellow in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. Michael has an interest in cranial base surgery and studies the major etiological agents of malignancy, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and human papillomaviruses (HPVs). He has previously manipulated viral vectors, utilizing advanced synthetic biology techniques to study pathogenesis and host immune response to high-consequence pathogens. Michael holds a ministerial appointment with the UK Ministry of Defense.
Shun Hirayama, MD PhD
Postdoc Research Fellow
Shun completed his MD, and is completing his PhD, at Wakayama Medical University, Japan. Prior to moving to Boston, he was an Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Resident in Wakayama. As a postdoc in the Faden Lab, he works on NGS HPV liquid biopsy. In his spare time, he enjoys futsal, driving and traveling.
Yana Al-Inaya
Research Scholar
Yana is a student at the School of Medicine at Uzhhorod National University, Ukraine. She is interested in skull base cancers. In the Faden Lab she works on HPV vaccination and the application of Systems Serology to understand the immune response to HPV. In her free time, she enjoys hiking and gardening.
Lab Alumni
Kim Chang Sing Pang, MD
Research Scholar (2020)
Current position: Resident Physician, Amsterdam UMC, Netherlands
Mao Lin, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher (2020-2021)
Current position: Scientist, Immunitas Therapeutics
Connor O’Boyle, MD
Research Scholar (2020-2021)
Current position: Resident Physician, Wayne State University
Natalia Queenan
Clinical Research Coordinator (2020-2022)
Current Postion: Medical Student at Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Philidelphia
Markus Haas, MD
Research Scholar (2021)
Current position: Resident Physician, Medical University of Vienna
Saskia Naegele, MD
Research Scholar (2021-2023)
Current position: Resident Physician, Northwell/Hofstra
Vasileios Efthymiou, MD
Postdoctoral Researcher (2022-2023)
Current position: Resident Physician, Mass General Northshore
Brian Zhao
Research Scholar (2022-2023)
Current position: Medical Student, Brown University