The Toker Laboratory

People of the Toker Lab

Alex Toker, PhD

Professor, Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School

Chief, Division of Signal Transduction, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC)

Associate Director, Cancer Research Institute, BIDMC

Ludwig Investigator, Ludwig Center at Harvard

Member, Dana-Farber Harvard Cancer Center

Other Activities:

Editor-in-Chief, JBC
Member of Faculty of 1000
Ludwig Center at Harvard

Alex Toker received a BS from King's College, University of London, and a PhD from the National Institute for Medical Research, London, UK. He conducted his post-doctoral research in the laboratory of Dr. Lewis Cantley at BIDMC. He is a Professor of Pathology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School and a faculty member of the HMS PhD program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences. He is currently the Chief of the Division of Signal Transduction in the Department of Medicine and the Cancer Center at BIDMC, and also serves as the Associate Director for the BIDMC Cancer Research Institute. He is a member of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, and an investigator of the Ludwig Center at Harvard. He is a recipient of an Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Cancer Institute, an elected Fellow of the ASBMB, President-elect of the American Association of University Pathologists, and a recipient of the 2022 Avanti Award in Lipids (ASBMB). He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC).

Research Fellows and Instructors

Gilbert Salloum, PhD

Gilbert received his PhD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the laboratory of Jonathan Backer. His work focuses on identifying targetable vulnerabilities in high grade serous ovarian cancer.

Tashbib Khan, PhD

Tash received his PhD from the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, in the laboratory of John Hooper. His current work focuses on the interplay between glycogen metabolism and oncogene addiction to the PI3K/AKT pathway.

Adrija Navarro, PhD

Adrija Navarro received her BS degree from Princeton University and her PhD from HMS. Her research focuses on dependencies on protein glycosylation mechanisms in human cancers. She is a recipient of an NIH F31 grant.

Students

Josefina Mendez

Josefina Mendez received her BS degree from Yale University, CT. Her research focuses on the regulation of chromatin remodeling factors by the PI3K/AKT pathway in breast cancer. Josefina is a recipient of an NSF Graduate Research fellowship and a Landry Cancer Research award.

Emmalyn Lecky

Emma Lecky received her BS degree from the University of Connecticut. Her research focuses on the role of the PI3K/AKT pathway in RNA modifications and the AKT interactome.

Isabella Del Priore

Isabella Del Priore received her BS degree from Bates College. Her research focuses on targeted protein degradation of AKT and the underlying biology and therapeutics, particularly as relevant to cancer cell metabolism.

Margaret Dreishpoon

Maggie Dreishpoon received her BS degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Her research focuses on the regulation of TCA cycle metabolism by the PI3K/AKT pathway.

Research Assistants

Lab Video

Isabella Ranieri

Bella Ranieri received her BS degree from Boston College. She is a Research Assistant in the Toker Lab.

Alumni

Students

Post-Docs

Technicians

Vittoria Cenni

Sebastien Jauliac

Lauren Harkins

Alessandra Sirri

Peter Storz

Wendy Chaplis

Sokha Nhek (PhD 2009)

Maribeth Wert

Heike Doeppler

Jessica Fry (PhD 2009)

Antonio Mazzocca

Amy Carr

Claudine Cohick (PhD 2011)

Gary Yiu

Heather Gardiner

Jessica Gasser (PhD 2013)

Merav Yoeli-Lerner

Casey Stottrup

Whitney Henry (PhD 2015)

Maria Mancini

Hannah Anthony

Evan Lien (PhD 2016)

Colin White

Kali Ferrell

Renee Geck (PhD 2020)

Aura Kaunisto

Tiffany Tsang

Emily Erickson (PhD 2021)

Rebecca Chin

KangKang Yang

Sam Barritt (PhD 2022)

Sivan Elloul

Laura Ghisolfi

Alissandra Hillis (PhD 2023)

Emilie Clement

Amber Chopelas

Kristin Brown

Grace Perry

Ozlem Senol-Cosar

Taylor Woodward

Francisco Beca

Christian Dibble

Emily Cohen