Who we are
The PCGI consists of basic science investigators that would otherwise not frequently interact to promote the development of multi-investigator grants, shared resources, and translation of basic science into the clinic.
Leadership
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Read More about Roger Greenberg, MD, PhDRoger Greenberg, MD, PhD
Director
Roger Greenberg, MD, PhD
Director
Roger Greenberg, MD, PhD, is the J. Samuel Staub, M.D. Professor in the Department of Cancer Biology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, where he also serves as Director of the Penn Center for Genome Integrity and the Director of Basic Science for the Basser Center for BRCA. During Dr. Greenberg’s early training, he demonstrated the first evidence that telomere shortening suppresses carcinogenesis in vivo, and subsequently, he helped define a BRCA1-centered tumor suppressor network. Dr. Greenberg’s independent laboratory investigates basic mechanisms of genome integrity maintenance and their impact on cancer etiology and response to therapy. His group discovered that ubiquitin chains serve as a platform for BRCA1 DNA damage recognition, identified biallelic mutations in BRCA1 as a cause of Fanconi Anemia, and developed novel systems to identify ATM kinase dependent transcriptional silencing near DNA double-strand breaks. More recently, his group defined the molecular underpinnings of homologous recombination dependent telomere lengthening mechanisms that occur in nearly 15% of cancers, and mechanisms that enable DNA damage responses to communicate with the immune system.
Dr. Greenberg is a recipient of numerous awards, including the Michael Brown New Investigator Award for Basic Science, Kimmel Scholar Award in Translational Science, Charles E. Culpeper Scholarship in Medical Sciences, a Harrington Discovery Institute Scholar-Innovator Award, and the Stanley N. Cohen Award for Biomedical Research. He has also been elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and American Association of Physicians. Dr. Greenberg previously chaired the DNA Mechanisms of Cancer study section for the American Cancer Society and is now a member of the NIH Cancer Etiology Study Section.
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Read More about Ben Black, PhDBen Black, PhD
Co-Director
Ben Black, PhD
Co-Director
Following undergraduate studies at Carleton College, Ben Black did a Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Virginia on pathways for nuclear protein export in the lab of Bryce Paschal. After a four-year postdoctoral fellowship with Don Cleveland at UCSD in the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Ben started his own group at UPenn to continue the work he had started in the area of chromosome biology. Perhaps his best known work as an independent investigator is uncovering the physical basis for how nucleosomes containing the histone variant, CENP-A, epigenetically mark centromere location on the chromosome; and further, for helping elucidate how this nucleosome can seed new centromere assembly and maintain centromere location through a cell cycle-coupled self-propagation mechanism ultimately required to guide faithful chromosome inheritance.
At UPenn, Ben has also instructed or co-directed more than a dozen different courses in the Biomedical Graduate Studies (BGS) programs, School of Arts & Sciences, and Medical School. He has served on NIH review panels and as a reviewer for many national and international funding agencies. He is an Associate Editor of Science Advances and the Biochemical Journal, on the editorial board of Molecular & Cellular Biology, and serves as a reviewer for >25 scientific journals, including Nature, Science, and PNAS. He has given invited lectures at numerous universities and meetings in the USA and in more than a dozen foreign countries. He has been recognized for his work with a fellowship from the American Cancer Society, a Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, a Rita Allen Foundation Scholar Award, the Michael S. Brown New Investigator Award, the Charles E. Kaufman Foundation Initiative Award, and the inaugural Perelman School of Medicine Dean’s Innovation Award. Ben enjoys spending his free time with wife Emily and sons Zachary and Henry.
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Read More about Matthew Weitzman, PhDMatthew Weitzman, PhD
Co-Director
Matthew Weitzman, PhD
Co-Director
Dr. Weitzman graduated with a degree in genetics from the University of Leeds, UK (1987) and obtained a PhD in molecular virology from Oxford Polytechnic and the NERC Institute of Virology and Environmental Microbiology in Oxford, UK (1991). He did postdoctoral work on a Fogarty Visiting Fellowship at the NIH (1991-1993) and as a Cystic Fibrosis Postdoctoral Fellow (1994-1995) in the Institute for Human Gene Therapy, at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1997 he moved to the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California where he established a productive and well-funded lab. In 2011 he moved to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and established his lab in Cancer Pathobiology. He currently holds faculty appointments in the Departments of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Pediatrics, and Microbiology within the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Core Leadership Council
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Read More about Kara Bernstein, PhDKara Bernstein, PhD
Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics
Kara Bernstein, PhD
Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics
Dr. Bernstein graduated with a degree in biology from Bryn Mawr College, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania (2000) and obtained a PhD in genetics and development under the guidance of Dr. Susan Baserga studying ribosome biogenesis from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut (2006). She did postdoctoral work with Dr. Rodney Rothstein studying genetic recombination at Columbia University, in New York, NY (2006-2011). In 2011, Dr. Bernstein moved to the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she established a productive and well-funded lab focusing on error-free mechanisms of DNA repair and recombination. In 2022, she moved to the University of Pennsylvania Abramson School of Medicine and established her lab in Biochemistry and Biophysics. The Bernstein labs focuses on proteins that contribute to cancer development and studies how accurate repair of DNA double-strand breaks is regulated using budding yeast and mammalian systems. Dr. Bernstein currently holds faculty appointments in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, in the Abramson Cancer Center in the Breast Cancer Research Program, in the Basser Center for BRCA related research, and in the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology in the Environmental Exposures and Cancer Program.
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Read More about Dennis E. Discher, PhDDennis E. Discher, PhD
Robert D. Bent Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Dennis E. Discher, PhD
Robert D. Bent Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Dr. Dennis Discher is the Robert D. Bent chaired Professor and Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Bioengineering, and Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics here at UPenn in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Dr. Discher's lab pioneered studies of matrix elasticity directed stem cell differentiation, clarifying the effects on cells of a tissue stiffness scale illustrated as: brain < fat < muscle < bone. His lab was the first to measure and model nuclear mechanics in relation to mechanosensing, developing ‘omics methods and analytics to uncover scaling relationships between matrix and nuclear factors, including chromosome variations. His lab discovered the ‘phagocytic synapse’ between a macrophage and a cell displaying on its membrane or not a ‘marker of self’ protein that – with controlled inhibition – allows macrophages to be targeted to attack diseased tissue.
Dr. Discher obtained his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in the lab of Dr. Mohandas in 1993. He went on to complete his postdoctoral fellowship in Statistical Biophysics Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada in the laboratory of Dr. Evans in 1996. That same year he came to Penn as an Assistant Professor, establishing his lab and continuing to gain prominence until achieving full Professorship with tenure in 2004. He was named Robert D. Bent chaired Professor in 2011. In addition, he is the Director of Penn’s Physical Sciences Oncology Center, PSOC@Penn – a National Cancer Institute U54 Center, and the Head of Biophysical Engineering Labs in Molecular & Cell Biophysics and NanoBio-Polymers.
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Read More about Michael Lampson, PhDMichael Lampson, PhD
Professor of Biology
Michael Lampson, PhD
Professor of Biology
Dr. Michael Lampson is a Professor of Biology at UPenn's School of Arts and Sciences. The Lampson Lab researches a variety of questions related to the cell cycle, cell division, and chromosome evolution using both mitotic and meiotic model systems. Dr. Lampson received his PhD from Cornell University Weill Cornell Medical College in 2002.
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Read More about Mia Levine, PhDMia Levine, PhD
Associate Professor of Biology
Mia Levine, PhD
Associate Professor of Biology
Dr. Mia Levine is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology and the Epigenetics Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. Mia received her PhD from the University of California, Davis under the mentorship of Dr. David Begun and conducted postdoctoral work with Dr. Harmit Malik at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The Levine Lab investigates molecular arms races that play out between selfish genetic elements and host genomes. These conflicts shape fundamental cellular processes, such as telomere length homeostasis, chromosome transmission, and the maintenance of DNA sequence integrity. Recent work revealed that recurrent evolutionary innovation of essential chromosomal proteins is required to maintain these essential functions in the face of selfish element proliferation.
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Read More about Kathy Fange Liu, PhDKathy Fange Liu, PhD
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics
Kathy Fange Liu, PhD
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics
Dr. Kathy Fange Liu obtained her PhD from Georgia State University (2013) and completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Chicago in 2017. Kathy launched her laboratory in 2018 in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania. The K. Liu laboratory focuses on (1) the mechanisms and consequences of the interplay of multiple RNA modifications in mRNA, tRNA, and rRNA, particularly with regards to their impacts on human disease, and (2) how epitranscriptomics and sex chromosomes contribute to sex bias in human cancers. Kathy is a recipient of NIH MIRA award, American Cancer Research Scholar, Damon Runyon Innovator, and Linda Pechenik Montague Investigator Award.
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Read More about Sunny Shin, PhDSunny Shin, PhD
Associate Professor of Microbiology
Sunny Shin, PhD
Associate Professor of Microbiology
Dr. Sunny Shin is an Associate Professor of Microbiology in UPenn's Perelman School of Medicine. She obtained her PhD in Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine under mentor Dr. Yueh-hsiu Chien. The Shin lab studies how the immune system distinguishes self from non-self and tailors appropriate inflammatory responses, with a focus on pattern recognition receptors and cytosolic immune sensing pathways. One key immune pathway involves the inflammasome, a multi-protein cytosolic complex that activates the host proteases caspase-1 and caspase-11 upon cytosolic detection of bacterial products. These caspases mediate the release of IL-1 family cytokines and other inflammatory factors critical for host defense against a variety of pathogens, but overexuberant activation can lead to pathological outcomes such as septic shock.
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Read More about Wei Tong, PhDWei Tong, PhD
Professor of Pediatrics
Wei Tong, PhD
Professor of Pediatrics
Dr. Wei Tong holds dual appointments as an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in UPenn's Perelman School of Medicine and an Associate Professor in the Division of Hematology at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She received her PhD in Developmental and Molecular Biology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Tong completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT. The Tong lab investigates the mechanisms that safeguard the genome during DNA replication and proper control of cytokine signaling transduction to maintain stem cell fitness. In addition, the lab investigates how failures in these processes impact hematopoietic stem cell function that leads to bone marrow failure and/or leukemia.