Nikhil Mankuzhy, MD
I was born and raised in Metro Detroit. I attended the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and studied neuroscience. After graduating college, I discovered my interest in cancer care as a scribe in ocular oncology at the Kellogg Eye Center. During this time, I also conducted clinical research on precision medicine applications in pediatric oncology at Michigan Medicine. As a medical student at the Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, I worked on clinical research projects with Beaumont Hospital’s Department of Radiation Oncology in lung, breast, and prostate cancer. I returned to Ann Arbor for my transitional year internship at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital before finally leaving Michigan to join the Radiation Oncology Residency Program at MSK. While living in New York City, I enjoy playing pickup basketball and trying new restaurants.
Edward “Christopher” Dee, MD
I grew up in Manila, Philippines, and Vancouver, Canada, and attended Yale University, where I majored in molecular biophysics and biochemistry and studied proteins involved in DNA repair. Thereafter, I worked in global health and health policy in New Delhi, Manila, and Washington, D.C. I attended Harvard Medical School, where my interest in oncology grew. I conducted prostate cancer clinical research with Dr. Paul Nguyen and Dr. Anthony D’Amico at the Dana- Farber Cancer Institute. I also explored health services research, with a focus on disparities, financial toxicity, and oncology care delivery in lower-middle-income countries. This work has led to collaborations with a global team of researchers studying healthcare delivery and cancer disparities, allowing me to combine my interests in oncology and health equity. I completed my transitional intern year at MSK. I am an avid fan of Rainer Maria Rilke’s poetry, Marc Chagall’s paintings, and Albert Camus’ prose.
Kaitlyn Lapen, MD
I grew up in the western suburbs of Chicago and obtained my undergraduate degree at Emory University, where I studied biology and human health. I then returned to Chicago to attend the University of Illinois College of Medicine. While in medical school, I developed an interest in oncology and participated in MSK’s Medical Student Summer Fellowship Program, where I studied the use of complementary therapies for patients with cancer. Between my third and fourth years of medical school, I returned to MSK to complete a yearlong research fellowship in the Department of Radiation Oncology. Under the mentorship of Dr. Erin Gillespie, I investigated the development and implementation of a remote symptom reporting tool for patients undergoing breast radiation, in order to optimize symptom management. I completed my transitional-year internship at MSK prior to joining the Radiation Oncology Residency Program. While living in New York, I enjoy exploring various museums, spending time in Central Park, and searching for antique furniture and home decor.
Roshal Patel, MD
I was born and raised in Albany, New York. A true upstate New Yorker, I pursued undergraduate studies in health policy and biology at the University of Rochester and later attended medical school at Albany Medical College. During medical school, I spent a year at MD Anderson Cancer Center under the mentorship of Dr. Jim Welsh, studying strategies to combine radiation with immune therapies to improve outcomes in patients with metastatic cancers. Throughout my career, I have worked with several other teams focusing on research disciplines, including palliative radiation therapy, pediatric brain tumor genomics, and disparities in cancer clinical trials. Prior to joining Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, I completed my preliminary-year internship in internal medicine at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center. In my free time, I enjoy live music, sports, hiking, and skiing.
Alex Goglia, MD, PhD
I grew up in Edina, Minnesota, and attended Gonzaga University, where I studied evolutionary biology and philosophy as an undergraduate. After deciding to pursue medicine, I completed a master’s degree at Columbia University and then spent two years working in Dr. Simon Powell’s laboratory at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), studying DNA repair and developing small molecule radiosensitizers. I then joined the Rutgers/Princeton MD/PhD program, where my doctoral research, funded by the NCI F30, was completed at Princeton University in the laboratory of Jared Toettcher. There, I used synthetic biology tools to study how cells use time-varying dynamics of Ras/Erk MAPK signaling activity to encode information and inform proliferative cell fate decisions. During my PhD training, I also co-founded a biotech company developing proteins whose enzymatic activity can be controlled using precise wavelengths of visible light. After graduation, I completed a transitional-year internship at MSK before joining the Radiation Oncology Residency Program, where I hope to continue studying how cell fate decision networks become corrupted in cancer. In my free time, I enjoy live music, basketball, eating every kind of food, and fishing (now in Central Park).
Yuzhong “Jeff” Meng, MD, PhD
I grew up in Nanjing, China, and attended Williams College, where I majored in chemistry and math. In my undergraduate career, I used polymer physics models and computer simulations to study the free energy of small RNA–mRNA binding with Daniel Aalberts. After a gap year of research, I joined the Harvard/MIT MD/PhD program, where I worked with Rameen Beroukhim to identify the genomic correlates of outcome in tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy for metastatic melanoma. I completed my transitional-year internship at Cambridge Health Alliance before joining the Radiation Oncology Residency Program.