Computational & Systems Biology Program
The Dana Pe'er Lab
Research
Professor
The Pe’er lab is an interdisciplinary group that combines advanced genomics approaches with machine learning to address fundamental questions in biomedical science. Empowered by potent technologies such as single-cell genomics and imaging-based molecular profiling, we analyze complex data to understand basic biology and disease. Our group is interested in how organisms develop from a single cell to generate a vast diversity of cell types, how epigenetic control over these processes rewires over the course of development, and how cells communicate to execute multicellular responses. We have a longstanding interest in cellular plasticity, the consequences of intra-tumor heterogeneity, the evolution and metastasis of cancer cells, and the mechanisms by which regulatory circuits go awry in disease. By understanding the mechanisms that different cancers use to initiate, progress, spread and interact with the immune system, we can spur the development of personalized therapies and immunotherapies.
Featured News
Publications Highlights
Supervised discovery of interpretable gene programs from single-cell data. Kunes RZ*, Walle T*, Land M, Nawy T, Pe’er D. Nat Biotechnol. 2023 Sep 21. PMID: 37735262.
Epigenetic plasticity cooperates with cell-cell interactions to direct pancreatic tumorigenesis. Burdziak C*, Alonso-Curbelo D*, Walle T, Reyes J, Barriga FM, Haviv D, Xie Y, Zhao Z, Zhao CJ, Chen HA, Chaudhary O, Masilionis I, Choo ZN, Gao V, Luan W, Wuest A, Ho YJ, Wei Y, Quail DF, Koche R, Mazutis L, Chaligné R, Nawy T, Lowe SW†, Pe’er D†. Science. 2023 May 12;380(6645):eadd5327. PMID: 37167403.
The emergent landscape of the mouse gut endoderm at single-cell resolution. Nowotschin S*, Setty M*, Kuo YY, Liu V, Garg V, Sharma R, Simon CS, Saiz N, Gardner R, Boutet SC, Church DM, Hoodless PA, Hadjantonakis AK†, Pe’er D†. Nature. 2019 May;569(7756):361-367. PMID: 30959515
People
Dana Pe'er, PhD
Chair, Computational and Systems Biology Program, SKI; Scientific Director, Alan and Sandra Gerry Metastasis and Tumor Ecosystems Center; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Alan and Sandra Gerry Endowed Chair
Professor
- Computational biologist Dana Pe’er combines single-cell and spatial profiling technologies with machine learning approaches to address fundamental questions in gene regulation, cellular plasticity and cell-cell communication in the contexts of cancer, immunity and development.
- PhD, Hebrew University, Jerusalem Israel
- [email protected]
- Email Address
Members
- BS, Rutgers University
- PhD, Tri-I CBM, Weill Cornell Medicine
- PhD, University of Paris – XI / Institute Gustave Roussy, France (Oncology)
- BS, Évry Val d’Essonne University, France (Cellular Biology and Physiology)
- BS, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology (Electrical Engineering)
- BS, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology (Physics)
- PhD, University of Cambridge, UK (Medical Sciences)
- MSc, University of York, UK (Computational Biology and Bioinformatics)
- BSc, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico (Biomedicine)
- MS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Computer Science)
- MS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Design Computation)
- BArch, Cornell University
- PhD, New York University (Developmental Genetics)
- BS, McGill University (Biology)
- MS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Computer Science)
- BS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Mathematics)
- PhD, Harvard University
- PhD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (Genetics and Genomic Sciences)
- BSc, Virginia Tech (Biology, Microbiology/Immunology Concentration)
- Clinician Scientist Fellow, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg
- Resident Physician, National Center for Tumor Diseases, Heidelberg
- Dr. med. Heidelberg University
- German Medical Diploma, Heidelberg University
- PhD, Carnegie Mellon University (Computational Biology)
- MS, Carnegie Mellon University (Machine Learning)
- MS, Tsinghua University (Control Science and Engineering)
- BEng, Tsinghua University (Automation)
- BS, Harvey Mudd College (Mathematical and Computational Biology)
- BS, Harvey Mudd College (Science, Technology, and Society)
- BS, Harvey Mudd College (Joint Computer Science/Math)
- BS (2019), University of Vienna (Statistics)
- MS (Exp. 2023) University of Technology, Vienna (Data Science)
- BSc, McGill University
- MD, Yale University
- MHS, Yale University
- Internal Medicine Residency, Johns Hopkins
- Oncology Fellowship, MSKCC
- BS, Duke University
- PhD, California Institute of Technology
- MD, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
- Internal Medicine Residency, Massachusetts General Hospital
- Oncology Fellowship, Dana Farber Cancer Institute/Massachusetts General Hospital
- BS, Harvey Mudd College (Mathematical and Computational Biology)
- BA, Princeton University (Computer Science)
- BS, San Marcos University (Genetics and Biotechnology)
- Residency, Cornell University (Internal Medicine)
- MD, PhD, Columbia University
- BS, Stanford University
- PhD in Computational Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca NY USA
- Minor: Computer Science (Concentration: Machine learning)
- BSc in Biochemistry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
- MLA, Harvard (Information Technology)
- BS, Duke University (Biomedical Engineering & Electrical Engineering)
- AB, Princeton University (Math)
- Computational Biologist
- BS, University of Michigan (Informatics)
- PhD, Francis Crick Institute/Imperial College London (Computational Biology)
- MSc, University of Warwick (Mathematics of Complex Systems)
- MMath, University of Warwick (Mathematics)
- MS, University of Edinburgh
- BS, Zhejiang University
- PhD, Princeton University
- MS, Lomonosov Moscow State University
- PhD, University of Chicago (Biophysical Sciences)
- BA, Harvard University (Physics)
- BS, Johns Hopkins University (Molecular & Cellular Biology)
- PhD, Darmouth College (Quantitative Imaging)
- BS, University of Vermont (Biological Physics)
- Residency, Université de Montréal (Internal Medicine and Hematology)
- MD, Université de Montréal
- PhD, Strasbourg University (Biological Chemistry)
- BS, Vilnius University
- MS, New York University (Bioinformatics and Systems Biology)
- MS, The Hebrew University (Microbiology)
- BS, The Hebrew University (Biology)
- PhD, University of Basel (Applied Statistics)
- MS, University of Edinburgh (Intelligent Robotics)
- BEng, College of Engineering, Chengannur, Kerala (Computer Engineering)
- PhD, Weill Cornell Graduate School, New York (Systems Biology)
- MS, Columbia University, New York (Computer Science)
- BEng, National Institute of Technology, Karnataka, India (Computer Engineering)
- BA, Columbia University (Neuroscience and Applied Statistics)
- MS, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Oncology)
- BS, Universiteit van Amsterdam
Lab Alumni
Lab Affiliations
Achievements
- 2023 Class of 2023 Inductee - American Academy of Cancer Research (AACR) Academy
- 2023 Innovator Award - International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB)
- 2021 Fellow - International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB)
- 2019 Ernst W. Bertner Memorial Award - University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
- 2016 Lenfest Distinguished Faculty Award - Columbia University
Read more
- 2014 Director’s Pioneer Award - National Institutes of Health
- 2014 Overton Prize - International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB)
- 2012 Test of Time Award - Research in Computational Molecular Biology (RECOMB)
- 2010 Innovator Award - Stand Up 2 Cancer/American Academy of Cancer Research (AACR)
- 2009 Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering - The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
- 2007 NIH Director's New Innovator Award - National Institutes of Health
- 2005 Breakthrough of the Year Runner-up - Science Magazine
- 2005 Career Award at the Scientific Interface - Burroughs Wellcome Fund
Open Positions
To learn more about available postdoctoral opportunities, please visit our Career Center
To learn more about compensation and benefits for postdoctoral researchers at MSK, please visit Resources for Postdocs
Get in Touch
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Lab Head Email
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Dry Lab Phone
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Wet Lab Phone
Disclosures
Doctors and faculty members often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community.
MSK requires doctors and faculty members to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public.
Dana Pe'er discloses the following relationships and financial interests:
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Insitro, Inc.
Equity; Professional Services and Activities
The information published here is a complement to other publicly reported data and is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.
This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2023 through disclosure submission in spring 2024). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.
Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at [email protected].