Molecular Pharmacology Program

The Daniel Heller Lab

Daniel A. Heller, PhD

Member, Molecular Pharmacology Program, SKI

Professor

Cancer Nanomedicine Laboratory

We are a biomedical engineering laboratory that develops nanotechnologies to advance breakthroughs in the research, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer and allied diseases. We develop drug delivery technologies to target therapies to disease sites, advanced diagnostics to detect disease at earlier stages, and nanosensors to accelerate the discovery of new therapies. Please check out our recent innovations using the “View Lab Overview” button below…

View Lab Overview

Research Projects

VIDEO | 02:10

Go inside the lab of Daniel Heller from SKI’s Molecular Pharmacology Program.

Video Details

Heller Lab members at Cycle for Survival 2025

Featured News

Education

MSK scientists Daniel Heller and Kayvan Keshari with a confocal microscope.

MSK’s Cancer Engineering Focus Draws Top Scientists

Learn how a new cancer engineering PhD program is attracting leading scientists to come to MSK.

Education

MSK biochemist and imaging specialist Kayvan Keshari and biomedical engineer Daniel Heller.

A New Breed of Cancer Fighters

Read about a first-of-its kind PhD program that enables aspiring scientists to tackle tough cancer problems.

SKI biomedical engineer Dr. Daniel Heller

Getting Drugs Across the Blood-Brain Barrier Using Nanoparticles

Learn how MSK researchers are investigating the use of nanoparticles to carry drugs across the blood-brain barrier.

View All Featured News

Publications Highlights

Handbook of Carbon Nanomaterials (In 2 Volumes) Volume 11: Carbon Nanotubes in Biomedicine: From Fundamentals to Therapeutic Applications; Volume 12: Advances in Carbon Nanotube Chemistry, Safety, and Applications in Biomedical Research. Pages: 656 Edited by: Daniel A Heller (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA) and Mijin Kim (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA) (2025)

N Berisha, A Farahpour, M Ramakrishnan, C Chen, SA McPhee, T Wang, T-D Li, K Hema, M Panagiotakopoulou, V Athiyarath, M Coste, Y Marciano, E Sherman, RV Ulijn*, DA Heller*. “Directed discovery of high-loading nanoaggregates enabled by drug-matched oligo-peptide excipients.” Chem (2025) 102404.

Highlighted in: MSK news, Chemical & Engineering News, and Chem.

D Tylawsky, H Kiguchi, J Vaynshteyn, J Gerwin, J Shah, T. Islam, J Boyer, D Boué, M Snuderl, M Greenblatt, Y Shamay, P Raju, DA Heller*, “P-selectin-targeted nanocarriers induce active crossing of the blood–brain barrier via caveolin-1-dependent transcytosis. Nature Materials. 22,391-399 (2023).

Highlighted in: MSK News and Nature Materials News & Views

View All Publications

People

Daniel A. Heller, PhD

Member, Molecular Pharmacology Program, SKI

Professor

Biomedical engineer Daniel Heller is Head of the Cancer Nanotechnology Laboratory, which invents disruptive technologies to revolutionize the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and allied diseases.
PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

[email protected]: Email Address
646-888-3419: Office Phone
Download CV: PDF File

Members

Daniel A. Heller, PhD — Daniel A. Heller
Lab Head

Philip Asamani
Graduate Student, CUNY Chemistry PhD Program

Atena Farahpour
CUNY Chemistry/Nanotechnology PhD Program Student

Christian Figueroa-Espada

Research Scholar

Dana Goerzen
Graduate Student, Weill Cornell PBSB PhD Program

Alec Goffin

Graduate Student

Logan Hillger

Research Technician

Takeshi Irie
Assistant Attending, Anesthesiology and Critical Care

Arianna Izawa-Ishiguro
Pharmacology PhD Graduate Student

Erin Keblish
Graduate Student, Weill Cornell PBSB PhD Program

Dohyeon Kim

Research Scholar

Mijin Kim
MSKCC Visiting Investigator; Assistant Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology

Quincey LaPlant
Assistant Attending L1, Radiation Oncology

Magdalini Panagiotakopoulos
Postdoctoral Research Associate

Raashed Raziuddin
Graduate Student, Weill Cornell Pharmacology PhD Program

Laura Wilson
Senior SKI Administrative Assistant

Jaina Wollowitz
Graduate student, Tri-Institutional PhD Program in Chemical Biology

Lab Alumni

Ashley Sullivan

GSK PhD student

Kristen Vogt
Scientist - Immuno-oncology

Merav Antman-Passig
Chief Executive Officer, Life Therapeutics

Elana Apfelbaum
Graduate Student, Weill Cornell Pharmacology PhD Program

Hanan Baker
Resident in Anesthesiology, Bonica Scholars Program, University of Washington

Naxhije Berisha
Process Development Scientist, New England Biolabs

Gavin Black
Associate Consultant, Triangle Insights Group, LLC

Januka Budhathoki-Uprety, PhD — Januka Budhathoki-Uprety
Assistant Professor, North Carolina State University

Chen Chen
Postdoctoral Fellow, Genentech

Christian Cupo
Graduate Student, Columbia University

Ron Feiner
Equity Research Associate - smidcap Biotechnology at J.P. Morgan

Rune Frederiksen
Manufacturing Development Engineer, Zoetis Denmark

Thomas Galassi
Director, Scientific Affairs, Pfizer

Emma Grabarnik
Scientist, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research

Declan Gwynne
Senior Associate Scientist at Generation Bio

Christopher Horoszko
Application Scientist, On-Line Instrument Systems, Inc. (OLIS)

Prakrit Jena, PhD — Prakrit Jena
CTO, Lime Therapeutics, Inc.

Brian J. Joseph
Healey ALS Scholar at Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Hiro Kiguchi
Attending Physician, Division of Oncology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Jaclyn Kubala
Scientist II, SalioGen Therapeutics

Pictured: Rachel Langenbacher — Rachel Langenbacher
Associate Medical Writer – PPD

Mandana T. Manzari
Founder and Principal, Honu Consulting

Ewelina Randall
Associate Scientist, Merck

Daniel Roxbury
Associate Professor, University of Rhode Island

Janki Shah
Biomarker Operation Manager, BioNTech SE

Yosef Shamay
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology

Maria Sirenko
Postdoctoral Fellow, NYU Langone, New York, NY

Daniel Tylawsky
Senior Scientist, Regeneron

Jasmine Wallas — Jas Wallas
Patent Law Clerk at Foley Lardner LLP and JD Candidate

Ryan Williams, PhD — Ryan Williams
Assistant Professor, CCNY

Zvi Yaari, PhD — Zvi Yaari
Assistant Professor, School of Pharmacy, Department of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Lab Affiliations

Achievements

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Young Alumni Award, University of Illinois (2024)
Life Sciences Invention of the Year, UM Ventures (2023)
American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) Fellow (2021)
Pharmacology Teaching and Mentoring Award, Weill Cornell Graduate School (2020)
American Cancer Society Research Scholar (2018)

NSF CAREER Award (2018)
Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Innovators in Cancer Research (2017)
NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (2012)
Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (2010)
Beckman Institute Graduate Fellowship (2006)

Lab News & Events

Upcoming event

Engineering Nanomedicines for Oral Cancer Pain

Thursday, June 12, 2025 - 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM

RRL 101

MSK - Rockefeller Research Laboratories,

430 East 67th Street in New York, NY

Preceded by tea at 3:45 PM

https://twitter.com/HellerLab

Accolades

Team Recognitions

Congratulations to Janina Wollowitz for receiving the award for her poster presentation titled "Machine Perception-Based Prediction of Pregnancy Loss," at the Vincent du Vigneaud Symposium!
Congratulations to Dana Goerzen for receiving the award for his oral presentation titled "Machine Learning-Enabled Liquid Biopsy Identifies Brain Tumors via Systemic Immune and Tumor Microenvironment Signature" at the Vincent du Vigneaud Symposium!
We are very excited to share that Rein Ulijn and Naxhije Berisha, in collaboration with Daniel Heller, have published an article in Chem by Cell Press. Chem, 2025-01, p.102404, Article 102404
Congratulations to Erin Keblish for winning the 2024 Three Minute Thesis competition!
Congratulations to Magdalini Panagiotakopoulos for winning the AI in Drug Delivery award at CRS 2024 Annual Meeting and Expo!
Congratulations to Jaina Wollowitz on her poster award at the 245th Electrochemical Society Meeting!
Congratulations to Dana Goerzen for being awarded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Doctoral Research Award (Funding Number 193220)!
Congratulations to Dana Goerzen for being awarded the General Atlantic Graduate Research Fellowship Award!
Congratulations to Atena Farahpour - awarded the Fall 2023 NanoBioNYC student award in Biomedical Materials!
Congratulations to Dr. Mijin Kim for being selected as a 2023 STAT Wunderkind! The award recognizes the work of early-career scientists and clinicians.
Congratulations to Chen Chen on the Best Poster Award at the 19th Annual Tri-institutional Chemical Biology Symposium!
Congratulations to Mijin Kim on winning the 2023 MSK Postdoctoral Researcher Award!
Congratulations to Dr. Mijin Kim - NIH K99/R00 awardee!
Congratulations to Naxhije Berisha - Tow Fellowship Awardee!
Congratulations to Dr. Mijin Kim - Kravis WiSE Postdoctoral Fellowship Winner!
Congratulations to Stephen Ruiz - awarded the MERIT Mandel Graduate Fellowship!
Congratulations to Magdalini Panagiotakopoulos – Tow Postdoctoral Fellowship Awardee!
Congratulations to Dr. Mijin Kim – MIT Technology Review 35 Under 35 Innovator!
Congratulations to Magdalini Panagiotakopoulos on winning the Controlled Release Society Poster Prize
Congratulations to Erin Keblish on winning the 2023 Electrochemical Society Best Poster Award for Industrial/Applied Science
Congratulations to Magdalini Panagiotakopoulos for winning 2nd place and the People's Choice Award in the 2023 MSK Postdoc Slam
Congratulations to Stephen Ruiz for winning the 63rd International Conference on the Bioscience of Lipids Oral Communication Award!!
Congratulations to Mijin Kim for winning the 2023 STAT Wunderkind Award!!

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

[email protected]

Lab Head Email
646-888-3419

Office 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.

Daniel A. Heller discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

Celine Therapeutics
Equity; Professional Services and Activities (Uncompensated)
Concarlo Therapeutics, Inc.
Professional Services and Activities
Lime Therapeutics, Inc.
Equity; Professional Services and Activities (Uncompensated)
Mediphage Bioceuticals, Inc.
Equity; Professional Services and Activities (Uncompensated)
METiS Therapeutics Inc.
Intellectual Property Rights; Professional Services and Activities (Uncompensated)

Nanorobotics, Inc.
Equity; Professional Services and Activities (Uncompensated)
Nine Diagnostics, Inc.
Equity; Fiduciary Role / Position; Professional Services and Activities (Uncompensated)
Selectin Therapeutics, Inc.
Equity; Professional Services and Activities (Uncompensated)
Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology
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].

View all disclosures