Epidemiology & Biostatistics

The Jian Carrot-Zhang Lab

Research

Jian Carrot-Zhang, PhD

Assistant Member

Assistant Professor

Dr. Jian Carrot-Zhang, PhD, is an Assistant Member in the Computational Oncology Service at MSK. Her research focuses on elucidating germline–somatic interactions across multi-ancestral populations. She develops computational and statistical approaches to characterize germline determinants of cancer progression. Dr. Carrot-Zhang holds a joint appointment in the Clinical Genetics Service within the Department of Medicine, bridging germline genetics and somatic genomics. She earned her PhD in Human Genetics from McGill University and completed postdoctoral training at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute under Dr. Matthew Meyerson. Prior to joining MSK, she served as an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Carrot-Zhang has received multiple honors, including a K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award from the NCI and a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship from CIHR.

Publications Highlights

Meta-analysis reveals differences in somatic alterations by genetic ancestry across common cancers. Nature Genetics (2025) Published 16 October 2025. Amuzu S., Xie A. X., Bai X., Pekala K. R., Pickersgill N. A., Ma D., Perea-Chamblee T., Arora K., Chatila W. K., Derkach A., Shen R., Frampton G. M., Berger M., Schultz N., Newberg J. Y. & Carrot-Zhang J.

Tumor sequencing of African ancestry reveals differences in clinically relevant alterations across common cancers. Jiagge E, Jin DX, Newberg JY, Perea-Chamblee T, Pekala KR, Fong C, Waters M, Ma D, Dei-Adomakoh Y, Erb G, Arora KS, Maund SL, Njiraini N, Ntekim A, Kim S, Bai X, Thomas M, van Eeden R, Hegde P, Jee J, Chakravarty D, Schultz N, Berger MF, Frampton GM, Sokol ES, Carrot-Zhang J. Cancer Cell. 2023 Nov 13;41(11):1963-1971.e3. Epub 2023 Oct 26. PMID: 37890492.

Ancestry-driven recalibration of tumor mutational burden and disparate clinical outcomes in response to immune checkpoint inhibitors. AH, Adib E, Abou Alaiwi S, El Zarif T, Groha S, Akl EW, Nuzzo PV, Mouhieddine TH, Perea-Chamblee T, Taraszka K, El-Khoury H, Labban M, Fong C, Arora KS, Labaki C, Xu W, Sonpavde G, Haddad RI, Mouw KW, Giannakis M, Hodi FS, Zaitlen N, Schoenfeld AJ, Schultz N, Berger MF, MacConaill LE, Ananda G, Kwiatkowski DJ, Choueiri TK, Schrag D, Carrot-Zhang J, Gusev A. Cancer Cell. 2022 Oct 10;40(10):1161-1172.e5. Epub 2022 Sep 29. PMID: 36179682; PMCID: PMC9559771.

Genetic Ancestry Contributes to Somatic Mutations in Lung Cancers from Admixed Latin American Populations. Carrot-Zhang J, Soca-Chafre G, Patterson N, Thorner AR, Nag A, Watson J, Genovese G, Rodriguez J, Gelbard MK, Corrales-Rodriguez L, Mitsuishi Y, Ha G, Campbell JD, Oxnard GR, Arrieta O, Cardona AF, Gusev A, Meyerson M. Cancer Discov. 2021 Mar;11(3):591-598. Epub 2020 Dec 2. PMID: 33268447; PMCID: PMC7933062.

Comprehensive Analysis of Genetic Ancestry and Its Molecular Correlates in Cancer. Carrot-Zhang J, Chambwe N, Damrauer JS, Knijnenburg TA, Robertson AG, Yau C, Zhou W, Berger AC, Huang KL, Newberg JY, Mashl RJ, Romanel A, Sayaman RW, Demichelis F, Felau I, Frampton GM, Han S, Hoadley KA, Kemal A, Laird PW, Lazar AJ, Le X, Oak N, Shen H, Wong CK, Zenklusen JC, Ziv E; Cancer Genome Atlas Analysis Network; Cherniack AD, Beroukhim R. Cancer Cell. 2020 May 11;37(5):639-654.e6.PMID: 32396860; PMCID: PMC7328015.

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People

Jian Carrot-Zhang, PhD

Assistant Member

Assistant Professor

Dr. Jian Carrot-Zhang, PhD, is an Assistant Member in the Computational Oncology Service at MSK. Her research focuses on elucidating germline–somatic interactions across multi-ancestral populations.
Postdoc: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Broad Institute
PhD, McGill University
Instructor, Harvard Medical School

[email protected]: Email Address
646-608-7645: Office Phone

Members

Tejiri Agbamu

GSK Graduate Student

Setor Amuzu

Henry and Alexia Fernandez Fellow

Xuechun Bai

Computational Biologist I

Nikolaos Dimitriou

Postdoctoral Fellow

Sean Fletcher

Urologic Oncology Fellow

David Ma

Computational Biologist I

Leah Morales

Graduate Student

Tomin Perea-Chamblee

Bioinformatics Software Engineer

Zi Jin Cheryl Phua

Graduate Student

Afsana Rahman

Graduate Student- Tri-I Program

Hanxiao Sun

Postdoctoral Fellow

Justin (Kai Cheng) U

Graduate Student

Xinran Bi

Summer Intern, now Graduate Student at Princeton University

Kelly Pekala

Former Clinical Fellow, now a Urologist in MultiCare Urology Puyallup

Nicholas Pickersgill

Urologic Oncology Fellow

Achievements

National Cancer Institute – K99 Pathway to Independence Award (2021)
Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships Award, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (2019)

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

Computational Postdocs and Graduate Students

We are actively recruiting computational postdocs and graduate students interested in genetic ancestry, germline-somatic interaction and clinical genomics. Please send your CV to [email protected]

Apply now

Get in Touch

[email protected]

Lab Head Email
646-608-7645

Office Phone

Disclosures

Members of the MSK Community 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. These activities outside of MSK further our mission, provide productive collaborations, and promote the practical application of scientific discoveries.

MSK requires doctors, faculty members, and leaders 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. Not all disclosed interests and relationships present conflicts of interest. MSK reviews all disclosed interests and relationships to assess whether a conflict of interest exists and whether formal COI management is needed.

Jian Carrot-Zhang discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

No disclosures meeting criteria for time period

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, 2024 through disclosure submission in spring 2025). 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].

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