Lab Members

Zoe is a graduate of Barnard College studying Biochemistry who aims to pursue a PhD in cancer biology. She is also a Goldwater Scholar. She is interested in studying chromatin state in aggressive cancers using novel biotechnological tools, and outside of research, she enjoys hiking, reading, and spending time with her family.

Victoria received her BSc in Medical Biosciences from Imperial College London, and her MSc by Research in Oncology from the University of Oxford. She is interested in how chromatin remodeling influences lung injury repair and cancer development, with potential therapeutic implications. She enjoys tea, cooking, reading, and growing an alarming number of plants.

Vicky double majored in Biochemistry and Nutritional Science with a minor in Studio Art at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her research interests include studying NSCLC, specifically in chromatin regulation. She loves singing, painting, snowboarding, and her two cats.

Soo Young graduated from Bergen County Academies studying mathematics and biology. His work focused on conducting immunohistochemistry analysis of key biomarkers and micro-CT imaging quantification through different treatment time points. Soo Young joined the Concepcion lab to explore his interest in development of lung cancer therapeutics and gain more hands-on experience in the wet lab environment. In his free time, he likes to play soccer, frisbee, and run 800-meters track events. He will be studying Computational Biology at University of Pennsylvania.

Shruti received her MSc from KIIT School of Biotechnology, KIIT University, India and her PhD from the Bose Institute, India. Her keen interest lies in unraveling the complexities of cancer development and identifying novel therapeutic targets. Her active research interest revolves around the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex and its pivotal role in driving lung cancer metastasis. With a prime focus on understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying metastatic progression, she is interested in deciphering how alterations in ARID1A contribute to tumor dissemination and therapeutic resistance in lung cancer. Beyond the lab, she enjoys non-fiction reads and exploring the dynamic streets of NYC.

Rohan received his MSc in Quantitative Biology and Bioinformatics from Carnegie Mellon University and a BTech in Biotechnology with a Data Science minor from Manipal Institute of Technology, India. His research focuses on developing scalable pipelines for analyzing whole-genome, transcriptomic, and single-cell sequencing data. At HICCC, he is particularly interested in leveraging cloud-based tools like AWS to support large-scale cancer genomics and build reproducible, efficient workflows and analyse large cancer datasets. Outside the lab, he enjoys watching football (soccer) and exploring different neighbourhoods around NYC.

Emily attended Barnard College studying Biochemistry. Her research contributed to understanding how SMARCA4 mutations contribute to KRAS inhibitor resistance in lung adenocarcinomas. She now works for DeciBio in Los Angeles, California.

Elena graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in Biotechnology and a minor in Chinese Language. Her research interests include tissue engineering and biomaterials, and one of her focuses in the lab is establishing cultures of lung cancer patient-derived organoids. She will be starting her PhD at Dartmouth College in 2025. Outside of the lab, she enjoys reading, running, and exploring NYC.

David graduated from Fairleigh Dickinson University with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry. His undergrad research work focused on the synthesis and structural characterization of a large panel of cellulose-based aerogels. His focus at the Concepcion lab is to investigate the role of SMARCA2 in SMARCA4-deficient lung cancers, with the goal to inform future cancer therapeutics.

Dr. Chia-I Shen is a clinical physician who graduated from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. She completed her residency in pulmonology and thoracic oncology, now specializing in the treatment of lung cancer at Taipei Veterans General Hospital.

As a physician dedicated to lung cancer care, she is actively involved in both patient management and multiple clinical trials. To further expand her expertise, she enrolled in the joint Ph.D. program at the Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, where she began her basic research training. Her primary research interests include drug resistance, EGFR/ALK mutations, and the epigenetic mechanisms underlying lung cancer progression.

Motivated by a strong interest in epigenetic regulation of drug resistance and the emerging role of SWI/SNF complex and SMARCA4 in non-small cell lung cancer, Chia-I joined the lab as a visiting scholar in 2024 to deepen her understanding and contribute to advances in the field.

Carla Concepcion, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology & Therapeutics and a member of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Dr. Concepcion received her BS in Molecular Biology & Biotechnology from the University of the Philippines in Manila. She obtained her PhD from Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences of Cornell University where she studied microRNAs (miRNAs) in cancer and development in the lab of Dr. Andrea Ventura at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Concepcion did her postdoctoral training with Dr. Tyler Jacks at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she focused on the mechanisms through which alterations in SMARCA4, a core catalytic component of SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complexes, transform the chromatin landscape and drive tumorigenesis in the lung. Dr. Concepcion began her independent research program at the Department of Molecular Pharmacology & Therapeutics at CUIMC in 2022. Her lab seeks to understand how altered chromatin states contribute to cell fates as tumors evolve with the goal of developing hypothesis-driven therapeutic strategies.

Ashlyn was a Master’s student and part-time technician in the Concepcion Lab. After graduating with a Bachelor’s of Science in Biological Sciences from Fordham University in 2023, she began studying Biotechnology here at Columbia University. Motivated by her strong desire to improve patient outcomes, she is highly dedicated to translational research in the cancer biology field, with a particular interest in cancer immunology.