OUR TEAM

Dr. Petljak joined the NYU Grossman Medical School in 2023 from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, where she was an EMBO Fellow. In 2021, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center designated her an Emerging Leader in Computational Oncology.  Before that, Dr. Petljak was awarded prestigious training at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where she was appointed a Fellow between 2017 and 2019. Dr. Petljak obtained her Ph.D. Biological Sciences from the University of Cambridge in 2017 at the Sanger Institute. Originally from Croatia, Dr. Petljak moved to the UK in 2009, following her high-school education in Ancient Studies, to pursue her at the time newly developed passion for Human Genetics over a bachelor’s degree at University College London.

Dr. Sarah Wilcox-Adelman is a Lab Manager in the Petljak lab, where she explores cell-intrinsic and environmental factors contributing to mutagenesis, along with the underlying mechanisms of DNA damage, repair, and replication. She employs in vitro and in vivo models in conjunction with DNA sequencing to investigate these processes.

In her previous position at the Matrix Biology Institute, Dr. Wilcox-Adelman served as the Senior Scientist to expand therapeutic uses for the glycosaminoglycan hyaluronan. Dr. Wilcox-Adelman received her doctoral degree in Physiology and Cell Biology from Albany Medical College and completed her postdoctoral training at the Cutaneous Biology Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School where she received an NIH-Individual NRSA Award.

Having previously worked with Dr. Petljak at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Jackson joined Dr. Petljak’s lab to pursue his interest in leveraging single-cell RNA sequencing technologies to understand the impact of cancer driver mutations on cell circuits and tissue microenvironments. He is also interested in using machine learning techniques to support clinical decision-making.

In 2023, Jackson graduated from Harvard College with honors in Statistics: Bioinformatics and Computational Biology and a secondary in Computer Science. Jackson is applying to MD-PhD programs while he moves to the UK and completes his MSc degree in Health Data Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science. In his free time, Jackson likes running with his two bernese mountain dogs and kitesurfing.

Luka Culibrk is a Bioinformatician in the Petljak Lab, developing computational infrastructure for uncovering sources and mechanisms of mutagenesis in human tissues and cancer using next-generation sequencing technologies. During his PhD, he worked on detecting somatic copy number variation using Illumina and Oxford Nanopore sequencing and uncovering patterns of chromosomal instability in human metastatic cancer. He retains some muscle memory of using a pipette from his undergraduate days, but exercise caution in his vicinity should you witness him actually using one.

Luka has a PhD in Bioinformatics from the University of British Columbia concurrently with joining the Petljak Lab in 2023. Previously, he completed his Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry at the University of British Columbia in 2017. In his free time, Luka enjoys rock climbing, hiking and everything in-between. He also enjoys reading, playing chess and gaming.

Isabella is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Petljak Lab. She is leveraging mutational signature readouts to investigate functional impacts of individual mutational processes on cancer cell evolution, using a combination of patient data analyses and in vitro and in vivo experiments.

She completed her PhD in Medical Science in 2023 from University of Cambridge at Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, where she investigated mechanisms of vasculogenic mimicry in various solid tumor types. Prior to her graduate studies, she worked as a Research Technician at the New York Genome Center for three years investigating mechanisms of breast cancer metastasis after obtaining her BSc in Biochemistry from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Jacob is an MD/PhD student at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. In the Petljak Lab, Jacob investigates the molecular mechanisms of mutagenesis of APOBEC cytosine deaminases in cancer. He is also interested in integrating genomic technologies to understand the effects of genetic variation on cellular states and is passionate about increasing access to molecular pathology tools for cancer diagnostics.

In 2020, Jacob graduated from the University of Rochester with Computational Biology and Chemistry degrees. He spent two years investigating pediatric brain cancers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and completed a research project at the Princess Máxima Center in Utrecht, The Netherlands, receiving a Fulbright-Netherland American Foundation grant. Jacob enjoys throwing dinner parties and exploring the city’s many parks with his friends.

Alfonso is a graduate student at New York University, specializing in biology and focusing on biomedical informatics. He is conducting his graduate research in the Petljak Lab, investigating the impact of individual mutational processes in cancer on phenotypes associated with patient outcomes.

Alfonso is also a skilled Research Technician, simultaneously working at NYU Langone’s Wong Lab. With extensive experience in preparing patient-derived xenografts and isolating Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells, he is involved in several studies on lung cancer biology. Alfonso’s academic journey began at the New York City College of Technology, where he engaged with the world of bioinformatics, merging computational analysis with biological research.