Our Lab Team

Our laboratory is home to post-docs, PhD students, staff, and other collaborators from different fields who are driven to study epigenetic regulation in normal and cancer development and to identify new therapeutic opportunities.

Principal Investigator

Eneda Toska, PhD

Eneda Toska, PhD

Director, Toska Lab

Eneda Toska, Ph.D., joined the Kimmel Cancer Center as an Assistant Professor of Oncology in the Cancer Invasion and Metastasis Program (CIM), in close collaboration with the Women’s Malignancies Disease Group. Eneda also was appointed to a secondary faculty position in the Bloomberg School of Public Health Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BMB), with membership in the BMB Ph.D. program.

Grants:

  • K22 NCI Transition to Independence Award
  • Innovation in Cancer Informatics
  • Breast Cancer Research Alliance
  • Jayne Koskinas Ted Giovanis Foundation for Health and Policy
  • National Cancer Institute 1R21CA252530-01A1
  • National Cancer Institute R01 R01CA276187
Ryan Blawski, PhD

Ryan Blawski, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Education:
• BS, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
• PhD, Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, New York, NY

Previous Institutions:
• Sloan Kettering Institute – Postdoctoral Fellowship
• Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences – PhD

Dr. Blawski’s interests are identifying epigenetic mechanisms of therapy resistance in breast cancer with a focus on protein methylation

rblawsk1@jhmi.edu

Bujamin Vokshi, PhD

Bujamin Vokshi, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Education

  • BS, Biochemistry, Besançon, FR
  • MS, Biomedicine, Strasbourg, FR
  • PhD, Cancer biology, Strasbourg, FR

Previous institution:

  • Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology (IGBMC), Strasbourg, FR

Bujamin aims at understanding how chromatin-remodeling machineries regulate cancer metastasis and response to therapy, which could lead to the development of novel drugs.

Srushti Kittane, MS

Srushti Kittane, MS

Graduate Student, PhD candidate of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Johns Hopkins University

Education:
BE, Biotechnology, Siddaganga Institute of Technology, India
MS, Biotechnology, New York University, New York

Previous Institution:
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (New York), New York University (New York)

Srushti’s interest lies in studying the mechanism of action of epigenetic genes and their regulation of the processes that influence cancer etiology and therapeutic intervention.

skittan1@jhmi.edu

Wanlu Chen, MS

Wanlu Chen, MS

Graduate Student, PhD Candidate of Biostatistics Co-mentorship with Dr. Hongkai Ji

Education:

BS, Mathematics and applied mathematics, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China
ScM (transferred), Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD

wchen111@jhmi.edu

Pranav Shivashankar, ScM

Pranav Shivashankar, ScM

Research Specialist, Toska Lab, Woman’s malignancies program, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Education:

  • B.Tech, Biotechnology (2021), SRM Institute of Science and Technology

Pranav is interested in understanding the role of mutant histones that correlate to chemotherapeutic resistance in Uterine Carcinosarcoma.

pshivas1@jh.edu

Christopher Simpkins, BS

Christopher Simpkins, BS

Graduate Student, PhD candidate of Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Education:
BS, Biology, Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA

Previous Institutes:
• Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA

 Chris is broadly interested in investigating the fundamental cellular mechanisms that go awry in the development and progression of cancer with an focus on cell signaling, cellular fate decisions, and potential avenues for therapeutic intervention.

Bryce Wozniak, BS

Bryce Wozniak, BS

Graduate student, PhD student of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Johns Hopkins University

Education:
BS, Biochemistry, Virginia Tech, VA

Previous Institutions:
Fralin Life Sciences Institute, Blacksburg, VA

Bryce’s research interests are focused on understanding the way epigenetic regulators influence metastatic progression and therapy resistances in breast cancer.

bwoznia1@jh.edu

Nachiket Kelkar, B.Tech

Nachiket Kelkar, B.Tech

Masters student, ScM in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Education:
Bachelor of Technology, Biotechnology (2022), Manipal Institute of Technology

Previous Institutions:

Serum Institute of India (Pune, India)
Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (Mumbai, India)

Nachiket is interested in understanding genetic and epigenetic mechanisms which lead to therapy resistance in breast cancer.

nkelkar1@jh.edu

Martina Gjyzari, BS candidate

Martina Gjyzari, BS candidate

Research Technician, Toska Lab, Woman’s malignancies program, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Education:
B.S in Neuroscience (2023): Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD

Martina is interested in understanding the mechanisms that lead to cancer development.

mgjyzar1@jh.edu

Alumni

Adler Guerrero Zuniga, BS

Adler Guerrero Zuniga, BS

Post-Baccalaureate Resarch Fellow 2021-2022

Current PhD student at JHU

Tatiana M. Prioleau, BS

Tatiana M. Prioleau, BS

Post-Baccalaureate Research Fellow 2021-2022

Current PhD student Duke University

Xinyu (Brian) Guo, BA

Xinyu (Brian) Guo, BA

Masters Student, MS Candidate of Biostatistics

Current PhD student at USC

Yuhan Zhang, BS

Yuhan Zhang, BS

Masters Student, MS Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, JHSPH 2021-2023

Current PhD student at UC, San Diego