Andrea Ventura's Lab

An anti-science culture leads to unnecessary deaths and suffering.

Unvaccinated Child Dies of Measles in Texas, Officials Say At least 124 cases of measles have been identified in Texas since late January, mostly among children and teenagers who are either unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown, officials say.

New paper from our lab just published in Nature. It's been 4+ years in the making. But it was well worth the effort.
Fantastic team work from Davide, Minsi, Rui, and Melissa, with contribution from everybody else in the lab!

Engineered extrachromosomal oncogene amplifications promote tumorigenesis - Nature Large extrachromosomal DNAs are engineered using a CRISPR- and Cre–loxP-based approach and shown to drive cancer in mouse models, with potential applications in determining the role of oncogene amplifications in human cancers.

Our latest work on engineering extrachromosomal circular DNAs (ecDNAs) is now available in bioRxiv. In this preprint we describe a novel strategy to engineer the formation of large (>1 Mbp), multigenic, amplifications mediated by ecDNAs in cells and mice. ecDNAs are large, circular DNA fragments that mediate focal amplifications in some of the most aggressive human cancers. ecDNA were described more than 60 years ago and they are known as "double minutes" for their appearance in metaphase spreads (see image)....

ecDNA engineering preprint! Our latest work on engineering extrachromosomal circular DNAs (ecDNAs) is now available in bioRxiv. In this preprint we describe a novel strategy to engineer the formation of large (>1 Mbp), mul…

Welcome to our new postdoc, Moritz Weigl!
Moritz was born and grew up in Amstetten, a small town in the ‘Mostviertel’ region of Lower Austria. He obtained his PhD in Biotechnology from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (Austria). His graduate studies on the role of microRNAs during aging and on using circulating microRNAs as new biomarkers of cellular senescence involved rotations through the labs of Johannes Grillari (LBI Trauma Vienna), Matthias Hackl (TAmiRNA GmbH Vienna) and James Kirkland (Mayo Clinic Rochester). Moritz joined the Ventura lab in 2023 and is intrigued by extracellular RNAs and whether they can be transferred between cell types and if so, what the implications for intercellular communication in the tumor microenvironment are. Outside of the lab Moritz enjoys hiking, playing tennis, going to concerts and apart from science he is interested in literature and history.

Welcome to our newest PhD student: Tanmay Mishra.

Tanmay hails from Prayagraj, India. He was born into a military family and traveled across the country and went to schools in 6 different cities. His passion for travel and research took him to Bangalore where he got his engineering degree in Biotechnology, and subsequently to the USA where he performed research at Iowa State university. He did his MS in Biological Sciences at St John's University in New York and joined Sloan Kettering Institute as a research technician with Dr. Ross Levine. It is here he got profoundly interested in cancer biology and genetic engineering. He is currently a PhD student in the BCMB program of Weill Cornell Medicine in 2021 and joined Andrea Ventura lab and will be studying the extrachromosomal circular DNA (ecDNA) and their role in cancer for his thesis. Tanmay loves to learn, and currently is learning to play the Piano. He also likes to read novels and enjoys traveling and movies.

A long overdue welcoming post to our own amazing Ziqi Jiao, who together with Gaspare and Minsi is leading our efforts to understand miRNA biology.

In his own words: "I call homes to five cities where fond memories are made, endearing friendships forged, and life experiences enriched and expanded— Beijing (childhood), Tokyo (early teens), San Diego (late teens), Chicago (B.A. in Biological Sciences, University of Chicago), and my latest embarking, NYC (GSK PhD Program in Cancer Biology). I joined the Ventura lab in 2021 with an interest in the role of miRNAs in regulating cell state transitions during development, tissue repair/stress adaptation, and cancer. During my free time, I enjoy practicing Olympic weightlifting and Judo, playing video games, watching anime, reading books, and looking for good eats in the city."

Email: [email protected]

The second new addition to the Ventura lab family is Melissa Yao.
Melissa grew up on Long Island, New York and graduated from SUNY Stony Brook University with a B.Sc. in biochemistry. She then went on to work as a research associate at CSHL studying mouse models of pancreatic cancer. She most recently earned her M.Sc. in biomedical sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai studying mouse models of HCC. Melissa joined the Ventura lab in 2022 and is interested in studying the role of ecDNAs in tumorigenesis. Melissa enjoys baking, crocheting, traveling, and indulging in reality TV. She also used to be haunted by the Duolingo owl until she deleted the app from her phone.
Email: [email protected]

We are proud to officially welcome a few new lab members who have joined over the past few months.

The first is Yelenia Cendon Florez. Ylenia is from Madrid, Spain. She obtained her M.Sc. in Genetics and Cellular Biology from the University of Alcalá and her Ph.D. in Molecular Biosciences from the Autonomous University of Madrid, working on inherited mutations in Prostate Cancer at the Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO). Ylenia joined Ventura lab in 2022, and she is interested in understanding how chromosomal rearrangements drive tumorigenesis and contribute to drug resistance. Apart from science, she is also passionate about music, art and traveling. She can be reached at [email protected]

Genome-wide CRISPR guide RNA design and specificity analysis with GuideScan2 We present GuideScan2 for memory-efficient, parallelizable construction of high-specificity CRISPR guide RNA (gRNA) databases and user-friendly gRNA/library design in custom genomes. GuideScan2 analysis identified widespread confounding effects of low-specificity gRNAs in published CRISPR knockout,....

Two postdoctoral positions to study ecDNAs and pediatric brain cancers using genetically engineered mice and in vivo/ex vivo somatic genome editing are available in our lab at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York.
No prior experience with mouse models is needed, but a strong theoretical foundation in cancer biology and molecular biology will be useful.

Starting salary is $51,900/year plus benefits and subsidized housing.

For more details on our work and our recent publications see:
https://venturalaboratory.com/home/research/
and
https://www.mskcc.org/research/ski/labs/andrea-ventura

Our paper describing a new transgenic mouse model for acute and reversible inhibition of miRNA activity in vivo is out in eLife.
https://elifesciences.org/articles/70948/

Shout out to Gaspare La Rocca, who conceived the idea and led the effort, to Brian King, whose contributions were essential.

Also, thanks to Gunther Meister and Tom Tuschl, who designed T6B, and to our many other collaborators across the world: Kevin Haigis, Craig Thompson, Vincenzo Cavalieri and Doron Betel.

A brief overview can be found at our lab page https://venturalaboratory.com/2021/06/04/on-the-role-of-mirnas-in-adult-tissues/

On the role of miRNAs in adult tissues We are thrilled to share a new paper describing a novel approach to interfere with global microRNA activity in cells and in living animals without affecting miRNA biogenesis or miRNA abundance. You…

Welcome Davide! A warm welcome to Davide Pradella, our new postdoc! Davide is from Gravedona, a small village on the north shores of Lake Como, in Italy. He obtained his Ph.D. in Genetics, Molecular, and Cellular …