People

Christina Curtis

Principal Investigator

Christina Curtis develops and applies AI/ML, computational modeling, and high-throughput molecular profiling to understand how cancers arise, evolve, and metastasize — with the goal of improving early detection, diagnosis, and treatment. Her work redefined the molecular map of breast cancer and introduced new models for the origins and evolutionary dynamics of human tumors.

Nicholas Smith

Bioinformatician

Nick has nearly 10 years of experience working in bioinformatics; he specializes in workflows and standardization practices. A collaborator for the nf-core tools, Sarek, and experience at GHGA has imparted the value of reliable, scalable, standardized pipelines for genomic applications. In the Curtis Lab, Nick focuses on bulk-omics processing and data analysis, working on a range of projects from drug discovery to large-scale reanalysis of clinical trial data and everything in between.

Mina Pichavant

Project Manager

Mina has spent over a decade in senior research program management at Stanford University, coordinating large, multi-stakeholder scientific networks. As Associate Director of the Human Immune Monitoring Center (HIMC) since 2023, she oversees the center's strategic and operational management while serving as Program Manager across several major sponsored research portfolios including Dr. Curtis's grant portfolio spanning NIH, DOD, and Break Through Cancer funding. She is also the program manager of multiple Stanford Awards including but not limited to the Stanford Cancer Immune Monitoring and Analysis Center (CIMAC) since 2018, coordinating a national consortium-based program budgeted at over $100M, with cross-institutional regulatory compliance, assay validation, and NIH reporting. Earlier, she managed the multi-site Accelerating Medicines Partnership (AMP) at Stanford Leadership Center: a collaborative network bringing together the NIH, pharmaceutical companies, and academic institutions to identify biomarkers and drug targets, serving as the central point of contact across the consortium's scientific and clinical stakeholders.

Lise Mangiante

Postdoctoral Fellow

Lise has a broad background in oncogenomics, with specific training and expertise in multi-omic approaches and personalized medicine. Her research aims to understand the evolution and ecology of cancer and the determinants of disease progression through the analysis and modeling of high-dimensional, clinically annotated datasets. Her current research in the Curtis Lab leverages large single-cell spatial transcriptomic data to investigate the role of tissue ecology in the progression of ER+ breast cancer across treatment and metastasis.

Seongyeol Park

Postdoctoral Fellow

Seongyeol is a physician-scientist specializing in computational oncology. His research aims to decode the complex mechanisms of cancer evolution and build precise predictive models. With expertise in cancer multiomics analysis—including whole-genome and single-cell data—his current research in the Curtis Lab utilizes spatial omics data to decipher the coevolution between cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment.

Brennan Simon

Graduate Student, Cancer Biology

Brennan uses computational approaches with a focus on AI/ML to model the tumor microenvironment using spatial multiomics data, identify robust biomarkers of patient prognosis, and develop tools to predict biomarkers and other key information from clinical histology data.