Heather A. Parsons, MD MPH Principal Investigator Physician, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Associate Member, Broad Institute Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Heather A. Parsons, MD, MPH is a Physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, an Associate Physician at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, an Associate Member of the Broad Institute and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is a clinical translational investigator with a focus on developing novel diagnostics for patients with breast cancer. Dr. Parsons’ specific research interest is in how genomics-based biomarkers and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) – tumor-derived DNA found in the plasma – can be used in caring for breast cancer patients. She has led studies in both metastatic and early stage disease investigating the use of ctDNA as a biomarker in breast cancer. Dr. Parsons’ research is supported by an NCI K08 Award, by the Susan G. Komen Foundation and the Gateway Foundation for Cancer Research. Her work has previously been supported by The Bridge Program of MIT and Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center; the DF/HCC Breast Cancer SPORE grant; the Terri Brodeur Foundation and as part of projects funded by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. She is the recipient of a Conquer Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award.
Dr. Parsons is a graduate of Dartmouth College and has a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She received her medical degree from Drexel University College of Medicine, where she was inducted into the AOA Honor Medical Society. She was then an Osler Medicine resident in Internal Medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. She completed a fellowship in Medical Oncology at Johns Hopkins Hospital before joining the Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Marla Lipsyc-Sharf, MD Medical Oncology Fellow Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center
Marla Lipsyc-Sharf received her undergraduate and medical degrees from Columbia University in New York City, and she completed her internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2020. She is currently a medical oncology fellow at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Mass General Brigham working in the Breast Oncology Program at Dana-Farber. Her research focuses on estrogen receptor positive breast cancers and breast cancer in young women, in particular studying promising biomarkers, including liquid biopsy, and cancer recurrence in these populations. She enjoys spending time with her family and friends, practicing yoga, and cheering on Cleveland sports teams.
Stefania Morganti, MD Research Fellow Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center
Stefania Morganti completed her training as a medical oncologist at the European Institute of Oncology and University of Milan (Italy), with a thesis on prevalence and dynamics of clonal hematopoiesis in breast cancer. She obtained her M.D. degree in 2016 from the University of Pavia (Italy). Stefania joined the Parsons Lab in Oct 2021, supported by the American-Italian Cancer Foundation Fellowship, and afterwards by the 2022-2024 Gianni Bonadonna Fellowship. Her research work is focused on investigating minimal residual disease via circulating tumor DNA as a clinical biomarker to personalize therapy in patients with breast cancer. Outside of medicine and research, Stefania loves traveling around the world, exploring new restaurants, and enjoying a glass of good Italian wine with friends.
Kate Santos Clinical Research Coordinator Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Kate received her Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and a minor in Chemistry from University of Massachusetts – Amherst in 2019. Here she completed an undergraduate thesis titled “Investigating the Effect of Mutant Alleles on the DNA Binding Capacity of KNOB7, a Transcriptional Regulator of Cell Wall Biosynthesis in the Model Grass Brachypodium distachyon.’ Kate is currently a clinical research coordinator in the Parsons Lab at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Having conducted translational research at the Boston Children’s Hospital Heart Center Translational Research Lab during her summer internships, she is excited to continue exploring her interest in clinical research through her work with the Parsons team. Kate hopes to help translate large clinical datasets to better inform research questions and thoroughly enjoys being able to interact with patients daily. Apart from work, Kate enjoys eating ice cream, exercising, reading, travelling and spending quality time with friends and family.