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Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute,
Sinai Health
600 University Avenue
Toronto Ontario
M5G 1X5
Tel.:416-586-4800
ext.
Dr. Alissa Greenwald
INVESTIGATOR
Dr. Alissa Greenwald is an Investigator at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto. She studies the organizational principles of human tumors, with the goal of exploiting these principles as therapeutic vulnerabilities. She has a specific interest in brain tumors.
Her research integrates computational and experimental approaches to identify the most robust spatial patterns and interactions across molecular, cellular, and tissue scales, test their essentiality, and the functional consequences of perturbing them.
Dr. Greenwald studies tumor organization through two complementary strategies. First, she generates detailed spatial gene expression maps of patient tumor samples and applies quantitative, systems biology approaches to uncover the most consistent patterns across tumors. Second, she asks how tumors are built using model systems and reductionist approaches to perturb or promote organization.
Her work on the spatial organization of brain tumors established a conceptual and quantitative framework for studying tumor organization at the level of cancer cell expression states, highlighting the role of hypoxia/necrosis as a long-range tissue organizer.
Dr. Greenwald was most recently a Clore postdoctoral fellow and then a staff scientist in the lab of Professor Itay Tirosh at the Weizmann Institute of Science. She completed her PhD in vascular biology in the lab of Professor Eli Keshet at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and her BA in Biological Chemistry at Wellesley College.
At a Glance
Dr. Alissa Greenwald is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto
- Expertise in spatial and single-cell transcriptomics, brain tumors, and vascular biology
- Research program focuses on computational and experimental approaches towards mapping and modulating tumor spatial organization
Major Research Activities
Dr. Greenwald's work focuses on understanding the organizational principles of human tumors. By identifying spatial patterns and associations that consistently repeat across tumors, she hopes to develop spatially-aware treatment approaches. Additionally, she aims to identify regulators and determinants of tumor organization, with the goal of therapeutically modulating tumor organization.
