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Penn Center for Personalized Diagnostics

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Center for Personalized Diagnostics Team

Male doctor with elderly male patient

The concept of cancer as a genomic disease has been clear since 1960, when Peter Nowell, from the University of Pennsylvania, and his graduate student David Hungerford, identified an abnormal chromosome (the Philadelphia chromosome) associated with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). Amazingly, the first targeted therapy for cancer, Imatinib, was later developed around the Philadelphia chromosome and its targeted fusion gene product BCR-ABL1 as well.

Targeted therapy can be categorized into small molecules and monoclonal antibodies. Small molecules are chemicals that block the growth of cancer cells, often by mimicking a substrate, which blocks the active site in the molecule. Some examples of small molecules in cancer include imatinib mesylate (Imatinib), commonly used for CML, gastrointestinal stromal tumors, as well as some other tumors and erlotinib and gefitinib, which are targeted against EGFR mutations in lung and pancreatic adenocarcinomas.

There are also monoclonal antibodies that target specific genetic changes in tumor cells. An example of a monoclonal antibody that has altered disease outcome is trastuzumab, which targets ERBB2 (also known as her2/neu) that is expressed in some breast cancers and some lung adenocarcinomas. The promise of trastuzumab as a targeted therapy that can both treat advanced cancer and prevent its development or reoccurrence traces its origins to the pioneering contributions of Dr. Mark Greene, now a University of Pennsylvania faculty member in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.

The Center for Personalized Diagnostics at the University of Pennsylvania builds on this legacy of personalized medicine.

Current Leadership 

Headshot of Jennifer Morrissette

Jennifer Morrissette, PhD
Associate Professor of Clinical Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Interim Director, Center for Personalized Diagnostics

Dr. Morrissette is an Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and is currently serving as the Interim Director of the Center of Personalized Diagnostics. She is dual board certified in Clinical Cytogenetics and Clinical Molecular Genetics by the American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ABMGG). She is the Laboratory Director for the CytoGenomics Laboratories at Penn Medicine and is the Scientific Director of the Clinical Cancer Cytogenetics Laboratory, and the Clinical Director for the Center of Personalized Diagnostics. She received her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Genetics from the State University of New York at Buffalo, completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Molecular Genetics at Harvard Medical School and completed the ABMGG Fellowship at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Her interests are in the application of genomic technologies in oncology for patient management and using genomics to support personalized therapy.

Download Dr. Jennifer Morrissette's CV

Headshot of Robert Faryabi

Robert Babak Faryabi, PhD
Assistant Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Assistant Professor of Cancer Biology
CPD Faculty Lead, Bioinformatics

Dr. Faryabi is an Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, a core member of Penn Epigenetics Institute, and a member of Abramson Cancer Center Breast Cancer Research Program. The overarching goal of the Faryabi Lab is to advance the mechanistic understanding of human cancer genome regulation and dissect how transcription factors alter cancer genome folding. The lab deploys multidisciplinary approaches from chromatin, cancer, and computational biology to rigorously define the cause-and-effect relationship between transcriptional regulators, chromatin organization, and gene expression in cancer. Current projects in the Faryabi lab focuses on lymphoma and breast cancer and explore: i) how epigenetic control of gene expression is disrupted, ii) how transcriptional dependencies can develop, and iii) how heterogeneity and plasticity of transcriptional dependencies enable drug resistance in these cancers.

Download Dr. Robert Babak Faryabi's CV 

Headshot of Dr. Jacquelyn Roth

Jacquelyn J. Roth, PhD
Assistant Professor of Clinical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Dr. Roth is an Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She is dual board certified in Clinical Cytogenetics and Clinical Molecular Genetics by the American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ABMGG). Dr. Roth received her PhD in Genetics from Thomas Jefferson University. She then completed her two ABMGG fellowships at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. In 2014, she joined the Molecular Pathology Laboratory in the Division of Precision and Computational Diagnostics at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where she served as the Molecular Development Assistant Director for three years before transitioning into her current role. Dr. Roth's interests include harmonizing the use of cytogenetic and molecular techniques to improve patient diagnostics and laboratory quality control.

Salvatore Priore headshot

Salvatore Priore, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Clinical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Dr. Salvatore Priore is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine. He completed his residency in Anatomic Pathology and fellowship in Molecular Genetic Pathology at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Rochester as a member of the Medical Scientist Training Program. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Yi Xing in the Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Priore maintains a significant interest in investigating and developing RNA-based molecular diagnostic testing. In addition, he is actively involved in teaching and developing novel educational content in the areas of molecular pathology and medical humanities.

Dr. Priore is a diplomate of the American Board of Pathology.

Geoff Yang headshotGuang (Geoff) Yang, MD
Assistant Professor of Clinical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Dr. Guang (Geoff) Yang is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine. He underwent residency training in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at Loma Linda University Medical Center. He completed a fellowship in Molecular Genetic Pathology at Mayo Clinic, and a fellowship in Hematopathology at University of Pennsylvania. He was an instructor in the Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory at University of Minnesota. He maintains strong interests in cancer genomics, especially molecular hematopathology, related projects. Dr. Yang is certified by the American Board of Pathology in Combined Anatomic and Clinical Pathology, as well as sub-specialty certification in Hematopathology and Molecular Genetic Pathology.

Simon Chen headshotSimon Chen, MD
Assistant Professor of Clinical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Dr. Simon Chen is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine. He obtained his medical degree from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and completed graduate medical education including residency in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology and fellowships in Molecular Genetic Pathology and Surgical Pathology, all at Stanford Health Care. He is interested in the application of molecular genetic pathology to the study of cancer, and in particular the use of molecular genetic biomarkers to support the latest diagnostic and therapeutic innovations in oncology, hematology, anatomic pathology, and hematopathology.

CPD Staff Members

  • David Lieberman, Interim Administrative Director
  • Patrick Candrea, Technical Supervisor
  • Sarah Herlihy, PhD, Assistant Director of Assay Development
  • Corey Rogers, PhD, Genomic Development Specialist
  • AmandaSue Landi, Genomic Development Specialist
  • Ashkan Bigdeli, Lead Bioinformatics Specialist
  • Akshay Chitturi, Bioinformatics Specialist
  • Chase Rushton, Bioinformatics Specialist
  • Safoora Deihimi, Genomic Variant Analyst
  • Chris Orr, PhD, Genomic Variant Analyst
  • Chris Herzog, PhD, Genomic Variant Analyst
  • Sanese White-Brown, Genomic Variant Analyst
  • Natalie Opsitnick, Clinical Genomics Technologist
  • Monika Carey, Clinical Genomics Technologist
  • Jason Limbo, Clinical Genomics Technologist
  • George Stuski, Clinical Genomics Technologist
  • Stephen Szabo, Clinical Genomics Technologist
  • Ada Ng, Clinical Genomics Technologist
  • Stefanie Shawver, Laboratory Assistant
  • Michelle Gatta, Administrative Assistant

Contact Us

For the Center of Personalized Diagnostics and test inquiries, call 215-615-3966 or contact:

  • Jennifer Morrissette, PhD
    Interim Director
    Center for Personalized Diagnostics
    Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
    3020 Market Street, Suite 221C
    Philadelphia, PA 19104
    Telephone: 215-615-2387
    Email: Jennifer.Morrissette@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
  • David B. Lieberman, MS, CGC
    Interim Administrative Director
    Center for Personalized Diagnostics
    Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
    3020 Market Street, Suite 220
    Philadelphia, PA 19104
    Telephone: 215-349-8416
    Email: David.Lieberman@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

CPD Resources and Selected Publications

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