Yael David

Yael David, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Chemical Biology Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). She leads a lab focused on understanding epigenetic regulation of transcription via chemical biology approaches. Her work integrates biochemistry, cell biology, and protein engineering to study histone modifications in health and disease, particularly cancer and diabetes. David holds a PhD from the Weizmann Institute of Science and conducted postdoctoral research at Princeton University under Tom Muir. She is affiliated with the Tri-Institutional Chemical Biology Program (TPCB) and has received awards including the Josie Robertson Investigatorship and Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Alliance Award.

Education:

• BS in Biology, Stony Brook University (2004)
• PhD in Biochemistry, Weizmann Institute of Science (2011)
• Postdoctoral Fellowship in Chemical Biology, Princeton University (2016)

Research Interests:
Her lab develops chemical tools to study histone modifications and their roles in chromatin dynamics, transcriptional regulation, and disease. Key areas include:

• Epigenetic mechanisms in cancer
• Non-canonical histone marks and their therapeutic targeting
• Chemical probes for histone modification analysis

Awards:

• Josie Robertson Young Investigator’s award (2016–2021)
• CEBRA Award (2018)
• Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Alliance Award

Lab Affiliations:
David’s lab is part of the TPCB and collaborates widely. Current projects include investigating histone glycation’s role in disease and developing novel epigenetic therapies.