Team

Background: I’m originally from New York. I went to Stanford University as an undergraduate. I fell in love with science there, skipping a good deal of classes to work in Irv Weissman’s lab all four years. I worked on adult stem cell plasticity (or mostly the lack thereof) and prospectively isolated adult muscle stem cells. I then grudgingly moved away from the California sun to Cambridge where I got my PhD at Harvard University in Doug Melton’s lab. Having grown frustrated by how committed adult stem cells were, I worked on embryonic development, researching how cells decide what to become and focusing primarily on endodermal organ specification. After graduating, I moved across the river to Boston, performing an independent fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School with mentorship from Dick Maas and David Gifford. I used lessons from my graduate work to improve embryonic stem cell differentiation toward endodermal lineages and researched the transcriptional mechanisms underlying differentiation. I now run a lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School focusing on the intersection of genomics, genome editing, stem cell biology, and computational biology.

Background: I grew up in Miami, Florida where the city’s unique biodiversity made it easy to fall in love with the outdoors and the study of Life. As an undergrad at Duke University I became absorbed by the world of molecular biology and spent two years researching new ways to manipulate and edit RNA in the Asokan Lab. After my time in the Sherwood Lab, I’ll be pursuing a PhD in molecular/cellular biology.

Project: Currently focused on applying novel high-throughput technologies to study human protein-protein interactions and to explore how the breadth of human genetic variance affects these interactions.

Favorite Daily Game: Travle.earth

If you could time travel, where would you go? Woodstock ’69 to see Santana perform live or early Earth to bring back samples of the earliest life. 

Background: I grew up in Glencoe (a suburb of Chicago), Illinois. At the University of Chicago, I earned a bachelor’s of science in biology with a specialization in genetics while working in Professor Alexander Ruthenburg’s epigenetics lab on projects about the role of different long noncoding RNAs in genomic regulation. After the Sherwood lab, I hope to pursue a Ph.D. in genetics or molecular and cell biology.

Current Project: I am currently working on two different tools that use cytosine base editors to measure chromatin accessibility and transcription factor footprinting.

Favorite TC song: Airwaves by PASHANIM

New Animal I Would Make With CRISPR: Normal birds that made the sounds of other kinds of animals.

Favorite daily game: The Atlantic Mini or Categories by the NYT

Background: I am from Southern California (originally Orange County, but moved to Pasadena), and then moved east to Amherst College where I pursued a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and biology. Learning about exciting advances in genetics spurred on by novel machine learning techniques has led me to my research technician position at the Sherwood Lab, which frequently collaborates with computational biologists to answer thought-provoking basic biology questions. After my time as a research tech I’m interested in pursuing a PhD in computational biology or genetics! 

Project: My project aims to shed light on understudied genes involved in cholesterol secretion. I am using a wide range of techniques to do so, such as genetic screens, RNA-seq pathway analysis, and protein assays. 

Favorite Daily Game: NYT Mini/Atlantic Crossword 

Hobbies: I love visual art! I am currently taking drawing classes in Boston at the Academy of Realist Art and am actively involved in the local art community (shout out to LDB and FPAC)!

Favorite album: Probably Yume by Lamp. Bangers cover to cover.

Background: I was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey, and moved to Munich, Germany, for my undergraduate studies. I studied Molecular Biotechnology at the Technical University of Munich, where I discovered my passion for genetics with the emergence of new genome editing tools. I joined the Sherwood lab for my master’s thesis and am currently working on my thesis project until I start my PhD. 

Project: I am developing a high-throughput assay to investigate RNA-protein interactions in tandem repeat disorders to deepen our understanding of the disease pathology and potentially identify new therapeutic strategies.

Favorite daily game: WhenTaken

Which superpower: Downsizing myself to see a living cell and DNA with my own eyes

Name a hobby: Sailing (but mostly chilling on a sailboat) 

Background: “Ich bin ein Berliner!” – I was born and grew up in Berlin (Germany) and spent most of my life there too. I earned my master’s degree in Biotechnology from the Technische Universität Berlin with a focus on Genetics and Genetic Engineering and my PhD in Virology from the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. I joined the Sherwood lab in March 2023 and as a postdoc, I am looking forward to investigating the impact of genetic variations on cholesterol metabolism, solving technical challenges, mentoring students, and hanging out with my teammates.

Project: I am currently employing CRISPR base editing screens in human hepatocyte cell lines to investigate the impact of genetic variants on the cellular uptake and efflux of cholesterol. These results are also closely linked to a computational approach with genome-wide association studies of data on blood levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in patients. Together, this will help us to create a deeper understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms of cholesterol metabolism and ultimately contribute to a genetic-based risk assessment for cholesterol-linked diseases like coronary artery disease.

Name one of your life goals. Just to be happy and content with the things I am doing with my life.

Name one of your hobbies. Exploring new cities on foot!

What is your proudest lab moment? Naming a cloned herpesvirus BAC construct after myself

What is your most embarrassing lab moment? One particular cloning gave me colonies, but all clones were negative for insert. After countless re-cloning, transformations, re-picked colonies, mini-preps, and control digests I finally realized that one of the restriction enzymes went bad – so no wonder all clones I got were re-ligations!

Tian Yu

Sitara Roy

Jing Zhao

Background: I am a female leopard gecko born in 2011 who can’t help but buzz my tail at the sight of a good cricket or waxworm. 

Background: I am a male leopard gecko born in 2011. I have an oddly large head and a complicated love/biting relationship with Acorn.