Current Graduate Students
Shilpa Dhar
- Hometown: Chicago, Illinois
- Undergrad: Valparaiso University (Chemistry and Biology)
- Graduate program: Cancer Biology
- Mentor: Dr. Laura Banaszynski
- Project: Contributions of SETD2 mutations in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC)
- Fellowship: Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship
Altair Dube
- Hometown: Newark, Delaware
- Undergrad: Florida Institute of Technology (Biological Sciences)
- Graduate program: Genetics, Development and Disease
- Mentor: Dr. Laura Banaszynski
- Project: Mechanisms of p300 activity during cell lineage specification
- Paper: Dai S., Tang X., Li L., Ishidate T., Ozturk A.R., Chen H., Dube A.L., Yan Y.H., Dong M.Q., Shen E.Z., Mello C.C. (2022) A family of C. elegans VASA homologs control Argonaute pathway specificity and promote transgenerational silencing. Cell Rep. 40(10):111265.
Mikayla Eppert
- Hometown: Boone, Iowa
- Undergrad: University of Iowa (Spanish and Biochemistry)
- Graduate program: Genetics, Development and Disease
- Mentor: Dr. Ben Sabari
- Project: Achieving gene control through dynamic compartmentalization of transcription machinery
Hyung Bum (HB) Kim
- Hometown: Queens, New York
- Undergrad: Brandeis University (Biochemistry)
- Graduate program: Genetics, Development and Disease
- Mentor: Dr. W. Lee Kraus
- Project: Connecting fluctuations in estrogen with transcriptional response
Heankel Lyons
- Hometown: Mexico City, Mexico
- Undergrad: Wellesley College (Neuroscience)
- Graduate program: Genetics, Development and Disease
- Mentor: Dr. Ben Sabari
- Project: Gene regulation by biomolecular condensates
- Paper: Lyons H., Veettil R.T., Pradhan P., Fornero C., De La Cruz N., Ito K., Eppert M., Roeder R.G., Sabari B.R. (2023) Functional partitioning of transcriptional regulators by patterned charge blocks. Cell 186(2):327-345.
Zachary Markham
- Hometown: Leakey, Texas
- Undergrad: University of California, Davis (Cell Biology)
- Graduate program: Cell and Molecular Biology
- Mentor: Dr. Gary Hon
- Project: TF Interactions During Cell-state Reprogramming
Ryan O'Hara
- Hometown: Plano, Texas
- Undergrad: University of Texas at Dallas (Molecular Biology)
- Graduate program: Genetics, Development and Disease
- Mentor: Dr. Laura Banaszynski
- Project: Loss of heterochromatin at endogenous retroviruses creates competition for transcription factor binding
- Paper: O'Hara R., Tedone E., Ludlow A., Huang E., Arosio B., Mari D., Shay J.W. (2019). Quantitative mitochondrial DNA copy number determination using droplet digital PCR with single-cell resolution. Genome Research 29(11):1878-1888.
Camila Perez Lujan
- Hometown: Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Undergrad: University of Buenos Aires (Molecular Biology)
- Graduate program: Genetics, Development and Disease
- Mentor: Dr. Ed Grow
- Project: Epigenetics of the female reproductive system
Purbita Saha
- Hometown: Kolkata, India
- Undergrad: St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, India (Biotechnology – BS and MS)
- Graduate program: Genetics, Development and Disease
- Mentor: Dr. Laura Banaszynski
- Project: Role of Histone Variant H3.3 in Enhancer Acetylation in Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells
Weidan Song
- Hometown: Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
- Undergrad: Wuhan University in Wuhan, Hubei, China (Biological Sciences)
- Graduate program: Genetics, Development and Disease
- Mentor: Dr. W. Lee Kraus
- Project: Molecular determinants of PARP1 substrate selection and catalytic activity
- Fellowship: American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship
MiKayla Stokes
- Hometown: Wrangell, Alaska
- Undergrad: Dixie State University, St. George, Utah (Biology)
- Graduate program: Genetics, Development and Disease
- Mentor: Dr. W. Lee Kraus
- Project: Exploring the role of PARP7 during adipogenesis
- Fellowship: American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship
Anjana Sundarrajan
- Hometown: Chennai, India
- Undergrad: Manipal University, India (Pharmaceutical Sciences)
- Graduate program: Genetics, Development and Disease
- Mentor: Dr. Gary Hon
- Project: Functional characterization of non-coding variants in cardiac development
- Scholarship: JN Tata Scholarship for Higher Education of Indians
- Paper: *Armendariz D.A., *Sundarrajan A., Hon G.C. (2023) Breaking enhancers to gain insight into developmental defects. eLife 12:e88187. *equal contribution
Yihan Wang
- Hometown: Taipei, Taiwan
- Undergrad: National Taiwan University (Agricultural Chemistry)
- Graduate program: Genetics, Development and Disease
- Mentor: Dr. Gary Hon
- Project: Functional analysis of non-coding variants in breast cancer
- Paper: Wang Y., Xie S., Armendariz D., Hon G.C. (2022) Computational identification of clonal cells in single-cell CRISPR screens. BMC Genomics 23:135.
Amy Whitaker
- Hometown: Dallas, Texas
- Undergrad: University of Texas at Dallas (Biochemistry)
- Graduate program: Genetics, Development and Disease
- Mentor: Dr. W. Lee Kraus
- Project: Role of PARP1-mediated Site-specific PARylation of C/EBPb in Adipogenesis
- Paper: Challa S., Keun W Ryu, Whitaker A.L., Abshier J.C., Camacho C.V., Kraus W.L. (2022) Development and characterization of new tools for detecting poly(ADP-ribose) in vitro and in vivo. eLife 11:e72464.