Postdoctoral Fellows and Instructors

Marwa Aljardali, M.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow
Hometown: Saida, Lebanon
Undergrad: Lebanese American University (Biology)
Graduate school: Lebanese American University (Medicine)
Mentor: Dr. W. Lee Kraus
Project: TBD
Paper: Farah S., Albaini O., Jardali M.A., Daccahe A., Jallad K. (2023) The Feasibility And Safety Of VNOTES Hysterectomy And Uterosacral Ligament Suspension: A Case Series. Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology S1553-4650(23)00005-5.

Sarah Bahraoui, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow
Hometown: Annecy, France
Undergrad: Grenoble Alpes University (Life Sciences)
Graduate school: M.S. at University of Montpellier (Cancer Biology), Ph.D. at University of Montpellier (Stem Cell Biology and Health)
Mentor: Dr. Laura Banaszynski
Project: TBD

Mohd Younus Bhat, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow
Hometown: Pampore, Jammu and Kashmir, India
Undergrad: University of Kashmir (Biochemistry)
Graduate school: University of Kashmir (Biophysics)
Mentor: Dr. Xin Liu
Project: Structural and Functional Dissection of Polycomb Repressive Complexes PRC2.1 and PRC2.2
Paper: Bhat M.Y., Singh L.R., Dar T.A. (2017) Trimethylamine N-oxide abolishes the chaperone activity of α-casein: an intrinsically disordered protein. Scientific Reports. 7, 6572.

Qiqi Cao, Ph.D.

Morgan Dasovich, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Undergrad: The College of Wooster (Biochemistry & Molecular Biology)
Graduate school: Johns Hopkins University (Chemistry-Biology Interface)
Mentor: Dr. W. Lee Kraus
Project: Understanding how PARPs and ADP-ribosylation regulate signaling pathways and cellular outcomes.
Paper: Dasovich M, Leung AKL. PARPs and ADP-ribosylation: Deciphering the complexity with molecular tools. Mol Cell. 2023 May 18;83(10):1552-1572.

Lihu Gong, Ph.D.

Assistant Instructor
Hometown: China
Undergrad: Southwest University of Science and Technology, China (Biotechnology)
Graduate school: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
Mentor: Dr. Xin Liu
Project: Crosstalk of PRC2 with other epigenetic pathways in cancer cells
Fellowship: American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship

Komal Pekhale, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow
Hometown: Nashik, India
Undergrad: D.Y. Patil Arts Commerce and Science College, Pune, India (Biotechnology)
Graduate school: M.S. at Fergusson College, Pune, India (Biotechnology); Ph.D. at S.P. Pune University, India (Biotechnology)
Postdoc experience: National Institute on Aging, NIH, Baltimore, MD
Mentor: Dr. W. Lee Kraus
Project: Gene regulation; cancer biology

Prashant Pradhan, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow
Hometown: Delhi, India
Undergrad: University of Delhi (Biomedical Science)
Graduate school: Indian Institute of Technology – Delhi (Biological Sciences)
Mentor: Dr. Ben Sabari
Project: Role of biomolecular condensates in development and disease
Paper: Pradhan P., Srivastava A., Singh J., Biswas B., Saini A., Siddique I., Kumari P., Khan M.A., Mishra A., Yadav P.K., Kumar S., Bhavesh N.S., Venkatraman P., Vivekanandan P., Kundu B. (2020) Prion protein transcription is auto-regulated through dynamic interactions with G-quadruplex motifs in its own promoter. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta – Gene Regulatory Mechanisms. 1863(3):194479.

Chikara Takeuchi, M.D., Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow
Hometown: Yokohama, Japan
Undergrad: Keio University, Japan (Medicine)
Graduate school: Keio University, Japan (Medical Science)
Mentor: Dr. Gary Hon
Project: Temporal enhancer architectures during development
Fellowship: Takeda Science Foundation
Paper: Takeuchi C., Yokoshi M., Kondo S., Shibuya A., Saito K., Fukaya T., Siomi H., Iwasaki Y.W. (2022) Mod(mdg4) variants repress telomeric retrotransposon HeT-A by blocking subtelomeric enhancers. Nucleic Acids Res. 50(20):11580-11599.

Xinrui Tan, M.D., Ph.D.

Shubham Vashishtha, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow
Hometown: Uttarakhand, India
Undergrad: Jaypee University of Information Technology, Solan, India (Biotechnology)
Graduate school: Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India (Biological Sciences)
Mentor: Dr. Ben Sabari
Project: Understanding the nature and role of biomolecular condensates in diseases conditions
Paper: Singh J*, Vashishtha S*, Kundu B. (2023) Spike Protein Mutation-Induced Changes in the Kinetic and Thermodynamic Behavior of Its Receptor Binding Domains Explain Their Higher Propensity to Attain Open States in SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern. ACS Central Science 9(10):1894-1904.

Poulami Tapadar, Ph.D.

Undergrad: Presidency University (M.Sc. in Biotechnology)
Graduate school: Presidency University (Ph.D. in Life Sciences)
Mentor: Dr. W. Lee Kraus
Project: How gene transcription levels are altered by PARPs in different cancer types
Paper: Poulami Tapadar, Ambika Pal, Nirajan Ghosal, Bhupendar Kumar, Tamalika Paul, Nabendu Biswas and Ranjana Pal. (2023) CDH1 overexpression sensitizes TRAIL resistant breast cancer cells towards rhTRAIL induced apoptosis. Molecular Biology Reports 50(9):7283-7294.

Weizhi Xu, Ph.D.

Assistant Instructor
Hometown: Guangdong, China
Undergrad: Peking University (Basic Medical Sciences)
Graduate school: Peking University (Anatomy, Histology and Embryology)
Mentors: Drs. Laura Banaszynski and Ashley Solmonson
Project: Intersection of epigenomics and metabolism
Paper: Xu W, Wan J, Zhan J, Li X, He H, Shi Z, Zhang H. (2017) Global profiling of crotonylation on non-histone proteins. Cell Research 27(7):946-949.

Xin Zhang, Ph.D.

Xin Zhao, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow
Hometown: Qingdao, China
Undergrad: Qingdao Agricultural University (Veterinary Medicine)
Graduate school: Jilin University (M.S. in Parasitology), University of Groningen (Ph.D. in Microbiology)
Mentor: Dr. Laura Banaszynski
Project: TBD
Paper: Zhang J, Zhao X, Liu L, Li HD, Gu L, Castrillon DH, Li GM. (2022) The mismatch recognition protein MutSα promotes nascent strand degradation at stalled replication forks. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 119(40):e2201738119.