Epigenetics of Stem Cells, Development & Cancer
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, USA
Principal Investigator
Professor, Department of Genetics
Professor, Department of Developmental & Molecular Biology
Member, Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Research
Education:
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B.A. Biology and Chemistry Concordia College, Moorhead MN, USA 2000-2003
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Ph.D. Biomedical Sciences Cancer Biology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN, USA (Advisor: Prof. Jan van Deursen, PhD) 2004-2008
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Postdoctoral Training: Epigenetics of stem cells & development, Whitehead Institute/MIT Cambridge, MA, USA (Mentor: Prof. Rudolf Jaenisch, MD) 2009-2014
Teaching:
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Molecular Genetics (Fall), Gene Expression (Winter), Stem Cells Development & Disease (Spring)
-------------------------------- Technicians ------------------------------
Jessica Benitez, M.A.
Technician/Lab Manager
Education:
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M.A. Biology, SUNY College at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA
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B.A. Biology, Biotechnology, Environmental Earth Science, SUNY College at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA
About Jessica:
Jessica joined the lab in May 2024 after completing her Masters degree at the State University of New York (SUNY) College at Buffalo and working as technician in Genetics labs. She oversees the daily lab maintenance, mouse colony genotyping and management, and experiments in the lab.
-------------------------------- Postdoctoral Fellows ------------------------------
Asmaa Abdullah, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Education:
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Bachelor of Science, Biochemistry, National University of Malaysia, Malaysia
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Master of Medical Science, Biochemistry, National University of Malaysia, Malaysia
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Ph.D., Advanced Medical Science, Shiga University of Medical Science, Japan
About Asmaa:
Asmaa joined the lab as a postdoctoral fellow in June 2024. She was previously working as postdoctoral fellow at Shiga University of Medical Science where she studied neurodevelopment. She investigates how Tet-mediated DNA demethylation regulate the neural lineage and what implications it has for development and diseases.
Sara Fielder, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Education:
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B.A., Biology Bryn Mawr College, PA, USA
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Ph.D., Genetics and Molecular Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
About Sara:
Sara joined the lab as a postdoctoral fellow in November 2024. She was previously working as a postdoctoral fellow and staff scientist at Washington University School of Medicine where she modeled and studied rare genetic diseases in worms. She investigates how Tet proteins regulate lineage specification during development with implications for human diseases.
Micaela Parra, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow (Lab Bioinformatics Expert)
Education:
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B.A., Biological Sciences, Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia San Juan Bosco , Argentina
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Ph.D., Biology, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Argentina
About Micaela:
Micaela joined the lab as a postdoctoral fellow in April 2025. She completed her PhD in 2024 with a focus on circadian clock components in fungi using computational biology approaches at the National University of Comahue in Argentina. She investigates Tet-mediated gene regulation in stem cell identity and plasticity using bioinformatics and computational biology approaches.
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Wenjie Luo, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Education:
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Bachelor of Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
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Master of Medicine, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
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PhD in Surgery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
About Wenjie:
Wenjie joined the lab as a postdoctoral fellow in December 2025. He completed his PhD in 2025 with a focus on using organoid systems to study lung turmorigenesis at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He investigates how Tet enzymatic activities regulate ESC pluripotency and development.
-------------------------------- Clinical Fellows ------------------------------
Emiliya Storman, MD PhD
Clinical Fellow (Pediatric Endocrinology)
Education:
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BS, Neural Science & Psychology, New York University, New York, NY
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PhD, Neural and Behavioral Science, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University
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MD, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University College of Medicine
About Emiliya:
Emiliya is a pediatric endocrinology fellow at Children’s Hospital at Montefiore. She has completed her MD and PhD degrees at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University followed by residency in pediatrics at Cohen Children’s Medical Center. She joined the lab in December 2025 for the research years of her program. She investigates how Tet enzymes regulate NSC biology and neurodevelopment
-------------------------------- Graduate Students ------------------------------
Blake Ebert, PhD
M.D.Ph.D. Student (in lab 2021-2025)
Thesis: Epigenetics of neural stem cell biology
Ian MacArthur, PhD
M.D.Ph.D. Student (in lab 2020-2024)
Thesis: Epigenetics of neural stem cell biology
Alumni:
Graduate Students:
Blake Ebert, PhD (MSTP Student 2021-2025)
Harmony Ketchum, PhD (PhD Student 2020-2025)
Ian MacArthur, PhD (MSTP Student 2020-2024)
Julio Flores, MD PhD (MSTP Student 2019-2023)
Postdoctoral Fellows:
Stephanie Chrysanthou, PhD (Postdoc: 2017-2022)
Liyang Ma, PhD (Postdoc: 2017-2022)
Antoine Abou Jaoude, PhD (Postdoc: 2019-2021)
Qin Tang, PhD (Postdoc: 2018-2021)
Mirunalini Ravichandran, PhD, (Postdoc: 2017-2019)
Run Lei, PhD, (Postdoc: 2015-2017)
Technicians:
Hruthvik Bhavsar, BA (Technician/Lab Manager: 2022-2024)
Nick Cheng-Yen Huang, BA (Technician/Lab Manager: 2020-2022)
Joune Lee, BA (Study Coordinator/Lab Manager: 2017-2020)
Clinical Fellows:
Kaitlin Haines, MD (Fellow: 2020-2021)
Katherine Howgego, MBCHB, (Fellow: 2015-2016)
Undergradaute interns:
Christopher Hunter, Summer 2019 (Senior, University of New Mexico, NM)
Jessica Chung, Summer 2016 (Senior, Smith College, Northampton, MA)
Benjamin Cattau, Summer 2016 (Junior, Haverford College, Haverford, PA)
Desiree Williams, Fall 2015 (Senior, John Jay College, New York City, NY)
Omer Naseer, Summer 2015 (Junior, Queens College of CUNY, Flushing, NY)
Harmony Ketchum, PhD
Ph.D. Student (in lab 2020-2025)
Thesis: Epigenetics of embryonic and hematopoietic stem cells
Julio Flores, MD PhD
M.D.Ph.D. Student (in lab 2019-2023)
Thesis: Epigenetics of embryonic and hematopoietic stem cells
Collaborators
Keisuke Ito, MD PhD (Professor of Cell Biology and Medicine, Einstein)
Masako Suzuki, PhD (Assistant Professor of Nutrition, Texas A&M University)
Anirban Maitra, MD (Professor of Pathology, MD Anderson Cancer Center)