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People
Olivia Corradin
Dr. Corradin was appointed as an assistant professor at MIT Department of Biology in July 2021. She is also a member at Whitehead Institute, which she first joined as a Whitehead Fellow in July 2016. The Whitehead Fellows program offers young investigators the opportunity to commence their own independent research program shortly after completing graduate work. Olivia graduated with a B.S. in biochemistry from Marquette University and completed her PhD under the mentorship of Dr. Peter Scacheri at Case Western Reserve University in 2015. Dr. Corradin was awarded the Avenir award, part of the NIH Director’s Pioneer Awards, to continue her studies of substance abuse disorders. Outside of the lab, Olivia is most likely to be found at a local dance studio continuing her love of ballet and contemporary dance.
Contact: corradin@wi.mit.edu
An Hoang
Wenjuan Du
Wen got her undergraduate degree in Molecular Biology from Princeton University where she studied quorum sensing in Vibrio cholerae. She joined the lab in 2021 and is studying the role of glial cells in neurolopsychiatric disorders using genetic analysis and Perturb-seq. In her spare time, she enjoys doing puzzles and hiking. Wen is also a plant mom.
Contact: wdu9@mit.edu
Megan Madden
Megan started in the lab in June 2021 as an undergraduate researcher, working through the summer and then her senior year of college at Boston College. In May 2022 she graduated with a Biology B.S. and became a full time research technician. Megan executes a range of tasks within the lab, covering what is needed an various projects. She is also the labs "social chair", planning lab events such as happy hours, lunches and social outings. Outside of lab, she enjoys reading fiction, exploring the city with friends and biking.
Contact: mmadden@wi.mit.edu
Yasmine Sami
Yasmine is a PhD student in the department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, and she joined the Corradin lab in 2022. They got their undergraduate degree in Neuroscience and Psychology from Boston University, where she studied Alcohol Use Disorder through rodent models. Yasmine has an interest in neuropsychiatric diseases, particularly Substance Use Disorders, and they are currently researching the epigenetic effects of opioid exposure. Outside of the lab, she enjoys hiking, running, and reading.
Contact: yns@wi.mit.edu
Fatir Qureshi
Fatir completed his PhD in biomedical engineering at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The focus of his dissertation was leveraging machine learning techniques to better understand the biochemical underpinnings of autism spectrum disorder. Fatir joined the lab as a data scientist immediately after completing his PhD in 2022, and he is really excited to broaden his understanding of bioinformatics, epigenetics and computational biology. In his spare time, he enjoys baking, reading and weight lifting.
Contact: qureshi@wi.mit.edu
Zia Barnard
Zia Barnard hails from the picturesque island of Saint Lucia. She joined the lab as a technician in May 2022. After completing her undergraduate in Biology, she pursued a master’s degree in Biotechnology. Zia hopes to apply her skills and knowledge in the quest to underpin the genetic basis of disease. Outside of the lab, Zia enjoys trying out new ice cream spots, sightseeing, and going on outdoor adventures!
Contact: zbarnard@wi.mit.edu
Hannah Ramcharan
Hannah Ramcharan completed her bachelor's Degree in Bioinformatics with a minor in computer science at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). She is interested in making discoveries about the human genome that can help to understand human disease. Using data from ChIP-Seq and Genome Wide Association Studies, she aims to understand how non-coding regions of the genome, such as enhancers, are involved with regulating genes that affect disease. In her free time, she enjoys observing nature's beauty while running and hiking!
Contact: hkramcha@wi.mit.edu
Pavana Rotti
Pavana Rotti is a Postdoctoral Associate who joined the lab in January 2023. Pavana completed her Masters and PhD at the University of Iowa. During her Masters, Pavana worked on optimizing differentiation of iPSCs to insulin producing cells in 3D organoids. For her PhD, she studied epigenomic modifications in pancreatic ductal cells that impacted cell autonomous response to loss of a bicarbonate transporter, CFTR. In doing so she was able to characterize a transient glycemic recovery period as cystic fibrosis related remodeling in the pancreas progressed. Currently, she is working on developing high throughput methods to systematically understand the impact of epigenomic alterations on cellular mechanisms specifically in opioid use disorders.
Contact: protti@wi.mit.edu
Chidera Okeke
Chidera is an international student from Nigeria. She got her undergraduate degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Fisk University. She is currently a 2nd year graduate student in MIT's biology department. She joined the lab in 2023 and is studying gene regulation dynamics in the brain using Chip-seq and Hi-C data analysis. Her scientific interests include epigenetics, cancer, and immunology. Her interests outside of work include traveling, reading, watching Korean dramas, shopping, and brunch.
Contact: chidera@wi.mit.edu
Xochitl Luna
Xochitl is a PhD student in Brain and Cognitive Sciences (BCS) who joined the lab in 2023. Previously, she graduated from MIT with a Bachelors of Science in Chemistry, where she studied the effect of Alzheimer's Disease genetic variants on neuron-microglia interactions. Now, she hopes to interrogate the role of enhancers in microglia in Multiple Sclerosis. Besides her passion for all things microglia and iPS, Xochi loves dancing, singing, and teaching science.
Contact: xochitl@wi.mit.edu
Yike Huang
Yike completed her PhD in Biomedical Genetics at Hubrecht Institute (NL) early 2024. She studied the principles underlying cohesin loop extrusion and enhancer function. Yike Joined the lab June 2024, hoping to understand the role of early life adversity in individual susceptibility to opioid use disorder. Beyond science, Yike enjoys hot yoga, semi-actively pursing teaching certificate. She also likes bouldering, and can be found hiking or surfing.
Contact: y.huang@wi.mit.edu
Chesna Apere
Chesna completed her undergraduate degree in Molecular Genetics with a minor in Computational Biology at the University of Rochester. She joined the lab in June 2024 as a PhD student from MIT's Biology Department. Chesna aims to study the genetic aspects of Opioid Use Disorder by conducting Perturb-seq in medium spiny neurons. In her free time, she enjoys reading, crocheting, and exploring food from various cuisines.
Contact: capere@wi.mit.edu
Lab Alumni
Anna Barbeau
Anna joined the Corradin Lab during the summer of 2017 through MIT’s Summer Research Program (MSRP). After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from UMass Lowell in 2018, she returned to work full-time as a technician. Currently Anna is a graduate student at MIT. In her spare time, she enjoys running and eating pasta.
William Phu
William is an undergraduate at MIT studying computer science and biology. He is interested in utilizing computational methods to shorten the gap between biological research and applications in healthcare. In lab, William is working on developing a flexible, streamlined pipeline for predicting enhancer-gene interactions. Outside of lab, he likes to cook, garden, play tennis, and catch moths barehanded.
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Yanwei Song
Yanwei joined the Corradin lab as a bioinformatics technician in 2019. After her undergraduate degree in Biotechnology, she pursed a Master's degree in Bioinformatics from Northeastern University with strong interest in applying computational techniques to learn more about human genetics and diseases. In 2018 she joined the lab of Dr. Saxena at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Yanwei enjoys trying different and new methods to solve the problems and questions she met in work. In her free time, she enjoys reading, traveling, and hiking.
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Bruna Lima
Bruna first joined the lab as an undergraduate during her senior year at University of Massachusetts Boston. After graduating with a major in Computer Science and minor in Biology she started working in the lab as a data analyst. Her favorite hobby is playing handball and she loves traveling.
Orian Stapleton
Kate Hazel
Following her undergraduate degree in Biology, Kate pursued a Master’s degree in Neuroscience with a strong interest in psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. Kate joined the Corradin lab as a technician in Fall 2017. She enjoys trying out new techniques and approaches to answer the lab’s continuous search as to how and why things go wrong in the brain. Her interests outside of work include reading, baking, and traveling.
Defne Ceyhan
Defne is a rising junior at The Ohio State University, where she majors in Data Analytics and minors in Biology. She joined the lab in 2023, through the MIT Summer Research Program in Biology. The focus of her project is the analysis of histone modification quantitative trait loci in healthy and opioid use disorder brain tissues. During the academic year, she works in Dr. Peter White’s Computational Genomics Group at the Institute for Genomic Medicine at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Outside of lab, Defne enjoys long walks, music, tennis, and the occasional itinerary planning sesh.
Contact: ceyhan@wi.mit.edu
Sebastián A. Cruz Romero
Sebastián is a rising senior in Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (UPRM) and joined The Corradin Lab through MIT’s Summer Research Program in Biology (MSRP-Bio) 2023. Sebastián is adamant about pursuing a career in Computational Biology to understand how biological mechanisms affect the development of diseases, specifically neurodegenerative disorders and diabetes. At his home institution, he works with developing Deep Learning models to uncover patterns within biomedical signals for constant patient monitoring and early intervention of life-threatening conditions like sepsis. Also, he enjoys brewing coffee and going to the beach whenever he wants a break from science.
Contact: scruz6@wi.mit.edu
Sofia Agudelo
Sofia is a rising senior in Biochemistry at Florida International University (FIU). She joined the Corradin Lab in 2024 through the MIT Summer Research Program in Biology. Her project focuses on the role of inflammatory cell states of microglia on inflammation, as well as the overlap of these enhancers with SNPs for multiple sclerosis. At her home institution, where she joined Dr. Tse Dinh’s lab in 2022, she investigates possible inhibitors of human topoisomerase I due to their role in sepsis response. Sofia is interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms of diseases and discovering novel therapeutics. Outside of academics, Sofia enjoys running, reading (particularly romance and thriller novels), and spending time with her orange cat, Charlie.
Contact: sagud008@wi.mit.edu
Sebastián J. Borrero-Villabol
Sebastián is a senior majoring in Industrial Microbiology at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. He joined the lab in the summer of 2024 through the MIT Summer Research Program in Biology (MSRP-Bio). Sebastián is interested in understanding the effects that CREs and transcription factors have on gene regulation and how they play a role in human disease development. During the summer, he focused on developing sgRNA Lentiviral Libraries for gene knockdowns in Forebrain Neurons using CRISPRi. At his home institution, Sebastián works in Dr. Carlos Ríos-Velazquez’s Microbial Biotechnology and Bioprospecting Laboratory (MBBL), where he develops metagenomic libraries from different environments from all over Puerto Rico. Outside of the lab, he enjoys playing sports, spending time with friends, and baking.
Contact: sborrerovillabol@wi.mit.edu
