Our Members
Photo Credit: “Faces of Dudley” mural by Mike Womble and Mayor’s Mural Crew
Our Members
Dr. Jhullian Alston
Dr. Joshua François
Dr.François is currently a postdoctoral research fellow in Galit Lahav’s laboratory at Harvard Medical School. His general research interest is to understand how physical and chemical cues affect the behavior of individual cells.
Dr. Walatta-T Mesquitta
Dr. Olasunkanmi Tobi Olaoye
I'm Tobi, originally from Lagos, Nigeria, but now living in Boston, USA. I completed my doctorate in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Toronto in 2022. During my time there, I worked on developing new medications by creating small molecule inhibitors of histone deacetylases. These compounds were tailored to penetrate the brain and underwent extensive preclinical testing. I'm passionate about the potential of small molecules to interact with our bodies and trigger specific responses. My goal is to develop medicines, particularly for diseases often neglected due to financial constraints. Currently, I'm a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Kimberly Stegmaier's lab, where we use molecular biology to discover new clinical targets. My background in medicinal chemistry helps me design drugs for these targets. Outside of work, I love staying active with basketball and tennis, and I admit, I indulge in quite a bit of video gaming too!
Dr. Deborah Msekela
Postdoc at Harvard medical school. PhD from Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
Dr. Ricardo Harripaul
Ricardo was born in Trinidad and Tobago and did his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto. He identified genes for Intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder for his thesis and also worked on other psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and congenital pain insensitivity.Ricardo moved to the US as a computational research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital, affiliated with the Broad Institute and Harvard Medical School where he dissects the functional mechanisms of neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders, particularly Familial Dysautonomia. He enjoys finding the molecular underpinning of disease and how this relates to patient phenotypes and translating these findings to patients.
Dr. Mike Oliphant
Dr. Oliphant is a NCI F99/K00 Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the labs of Joan Brugge and Senthil Muthuswamy at Harvard Medical School. His current research focuses on using 3D organoid models to study the initiation, progression and drug resistance of ER+ breast cancer.
Dr. Emmanuel Ogbonna
Dr. Ogbonna studies the relationship between tuberculosis granuloma heterogeneity and host immune response – elicited upon infection – using tissue cyclic immunofluorescence. CyCIF is used with a wide array of antibody markers to phenotype all the different cell types associated with the granuloma stages, especially their spatial relationships to one another.
Dr. Abigael Cheruiyot
Abby was born and raised in Kenya. Abby’s interest in science originates from her early childhood observation of her father practicing dentistry in rural Kenya, and the interest was encouraged by her parents. She moved to the US to attend Colby College in Maine, then obtained her PhD from Washington University in Saint Louis, where she uncovered some mechanisms involved in RNA surveillance and their relevance in leukemia. Abby decided to pursue postdoctoral studies in the field of diabetes, a growing global public health challenge, where she could learn more about gene regulation at the step of mRNA translation and its influence on optimal insulin production to regulate blood glucose. Abby is particularly interested in diabetes research because of family history of diabetes, and the disparities in diabetes outcomes in populations that are currently marginalized in science. Aside from science, Abby enjoys the outdoors, especially hiking, kayaking or canoeing. She is also getting back to running, which she did as a track and cross-country athlete in college. She also loves cooking and baking, and always down to trying out different recipes from across the world.
Dr. Adam Fiseha Kebede
A postdoctoral scientist with a strong interest and 8+ years of experience in the field of Epigenetics and Chromatin Biology. Currently focused on understanding how alterations in epigenetic modifiers contributes to the development of human disease, particularly cancer.
Dr. Adewale Adeluyi
Dr. Adeluyi is a postdoctoral fellow studying the the role of microglia in Alzheimers disease, utilizing techniques such as ChIP-seq, scRNA-seq, IHC, and single-cell targeted microglia proteomics on Cytek® Aurora technology platform with our custom-made neuro-immune panel.
Dr. Akosua Tenkorang
Dr. Antja-Voy Hartley
Dr. Hartley focuses on designing rational and novel combination treatments to overcome resistance to EGFR-targeted therapies in EGFR-mutant lung cancers. Additionally, she explores options for targeted therapies for the treatment of mesotheliomas by linking the tumors’ genomic landscape to potential therapeutic vulnerabilities.
Dr. Christina King
Dr. Cynthia Tchio
Dr. Tchio is a postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital, and she is affiliated with the Broad Institute and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Tchio's research focuses on dissecting the mechanism of the genetic link between sleep disorders and cardiometabolic traits in multi-ancestry populations. Dr. Tchio is passionate about sleep and circadian biology because its dysregulation has profound effects on both mental and physical health, leading to issues like insomnia, depression, cardiometabolic diseases, and impaired cognitive functions.
Dr. Ines Leila Paraiso
Dr. Dee Jordan
Dr. Dee Jordan is a Health and Medical Geographer who’s research focuses on the spatial and ecological determinants of emerging infectious disease and neglected tropical diseases of sub-Saharan Africa.
Dr. Elsy Ngwa
Dr. Ngwa is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital. Her research focuses on identifying redox-signalling pathways at the intestinal epithelium during inflammation.
Dr. Kristyn Carter
Dr. Raie T. Bekele
Dr. Bernie Simone Owusu-Yaw
Dr. Nickesha Camille Anderson
Dr. Anderson is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital. Her research focuses on stem cell differentiation for disease modeling, drug discovery and transplantation therapies for neurological disorders.
Dr. Philippe Morquette
Dr. Whitney Gibbs
Dr. Adolphus Wagala
Dr. Oluwarotimi (Timi) Folorunso
Dr. James Allen
Dr. Allen is a HHMI Hanna Gray Research Fellow. His research focuses on investigating novel drivers of pediatric leukemia.
Dr. Joseph Ogbede
Dr. Ogbede is a biochemist and geneticist, and currently a postdoctoral research fellow where he's developing novel therapeutics for retinal vascular diseases and multiple myeloma. Born and raised in Imo, Nigeria, Joseph moved to Boston after completing his PhD from the University of British Columbia, Canada.
Dr. Yohannes Gemechu Hailu
Dr. Hailu was trained as a Medical Laboratory Technologist, Medical Biochemist, and Immunologist. He is passionate about immunomodulatory drugs mechanism of action and tumor immunotherapy.
Dr. Zuri Sullivan
Dr. Sullivan is a HHMI Hanna Gray Research Fellow studying inflammatory control of social behavior in Dr. Catherine Dulac's lab at Harvard University.
Dr. Lerato Charlotte Majara
I am a neuropsychiatric genetics researcher with a deep passion for understanding the genetic foundations of mental disorders, especially within populations that have been underrepresented in biomedical research. My rigorous training in Human Genetics at the University of Cape Town, and the Global Initiative for Neuropsychiatric Education in Research (GINGER), has equipped me with the expertise to identify genetic markers linked to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in African populations. Additionally, I explore the complexities of transferring polygenic risk scores for mental illness across diverse populations.
Currently, I am affiliated with both the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and the University of Cape Town. I contribute to the Neuropsychiatric Genetics in African Populations (NeuroGAP)-Psychosis study - the most extensive psychiatric genetics research project in Africa. My groundbreaking work has revealed significant variations in the transferability of polygenic risk scores among African populations, underscoring the continent's unparalleled genetic diversity.
With robust analytical and critical thinking skills, I am poised to advance the field of neuropsychiatric genetics. Looking ahead, I aspire to become a principal investigator, where I can lead efforts to develop more objective diagnostic measures, identify better drug targets, and create more accurate polygenic risk scores. The ultimate goal is to alleviate the burden of mental illness and significantly enhance patient outcomes.
Dr. Olawande Olagoke
Dr. Stecia-Marie Fletcher
Dr. Munashe Crispen
Dr. Brandon Yates
Dr. Gbolahan Bamgbose
Dr. Olasubomi Akintola
Dr. Oladimeji Mudele
Oladimeji Mudele is a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health mentored by Christopher Golden and Francesca Dominici. His work centers on the application of geospatial information and data science methods for connecting climate and health outcomes/policy. He holds an M.Sc in Electronic Engineering (summa cum laude) and a Ph.D. in Electronic, Computer Science and Electrical Engineering (2021) from the University of Pavia (UNIPV), Italy. Before that, he had obtained a B.Eng (Hons.) in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. During his PhD, he was a beneficiary of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions and the German Academic Exchange Service scholarships. Between 2018 and 2019, he was a visiting scholar at the Argentinean Commission for Space Activities and the Institute of Computing of the Federal University of Alagoas, Brazil. In 2019, he received the “Premio di Laurea” award as the top international scholar in UNIPV.
Dr. Cherish Taylor
Cherish was born in New Orleans, LA, and growing up, she spent time in Louisiana, Texas, and North Carolina. She completed a B.A. in Psychology at Harvard University and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience in the Institute for Neuroscience at The University of Texas at Austin. During her Ph. D., Cherish studied a parkinsonian motor disorder caused by too much of the metal manganese. She found that activity of manganese transporter in the digestive system was the major influence of the amount of manganese in the brain. After completing her Ph.D., Cherish moved to Boston, MA to begin her postdoctoral fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital, an affiliate of the Broad Institute. There, her research focuses on how environmental and genetic risk factors of psychiatric illnesses, such as schizophrenia, influence brain development and function. Outside of science, Cherish enjoys reading sci-fi novels and hanging out with her amazing daughter!
Evida Dennis-Heyward
Dr. Ijeoma Julie Eche
Dr. Eche is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Her current research project focuses on examining the relation between concrete material hardship and parental distress in children with advanced cancer.
Alumni
Dr. Frankie Heyward
HBPA and NBPA Founder
Assistant Professor at UT Southwestern Center for Hypothalamic Research
Dr. Biniam Adane
Senior Scientist at Bristol Myers Squibb
Dr. Alkeiver Cannon
Scientist at Affini-T Therapeutics
Dr. David A. Alagpulinsa
Assistant Professor at Yale School of Medicine Comparative and Cardiovascular Medicine
Dr. Yvon Woappi
Herbert and Florence Irving Assistant Professor of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics at Columbia University
Dr. Tikvah (Tiki) Hayes
Assistant Professor at UCLA David Geeffen School of Medicine Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology
Dr. Aaron Moye
Dr. Moye is now CEO and Co-founder at Cellforma.
Dr. Yohannes Abere Ambaw
Dr. Ambaw is now a postdoctoral fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.. His interests are to establish a stable, robust and reproducible high throughput lipidomics pipeline and investigate human plasma lipidome in relation to cardiometabolic diseases.
Dr. Manni Adam
Currently a Neurobiology Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UCSF. Previously, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Harwell lab in Harvard Medical School studying neurodevelopment and epigenetics. I have previously completed a PhD in Neuroscience looking at the role of epigenetic regulation in neurodevelopmental disorders.
Dr. Teniel Ramikie
Dr. Ramikie was previously a post-doctoral research fellow in the Neurobiology of Fear laboratory and a HHMI-sponsored Helen Hay Whitney Foundation Fellow. Dr. Ramikie employs multidisciplinary techniques to examine processes underlying lasting modifications in neural circuits, associated with pathological behavioral states, using disease models of fear and anxiety disorders.
Dr. Heran Getachew
Dr. Heran Getachew received her Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences with an emphasis in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Florida in September 2019. Her dissertation work focused on the intracellular survival mechanisms of an oral bacterium, Porphyromonas gingivalis, within cardiovascular cells in the context of atherosclerosis. In November 2019, she joined Ocular Genomics Institute of Mass Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical school to study extracellular vesicles as a biomarker for inherited retinal degenerations. She is now an iPSC Ophthalmology and Neuroscience Scientist at Prime Medicine
Dr. Julie Konge
Dr. Konge is a Manager at Bain & Company
Dr. Mireille Kamariza
Dr. Kamariza is an Assitant Professor at UCLA.
Dr. Richard Olalekan Adeyemi
Dr. Adeyemi is an Assistant Professor at Fred Hutch Cancer Center.
Dr. Victoria Parker
Dr. Vanessa Sue Wacleche
Dr. Wacleche is currently an Assistant Professor of Immunology at Penn State. She was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.