Current Laboratory Members
HEAD OF LAB
Elaine Fuchs, Ph.D.
Rebecca C. Lancefield Professor; Investigator, HHMI
E-mail: Elaine.Fuchs@rockefeller.edu
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
Christine Long
Phone: 212.327.7953
Fax: 212.327.7954
E-mail: Christine.Long@rockefeller.edu
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Natalie Alexander
Graduate Fellow
E-mail: Natalie.Alexander@rockefeller.edu
Natalie received her B.S. in Biology and History from Boston College in 2019. Following graduation, Natalie worked as a research technician in the Mansour Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital, studying human neutrophil interaction with opportunistic fungal pathogen. She is currently a graduate student in the David Rockefeller PhD program investigating the effects of chronic inflammation on epithelial stem cells and their niche.
Irem Izgi
Graduate Fellow
E-mail: irem.izgi@rockefeller.edu
Irem received her B.S. from Bogazici University in Turkey where she worked on post-translational protein modifications. She is currently a graduate student in the PhD program at Rockefeller University. In the Fuchs lab, she is interested in the effects of mechanical forces on cell metabolism during skin development.
David Ng
Graduate Fellow
E-mail: David.Ng@rockefeller.edu
David received his B.S. in Biochemistry from Stony Brook University. After graduation, David worked in the lab of Dr. Mikala Egeblad at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on the role that neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) play in breast cancer metastasis. He is currently a graduate student in the PhD program at Rockefeller University and he is interested in the role that immune cells play in cancer progression.
Jesse Novak
Biomedical Fellow
E-mail: Jesse.Novak@rockefeller.edu
Jesse received his B.A. in Molecular Biology and Chinese from Middlebury College, where he studied synaptic transmission in C. elegans in the lab of Dr. Glen Ernstrom and is currently an MD-PhD student in the Weill Cornell/Rockefeller/Sloan Kettering Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program. In the lab, he studies the role of intermediary metabolism in physiologic tissue regeneration and wound healing.
Sairaj Sajjath
Graduate Fellow
E-mail: sairajmunavar.sajjath@rockefeller.edu
Raj received his B.A. in Biology from Columbia University in 2019, where he studied mechanisms of dendritic cell hematopoiesis under Dr. Kang Liu. He is currently a graduate student in the David Rockefeller PhD program, and is interested in the long-term effects of inflammation on epithelial stem cells.
Marina Schernthanner
Women and Science Graduate Fellow
E-mail: Marina.Schernthanner@rockefeller.edu
Awards Received:
2019-2020 Women and Science Graduate Fellowship
Marina received her BSc degree in Biology and MSc degree in Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology from the University of Innsbruck in Austria. For her master thesis work she studied the role of prostaglandin signaling at the epithelial-mesenchymal interface in the intestine in the laboratory of Dr. Richard Flavell at the Yale School of Medicine. Marina is currently a graduate student in the PhD program at the Rockefeller University. In the Fuchs lab she is interested in methods of stem cell niche regulation with a particular focus on immune-epithelial crosstalk within the skin and intestine.
Siman Sun
Graduate Fellow
E-mail: Siman.Sun@rockefeller.edu
Siman received her Bachelor of Medicine from Peking University in China, where she studied the molecular mechanism of tumor development using proteomics approaches in the laboratory of Dr. Mo Li. She is currently a graduate student in the David Rockefeller PhD program and is interested in the translational control during skin development and tumorigenesis.
Elizabeth Thompson
Graduate Fellow
E-mail: Elizabeth.Thompson@rockefeller.edu
Ellie graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.S. with Honors in Neurobiology. During her undergraduate and post-baccalaureate career, Ellie studied the developmental regulation of axon regeneration in the context of spinal cord injury in the lab of Darcie Moore and explored mechanisms of Sox2 regulation in squamous cell carcinoma in the lab of Markus Schober. In the Fuchs Lab, Ellie is interested in the mechanisms of tumor initiation.
Yihao Yang
Graduate Student
E-mail: Yihao.Yang@rockefeller.edu
Yihao Yang received his B.S. from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Kathrin Plath on X chromosome inactivation mechanism in human embryonic stem cells. He is currently a graduate student in the PhD program at Rockefeller University. He is interested in chromatin remodeling in epidermal differentiation and cancer progression.
POSTDOCTORAL ASSOCIATES & FELLOWS
Merve Deniz Abdusselamoglu, Ph.D.
EMBO Postdoctoral Fellow
Cancer Research Institute Irvington Postdoctoral Fellow
E-mail: MerveDeniz.Abdusselamoglu@rockefeller.edu
Deniz received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Bilkent University in Turkey. She completed her PhD in the laboratory of Prof. Juergen A. Knoblich at Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) and University of Vienna in Austria. During her PhD, she worked on gene regulatory networks and chromatin remodeling during lineage progression of neural stem cells. In the Fuchs lab, she is interested in deciphering how tissue stem cells make fate decisions in homeostasis and cancer progression.
Jorge Almagro, Ph.D.
MacMillan Family Foundation Awardee of the Life Sciences Research Foundation
E-mail: Jorge.AlmagroSantiago@rockefeller.edu
Jorge received his BSc and Msc in molecular biology from Complutense university, Madrid, Spain. He obtained his PhD in the Francis Crick Institute in London under the supervision of Dr. Axel Behrens. During his PhD, Jorge developed techniques for tissue clearing and advanced 3D imaging and studied breast cancer stem cells and chemoresistance. In the Fuchs lab Jorge is interested in unravelling the mechanical microenvironment of skin cancer.
Alain Bonny, Ph.D.
HHMI Hanna Gray Fellow
Kenneth C. Frazier Damon Runyon Fellow
E-mail: Alain.Bonny@rockefeller.edu
During skin wound healing, the site of injury needs to precisely coordinate ending the inflammatory response with the initiation of skin regrowth. In the Fuchs lab, Alain is interested in understanding the intercellular signaling that mediates the coordination between the resolution of inflammation and re-epithelialization during skin wound healing.
Anita Gola, Ph.D.
National Mah Jongg League Fellow of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation (DRG-2409-20) Postdoctoral Fellow
E-mail: Anita.Gola@rockefeller.edu
Anita received her BSc in Biochemistry at the University of Southampton (UK), and after getting a MSc in Integrated Immunology at the University of Oxford started per doctoral studies on a Wellcome-Trust NIH PhD Fellowship. Her joint PhD program involved working first with Dr. Adrian Hill (Jenner Institute, University of Oxford) on liver-stage malaria vaccines, and then with Dr. Ronald Germain (LISB, NIH) on immune-spatial positioning in the liver microenvironment. In the Fuchs lab, Anita will use the skin as a model tissue to understand the intricate interactions and spatial positioning between skin stem cells and immune resident cells.
Yixin Hu, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Associate
E-mail: Yixin.Hu@rockefeller.edu
Yixin (Elaine) received her B.Sc. in Bioscience from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China and she received her M.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, where she worked in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Stallcup on transcriptional regulation. She obtained her PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Stony Brook University and conducted her PhD research in the laboratory of Dr. Bruce Stillman at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where she worked on DNA replication. In the Fuchs lab, Yixin (Elaine) is interested in the effects of mechanical forces on stem cells during skin development.
Yun Ha Hur, Ph.D.
AACR-Incyte Immuno-oncology Research Fellow
E-mail: YunHa.Hur@rockefeller.edu
Yun Ha received her D.V.M. from Seoul National University in South Korea and completed her Ph.D. in the laboratory of Dr. Richard Cerione at Cornell University. During her Ph.D., she discovered that embryonic stem cells generate extracellular vesicles which help maintain pluripotency in recipient embryonic stem cells. In the Fuchs lab, she is interested in understanding how the aging tumor microenvironment impacts cancer progression.
Matthew Kudelka, MD, Ph.D.
Allen and Frances Adler Clinical Scholar
NCI Early K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Fellow
E-mail: Matthew.Kudelka@rockefeller.edu
Matt received his BA in Biochemistry from Columbia University and completed his MD and PhD degrees at Emory University. His PhD with Dr. Richard Cummings focused on developing new technologies to analyze cell surface sugars and studying their role in gut-microbiome interactions and inflammation. He subsequently completed a research-track residency in Internal Medicine at Weill Cornell and is currently both a Medical Oncology Fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering and a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Fuchs Lab. In the Fuchs Lab, Matt is interested in post-translational modifications of mammalian skin and novel approaches to treat cancer.
Yonit Lavin, MD, Ph.D.
Medical Oncology Clinical Fellow MSKCC, T32
Email: Yonit.Lavin@rockefeller.edu
Awards Received:
MSK Clinical Scholars T32, CTSA Pilot Grant Proposal
Yonit received her BA in Biochemical Sciences at Harvard University. She completed her MD/PhD at Mount Sinai with Miriam Merad studying tissue resident macrophages in steady state and tumors. She is currently a Medical Oncology Fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering and a Post-doctoral Research fellow in the Fuchs lab studying the role of myeloid cells in squamous cell carcinoma progression and metastasis.
Rachel Niec, MD, Ph.D.
Clinical Scholar
E-mail: Rachel.Niec@rockefeller.edu
Rachel received her B.A. in Molecular Biology from Mills College in California and completed her MD and PhD in the Tri-Institutional MD-PhD training program at The Rockefeller University, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Weill Cornell Medicine. Her PhD research with Dr. Alexander Rudensky at Memorial Sloan Kettering focused on regulatory T cell-mediated control of inflammation at barrier surfaces. She is currently board-certified in internal medicine and is completing a research-track fellowship in Gastroenterology at Weill Cornell. In the Fuchs lab, Rachel is interested in exploring immune-epithelial interactions within the skin and gastrointestinal tract.
Martina Parigi, Ph.D.
Nicholson Exchange Program Postdoctoral Fellow
E-mail: Martina.Parigi@rockefeller.edu
Martina received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. in medical, molecular and cellular Biotechnology from San Raffaele University in Italy. She then joined Dr. Eduardo Villablanca’s lab at Karolinska Institute in Sweden for her PhD, where she studied how intestinal epithelial cells adapt to damage and undergo regeneration while avoiding neoplastic transformation. In the Fuchs lab, she is interested in studying the crosstalk between immune cells and stem cells in homeostasis and upon wound healing in the skin.
Wenzhi Song, Ph.D.
AACR-Bristol Myers Squibb Immuno-oncology Research Fellow
E-mail: Wenzhi.Song@rockefeller.edu
Wenzhi received her A.B. from Bryn Mawr College in 2017. She completed her PhD at Yale University in the lab of Dr. Joe Craft where she studied how immune cell interactions affect the development of immunological memory. In the Fuchs lab, Wenzhi is interested in exploring the crosstalk between the immune system and the skin stem cell niche.
Katherine Stewart, Ph.D.
NYSCF-Druckenmiller Postdoctoral Fellow
E-mail: Katherine.Stewart@rockefeller.edu
Katie received her BSc in Biochemistry at Queen’s University in Kingston, and then moved to the PhD program at McGill University where she worked with Dr. Maxime Bouchard. During her PhD, she investigated the regulation of apoptosis by LAR-family tyrosine phosphatases during urogenital system development, and its links to pediatric disease. In the Fuchs lab, Katie is exploring how death signaling impacts the turnover of hair follicle stem cells.
dMatthew Tierney, Ph.D.
NIH/NIAMS K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Fellow
Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA F32 Postdoctoral Fellow
Glenn Foundation for Medical Research Postdoctoral Fellow in Aging
E-mail: Matthew.Tierney@rockefeller.edu
Matt received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in Dr. Alessandra Sacco’s lab, where he studied the microenvironmental control of stem cell behavior in skeletal muscle. His research in the Fuchs lab will focus on the metabolic regulation of stem cell fate decisions during hair follicle regeneration and cancer.
Charles Xu
National Cancer Center Postdoctoral Fellow
E-mail: Chiwei.Xu@rockefeller.edu
Awards Received:
C.H. Li Memorial Postdoctoral Fellowship
Charles obtained his PhD in Developmental and Regenerative Biology from Harvard University. His PhD work in Professor Norbert Perrimon's lab focused on studying tissue homeostasis in the Drosophila midgut. In the Fuchs' lab, he will take advantage of the emerging single-cell RNA-seq data and the lentiviral delivery technique to explore the basic principles of tissue biology. He is specifically interested in both inter-organelle and tissue communication during the processes of stem cell differentiation and tumorigenesis.
Leo Yuan
Postdoctoral Associate
E-mail: Shaopeng.Yuan@rockefeller.edu
Awards Received:
2018 NCI Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (F31)
Leo received his B.S. in Bioengineering from University of California, Berkeley, where he worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory with Dr. Stephan Friedrich. After graduation, he worked in the laboratory of Dr. John Fahy in the Cardiovascular Research Institute at University of California, San Francisco, where he studied the pathology of airway diseases. With a recently received PhD at the Rockefeller University, his research interests include cancer malignancy and progression.
STAFF
LABORATORY MANAGERS
Maria Nikolova
Laboratory Manager
Phone: 212.327.7481
E-mail: Maria.Nikolova@rockefeller.edu
Maria received her M.S. degree in Biotechnology from University of Sofia, Bulgaria.
Lisa Polak
Laboratory Manager
Phone: 212.327.7459
E-mail: Lisa.Polak@rockefeller.edu
Lisa received her M.S. in Molecular and Cell Biology, and Animal Behavior & Conservation Psychology Certificate from CUNY Hunter College.
Ellen Wong
Laboratory Manager
Phone: 212.327.7481
E-mail: Ellen.Wong@rockefeller.edu
Ellen received her B.A. in Biochemistry at Smith College.
RESEARCH SUPPORT STAFF
Lynette Hidalgo
Research Specialist
E-mail: Lynette.Hidalgo@rockefeller.edu
Lynette received her B.S. in Forensic Science from John Jay College, CUNY.
Tak Lee
Research Specialist
E-mail: Tak.Lee@rockefeller.edu
Profile coming soon.
Tatiana Omelchenko
Research Specialist
E-mail: Tatiana.Omelchenko@rockefeller.edu
Tatiana earned both her M.S. and Ph.D. at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
June Racelis
Research Specialist
E-mail: June.Delacruz@rockefeller.edu
June received her B.S. in Biochemistry from Old Dominion University.
