Mansi Srivastava
Mansi received her A.B. in Biological Sciences from Mount Holyoke College and her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California at Berkeley. For her graduate research, she studied comparative genomics of early-diverging animal lineages including cnidarians, placozoans, and sponges under the supervision of Dr. Daniel Rokhsar. In 2009, she began her postdoctoral research on the evolution of regenerative mechanisms in the laboratory of Dr. Peter Reddien at the Whitehead Institute/MIT. She is interested in using an evolutionary perspective to uncover the mechanisms of animal regeneration.
Mansi[at]oeb.harvard.edu
Hafsa Sadiq, Research Assistant
Hafsa received her B.A. in Biology from College of the Holy Cross. Her undergraduate research with Dr. Julia Paxson investigated the mesenchymal stem cell (neoblast) origins and their function over the lifespan of Hofstenia. As research assistant in the Srivastava lab, she manages the general lab upkeep and worm husbandry.
hsadiq[at]fas.harvard.edu
Andrew Gehrke, Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellow
Andrew received his PhD at the University of Chicago in the laboratory of Prof. Neil Shubin in 2016. Andrew’s graduate work has focused on using gene regulation to understand the evolution of Hox gene expression in vertebrate appendages. In the Srivastava lab, Andrew has applied his background in gene regulation to the field of whole-body regeneration, where he focuses on identifying regeneration-responsive regulatory elements. More broadly, Andrew’s work focuses on understanding how the genome restructures during regeneration and how gene regulatory networks are deployed after wounding.
andrew_gehrke[at]fas.harvard.edu
http://andrewgehrke.weebly.com/
Yi-Jyun Luo, Human Frontier Science Program Postdoctoral Fellow
Yi-Jyun received his PhD from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) under the supervision of Nori Satoh. For his graduate research, he studied the comparative genomics and transcriptomics of a major animal group so-called lophotrochozoans, including brachiopods, phoronids, and nemerteans. He is interested in using sequencing and imaging approaches to understand how the body axis information specifies the cell types and regulates regeneration.
yi-jyun_luo[at]fas.harvard.edu
https://sites.google.com/view/yjluo/
Lorenzo Ricci, Postdoctoral Fellow
Lorenzo received his MA degree in Life Sciences at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France, in the Organismal Biology and Physiology program. He received his doctorate from the "Complexité du Vivant" Graduate School at UPMC, in "Regeneration and Pluripotency" lab under the supervision of Dr. Stefano Tiozzo (a division of the Developmental Biology Laboratory of Villefranche sur mer (DBLV) at the Oceanological Observatory of Villefranche sur mer). For his PhD research, Lorenzo studied non-embryonic developments, i.e., whole body regeneration (by vascular budding) and asexual propagation (by palleal budding), in the colonial ascidian Botryllus schlosseri.
lricci[at]fas.harvard.edu
Julian Kimura, Graduate Student
Julian received his BS in Biology at Duke University. His undergraduate research with Dr. David McClay looked into how developmental gene regulatory networks were re-deployed during regeneration in sea urchin embryos. At the Srivastava lab, he is interested in studying how neoblasts are specified during the embryonic development of Hofstenia.
julian_kimura[at]g.harvard.edu
Alyson Ramirez, Graduate Student
Alyson received her B.S. in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from UCLA. In the Srivastava lab, she studies the establishment of the anterior-posterior axis during regeneration. During her undergraduate work in the Novitch lab at UCLA, she grew cortical organoids and studied the role transcription factors play in the specification of spinal motor neurons during development. Alyson is currently an HHMI Gilliam Fellow, a former NSF GRFP Fellow, HHMI EXROP Fellow, and MARC U*STAR scholar.
alysonramirez[at]g.harvard.edu
Ryan Hulett, Graduate Student
Ryan received his B.S. in Molecular Environmental Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. During his senior year, he investigated the community ecology of molluscs and became fascinated with nudibranchs. This led him to pursue a M.S. in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology from San Francisco State University where he studied the evolution of color patterns and biogeography in tritoniid nudibranchs. In 2014, he joined Dr. Nicole King’s lab at the University of California, Berkeley as a research technician working on with the genetic basis of multicellularity and bacterial interactions in choanoflagellates. In the Srivastava lab, he is interested in the mechanisms governing nervous system patterning and neural cell type evolution.
rhulett[at]g.harvard.edu
http://ryanehulett.weebly.com/
rhulett[at]g.harvard.edu
http://ryanehulett.weebly.com/
Amber Rock, Graduate Student
Amber received her B.A. in Biology from Bowdoin College. During her undergrad, she spent two summers working in Mark Martindale’s lab at the University of Florida’s Whitney Lab for Marine Bioscience where she studied the role of Hox genes in the cnidarian, Nematostella vectensis. In the Srivastava lab, she is interested in cell fate determination in Hofstenia and developmental compensation.
arock[at]g.harvard.edu
Katy Loubet-Senear, Graduate Student
Katy received her B.A. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR. For her undergraduate research, she studied biogeography and evolution of arachnid lineages in the Caribbean in Dr. Greta Binford’s lab, focusing on the Anyphaenid family of spiders. She then worked as a research technician in Dr. Larry Loeb’s lab at the University of Washington studying subclonal mutations in human cancers.
kloubetsenear[at]g.harvard.edu
Elizabeth D'Haiti, Undergraduate Student
Elizabeth is a senior at Harvard College studying to receive her B.A. in Integrative Biology with a secondary degree in Global Health and Health Policy. At the Srivastava lab, she is working with graduate student Julian Kimura on the question of how neoblasts are specified during development. She will culminate her research in the lab into a thesis project aimed at establishing a timeline of development for the neoblast population in Hofstenia embryos.
ejdhaiti[at]college.harvard.edu
Deirdre Potter, Undergraduate Student
Deirdre is a senior studying Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology from Rye, NY. She works as Donations Chair for Harvard Medlife, a student service organization which works to bring access to healthcare to communities in need through annual service trips abroad. Her experience volunteering sparked her interest in the medical applications of stem cells and the biological mechanisms behind differentiation. In the Srivastava lab, she works to identify putative neural progenitor populations and their progeny within Hofstenia.
deirdrepotter[at]college.harvard.edu
D. Marcela Bolaños, Research Associate
Marcela is a marine biologist from Colombia and received her Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of New Hampshire. For over 16 years, her research has been focused on the taxonomy, systematics, and development of marine flatworms of the order Polycladida. Marce’s deepening knowledge of polyclads increased and focused her interest in polyclad regeneration. This major career transition brought her to the Srivastava lab where she is studying the function of the Planar Cell Polarity (PCP) signaling during regeneration. Marce is interested in understanding polarity and weather intracellular directional information mediated by PCP pathway components plays a role in antero-posterior polarity decision during Hofstenia whole body regeneration.
bolanosrodriguez[at]fas.harvard.edu
Lab Alumni
Undergraduates
Annika Gompers - Graduate Student, Cambridge University
Juliet Kim - M.D. Candidate, NYU School of Medecine
Andree Franco-Vazquez - M.D. Candidate in the Program in Medical Education (PRIME), David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Sylvia Golumbeanu
Rotation Students
Megan He (Hsu Lab)
Abby Knecht (Gibbs Lab)
Elizabeth May (Gaudet Lab)
Darcy Mishkind (Tabin Lab)
Vincent Pham (D'Souza Lab)
Will Xiao
Research Assistants
Emily Neverett - Forensic Scientist, Massachusetts State Police
Vanessa Poirier - University of South Carolina Graduate School of Pharmacology
Visitors
Jan Engelhardt - Researcher, University of Leipzig
James Sikes - Associate Professor, University of San Francisco
Annika Gompers - Graduate Student, Cambridge University
Juliet Kim - M.D. Candidate, NYU School of Medecine
Andree Franco-Vazquez - M.D. Candidate in the Program in Medical Education (PRIME), David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Sylvia Golumbeanu
Rotation Students
Megan He (Hsu Lab)
Abby Knecht (Gibbs Lab)
Elizabeth May (Gaudet Lab)
Darcy Mishkind (Tabin Lab)
Vincent Pham (D'Souza Lab)
Will Xiao
Research Assistants
Emily Neverett - Forensic Scientist, Massachusetts State Police
Vanessa Poirier - University of South Carolina Graduate School of Pharmacology
Visitors
Jan Engelhardt - Researcher, University of Leipzig
James Sikes - Associate Professor, University of San Francisco