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/
Vikram Chandra, Postdoctoral Researcher
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
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
Carlos Rivera-Lopez, Graduate Student
Carlos received his B.S. in Biology from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. During his undergraduate studies, he researched the genetic evolution of endangered species that are endemic to the Caribbean, including the Puerto Rican parrot. Now in the Srivastava Lab, he is interested in studying the potency and dynamics of Hofstenia neoblasts during regeneration. Outside of the lab, he is interested in amplifying Latinx diversity and inclusion in STEM.
criveralopez[at]fas.harvard.edu
https://latinxinstem.education
Justin Duffy, Undergraduate Student
Justin is a junior studying Integrative Biology and Earth and Planetary Sciences. In the Srivastava lab, his research focuses on the evolution of whole-body regeneration in metazoans through studies of the starlet sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis.
jvduffy[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
Dierdre Potter
Elizabeth D'Haiti
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
Graduates
Alyson Ramirez
Postdocs
Lorenzo Ricci
Yi Jyun Luo
Research Assistants
Emily Neverett - Forensic Scientist, Massachusetts State Police
Vanessa Poirier - University of South Carolina Graduate School of Pharmacology
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
Visitors
Jan Engelhardt - Researcher, University of Leipzig
James Sikes - Associate Professor, University of San Francisco
Dierdre Potter
Elizabeth D'Haiti
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
Graduates
Alyson Ramirez
Postdocs
Lorenzo Ricci
Yi Jyun Luo
Research Assistants
Emily Neverett - Forensic Scientist, Massachusetts State Police
Vanessa Poirier - University of South Carolina Graduate School of Pharmacology
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
Visitors
Jan Engelhardt - Researcher, University of Leipzig
James Sikes - Associate Professor, University of San Francisco