Training in Systems Biology

Systems Biology Graduate Program

Our program is designed to train students from diverse disciplinary backgrounds in the cutting-edge research techniques that comprise the interdisciplinary research of modern cell biology. Students are provided with rigorous cross training in areas of mathematical, physical, and computational sciences and biology. Systems Biology students take courses, attend seminars and work on interdisciplinary research projects to broaden and strengthen their abilities to do quantitative cell biology research.

The Systems Biology area of concentration is based within the Richard D. Berlin Center for Cell Analysis and Modeling (CCAM) at UConn Health.

Graduate Students

Lauren Marazzi

Advisor: Paola Vera-Licona
Education: BA, Connecticut College
About: Lauren Marazzi is a 5th year MD/PhD student at UConn Health. Before joining UConn Health, Lauren studied Bioinformatics and worked on projects focused on Notch Pathway signaling and transcriptome analysis in ambystoma mexicanum. Her research focuses on quantitative analysis of chemotherapy resistance reversion and cancer reversion in triple negative breast cancer using mathematical modeling and control theory.
Joseph Masison

Masison

Advisor: Pedro Mendes
Education: BS Neurobiology and Physiology, BS Computer Science, University of Maryland
About: Joseph Masison is a 4th year MD/PhD student at UConn Health. Before joining UConn Health, he studied neuroscience with bioinformatics and computational modeling. His current research focus is on reproducibility in computational studies and quantitative analysis of duodenal iron metabolism using mathematical modeling.
Milda StanislauskasGraduateStudent Advisor: Yi Wu
Education: BA/MA Hunter College
About: Before joining the graduate program at UConn Health, Milda worked at a skin disease research center studying Merkel cells, which are mechanoreceptive cells responsible for sensing light touch. Her research interests include how cells sense physical cues from the external environment and convert them into chemical signals, and how these signals affect various cellular processes, and disease pathogenesis.
Thank you to Milda for sharing her humor and drawing skills by adding such great cartoon art around CCAM.

Rotation Students

Student Advisor Project
Titas Grabauskas Les Loew Cluster formation by activated EGF receptors
Rudradeep Mukherjee Pedro Mendes Simulation of ferritin ferrihydrite core formation

Lab Glassware ColoredHeavyMetals Cartoon ArtLab TubesControl Group Cat Cartoon

Postdoctoral Fellows

Hasan Baig
Baig
Advisor: Pedro Mendes
Education: PhD, Technical University, Denmark
About: Dr. Hasan Baig is working on the development of COPASI software.
Meagan Cauble Advisor: Ji Yu
Sherli Koshy-Chenthittayil
Chenthittayil
Advisor: Pedro Mendes
Education: PhD, (Mathematics), Clemson University, South Carolina, USA
About: Dr. Sherli Koshy-Chenthittayil is developing models of mixed-species biofilms.
Sailasree Rajalekshmi Advisor: Mike Guertin
Prem Shresta Advisor: Ji Yu

computer keyboard
James Bond Science Cartoon
Tissue Culture Hood

UCONN Undergraduate Student Trainees

Shreedula Balakrishnan Lab: Vera-Licone

Project: working on tumor reversion in Leukemia using computational biology.

Grace Curley-Holmes Lab: Mayer/Machida

Project: working on SH2 domain mapping.

Chandrika Dhavala Lab: Blinov
Project: Visualization of rule-based model.

Amy Flis Lab: Wu

Jennifer Kim Lab: Mendes

Project: Identification of chaos in nonlinear models by using global
optimization in COPASI.

Noah Liguori-Bills
**Google Summer of Code Student**
Lab: Blinov

Project:  The Development of ModelBricks website.

Maria Menoutis
**HRP Intern**
Lab: Loew

Project:  Rules that govern the assembly of molecular machines.

Alexa Monroe Lab: Yan

Nathan Schaumburger Lab: Blinov

Project: Model of aging phenotypes.

Gavin Till Lab: Mayer

Project: developing mathematical models to explore the role of membrane receptor clustering in regulation of signaling pathways.

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Alumni

Graduate Students

Name Degree Year Advisor Current Position
Aniruddha Chattaraj PhD 2022 Loew Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University
Bandita Adhikari PhD 2021 Laubenbacher Postdoctoral Fellow, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
Yuezhe Li PhD 2021 Wu Research Associate, Metrum
Judy Bloom PhD 2020 Loew Medical and Scientific Associate, Chameleon Communications International
Adam Lafontaine PhD 2020 Mayer Research Associate, Metrum
Russel Posner MD/PhD 2019 Laubenbacher MD student, UConn Health
Abhijit Deb Roy PhD 2018 Wu Postdoc, Johns Hopkins Medicine
Clifford Locke MD/PhD 2018 Wu Hospital Medicine Specialist, Yale New Haven Health
Ahmed Elmokadem PhD 2017 Yu Research Scientist, Metrum
Marc Rigatti MD/PhD 2017 Kafka/Moraru Emergency Medicine Resident, UConn Health
Olena Marchenko PhD 2017 Loew/Dodge  Bioinformatics Engineer, Simons Foundation 
Sofya Borinskaya PhD 2015 Loew Assistant Professor, Saint Elizabeth University, NJ 
Ronghua Yang MD/PhD Loew/Liang  Internal Medicine Resident, Rutgers Medical School
Erika Hoyos-Ramirez PhD  2014 Loew Postdoc, Yale School of Medicine 
Akeisha Belgrave PhD  2013 Wolgemuth Assistant Professor, Harrisburg University
Eunji Kim PhD 2013  Yu Managing Director, Alzheimer’s Consulting & Services 
Jonathon Ditlev PhD 2012 Mayer/Loew Assistant Professor, University of Toronto 
Sherry-Ann Brown MD/PhD 2012 Loew Assistant Professor, Medical College of Wisconsin

Postdoctoral Fellows

Name Year Advisor Current Position
Sulagna Das 2014 Yu Tenure track faculty position at Emory University

Undergraduate Students

Name Program Year Advisor Current Position
Morgan Neydorff, UConn Health Research Program (HRP) 2020 Acker Graduated, B.S. in Biomedical Engineering
Devin Kot-Thompson, UConn Health Research Program (HRP) 2021 Acker Completing B.S. in Biomedical Engineering
Daniel Fairchild, UConn PhD Biomedical Science Program, Summer Rotation 2021 Acker PhD Candidate, Biomedical Sciences, UConn Health

Google Summer of Code Students

Name School Year Advisor
Nikita Mahoviya National Institute of Technology Hamirpur (H.P.), India 2021 Blinov and Cowan