Program Directors

Co-Program Director Brenton Graveley, PhD, is the Chair of the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences, and Associate Director of the Institute for Systems Genomics. His laboratory uses genomic approaches to study all aspects of RNA biology. His lab has played a key role in the modENCODE and ENCODE projects to functionally annotate the Drosophila and human genomes, with an emphasis on characterizing the transcribed RNAs, how they are processed, and the proteins that bind to them. They also study unusual RNA processing in Drosophila, including trans-splicing, recursive splicing, and alternative splicing. Dr. Graveley is also the creator, instructor, and director of a new class called “The Genetics of Model Organisms” which is a required course for all T32 trainees.

Co-Program Director Charles Lee, PhD, FACMG is Professor at The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine and The Robert Alvine Family Endowed Chair whose research uses state-of-the-art technologies to study structural genomic variation in human biology, evolution, and disease. Ongoing studies in his group include: 1) structural variation from telomere-to-telomere assembled genomes; 2) diagnostic testing in genomic medicine; 3) cancer genomics. Dr. Lee has an affiliated appointment in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at UConn Health.

Mentor Faculty and Research

Mark Adams, Ph.D. is Professor and Interim Scientific Director at JAX-GM. Dr. Adams has a rich history in genomics in both industry and academia. As a founding scientist of The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and Celera Genomics he significantly contributed to the sequencing of the first free-living organism, Haemophilus influenzae, directed the Drosophila, human, and mouse genome sequencing projects, and a large-scale re- sequencing program to identify novel SNPs in humans. His research program at JAX-GM focuses on the development and application of approaches for human and mouse microbiome analysis and genomic analysis of the evolution of Gram-negative pathogens. Dr. Adams has an affiliated appointment in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at UConn Health.

Olga Anczuków-Camarda, PhD is Associate Professor at JAX-GM, with an affiliated appointment in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at UConn Health and serves as Research Program Co-Leader of the NCI-designated JAX Cancer Center. The long-term goals of her lab are to define how rewiring of the splicing machinery contributes to tumor initiation, progression, and drug response, what triggers splicing alterations in tumors, and ultimately to translate this knowledge to develop innovative RNA-targeted therapeutics. Her research currently focuses on targeting the regulation of splicing factors in cancer, defining aging-associated splicing as an oncogenic factor in breast, and developing approaches to functionally characterize spliced isoforms at scale. Her lab uses state-of-the-art sequencing approaches to map alterations in alternative splicing and define their functional consequences. Dr. Anczuków-Camarda is PI on two NIH R01s which connects the fields of RNA biology and cancer research and will reveal novel avenues for mechanistic discovery and new personalized cancer therapies. Dr. Anczuków-Camarda is actively engaged in the training of the next generation of genomic scientists by mentoring graduate students and postdocs, as well as by participating as a speaker and panelist at career development events and science outreach programs and serving on graduate committees. She trained two MD/PhD students and a postdoctoral fellow who went on to continue successful careers in biomedical sciences. She is currently training three predoctoral trainees and two postdoctoral fellows.

Jean-Denis Beaudoin, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Genetics and Genomes Sciences at UConn Health. Through his experience as a mentor, Dr. Beaudoin recognizes that each person requires a style of mentorship specifically tailored to them and he continually assesses each individual’s strengths, weaknesses, expectations and ambitions. Since starting his lab in 2020, Dr. Beaudoin is mentoring 1 postdoctoral fellow, 2 PhD students, 1 rotating PhD student, and 1 research associate. He also trained an additional 5 rotating PhD students, 1 rotating MD/PhD student, 1 pre-doctoral student, and 3 undergraduate students, including two who did their honor thesis in his lab. Dr. Beaudoin’s laboratory strives to characterize RNA structures and functions to gain deeper insights into vertebrate development and neuronal differentiation. His lab employs zebrafish and human cell lines as model systems, integrating a range of approaches encompassing RNA molecular biology, computational biology, high-throughput sequencing, genome engineering, genetics, and developmental biology. He is currently training four predoctoral trainees and one postdoctoral fellow.

Christine Beck, PhD‡ is a joint faculty member and Associate Professor of Genetics and Genome Sciences at UConn Health and JAX-GM. Dr. Beck’s laboratory studies the diverse and poorly understood mechanisms governing structural variant (SV) formation. Her laboratory investigates how mammalian genomes maintain fidelity in the context of a repetitive genome. For example, human Alu elements number over one million copies per human genome, and she and others have found that these repeat sequences often mediate SVs. Through computational, molecular biological, and genomic techniques, the Beck laboratory seeks to comprehensively identify SVs, find regions susceptible to rearrangements, and examine mechanisms of genomic instability. Dr. Beck is currently training two PhD students and one postdoctoral fellow, has successfully graduated students, co-directs and teaches in Foundations of Biomedical Sciences, serves as the assistant director for GDB, and is a thesis committee member for several UConn graduate students.

Gordon Carmichael, Ph.D. is a Professor of Genetics and Genome Sciences at UConn Health whose long research career has largely focused on the expression and function of RNA molecules. Current research includes the study of noncoding RNA, particularly ones that play important roles in development, cellular physiology and disease. Work in Dr. Carmichael’s lab resulted in the discovery of a new class of long noncoding RNAs that may underlie human Prader-Willi Syndrome. His group recently developed a new deep sequencing methodology to identify and study RNA 2’-O methylation, which is important in ribosome maturation and function, and which may also have roles in mRNA translation and fate. They also have current projects concerning dsRNA and its function and fate in cells, including in human embryonic stem cells. Dr. Carmichael has mentored nearly 30 Ph.D. students and 2 postdoctoral fellows over the course of his career. His mentorship strategy encourages independent and innovative thinking with the goal of training young scientists who are self-motivated and well prepared for the challenges they will face.

Steven Chou, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology and Biophysics at UConn Health. His research is focused on molecular mechanisms and engineering of actin-based cell motility, cytokinesis, and related transmembrane signaling. The lab uses molecular biology, protein expression (bacterial, yeast, insect, and mammalian cells) and purification (from cultured cells and natural sources), cryogenic electron microscopy, gene editing and yeast genetics/genomics, confocal fluorescence microscopy, structure-based and evolution-based protein engineering, and targeted protein degradation. He is currently training two predoctoral trainees.

Jeffrey Chuang, PhD is Professor at JAX-GM and the UConn Health Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences. The lab’s research interests are in computational approaches for biological data analysis, especially development of interpretable methods in deep learning-based tissue image analysis; comparative analysis of tissue imaging modalities such as H&E, multiplex spatial proteomics, and multiplex spatial transcriptomics; cancer genomics, evolution, and gene regulation; and the use of patient-derived cancer models to generate clinical trials. These projects involve the detailed analysis of tumors from clinical, patient-derived xenograft, organoid, and mouse model specimens across a variety of cancers. Dr. Chuang has mentored several PhD and MD/PhD students and maintains a diverse lab of students, postdoctoral fellows, and research scientists. The lab's current projects include the NCI Data Commons and Coordination Center of the Patient-Derived Xenograft Network Consortium, the NCI PIVOT pediatric cancer testing consortium, the NIH Senescence Network Consortium, and evolutionary processes within tumors and adjacent non-tumor tissues, especially to study the impacts of aging. Dr. Chuang is the Interim Deputy Director of the JAX Cancer Center. He is currently training four predoctoral trainees and one postdoctoral fellow.

Michael Guertin, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Center for Cell Analysis and Modeling and the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at UConn Health with a long-term research goal to understand how regulatory DNA sequences and transcription factors modulate gene expression, influence molecular and cellular phenotypes, and lead to variability in disease progression and treatments. Dr. Guertin's research has defined the rules by which transcription factors determine where to bind in the genome and characterizing how transcription factors discriminate between genes to regulate. Dr. Guertin provides training in molecular biology, biochemistry, genomics, and computational biology-integrating these disciplines to study mechanisms of transcription regulation. Dr. Guertin provides mentoring and instruction to trainees within the lab and students outside his group. Dr. Guertin is committed to training and mentoring of students in an inclusive, safe, and supportive research environment. Dr. Guertin received the Mary Jane Osborn Teaching award in 2023 for his "Molecular Genomics Practicum” class; this class introduces students from all scientific backgrounds to programming in the command line and R. By the end of the class, students independently analyze ChIP-seq and RNA-seq data using bioinformatics skills they learned. Every prospective PhD graduate student that has entered Dr. Guertin's group has either graduated with a PhD (3 total) or is still in the lab and successfully pursuing their PhD (3 students). Dr. Guertin supports and encourages trainees to participate in activities required to identify and transition into biomedical research careers that are consistent with their skills, interests, and values.

Arthur Günzl, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at UConn Health. Dr. Günzl’s research is focused on studying gene expression mechanisms in the lethal parasite Trypanosoma brucei using genomic methods to study protein-DNA interactions and pre-mRNA processing. Dr. Günzl’s has been the primary mentor for numerous graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and undergraduate students, which has been a priority in his academic career. His trainees have been awarded an NIAID/F30 grant, the 2015 Henderson Award for most outstanding PhD thesis at UConn Health, an internal grant for excellence in undergraduate summer research, and several prizes for oral and poster presentations at meetings. In addition, Dr. Günzl has served as Associate Advisor for more than 20 graduate students. He is currently training one predoctoral trainee and one postdoctoral fellow.

Xiaoyan Guo, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at UConn Health. The goal of Dr. Guo’s research is to unravel the intricate molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the maintenance of mitochondrial homeostasis. Dr. Guo employs cutting-edge CRISPR-based functional genomics techniques to delve into these mechanisms. Dr. Guo is dedicated to mentor the next generation of scientists. Currently, she is actively engaged in mentoring a dynamic team that includes two laboratory assistants, an undergraduate student, one predoctoral trainee and one postdoctoral fellow.

Christopher Heinen, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Medicine and a member of the Center for Molecular Oncology at UConn Health has extensive experience in mentoring trainees in his laboratory. He has mentored seven students who have completed their PhDs, two current MD/PhD candidates, one postdoc, two Master’s students and twelve undergraduates. He is committed to providing a safe and supportive training environment that emphasizes experimental rigor and responsibility. Dr. Heinen fully supports his trainees in all aspects of their career development, as evidenced by their successful transition to multiple next steps including medicine, academic research and industry. He is also the Director of Postdoctoral Affairs at UConn Health and plays various roles in Graduate Education. His research laboratory is interested in understanding the molecular genetics of colorectal cancer, particularly the role of defects in the DNA mismatch repair (MMR) pathway.

J. Travis Hinson, MD‡ is Associate Professor and a joint faculty member at UConn Health and JAX-GM. The goal of Dr. Hinson’s research is to understand how human genetic variation results in cardiovascular disorders especiallyfocusedon inherited forms of heart failure. In combination with his clinical training as a board-certified specialist in cardiovascular medicine, he has developed human genetics expertise through positional cloning of monogenic human disorders, computational expertise in large-scale genomic analyses, and development of multi-disciplinary functional models that range from yeast to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to genetically modified mouse models, which allow him to approach cardiovascular disorders from an innovative perspective. Since starting his lab in 2016, his group developed an innovative cardiac microtissue platform that they have used to study isogenic models of inherited cardiomyopathies. He has mentored 2 MD/PhD students (both awarded AHA Predoctoral Fellowships), 1 PhD student, 1 MD student (awarded an HHMI Medical Fellowship) and 4 postdoctoral fellows (including a prestigious JAX Scholar awardee). He is currently training two predoctoral trainees and three postdoctoral fellows. Dr. Hinson has affiliated appointments in both the Department of Medicine and the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at UConn Health.

Sasan Jalili, PhD is an Assistant Professor at JAX-GM with an affiliated appointment in the Department of Immunology at UConn Health. His research intersects engineering, microbiology, and immunology. His work primarily focuses on deciphering the intricate interplay between the microbiome and the immune system to develop innovative therapeutics for infectious diseases, autoimmunity, aging, and cancer. Dr. Jalili employs cutting-edge engineering technologies like microneedle skin patches to evaluate the correlation between immune cells and microbiome changes in mouse and human skin at different stages of infectious and autoimmune diseases and in response to drug treatments. He integrates single-cell transcriptomic, metagenomic, and proteomic data to unveil cross-regulatory mechanisms underlying these conditions. Additionally, his research includes the creation of advanced in vitro models, such as organoids and organ-on-a-chip systems, to mimic human tissues and study host-microbiome interactions. Dr. Jalili has a long history of successful mentorship at Harvard and MIT and now at JAX-GM. He fosters a diverse and inclusive environment for innovative science, prioritizing well-being over work quality and his mentorship covers diverse aspects, empowering individuals to become successful scientists. He is currently training two postdoctoral fellows.

Ching Lau, MD/PhD‡ is a Professor and joint faculty at JAX-GM and the Department of Pediatrics at UConn Health. One of several areas of research in his lab is the development of novel diagnostics and therapeutics for intracranial germ cell tumors (IGCT). The Lau lab is one of the two leading labs in IGCT research in the world. They previously found novel germline and somatic mutations in IGCTs and are functionally validating these findings using a novel in vitro assay, where mutations are engineered into iPSCs and engineered cells are induced to form the putative cell of origin of IGCT (primordial germ cell, PGC) before assaying the impact of the tested mutations. This assay will validate known mutations and identify novel targeted agents against IGCTs in preclinical screening assays. The Lau lab also works to understand and develop novel anti-cancer therapies for other predominately pediatric cancers, including osteosarcomas. He is currently training one predoctoral trainee and two postdoctoral fellows.

Se-Jin Lee, M.D., Ph.D. is joint faculty as Professor of Genetics and Genome Sciences at UConn Health and JAX-GM and the discoverer of the gene myostatin, a negative regulator of muscle mass. Dr. Lee recently joined our institutions, having spent the past 26 years at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. While at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Lee successfully mentored 7 graduate students and was an active member of the graduate program. Dr. Lee studies the role of signaling molecules in regulating embryonic development and adult tissue homeostasis. He focuses on the superfamily of secreted proteins that are structurally related to transforming growth factor-Β (TGF-Β). Dr. Lee and his team are currently working to elucidate the mechanism of action of myostatin as well as the mechanisms by which the activity of myostatin is regulated.

James Yuanhao Li, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at UConn Health. Dr. Li’s research is focused on understanding the developmental biology in the central nervous system, particularly the cerebellum. His laboratory makes extensive use of traditional and single-cell RNA-seq technologies to characterize the gene expression and splicing regulatory programs involved in this process. Dr. Li has graduated three pre-doctoral students who have gone on to continue careers in research. He is currently training one predoctoral trainee.

Edison Liu, MD is Professor, President Emeritus and Honorary Fellow at JAX-GM. His group studies the functional genomics of cancer, particularly breast cancer, with a current emphasis on systems genomics, cancer maintenance, and determining therapeutic sensitivity and resistance. They also explore how structural changes in the cancer genome determine primary cancer growth and affect therapeutic sensitivity and resistance. To this end, they recently discovered a new chromotype in some triple negative breast cancers that confers sensitivity to platinum-based therapeutics, with clear implications for the value of cancer sequencing to inform patient treatment. Over the course his career, Dr. Liu has trained numerous postdoctoral fellows and graduate students. Dr. Liu has an affiliated appointment in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at UConn Health.

Pedro Miura, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at UConn Health. The Miura lab studies alternative RNA isoforms, including long 3’UTR mRNA isoforms, alternatively spliced mRNA isoforms, and circRNAs. His lab is interested in the molecular functions of these RNAs in neurons, and how different steps of RNA biogenesis are coordinated. They use gene editing approaches such as CRISPR to manipulate RNAs of interest in Drosophila and mammalian cell culture systems and study their impact on molecular and cellular function. He is currently training one predoctoral trainee.

Patrick Murphy, PhD is an Associate Professor and Interim Chair in the Center for Vascular Biology at UConn Health. His lab focuses on understanding how post-transcriptional regulation of mRNA is orchestrated by RNA- binding proteins in the endothelium, how these processes regulate inflammatory responses, and how they are altered in aging and cardiovascular disease. To address these questions, his lab uses techniques including in vitro screens, genetically engineered mouse models and proteomic and genomic analysis of human tissues. He is currently training five predoctoral trainees and two postdoctoral fellows.

Hideyuki Oguro, PhD is Assistant Professor of Cell Biology at UConn Health. His research focuses on the biology of blood-forming hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) which maintain the entire blood/immune system throughout life and are the functional units of bone marrow transplantation. His laboratory investigates the mechanisms that regulate HSC development, self-renewal, mobilization, and malignant transformation using mouse models, patient samples, and human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). His laboratory currently focuses on 1) understanding how HSCs proliferate and mobilize in response to acute hematopoietic demands; 2) understanding how normal mechanisms that activate HSCs are exploited in hematologic malignancies; 3) understanding the HSC developmental process to generate long-term engraftable HSCs from hiPSCs. His lab's toolkit includes mouse genetics, flow cytometry, cell transplantation, lentiviral and transposon gene delivery, CRISPR-activation/interference screens, and transcriptome and chromatin analyses. These studies could lead to novel therapies for diseases caused by insufficient hematopoiesis or hematologic malignancies. He is currently training two predoctoral trainees.

Karolina Palucka, MD, PhD is a Professor and Director of the JAX Cancer Center and serves as a Professor in the Department of Immunology at the UConn School of Medicine. Dr. Palucka specializes in human immunology, with a focus on experimental immunotherapy, and has pioneered the development of dendritic cell- based vaccines for patients with cancer or HIV. Her research is aimed at understanding, controlling, and manipulating the body’s own immune response as the basis for developing new vaccines and immunotherapies against infectious diseases and human cancers. Current projects in her laboratory are designed to develop models of humanized mice and to establish a proof-of- concept that these improved mice enable generation of fully autologous, patient-specific, immunocytes. Over her career, Dr. Palucka has trained 24 postdoctoral fellows, 8 PhD students, and many more Masters, undergraduate, and high school students. She is currently training two predoctoral trainees and two postdoctoral fellows.

Silke Paust, PhD is a Professor at JAX-GM whose research aims to understand how natural killer (NK) cells respond to viral infection and malignancy. Her lab is interested in the development and testing of novel immunotherapies that elicit clinically relevant NK cell-mediated anti-pathogen or anti-tumor immunity. Their research program is centered on the discovery that subsets of NK cells are long-lived and capable of antigen- specific immunological memory to viruses and altered self, giving precedence to investigations that seek to exploit NK cell activity to prevent or cure disease. To enable their studies, lab members routinely utilize mouse models, xenograft models, and clinical samples for the immunological analyses of innate and adaptive NK cell- mediated immune responses. Dr. Paust recently joined JAX-GM from The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, and is currently a visiting Associate Professor at UConn Health in the Department of Immunology. She is currently training 3 postdoctoral fellows in her lab at JAX-GM. While at Scripps, she trained 1 clinical fellow, 3 research fellows, 8 rotational students, and acted as a thesis mentor for 5 students.

Stefan Pinter, PhD is an Associate Professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences at UConn Health. His research interest is to understand how chromosomal gene dosage impacts human development due to copy-number changes. Currently, the lab works on two viable human aneuploidies, Turner (monosomy X) and Down (trisomy21) syndromes, as well as a segmental deletion-inversion-duplication syndrome on the short arm of chromosome 8 (8p InvDupDel). Dr. Pinter's group develops computational and molecular approaches to accurately distinguish parental alleles, and alter their expression using long non-coding RNA (XIST) and CRISPR-mounted tools. Applying these techniques in human iPSCs, the lab models developmental and therapeutically relevant phenotypes of Turner, Down and 8p syndrome in vitro. Dr. Pinter currently mentors a T32-supported PhD student and is highly committed to equipping the next generation of genomic scientists with a systems-level view of biology and the computational know-how to address their research questions. Dr. Pinter is also the Director of the Genetics and Developmental Biology Area of Concentration, in which most T32 trainees participate.

Paul Robson, PhD is a Professor at JAX-GM, and has an affiliated appointment in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at UConn Health. Dr. Robson has mentored 12 PhD students and 10 postdoctoral fellows, the majority of whom have gone onto academic careers or researchers in industry. Throughout his career, Dr. Robson has been instrumental in the development and improvement of single cell genomic and spatial transcriptomics technologies and their application in human health and disease. His lab currently uses droplet-based single cell and spatial transcriptomics technologies to discover heterogeneity in both normal and diseased tissues as a member of NIH Common Fund tissue mapping efforts. He also utilizes human induced pluripotent stem cell approaches to study gene function in early human development, leading a Data Production Center within the NHGRI-funded MorPhiC initiative aimed at characterizing the function of all human protein coding genes through the cellular analysis of null alleles. He is currently training four predoctoral trainees and four postdoctoral fellows.

Blanka Rogina, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences and Director of the Genetics and Developmental Biology Graduate Program at UConn Health. Dr. Rogina’s research is focused on identifying and characterizing the molecular mechanism of aging and finding key players that contribute to extended healthspan and longevity. Dr. Rogina has identified and determined the role of several genes in Drosophila health and longevity, including Indy, rpd3 and dSir2. Dr. Rogina is currently making extensive use of RNA-seq to identify gene expression and splicing changes that correlate with longevity. Dr. Rogina has graduated 3 PhD, one MD/PhD, and one DDS/PhD graduates. In addition, she has served as the Chair of the Advisory Committee for ~25 PhD, and MD/PhD students.

Dongyuan Song, PhD is a new Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at UConn Health. Dr. Song’s research is focused on developing computational methods to analyze modern “omics” data, especially for single-cell and spatial transcriptomics. His research combines statistical modeling, bioinformatics, and machine learning to provide a more rigorous interpretation of biological signals. Some specific topics include the generation of realistic in silico single-cell and spatial multi-omics data, computational modeling of gene co-expression in single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, the detection of differential expression in single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, and gene selection, dimensionality reduction, and cell subsampling for large-scale datasets. Dr. Song is highly committed to the training and success of early-stage scientists.

Michael L. Stitzel, PhD is Associate Professor at JAX-GM and Affiliated Associate Professor in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at UConn Health. The Stitzel lab studies how genetic and cellular variation contributes to human islet (dys)function and works to identify new genes and pathways that may be therapeutically targeted to prevent, delay, or treat type 2 diabetes (T2D). The program builds on genome-wide maps of human islet cis-regulatory elements (CREs) controlling gene expression, which revealed extensive overlap between T2D-associated variants and islet CREs to identify a generalizable “stretch enhancer” epigenomic signature marking regulatory DNA sequences controlling key cell identity/function genes. The lab has used innovative (epi)genomic and transcriptomic profiling of human islets and islet cell models to discover candidate causal DNA sequence variants (T2D SNPs) that alter islet CREs and identify new ‘diabetes genes’ that they target. Current work in the lab is focused on: 1) understanding the genetic control of islet responses to stressors that contribute to islet failure and diabetes (e.g., inflammation, metabolic stress); 2) targeted variant- to-function analyses to understand how T2D SNPs contribute to (dys)function of islet cell organelles/sub-compartments such as the endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria, and peroxisomes; and 3) leveraging regulatory codes and principles that were decoded from genetic and single cell genomic studies of islets to engineer more robust and resilient primary human islet cells. He is currently training three predoctoral trainees.

Duygu Ucar, PhD is Professor at JAX-GM and a computational scientist with interdisciplinary training in data science, immunology, and the biology of aging. The overarching goal of her lab is to build integrative and innovative computational resources to uncover intricate regulatory programs in human cells and understand how these programs are disrupted by aging and aging-related diseases. To achieve this, she leverages next- generation-sequencing approaches (e.g., high-throughput sequencing, ATAC-seq, HiCHIP) and integrates these disparate datatypes to generate comprehensive genomic landscapes in different cells. Dr. Ucar collaborates with clinicians and biologists to give context to her groups’ findings in health, disease, and aging. She is highly committed to training the next generation of scientists at the intersection of computational sciences and aging biology. She currently mentors 2 PhD students, 1 MD/PhD student and 1 postdoctoral researcher. Dr. Ucar has an affiliated appointment in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at UConn Health.

Frederick Varn, PhD is an Assistant Professor at JAX-GM and has an affiliated appointment in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at UConn Health. His laboratory studies how the tumor microenvironment drives the evolution and development of diffuse glioma, the most common primary malignant brain tumor in adults. By integrating genomic, pathology, and cancer modeling approaches, Dr. Varn’s group seeks to define the interactions between tumor cells and normal brain cells that allow gliomas to resist treatment. Understanding the molecular basis of these interactions has the potential to reveal novel factors that can be clinically targeted to improve patient outcomes. Dr. Varn is highly committed to the training and success of early-stage scientists. He is currently training one predoctoral trainee and one postdoctoral fellow.

Eric Wang, PhD is an Assistant Professor at JAX-GM that aims to understand the molecular mechanisms that drive disease initiation and therapy resistance in myeloid leukemias that may ultimately lead to the development of better therapies. His laboratory uses a multidisciplinary approach by integrating genomics, RNA biology, and immunology. Their goal is to develop and apply state-of-the-art genomic approaches to profile and genetically perturb cancer cells to understand gene regulatory networks that govern transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation in leukemia cells. Dr. Wang is currently training a PhD, a MD/PhD student, and a postdoctoral fellow. Dr. Wang has an affiliated appointment in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at UConn Health.

Yanjiao Zhou, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at UConn Health and a member of the Immunology and Genetics and Developmental Biology Areas of Concentration. Her lab studies the role of intermittent fasting diet and the gut microbiome in multiple sclerosis and aging using multi-OMICS technology, animal models, and clinical trials. In the past five years, Dr. Zhou has trained three PhD students and many clinical and dental fellows. Currently, there are two graduate students and two postdocs in her laboratory undergoing training in either bioinformatics or wet-bench techniques.