Fei Tu, PhD
Fei earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Science from East Tennessee State University in 2020 under the mentorship of Dr. Chuan Li. His doctoral research focused on investigating the role of an endothelial-specific protein, Heat Shock Protein A12B (HSPA12B), in septic conditions using both in vitro cell models and in vivo mouse models. His work demonstrated […]
Jason Hong
Jason received his BA in molecular biology from Princeton University in 2022. While at Princeton, he studied under Dr. Yibin Kang, where his senior thesis work investigated chemokine signaling relationships between mammary stem cells and the surrounding microenvironment. After graduating, he worked as a postbaccalaureate fellow at the National Cancer Institute under the guidance of […]
Srishti Tiwari
Srishti graduated from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign with a B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology and a minor in Chemistry. As an undergraduate, she worked under Dr. Erik Nelson, where she investigated the role of the cholesterol metabolite 27-hydroxycholesterol in breast cancer progression, specifically looking at macrophage polarization. Following graduation, Srishti joined the lab […]
Steve Wang
Steve received his BS degree in Zhejiang University (China) in 2022 and his Master of Science in Computational Biology from Carnegie Mellon University in 2024. His academic and professional background is extensively rooted in bioinformatics and computational biology. During his undergraduate research at Zhejiang University Medical School, Steve concentrated on studying lipid metabolism in adipose […]
Carter Zivin
Carter Zivin is an undergraduate student studying Biology and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. Prior to working in the Nacev lab, Carter was awarded an undergraduate research grant from Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer to study chromatin dysfunction in pediatric lymphomas in the Sarthy lab at Seattle Children’s Research Institute (SCRI). In her free time, Carter is the […]
Lucas Zheng
Lucas Zheng is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. He holds a BS in biology with a minor in chemistry and physics. He previously worked as an undergraduate research assistant at Pitt under Dr. Gavin Arteel, studying alcohol induced liver disease his freshman year as well as a […]
Julia Leix, MD
Julia received her M.D. degree at Ross University School of Medicine in 2019. Prior to her medical training, she investigated the expression of CRKNOX genes, which encode a family of homeodomain proteins that regulate gene transcription. She completed her Pediatric Residency at Lehigh Valley Reily Children’s Hospital, in Allentown, PA in 2022. She served as Pediatric Chief Resident from 2021-2022. […]
Michael Gruss, PhD
Michael received his Ph.D. degree in Cellular and Microbial biology from the Catholic University of America under the advisement of Dr. Ann Corsi in 2023. The Corsi lab uses Caenorhabditis elegans as a model system to study HLH-8, which is a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor that functions in tissue-specific development. HLH-8 is the homolog […]
Ben Nacev, MD PhD
Dr. Nacev is a laboratory-based physician scientist with a focus on sarcoma medical oncology and chromatin dysregulation in cancer. Dr. Nacev received his MD and PhD degrees from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where he studied under PhD mentor, Prof. Jun O. Liu. Dr. Nacev’s doctoral thesis focused on drugs with repurposing potential […]