PEOPLE

IN THE SOBOL LAB

Meet our dedicated team members who focus on DNA repair, particularly the base excision repair pathway. We study PARP activation, genotoxic stress, and novel targets to overcome treatment resistance. Explore our profiles to learn more about our expertise and contributions.

PEOPLE

IN THE SOBOL LAB

Meet our dedicated team members who focus on DNA repair, particularly the base excision repair pathway. We study PARP activation, genotoxic stress, and novel targets to overcome treatment resistance. Explore our profiles to learn more about our expertise and contributions.

Robert W. Sobol, PhD

robert_sobol@brown.edu

Dr. Sobol is the Dean’s Professor of Cancer Research in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, is the Associate Director for Basic Research and Co-Leader of the Cancer Biology Program at the Legorreta Cancer Center and is Associate Director for the Joint Program in Cancer Biology at the Lifespan Cancer Institute. In these roles, he leads efforts toward continued growth of the department and of the basic science programs at the Legorreta Cancer Center.

Md Maruf Khan, PhD

md_maruf_khan@brown.edu

Dr. Md Maruf Khan is a postdoctoral research associate at Brown University. He received his Ph.D. in Bio-pharmacy from Chosun University, South Korea, where he investigated intracellular targeting mechanisms of novel multifunctional peptides from Bacillus genera that revealed diverse biological insights. Dr. Khan graduated with a Bachelor of Pharmacy from Atish Dipankar University of Science & Technology, Bangladesh, and a Master of Pharmacy from State University of Bangladesh. In the postdoctoral program, the primary goal of Dr. Khan’s research is to use biochemical, genetic, and imaging modalities to study the protein complexes of the base excision repair pathway that respond to DNA damage induced by genotoxins and chemotherapy in HNSCC cells. He is involved in several interrelated projects that all involve the study of Base excision repair and the Polβ protein in cancer, including a response to replication stress, and a role in cell and molecular biology of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

Talha Bin Emran PhD

talha_bin_emran@brown.edu

Dr. Emran is a postdoctoral research associate at Brown University. Dr. Emran has completed his BSc and MS with a Biochemistry & Molecular Biology major from the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh. Dr. Emran has completed his doctoral course at the graduate school of Medical Sciences at Kanazawa University, Japan. In the postdoctoral program, Dr. Emran will use genetic tools (CRISPR) and next-gen sequencing to develop a novel barcoding approach to investigate the role of DNA repair, apoptosis, and stress signaling genes in response to genotoxins and chemotherapy.

Wynand Roos, Ph.D.

daniel_ivanov@brown.edu

Rasha Al-Rahahleh, BDS, MSc

rasha_al-rahahleh@brown.edu

Rasha is a PhD candidate in the Pathobiology program at Brown University. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Dentistry from University of Jordan and a Master of Science degree in Oral surgery from Jordan university of Science and Technology. Her PhD research is focused on studying PARylation, a post-translational modification that mediates several DNA repair pathways, including Base excision repair (BER).

Dan Ivanov, Lab Manager

daniel_ivanov@brown.edu

Dan is new to the academic world. He previously worked at Genzyme studying polycystic kidney disease, at Pfizer studying structural biology, and most recently at a lentiviral gene therapy company called AVROBIO studying lysosomal storage disorders. As lab manager his main objective is to ensure the lab is running smoothly and efficiently. Responsibilities include ensuring reagents and consumables are stocked & organized, equipment is properly running, genotyping & supervising mouse colonies, transfecting & transducing lentivirus for various projects, and ensuring all Sobol Lab databases are up-to-date. Dan also conducts experiments. He is currently working on a Molecular Beacon Assay to test the the efficacy of glycosylases in various cell lines. He is also in the preliminary stages of setting up a qPCR-based assay to titer lentivirus made in the lab. Dan is interested in the bioinformatics side of molecular biology. In his spare time, he is currently completing an online computer science course. Dan’s hobbies include practicing guitar, riding his motorcycle, and tinkering in his garage.

Aisha Siddiqui

aisha_siddiqui@brown.edu

Aisha is a research assistant who assists with maintaining cancer cell cultures, virus preparations, and transduction protocols in the lab. She will also assist with immunoblotting analysis of treated cells. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with her Bachelor’s in Biology and obtained a Master’s in Biomedical Sciences from Duke University.

Libby Beers

Libby_beers@brown.edu

Libby Beers is a research assistant working on projects such as developing an assay for in cell identification of XRCC1 post translational modification. She graduated from Wesleyan University ’23 with a BA in Neuroscience and Education. Her previous research in the O’Neil lab investigates the role of post translational modifications and exposure to the now banned pesticide Cis-Chloridane relating to ALS pathogenesis. She is interested in how our environment and genes interact to determine our predisposition to disease pathologies. Outside of the lab you may find her in one of Providence’s many coffee shops sipping on a cappuccino or at the farmers market to collect ingredients for a delicious home cooked meal.

Steven Defreitas

steven_defreitas@brown.edu

Steven is a research assistant at Brown University in the Sobol Lab. He received a Bachelor’s degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Biomedical Engineering with a focus in Tissue Engineering and Design. Driven by a passion to bring medical innovation to historically underserved communities, he has worked on projects in and outside of medicine both domestically and abroad. His undergraduate capstone research focused on developing novel, non-viral methods of delivering genetic information to primary cells.

Morgan Andrews

morgan_andrews@brown.edu

Morgan Andrews is a Research Assistant who looks forward to providing technical support for the team while further investigating DNA repair. She received her bachelors in Chemistry with a concentration in Biochemistry from Rhode Island College (RIC). Within the Towle-Weicksel lab at RIC, she researched Human DNA Polymerase Theta and melanoma-associated variants in the context of DNA repair. In the Sobol lab, Morgan is involved in proteomic studies where some of her duties include cell culture maintenance, lentivirus transfection, and transduction.

Anika Mahns, Brown University Undergraduate

anika_mahns@brown.edu

Anika Mahns, the creator of the Sobol Lab website, is an aspiring data analyst technician at the Sobol Lab and an undergraduate student at Brown University, focusing on applied mathematics and computer science. Driven by passion and creativity, she collaborates with PhD candidate Rasha to develop Python scripts for analyzing microscope images of cancer cells, making a significant impact in cancer research, and she will continue to maintain the Sobol Lab website.

Jordan De Padova,

Brown University Undergraduate

jordan_de_padova@brown.edu

Jordan is a Brown University undergraduate student studying biology whose work in the Sobol lab focuses on programming scripts to recognize and quantify the presence of different cell lines in genetically diverse assays. In addition to cellular biology, he is passionate about behavioral biology and is particularly interested in understanding the links between small-scale molecular processes and large-scale ecological phenomena.

Junyue Ma,

Brown University Undergraduate

junyue_ma@brown.edu

Junyue is a Brown University undergraduate student studying biology. She is extremely interested in DNA repair factors impacting stress-induced DNA and RNA modifications in disease and cancer. She is currently working with Morgan on investigating mouse Apex1-interacting proteins.

Bryce Jacobs,

Brown University Undergraduate

bryce_jacobs@brown.edu

Bryce is an undergraduate student at Brown University concentrating in Biochemistry. His work in the Sobol lab investigates the role of DNA polymerase beta in DNA repair and its implications for the onset and progression of neurodegenerative disease. He is especially inspired by the intersections of biochemistry and neuroscience and applying these passions to research with medical applications.

Visiting Contributers

Karen H Almeida, PhD

kalmeida@ric.edu

Dr. Almeida is a Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Rhode Island College in the Physical Sciences Department. She is collaborating with the lab to optimize new DNA repair assays that will be used to evaluate DNA repair capacity in patient samples.

Previous Lab Members

Summer 2023

Kayla Hennigan, Dillard University Undergraduate

kayla_hennigan@brown.edu

Kayla is a Dillard University undergraduate student who is conducting research here in the Sobol Lab through The Leadership Alliance. Kayla’s work in the Sobol Lab is centered around learning more about important Base Excision Repair proteins and helicases, and how they may interact with each other.

Previous Members from University of South Alabama

Anusha Angajala, PhD

Alison Beiser

Natalye Bordelon

Jennifer Clark, PhD

Nuper Dey, PhD

Qingming Fang, MD

Aaron Haider

Chris Koczor, PhD

Jianfeng Li, PhD

Bailey Manning

Kate McConnell, PhD

Peter Sykora, PhD

Anna Wilk, PhD

Previous Members from the University of Pittsburg

Amanda Davis

Andrea Braganza, PhD

Ashley Brown

Anna Coppa, MD

Brianna Edwards

Elise Fouquerel, PhD

Erika Friehling, MD

Eva Goellner, PhD

Jenn Harness

Jonathan Korpon

Luba Kublo, MD

Megan Link

Sandy Schamus

Kelsey Sugrue

David Svilar, MD/PhD

Jiang-bo Tang, PhD

Ram Trivedi, PhD

Xiaohong Wang

Zongxun Yu

Robert W. Sobol, Ph.D.

robert_sobol@brown.edu

Dr. Sobol is the Dean’s Professor of Cancer Research in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, is the Associate Director for Basic Research and Co-Leader of the Cancer Biology Program at the Legorreta Cancer Center and is Associate Director for the Joint Program in Cancer Biology at the Lifespan Cancer Institute. In these roles, he leads efforts toward continued growth of the department and of the basic science programs at the Legorreta Cancer Center.

Md Maruf Khan, Ph.D.

md_maruf_khan@brown.edu

Dr. Md Maruf Khan is a postdoctoral research associate at Brown University. He received his Ph.D. in Bio-pharmacy from Chosun University, South Korea, where he investigated intracellular targeting mechanisms of novel multifunctional peptides from Bacillus genera that revealed diverse biological insights. Dr. Khan graduated with a Bachelor of Pharmacy from Atish Dipankar University of Science & Technology, Bangladesh, and a Master of Pharmacy from State University of Bangladesh. In the postdoctoral program, the primary goal of Dr. Khan’s research is to use biochemical, genetic, and imaging modalities to study the protein complexes of the base excision repair pathway that respond to DNA damage induced by genotoxins and chemotherapy in HNSCC cells. He is involved in several interrelated projects that all involve the study of Base excision repair and the Polβ protein in cancer, including a response to replication stress, and a role in cell and molecular biology of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

Talha Bin Emran, Ph.D.

talha_bin_emran@brown.edu

Dr. Emran is a postdoctoral research associate at Brown University. Dr. Emran has completed his BSc and MS with a Biochemistry & Molecular Biology major from the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh. Dr. Emran has completed his doctoral course at the graduate school of Medical Sciences at Kanazawa University, Japan. In the postdoctoral program, Dr. Emran will use genetic tools (CRISPR) and next-gen sequencing to develop a novel barcoding approach to investigate the role of DNA repair, apoptosis, and stress signaling genes in response to genotoxins and chemotherapy.

Rasha Al-Rahahleh, B.D.s, M.Sc

rasha_al-rahahleh@brown.edu

Rasha is a PhD candidate in the Pathobiology program at Brown University. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Dentistry from University of Jordan and a Master of Science degree in Oral surgery from Jordan university of Science and Technology. Her PhD research is focused on studying PARylation, a post-translational modification that mediates several DNA repair pathways, including Base excision repair (BER).

Dan Ivanov, Lab Manager

daniel_ivanov@brown.edu

Dan is new to the academic world. He previously worked at Genzyme studying polycystic kidney disease, at Pfizer studying structural biology, and most recently at a lentiviral gene therapy company called AVROBIO studying lysosomal storage disorders. As lab manager his main objective is to ensure the lab is running smoothly and efficiently. Responsibilities include ensuring reagents and consumables are stocked & organized, equipment is properly running, genotyping & supervising mouse colonies, transfecting & transducing lentivirus for various projects, and ensuring all Sobol Lab databases are up-to-date. Dan also conducts experiments. He is currently working on a Molecular Beacon Assay to test the the efficacy of glycosylases in various cell lines. He is also in the preliminary stages of setting up a qPCR-based assay to titer lentivirus made in the lab. Dan is interested in the bioinformatics side of molecular biology. In his spare time, he is currently completing an online computer science course. Dan’s hobbies include practicing guitar, riding his motorcycle, and tinkering in his garage.

Darl Jacob, Brown University Masters Student

darl_jacob@brown.edu

My name is Darl Jacob and I am a first year Biotechnology masters student. I graduated from University of Cincinnati with a BS in Biochemistry and Economics minor. My work in the Sobol lab focuses on proteomics studies on APE1 and mapping the interactome of APE1 in HR+/- cancer cells. Outside of lab, I love to play basketball, and explore new places!

Hayden Krystyniak, Brown University Masters Student

morgan_andrews@brown.edu

My name is Hayden Krystyniak and I am an Master of Science candidate in Biotechnology program at Brown University. I received a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from UCLA. In the Sobol lab, I study the targeting of poly-ADP-ribose associated protein complexes in response to both DNA damage and replication stress and their role in PARG inhibitors.

Anika Mahns, Brown University Undergraduate

anika_mahns@brown.edu

Anika Mahns, the creator of the Sobol Lab website, is an aspiring data analyst technician at the Sobol Lab and an undergraduate student at Brown University, focusing on applied mathematics and computer science. Driven by passion and creativity, she collaborates with PhD candidate Rasha to develop Python scripts for analyzing microscope images of cancer cells, making a significant impact in cancer research, and she will continue to maintain the Sobol Lab website.

Irina Mattos-Canedo, Brown University Undergraduate

irina_mattos-canedo@brown.edu

Rocky is an undergraduate student concentrating in Biology and Geochemistry. Her work in the Sobol lab focuses on the role of DNA polymerase beta in DNA repair and its implications for the onset and progression of senescence and neurodegeneration. Her interests lie in the studying of senescent mechanisms, and the impact it has on health and age related disease.

Bryce Jacobs, Brown University Undergraduate

bryce_jacobs@brown.edu

Bryce is an undergraduate student at Brown University concentrating in Biochemistry. His work in the Sobol lab investigates the role of DNA polymerase beta in DNA repair and its implications for the onset and progression of neurodegenerative disease. He is especially inspired by the intersections of biochemistry and neuroscience and applying these passions to research with medical applications

Darl Jacob, Brown University Undergraduate

darl_jacob@brown.edu

My name is Darl Jacob and I am a first year Biotechnology masters student. I graduated from University of Cincinnati with a BS in Biochemistry and Economics minor. My work in the Sobol lab focuses on proteomics studies on APE1 and mapping the interactome of APE1 in HR+/- cancer cells. Outside of lab, I love to play basketball, and explore new places!

Louis Boyang, Brown University Undergraduate

louis_boyang@brown.edu

I am an undergraduate student studying Biology and Economics-Public Policy. My work in the Sobol Lab involves testing the affect of APE1 inhibitors on BER protein function and dynamics. I am currently working on conducting livePAR assays and am interested in exploring the interactions between critical BER proteins. I am passionate about both cancer awareness advocacy and cancer research, and am actively seeking the intersections between health policy, the patient experience, and the cancer research frontier.
Morgan is involved in proteomic studies where some of her duties include cell culture maintenance, lentivirus transfection, and transduction.

Emilia Magro, Brown University Undergraduate

emilia_magro@brown.edu

I’m a first year ScM at Brown University studying Biotechnology. I’m interested in studying drug development and cancer biology. My work in Sobol Lab is characterizing and discovering PARGi and its impact on DNA damage, DNA repair in BER.

Stefan Leonard, Brown University Undergraduate

stefan_leonard@brown.edu

Screenshot 2024-09-19 at 4.26.17 PM - Stefan Leonard

I am a senior studying chemical biology. My work in the Sobol lab focuses on studying the effects of USP1 inhibition on the base excision repair pathway as well as the mechanistic underpinnings behind USP1i/PARGi synergism. I have a strong interest in understanding chemical perspectives of biological systems as well as understanding the potential therapeutic properties of drug-induced synthetic lethality for cancer patients.

Visiting Contributers

Karen Almeida, PhD

kalmeida@ric.edu