Mamiko Yajima
Assistant Professor (Research)/PI
Mamiko is interested in fundamental questions in cell and developmental biology using echinoderm embryos and human cancer cells.
Contact: mamiko_yajima@brown.edu
Natsuko Emura
JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow
Joined the lab in Spring 2021
Natsuko received her Ph.D. in Agriculture from Iwate University, Japan. She is interested in understanding how cell differentiation occurs at the molecular level.
Contact: natsuko_emura@brown.edu
Eric Salomaki
Data scientist at Brown’s Center for Computation & Visualization
Joined the lab in 2023
Before coming to Brown, Eric was a postdoc investigating genome evolution, organellar metabolism, and biodiversity of protists at the Czech Academy of Sciences. He earned his PhD from the University of Rhode Island studying the evolution of parasitism in red algae.
Contact: eric_salomaki@brown.edu
Douglas Dubosky
Brown Graduate Student
Joined the lab in Fall 2022
Douglas is from Rhode Island and obtained his B.A. in Biology from Bowdoin College. He is examining how metabolic activity affects early embryonic development.
Contact: douglas_dubosky@brown.edu
Katlyn Reynolds
Brown Graduate Student
Joined the lab in Spring 2023
Nirali Mehta
Research Assistant
Joined the lab in 2023
Nirali got her undergraduate degree in Genetic Engineering and a Masters in Biological Sciences. Her main focus revolves around unraveling the intricate communication pathways within cancer cells and investigating the relationship between cancer cells and embryonic cells to gain a deeper understanding of their shared characteristics and processes.
Contact: Nirali_Mehta@brown.edu
Jonna Batten
Brown Graduate Student
Joined the lab in 2022
Jonna is from California and is currently concentrating in Cell and Molecular Biology. She is interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms behind asymmetric cell division, specifically the role of regulatory kinases and the cytoskeletal network.
Contact: jonna_batten@brown.edu
Daniel Bernstein
Brown Undergraduate Student
Joined the lab in 2022
Dan is from Philadelphia, PA, and is concentrating in Biology. He is interested in studying the mechanisms behind asymmetric cell division.
Contact: daniel_h_bernstein@brown.edu
Mariana Witmer
Brown Undergraduate Student
Joined the lab in Fall 2021
Mariana is from Maine and is currently concentrating in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She is interested in studying the functional contributions of phase separation in sea urchin embryogenesis.
Contact: mariana_witmer@brown.edu
Jennifer Cheng
Brown Undergraduate student
Joined the lab in Fall 2021
Jennifer is from San Jose, California and is concentrating in Public Health. She is interested in investigating the role of the Hippo signaling pathway in regulating asymmetric cell division
Contact: jennifer_l_cheng@brown.edu
Della Tsivor
Brown Undergraduate Student
Joined the lab in Fall 2022
Della was born in Accra, Ghana and raised in Bronx, New York after the age of 10. She is concentrating in Computational Biology and is currently interested in developmental biology.
Jaden Zhang
Brown Undergraduate student
Joined the lab in 2022 Summer
Contact: jaden_zhang@brown.edu
Nicholas Kim
Brown Undergraduate student
Joined the lab in 2023 Summer
Contact: nicolas_kim@brown.edu
Luke Nguyen
Brown Undergraduate student
Joined the lab in 2023 Summer
Luke is from Atlanta, Georgia. He is concentrating on computational biology and is interested in investigating gene regulatory networks using differential expression analysis.
Contact: luke_nguyen@brown.edu
Some previous lab members
Paola Sundaram Buitrago
NIH-PREP Scholar
Joined the lab in Spring 2022
Paola is from Puerto Rico and obtained her MSc in Molecular Medical Biology with Genetics from Bangor University. She is studying cancer biology and exploring the similarities in protein expression between germline and tumor cells.
Contact: p_sundaram_buitrago@brown.edu
Blaine Grant
Brown Undergraduate Student
In the lab 2020-2023
Blaine is from Ft. Lauderdale, FL, and is concentrating in Cell and Molecular Biology ScB. He is interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in regulating cellular plasticity.
Abigail Li
Brown Undergraduate Student
In the lab 2021-2023
Abigail is from Needham, MA. Currently concentrating in Classics on a pre-med track, she is interested in cell metabolism, and more specifically, in the regulation of metabolic processes.
Yoonah Lee
Brown Undergraduate Student
In the lab 2020-2023
Yoonah is from Seoul, South Korea and studies Computational Biology.
Yuan Pu
Brown Undergraduate Student
In the lab 2020-2023
Yuan is from Kunming, China. As a Computational Biology candidate, she is interested in genetics and neuroscience.
Contact: yuan_pu@brown.edu
Aidan Furze
Research Assistant
In the lab 2021-2023
Aidan is from Rhode Island and received their B.A. in Biology from Bard College. They are studying the roles of calcium signaling and metabolism on embryonic patterning and development.
Florence Wavreil
Research Assistant
In the lab 2019-2021
Florence is from Brussels, Belgium and obtained her B.S. in Biology from The College of Idaho. In the lab, she studied the functional contributions of the protein AGS on asymmetric cellular division.
Ashley Waldron
Postdoctoral Research Associate
In the lab 2020-2021
Ashley received her PhD in Biology from the University of Vermont. In the lab, she studied the contributions of metabolism to embryonic patterning.
Contact: ashley_waldron1@brown.edu
Beatriz Mercado
NIH-PREP Scholar
In the lab 2020-2021
Beatriz received her A.S. in Biology from Brown Community College and B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from John Jay College. In the lab, she studied the functions of the oncogene Myc and the tumor suppressor P53 in sea urchin embryos.
Shreya Rajachandran
Brown Undergraduate Student
In the lab 2020-2022
Shreya received an A.B. in Medieval Culture and Biology in Spring 2022. In the lab, she studied the contributions of metabolism to sea urchin embryo development. She is now in Dr. Haiqi Chen’s lab at UT Southwestern.
Shakson Isaac
Brown Undergraduate Student
Joined the lab in 2020
Shakson majored in Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology and Applied Mathematics. In the lab, he used computational biology techniques to study the sea urchin gene regulatory network, and the impacts of inhibitors and morpholinos on this network.
Kavya Rao
Research Assistant
In the lab 2022-2023
Kavya studied the impacts of various metabolic and spindle factors on embryogenesis, and will be attending the Zucker School of Medicine – Hofstra University in Fall 2023.