I am an Assistant Professor at MIT Biology, Core Faculty at the Broad Institute, and Attending Dermatologist at MGH. I completed my MD-PhD in the Harvard-MIT HST program. My PhD in the laboratory of Michael Laub focused on how bacteria use kinase and phosphatase pathways to generate complex behaviors, such as asymmetric cell division. I then completed my Dermatology residency at UCSF and joined Michael Fischbach's laboratory to work on how skin commensal bacteria interact with the immune system. We discovered that we could rewire one of these commensal-immune interactions to generate anti-cancer T cells. In my lab, we continue to dissect the mechanisms of commensal-immune crosstalk and use these insights to engineer novel therapies. I have been the recipient of the Dermatology Foundation Research Award, the AP Giannini Postdoctoral Fellowship, and the HHMI Hanna H. Gray Fellowship.

I grew up in Asunción, Paraguay but went to college in Boston and got my degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. Upon graduation, I went back to Paraguay to work for the Ministry of Public Works and Communications as a monitoring and evaluation assistant for water and sanitation projects. In October 2022, I returned to Boston and started working at Broad Institute as an administrative assistant.

I grew up in upstate New York before attending Carnegie Mellon University, where I graduated with a degree in Biological Sciences. I have since worked as a research technician at Boston Children's Hospital in the study of thrombosis and hemostasis and as a lab manager in the study of glycobiology and immunology at Florida International University. In the YEC Lab, I am the lab manager. I am also in charge of collaborative technology development for microbe-host interactions and commensal-based vaccine platforms.

I grew up in Massachusetts and went to Northeastern university where I graduated with degrees in Cell and Molecular Biology and Philosophy. While at Northeastern, I worked in gene editing, cancer, and immunology through two co-ops at Tango Therapeutics and Vor Biopharma, and as an undergraduate researcher in Arlene Sharpe's laboratory at Harvard Medical School. I started my PhD in biology at MIT in fall 2022, and I joined the YEC lab in spring 2023. I am interested in investigating the cellular mechanisms by which cytotoxic T cells are activated by certain skin commensal microbes. Outside of lab, I like to bake, watch movies and sports, and travel.

After surviving 18 years in Florida, I attended the University of Florida where I received my degrees in Microbiology and Computer Science and researched cancer epigenomics in the lab of Dr. Michael Kladde. After college, I worked as a SynBio RA at Octant, where I developed new transcriptional reporters and led a collaboration with the English Lab at the University of Utah. I entered the MIT Biology PhD program in Fall of 2022 and joined the YEC Lab in Spring 2023. I am interested in studying the dynamics of complex skin communities and the mechanisms by which some microbes interface with the immune system. In my free time, I enjoy reading, writing, weightlifting, and programming.

I grew up in China and went to college at the University of Michigan, where I graduated with a degree in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. During my time as an undergraduate and technician, I was part of the Yamashita Lab, studying the regulation of ribosomal DNA expression in Drosophila and exploring how its copy number instability might contribute to karyotype evolution. In fall 2022, I started grad school at MIT Biology, and in spring 2023, I joined the YEC Lab. Here, my research is centered around how skin commensal bacteria influence the generation of T cell memory and the properties of this immune memory. In my free time, I enjoy singing, baking, hiking, and playing tennis.

I am originally from LA and went to school at the University of Chicago where I majored in biochemistry. As an undergraduate researcher I studied nuclear receptor crosstalk in hormonally-driven breast cancers. After graduating in 2018, I worked in Dr. Bruce Spiegelman's lab at Dana Farber Cancer Institute studying the physiology and biochemistry of the exercise hormone irisin. I entered the MIT Biology PhD program in fall 2022 and joined the YEC lab in spring 2023. In the YEC lab, I am interested in characterizing how skin commensal microbes communicate with host immune cells across an intact skin barrier. In my free time I enjoy reading, hiking, and playing volleyball.

I am currently a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. I obtained my bachelor's degree at Caltech in bioengineering and was subsequently a Fulbright scholar at the Technical University of Denmark in the Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine. I completed my PhD in biological engineering at MIT in Feng Zhang's lab at the Broad Institute, where I studied the origins of CRISPR-Cas systems from ancestral RNA-guided nucleases encoded in mobile elements, biochemical diversity in CRISPR-Cas systems, and applications of RNA-guided systems for genome and transcriptome editing. In my free time, I play and coach water polo, and enjoy reading.

I grew up in San Francisco and graduated from the University of Chicago where I majored in biochemistry and first developed an interest in exploring the mechanisms of bacterial communication. I entered the MIT Biology PhD program in fall of 2023 and joined the lab in spring 2024. In the YEC lab, I am interested in exploring how complex commensal communities can impact the dynamics of immune responses and the different mechanisms for host-commensal interactions. In my free time, I enjoy reading, cooking, and trying lots of new food.

I grew up outside Milwaukee and graduated from Harvard College where I studied Biomedical Engineering and Sociology. Following graduation, I studied Epidemiology at the University of Oxford, researching how new HIV strains emerge and evolve in UNAIDS key populations. After an additional year studying Public Policy, I started an MD-PhD in the Harvard-MIT HST program in Fall 2023. In the YEC lab, I'm excited to explore how commensals can drive and decrease antigen competition. Outside of the lab, you'll find me baking cakes, planning dinner parties, or staring wistfully into space on the way home.

I grew up in Bangalore, India and completed my undergraduate degree in Biology and Computer Science at Columbia University. As an undergrad, I worked on tissue resident memory T cell generation and early life immune development in Dr. Donna Farber's Lab. After graduating, I worked at Gentibio as an Associate Scientist, where I developed novel engineered regulatory T cells and CAR-regulatory T cells as a cellular therapy against Inflammatory Bowel Disease. I started my PhD in Biology at MIT in Fall of 2024 and joined the YEC Lab in Spring 2025. In the YEC Lab, I am interested in understanding how skin commensals can generate long-lived immune memory populations without triggering inflammation. Outside of lab, I enjoy painting, playing volleyball, going on nature walks, and feeding my boba addiction.

I grew up in New York before attending the University of Toronto where I completed a specialist program in Molecular Genetics. As an undergraduate student, I studied atherosclerosis in different genetically engineered mouse models in Dr. Minna Woo's lab and investigated host metabolic genes affecting resistance to microsporidia in a microsporidia/C. elegans model system in Dr. Aaron Reinke's lab. I joined the YEC lab in winter of 2025 where I am the lab tech. Outside of lab, I enjoy exploring and photographing the city, watercolor painting, and listening to music.

I am from Texas and am currently a biochemistry undergraduate at MIT. I've studied the gut microbiota and done research on cancer neuropathy in the past, which is what sparked my interest in commensal bacteria and immunology. In the YEC lab, I work under Will, and I am broadly interested in discovering what about commensals can influence the immune system. In my free time, I enjoy playing tennis, thrifting, and going to farmers markets.

I grew up in Michigan and am currently pursuing a Biology major at MIT. I lived near a large forest in Michigan, and was also raised on a farm by my grandparents in China for several years before coming back to America, which gave me a deep appreciation for nature and sparked my fascination with living organisms. In high school, I was involved with Science Olympiad, miRcore, tutoring, and played for my school's tennis team. Outside of school, I studied mitochondrial lipid metabolism in the Greenberg Lab at Wayne State University, and conducted biochemical research on fungal pathogens through the Summer Science Program. In the YEC lab, I work as an undergraduate researcher under the guidance of Caroline Kim, and I am interested in studying the mechanisms by which commensal skin microbes influence T-cell responses in the immune system. In my free time, I enjoy running, painting, gardening, and going on walks.

I was born and raised in San Antonio Texas where I currently attend the University of Texas at San Antonio as a Microbiology/Immunology major in my 3rd year. As an undergraduate researcher I studied the phenotypic abilities of a gastrointestinal commensal fungi and will shift to C. difficile. I will be joining the YEC Lab for 10 weeks through the MIT BSG-MSRP-Bio program for the summer of 2025. Here I will be contributing to a project with Dorcas Li. In this project I will be working with bacterial commensals and their effect on the memory of T cells, and the development of regulatory T cells during neonatal colonization. Outside of Lab, I like to work out, bake, hike, and create art when I have time.