I am a Biochemist / Cell Biologist by training. I received my Ph.D. in Biochemistry (specialization in Immunology) from Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. I moved to the US as a Post Doctoral Research Fellow at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, NY. After completing a few years of my post-doctoral fellowship in different disciplines, I was promoted to a research institution at Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School. In 2015, I decided to make a small change to my career path and focused more on project/lab management, basic and clinical science research admin work, and teaching. I have extensive experience in various cellular and molecular biology techniques along with expertise in mouse work, patient-related research, conducting clinical trials, etc. I taught undergrad courses at Harvard College, University of Massachusetts (UMass), Simmons Univ., Emmanuel College andcurrently involved in Harvard Edx program. I have been assisting graduate students and postdocs in their projects, protocol design, providing intellectual support in various techniques, and providing “hands-on” training to junior researchers and trainees in my former labs. I started in the Kuchroo lab in February 2024. My responsibilities in Kuchroo lab will include but are not limited to bench research, assisting in protocol design, overall lab management and operations, submission of IACUC protocols, grants management, teaching bench research techniques to junior lab staff, etc. In my free time, I enjoy playing Wordle, crossword puzzles, and spending time with family and friends.
I was born in New York City and raised between Brooklyn, Long Island, and Hawaii. I was first exposed to biomedical research in 2008 during my undergraduate studies at Johns Hopkins University, investigating the functions of γ-secretase and BACE1 in Alzheimer’s Disease and Schizophrenia endophenotypes. After graduating in 2011, I returned to New York to work with Dr. George Miller at the NYU Langone School of Medicine. In my 5 years at NYU, I explored the immunological underpinnings of Pancreatic Cancer—studying dendritic cells, γδ T cells, necroptosis, and pattern-recognition—while contributing to research on pancreatitis, liver regeneration, and fatty liver disease. I began my Ph.D. studies at Harvard Immunology in 2016, focusing on the critical intersection of the immune and nervous systems. I joined the Kuchroo Lab in 2018, hoping to characterize the enteric neuron-lymphocyte dialectic and elucidate its role in gastrointestinal physiology and inflammatory control.
I grew up in Seoul, South Korea. I received my B.S. and M.S. in Biotechnology from Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. After completing my studies, I moved to the US to begin my Ph.D. studies in the Pathobiology Graduate Program at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. While there, I focused on studying the role of innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) in cardiac inflammation in Dr. Cihakova’s lab. After obtaining Ph.D., I joined the Kuchroo lab in 2020 as a postdoctoral fellow. I am interested in elucidating the role of ILCs in tissue inflammation and investigating how immune cells and tissue resident cells interact to regulate immunologic diseases.
Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, I developed a keen interest in science early in my academic career. I completed my Bachelors degree at the University of Toronto and worked as a medical assistant for a couple years. It was during this time I developed a passion for research and discovery. I received my Masters degree at LakeheadU and continued my academic journey at Western University for a PhD in Immunology. My PhD work focused on modulating innate T cell responses to combat disease. My fascination with the immune response only intensified and I sought a lab that was on the cutting-edge of immunology, so naturally I joined the Kuchroo lab in 2021 as a postdoctoral fellow, where I am working on uncovering the factors that drive immune cells towards pathogenicity in autoimmunity.
I grew up in the countryside in Ireland in a small area called Boardsmill. I began my studies in Galway and finished in Dublin where I received a First Class Honours degree in Biomedical Science. Following that, I received a Marie-Curie fellowship and moved to Leiden, the Netherlands to complete my Ph.D. in Medicine (Immunology) at Leiden University. While there I worked on the regulation of Dendritic cell populations and the IL-12 family. After graduating in 2014, I began working in the Clinical Immunology department at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in Dublin. Encounters with patients suffering from a variety of immunological conditions from allergies and primary immunodeficiencies to autoimmune diseases such as MS and NMO motivated me to join the Kuchroo lab in 2016 as a Marie Curie Global Fellow. During my time here I hope to improve our understanding of the mechanisms driving these debilitating immune-mediated diseases.
Dr. Hamatani received an M.D. in 2010 from Kyoto University in Kyoto, Japan. After a medical internship and a neurology residency, she engaged in research focused on Neuroimmunology at Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine and received a Ph. D. in 2020. Specific interests include neurological diseases’ pathology and their relationship to the immune system. She is passionate about bench-to-bedside research.
My research interests center on understanding the specific mechanisms that regulate inflammatory disorders. While completing my undergraduate studies at the University of Chicago, I worked with Tom Gajewski investigating T cell anergy as a negative regulator of anti-tumor immunity. For my graduate thesis work, while I obtained my MD/PhD, I examined the molecular and cellular contributions of IL-17 signaling to host defense against fungal infections in the laboratory of Sarah Gaffen. Following my medical school graduation, I began residency training in dermatology at the Harvard Combined Program. In addition to my clinical dermatology training, I joined the Kuchroo lab to work on understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate T cell mediated tissue inflammation.
I grew up in suburban Massachusetts and attended the University of Virginia for my undergraduate studies. Subsequently, I worked as a research technician at the University of Arizona studying the TCR repertoires of unimmunized animals. This led me to pursue a PhD in Immunology from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus where I focused on the molecular mechanisms underpinning the TCR bias for MHC molecules. In the Kuchroo lab, I aim to understand how non-pathogenic TH17 cells are reprogrammed to differentiate into pathogenic TH17 cells during chronic inflammation.
I was born and grew up in Seoul, South Korea. After I finished B.Sc. in animal biotechnology in Seoul National University, I decided to join M.Sc.-Ph.D incorporated program in the same university under Dr. Cheol-Heui Yun’s instruction. During this program, I had chances to work in various research institutes including International Vaccine Institute (IVI) or Institute for Basic Science (IBS). In IVI, I have worked on the development of subunit vaccine and adjuvant against respiratory infections. For my Ph.D. thesis, I have studied on how immune system, especially naïve T cells, regulates their homeostasis, co-advised by Dr. Jae-Ho Cho in IBS. These experiences led to raise questions on how to regulate the immune cells in the severe disease like tumor or autoimmune diseases. I joined the Kuchroo Lab in March 2020 as a postdoctoral fellow to work on understanding molecular mechanism of B cells in inflammatory diseases.
I grew up in India and completed my degree in Veterinary Medicine from the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Bikaner, India. Following this, I received a Ph.D. in Cancer Metabolism from the Department of Pathology and Microbiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE. Subsequently, as a Postdoc fellow in University of Michigan Medical Center and New York University Langone Health (lab relocation), I studied redox biology and metabolism in cancer. For this work, I was awarded the Department of Defense Horizon Award Postdoctoral grant (2017-2019). My long-term interest, since veterinary school, has been to study immunology. Hence, I joined the Kuchroo Lab, which as at the forefront of immunology research, to broaden my research expertise and to deepen my understanding of the immunology of chronic diseases like cancer.
Brianna Regan is the new Technical Research Assistant in the Kuchroo Lab from Long Beach, CA. She graduated from Boston University in 2019 with degrees in both Biology (Specialization in Cellular Biology, Molecular Biology, and Genetics) and English. Before holding this position, Brianna conducted research in a marine population genomics lab, studying thermotolerance in coral species, under Dr. Sarah Davies. Brianna plans to pursue a Masters, and eventually a PhD, in Molecular Biology in order to continue a career in biology research. Outside of work Brianna enjoys rock climbing, knitting, baking, and trivia nights at Lamplighter.
I grew up in the beautiful city Nuremberg in southern Germany. During my Master studies of Cell and Molecular Biology at the Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen Nuremberg, I laid my major study focus on my main interest, immunology. I joined an external project at the Charite Berlin that lit my passion for T cell and Th17 immunology, particularly in a (inflammatory) disease context. Intrigued by T cell immunoregulation, I did my Master Thesis in immune checkpoint therapy and its combination with the classical chemo- and radiotherapy. My excitement for interdisciplinary projects led me to the University of Geneva, where I studied the interplay of metabolism, microbiota and the immune system for my PhD in Biomedical Sciences. My particular focus were effects on Th17 cells and Ly6Chi monocytes in autoimmunity (EAE). I joined the Kuchroo lab early 2021 as a Swiss National Science Foundation Fellow to follow my passion for research towards a better understanding of diseases and their underlying immunologic mechanisms.
I was born and raised in New Delhi, the capital city of India. My fascination with the complexity of human diseases led me into the world of research. After receiving my Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology, I joined the National Dairy Research Institute at Karnal, India for my Master’s degree where my quest to determine the puzzling nature of proteins during various diseases boosted. To explore that, I received my Ph.D. training at UNESCO Regional Centre for Biotechnology, India. There, I devoted my time to understand the involvement of protein modification mechanisms and pathways in cell-cell communication of epithelial cells and gamma delta T cells during autoimmune disease of the gut. The complex but interesting nature of immune cells motivated me to learn more about them. Therefore, I joined the Kuchroo lab in April 2021 where I am working to explore the molecular mechanisms by which co-inhibitory receptors regulate the T-cells behavior during immune mediated diseases.
I have more than 20 years of laboratory experience within the Harvard Medical School community (1993-2004 in Dr. Michael Carroll’s lab; 2004-2011 in Dr. Klaus Rajewsky’s lab; and 2012-present in Dr. Vijay Kuchroo’s lab). My research skills and interests include: genotyping mice with PCR and FACSCalibur, labeling DNA probe with 32P-dCTP for hybridization by Southern blot membranes, and culturing tumor cells. My personal interests include cooking with my husband and daughter, catching up with family over social media, and traveling.